s between the individuals of this planet were something far more
complex than Cameron had assumed. He hesitated a moment before speaking.
Just why had this bait been so innocently thrown to him? Marthasa had
never mentioned it. Yet had the Markovians asked for an attempt to get
an admission from him for their own purposes? And what purposes--?

He abandoned caution, and nodded. "Yes, that is the thing I am
interested in. I had hoped to study the history and ways of the
Markovians. As Sal Karone has told me, they don't want strangers to make
such a study. You are perhaps not so unwilling to be known--?"

"We wish the entire Universe might know of us and be as we are."

"You hardly make that possible, subjugating your identity so completely
to that of another race. The worlds will never know of you unless you
become strong and unified as a people and obtain a name of your own."

"Our name is known," said Venor. "We are the Idealists. You will not
find many worlds on which we are unknown, and they call us the ones who
serve. Even on your world you have the saying of a philosopher who
taught that any who would be master should become the servant of all.
Your people once understood it."

"Not as a literal undertaking," said Cameron. "You can't submerge your
entire racial identity as you have done. That is not what the saying
meant."

"To us it does," said Venor solemnly. "We would master the Universe--and
therefore we must serve it. That is the core of the law of the
Idealists."

* * * * *

Cameron let his gaze scan through the window to the small clearing in
the thick forest, to the circle of wooden houses. _We would master the
Universe_--he restrained a smile.

"You cannot believe this," said Venor, "because you have never
understood the mark of the servant or the mark of the master. How often
is there difficulty in distinguishing one from the other!"

And how often do the illusions of the mind ease the privations of the
body, Cameron thought. So that was the source of the Idealist serenity.
Wherever they went they considered themselves the masters through
service--and conversely, those they served became the slaves, he
supposed. It was a pleasant, easy philosophy that hurt no one. Except
the ones who believed it. They died the moment they accepted it, for all
initiative and desire were gone.

"The master is he who guides the destiny of a man or a race," said Venor
almost in medi