"We'd have to take our chances, replied Somat energetically, "like good sports! If we can't demonstrate our worth to them, enough to hold their respect, we'd deserve to be snowed under!" "Not while I'm alive!" snarled Sorplee. "If they come here, they've got to give up their wilderness ways, right off! We can't stand savagery! The safest thing for us, and the best for them, is to make an industrial army of 'em and set 'em to work!" His enthusiasm was boundless. "I must say," admitted Deltos, with his usual dignity, "that you have the right idea, Sorplee. If I had stated it, however, I should have been more frank about it. The arrangements you propose simply means that we are to take possession of them!" "What!" shouted Somat, horrified. "Why, of course! Make slaves of them! What else?" XIV THE SLAVE RAID Despite all that Somat and his two backers could say, the other nine men swiftly agreed upon the thing Deltos had proposed. Somat went so far as to declare that he would warn Rolla; but he was instantly given to understand that any such move would be disastrous to himself. In the end he was made to agree not to tell her. "We aren't going to let you and your idealism spoil our only chance to save the race!" Sorplee told him pugnaciously; and Somat gave his word. At first he hoped that the nine might fall out among themselves when it came to actually enslaving the Sanusians; but he soon concluded that, if there was any difference of opinion, the aristocratic element would take charge of half the captives, while Sorplee's friends commandeered the rest. The outlook was pretty black for Rolla's friends; yet there was nothing whatever to do about it. Among the four people on the earth, however, the thing was being discussed even more hotly. Van Emmon found himself enthusiastically backing Somat, the liberal-minded one. "He's got the right idea," declared the geologist. "Let the Sanusians come over of their own free will! Let the law of competition show what it can do! Dandy experiment!" Smith could not help but put in: "Perhaps it's Deltos and Sorplee who are right, Van. These Sanusians are mere aborigines. They wouldn't understand democratic methods." "No?" politely, from the doctor. "Now, from what I've seen of Rolla, I'll say she's a perfect example of 'live-and-let-live.' Nothing either subservient or autocratic in her relations with other people. Genuinely democratic, Smith." "Meanwhile," remarked Billie, with exaggerated nonchalance, "meanwhile, what about the bees? Are they going to be permitted to show their superiority or not?" Van Emmon took this to be aimed at him. "Of course not! We can't allow a race of human beings to be dominated forever by insects! "I say, let's get together and put Rolla wise to what Deltos and Sorplee are framing up! We can do it, if we concentrate upon the same thought at the right time!"