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."Peace,now, peace, good fellow! Hope lives on yet! Even corruption has itsday, and ceases, and the seeds of goodness sprout up from it, toflower again in virtue!"aaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr r"Aye, but in how many years?" Horatio glowered down at him."Nay,centuries! I am not minded to hold my peace and bear myself insilence whiles I wait!"Dar felt a surge of panic.Was this madman going to try a one-manrebellion, or something?But Whitey suddenly became very casual."Well then, if you truly feelso, flee! There be no dearth of G-type suns, nor of worlds like Terra.Ifyou find all known worlds so swinishly unfit, go seek the unknown!Go sail into uncharted skies and find a world to make anew, after thefashion of your dreaming!"Dar held his breath.What Whitey was saying was, in effect, put up orshut up.But Horatio was staring at him as though he'd spoken an idea neverthought of before."Aye," he breathed."Aye, surely!"He whirled away toward the house, crying, "Where are these hearts?Where are my comrades?"The whole group stared at his retreating back."I, ah, think we might want to go along with him," Whitey suggested."He sometimes needs restraining when he gets into these moods." Heset off after Horatio.The troupe followed, and caught up with him."What's the matter with her?" Whitey muttered to Dar"Huh?" Dar glanced at Sam, who was moving a little more quicklythan the rest of them, gaze fixed on Horatio, eyes shining.He turnedback to Whitey."Just spellbound.Money has that effect, sometimes."But Whitey shook his head."Not so, or she'd have gone after me.Would you say Sam's the impulsive sort?""Well.in a way." Dar frowned at Sam, seeing her anew."Controls itwell, though.""And Horatio doesn't have to." Whitey nodded."That explains a lot."Dar was glad it did, because he didn't understand a bit of it.On theother hand, he hadn't had much exposure to women who spoke hisaaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr rown language.Horatio stormed up a flight of limestone steps and wheeled throughFrench doors into his palace.By the time the crew caught up withhim, he was leaning across a Louis XIV desk, glaring into a phonescreen at an image of a bulky, black-haired man with a flowing beard."Ship?" he was saying."Of course you can buy a ship, Horatio! TheNavy has surplus dreadnoughts it would love to be rid of-but why?""To issue from a sty of stenches!" Horatio snapped."What do youmean, they have ships they'd love to be rid of?""Always more on hand than they have buyers for After all, who'd wanta retired battleship-without its cannon?""We would! To bear a crew of colonists to a brave new world, wherewe may purify ourselves of this crass materialism, and rise above thesuspiciousness and greed of this technological monster of a world!""Horatio." Blackbeard eyed him warily."Do you speak of founding asociety based on the Society?""Indeed I do, Markone!""I was afraid that this might come," Markone sighed."You must notconfuse the pleasant fantasy of our Society tournaments and mootswith the reality of the real world, Horatio.That way lies madness.""I do not confuse them-I wish to make the fantasy become real! Thinkof it, Markone-your barony become a reality, your vassals and serfsforever at your call!"Markone's eyes lost focus."A pleasant dream, Horatio-yet nothing buta dream.""It need not be!" Horatio insisted."Think, man! What need would wehave for all our fortunes? Each could lay the half of them away for hisheirs here, and take the other half to pool, to buy a ship and equip anexpedition! What could it cost? Certainly no more than a hundredbillion-and we must have a dozen barons in the Society who are worthmore than half of that apiece!"Markone gazed off into space."It might be possible, at that.asthough we were holding an extended festival abroad.And 'twouldbe possible to return.""Meditate upon it," Horatio urged."Yet if 'twere done, 'twere wellaaTTnnssFFffooDDrrPPmmYYeeYYrrBB22.BBAAClick here to buyClick here to buywwmmwwoowwcc.AAYYBBYYBBr r'twere done quickly, Markone.You know the uncertainty of thepolitical situation
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