Suddenly the diplomats and the reporters were gone and Suzi was there, the star dust in her eyes again. Before she could speak, I told her, humbly, "You were right, Suzi, I am a phony. I'm no champ. I was scared to death out there, when I found that all the super-weapons they'd made for me were--" "But, _darling_, you won!" She knelt beside the bed, but I turned my head away. "Won," I said bitterly. "Sure, by a fluke again. I won against a little half pint that could have been defeated by a child." I snorted in self-deprecation. "I wonder what the crowd out there is thinking. I enter the arena with enough weapons to depopulate a small planet, and it takes me half an hour to find out it's all a hoax." She remained kneeling there, but it was another voice that said, "The crowd doesn't see it that way, Jak." It was Alger Wilde, who had entered with my manager. "Of course not," Suzi insisted. "You didn't know what you were against, but you were in there all the time, taking on something worse than any gladiator in the System.--You proved yourself, Jak." Alger went to the window and opened it. "Listen to this," he said grudgingly. From the distance I could hear the arena crowd singing _The Solar System Forever_. Even Mari Nown was happy. It seemed as though the judges unanimously voted to make me Interplanetary Champ for the rest of my life. The situation was obvious. Terra couldn't afford to let anything happen to me now. As soon as I died, the next Interplanetary Meet would result in a new champ and a new change in the balance of power. Terra wouldn't allow me to fight--not even in exhibitions. Mari Nown's chicken head beamed as he bounced back and forth on his heels. "You're going to live to a ripe old age," he shrilled happily, "and the most dangerous thing you'll ever do is sign endorsements for Venusian Salt Water Taffy." He added, more happily still, "And I'll get ten percent of everything you make." "Everything but Suzi," I told him, sticking out an arm to encircle her. Alger Wilde frowned. "You know, Jak," he grunted, "I think you're right about that music. _The Solar System Forever_ is a raucous thing." It was welling, ever louder, through the window. "Oh, I don't know," I said as soon as I took my lips from Suzi's. "I'm beginning to like it."