But Joe said, "If that's Colonel Lajos Arpad, I suggest you have him in. I took the liberty of phoning him and asking that he meet us here." Frank Hodgson was the first to recover. "Arpad! That spy! I've just about gathered enough dope on him to have him declared _persona non grata_ and ship him back to Budapest." "As I was shipped back to Greater Washington," Joe said dryly. "Colonel Arpad and I seem to duplicate each other's activities in almost everything." Phil Holland said crisply into the communicator, "Ask the colonel to come in, Miss Mikhail." * * * * * Ever the correct Sov-world officer, Colonel Arpad came to attention immediately upon entering the room, clicked heels, bowed from the waist. Except for Joe Mauser, none of them had met him, but he evidently knew all, greeting them by name. The men had come to their feet. Joe said, "Meet Colonel Lajos Arpad, high in the ranks of the Sov-world Party, and at present on secret mission from the Sov-world underground revolutionary organization." Joe ended up wryly. "His mission being to determine what action the West-world might take if the secret group which has determined to make basic changes in the Sov-world socio-economic system was to take action." It was the Hungarian who stared now. His eyes bored into Joe's face. "I do not, of course, admit that, Major Mauser. But where in the world did you receive that strange opinion?" Joe sat down again. The blood he had lost still bothered him, and he tired easily. He said, "From Colonel Kossuth, in Budapest. Another high ranking member of your group." Joe's eyes went back to Holland and Hodgson. Quick minded these two might be, but they were being asked to assimilate some shocking information. Joe brought it all out. "I don't know why it didn't occur to any of us that the problems of the West-world and those of the Sov-world, at long last have become similar, almost identical. Both, following different paths, have achieved the affluent society, so called. But in doing it, both managed to inflict upon themselves a caste system that perpetuated itself, eventually to the detriment of progress. In the past, revolutions used to be accomplished by the masses, pushed beyond the point of endurance. A starving lower class, trying to change the rules of society so as to realize a better life. But now, in neither West nor in the Sov-world are there any starving. The majority of Lowers and Proletarians are well clothed, fed and housed, and bemused by fracases and trank pills, or their equivalent over there."