attack them, so that he can ruin their business; who's been listening to a
tape of 'Alice in Wonderland' at Independent-Conservative headquarters?"

"That would work," Lancedale agreed. "And we can count on our friends
Joyner and Graves to give you every possible assistance with their
customary bull-in-a-china-shop tactics. I suppose you've seen these
posters they've been plastering around: _If you can read this,
Chester Pelton is your sworn enemy! A vote for Pelton is a vote for
your own enslavement!_"

"Naturally. And have you seen the telecast we've been using--a view of
it, with a semantically correct spoken paraphrase?"

Lancedale nodded. "And I've also noticed that those posters have been
acquiring different obscene crayon-drawings, too. That's just typical
of the short-range Joyner-Graves mentality. Why, they've made more
votes for Pelton than he's made for himself. Is it any wonder we're
convinced that people like that aren't to be trusted to formulate the
future policy of the Fraternities?"

"Well ... they've proved themselves wrong. I wonder, though, if we can
prove ourselves right, in the long run. There are times when this
thing scares me, chief. If anything went wrong--"

"What, for instance?"

"Somebody could get to Pelton." Cardon made a stabbing gesture with
the stiletto, which he still held. "Maybe you don't really know how
hot this thing's gotten. What we had to cut out of Mongery's report,
this morning--"