"Yes," smiled Thomakein. "But the only way that you'll hold this sun full of cross-purposes together is to provide a common menace. Terra hates you more than she hates Mars, and Mars will co-operate with Ertene to get you. Ertene, burning mad because her desire to wander is curtailed by you, will throw in with both of them. Perhaps they will get used to co-operation after a bit, but never forget that competition will make advances far quicker than complete co-operation. "Yes," said Thomakein, "I tried. I plotted and tried, and then knew that Ertene did not have the drive, the ambition. You, Guy, had the ambition, and all you needed was to get the killer-instinct, so to speak. You had to be driven to it. You did it. Can you hold it once someone finds the key to the mental-gadget?" Guy grinned. "They never will. Mephisto is the only world with normal temperatures low enough to make key more than a feeble-order effect. Upon Mephisto, it becomes evident in the third decimal place; on any other world it is several decimal places beyond the experimental error. Besides," Guy said with a hardening of the jaw muscles, "I've got the whole System under coverage. I'll permit no experiments along those lines!" "I see what you mean. Well, Guy, you're the Emperor. For the love of God, stay that way! The first time you abdicate, hell will break loose all over the System. You are the common menace that will hold us together." Guy smiled wryly. "So you drove me to it. It was necessary. I know. But it was a dirty trick to play on any man. It goes deeper than that. Joan and I can't see raising a kid in this mess." "Your children must be raised absolutely incognito. I owe you more than life, Guy. May I help, please?" Maynard took Thomakein's outstretched hand. "Finished," said Thomakein, shaking the hand hard. "Not finished--nor will it be. I have a lifetime job of making myself more hated than any traditional enemy." Thomakein nodded. He stepped back and saluted. "Farewell, Guy Maynard--Ruler of The Solar Worlds!" THE END.