and Asper Argo won"t stand up against the economic depression that will sweep all Korell in two or three years."
Sutt was at the window, his back to Mallow and Jael. It was early evening now, and the few stars that struggled feebly here at the very rim of the Galaxy sparked against the background of the misty, wispy Lens that included the remnants of that Empire, still vast, that fought against them.
Sutt said, "No. You are not the man."
"You don"t believe me?"
"I mean I don"t trust you. You"re smooth-tongued. You befooled me properly when I thought I had you under proper care on your first trip to Korell. When I thought I had you cornered at the trial, you wormed your way out of it and into the mayor"s chair by demagoguery. There is nothing straight about you; no motive that hasn"t another behind it; no statement that hasn"t three meanings.
"Suppose you were a traitor. Suppose your visit to the Empire had brought you a subsidy and a promise of power. Your actions would be precisely what they are now. You would bring about a war after having strengthened the enemy. You would force the Foundation into inactivity. And you would advance a plausible explanation of everything, one so plausible it would convince everyone."
"You mean there"ll be no compromise?" asked Mallow, gently.
"I mean you must get out, by free will or force."
"I warned you of the only alternative to co-operation."
Jorane Sutt"s face congested with blood in a sudden access of emotion. "And I warn you, Hober Mallow of Smyrno, that if you arrest me, there will be no quarter. My men will stop nowhere in spreading the truth about you, and the common people of the Foundation will unite against their foreign ruler. They have a consciousness of destiny that a Smyrnian can never understand ?
and that consciousness will destroy you."
Hober Mallow said quietly to the two guards who had entered, "Take him away. He"s under arrest."
Sutt said, "Your last chance."
Mallow stubbed out his cigar and never looked up.
And five minutes later, Jael stirred and said, wearily, "Well, now that you"ve made a martyr for the cause, what next?"
Mallow stopped playing with the ash tray and looked up, "That"s not the Sutt I used to know. He"s a blood-blind bull. Galaxy, he hates me."
"All the more dangerous then."
"More dangerous? Nonsense! He"s lost all power of judgement."
Jael said grimly, "You"re overconfident, Mallow. You"re ignoring the possibility of a popular rebellion."
Mallow looked up, grim in his turn, "Once and for all, Jael, there is no possibility of a popular rebellion."
"You"re sure of yourself!"
"I"m sure of the Seldon crisis and the historical validity of their solutions, externally and internally. There are some things I didn"t tell Suit right now. He tried to control the Foundation itself by religious forces as he controlled the outer worlds, and he failed, hich is the surest sign that in the Seldon scheme, religion is played out.
"Economic control worked differently. And to paraphrase that famous Salvor Hardin quotation of yours, it"s a poor nuclear blaster that won"t point both ways. If Korell prospered with our trade, so did we. If Korellian factories fail without our trade; and if the prosperity of the outer worlds vanishes with commercial isolation; so will our factories fail and our prosperity vanish.
"And there isn"t a factory, not a trading center. not a shipping line that isn"t under my control; that I couldn"t squeeze to nothing if Sutt attempts revolutionary propaganda. Where his propaganda succeeds, or even looks as though it might succeed, I will make certain that prosperity dies. Where it fails, prosperity will continue, because my factories will remain fully staffed.
"So by the same reasoning which makes me sure that the Korellians will revolt in favor of prosperity, I am sure we will not revolt against it. The game will be played out to its end."
"So then," said Jael, "you"re establishing a plutocracy. You"re making us a land of traders and merchant princes. Then what of the future?"
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