tation. "He is not the man who gathers or disperses the
wealth, or who builds the cities and the ships to the stars. The master
is he who teaches what must be done with these things and how a people
shall expend their lives."

"And the Markovians do this, in obedience to you?" said Cameron
whimsically.

"Wherever my people are," answered Venor, "strife ceases and peace
comes. Who can do this is master of worlds."

There was a strange solemnity about the voice and figure of the old
Idealist that checked the sense of ridiculousness in Cameron. It seemed
somehow strangely moving.

"You believe the worlds are better," he asked gently, "just because you
are there?"

"Yes," said Venor, "because we are there."

There was a pathos about it that fired Cameron's anger. On scores of
worlds there were primitive groups like this one, blinding themselves
with a glory that didn't exist, in the grip of ancient, meaningless
traditions. The younger ones--like Sal Karone--were intelligent, worth
salvaging, but they could never be lifted out of this mire of false
belief unless they could be shown how empty it was.

"Nothing you have said explains the mystery of how this great thing is
accomplished," said Cameron almost angrily. "Even if we wanted to
believe it were true, it is still as utterly incomprehensible as before
we came."

"There is a saying among us," said Venor kindly. "Translated into your
tongue it would be: How was the wild dog tamed, and a saddle put upon
the fierce stallion?"

* * * * *

Stubbornly, then, Venor would say no more about the philosophy of the
Idealists. He spoke freely of the many other worlds upon which the
Idealists lived and served, and he affirmed the tradition that they did
not even know the place of their origin, the planet that might have been
their home world.

He was evasive, however, when Cameron asked when the first contact was
made between his people and the Markovians. There was something that the
Ids, too, were holding back, the sociologist thought, and there was no
apparent reason for it.

Recklessly, he decided nothing could be lost by attempting to blast for
it. "Why have the Markovians consistently lied to us?" he said. "They've
given us their history--and if your people know the feelings of other
worlds they know this history is a lie. Only a few generations ago the
Markovians pirated and plundered these worlds, and now they pose as
little tin g