What was it Vermeer had said? "The man who remains alive within the force wall can control the Solar System." He, Norman Saint Clair, who had set out from Earth to lecture on Ancient History in distant Ganymede, was as much master of the System at this moment as if the battle had already been fought.
He had no difficulty locating the death broadcasting machine. It was housed in a tremendous hall in the Dohlmite temple of science. It was a delicate affair of tubes and wires. The cylinders, he saw, were fed into it automatically so that it could broadcast its messages of death with machine gun rapidity.
He seized a chair, savagely smashed the machine into fragments. It was a weapon of enslavement. No good could come of it. At length, he paused. The cylinders and the force wall remained, but they could wait.
With a growing sense of triumph, he left the temple of science, retraced his steps down the hill between the silent houses.
While still half way to the gate, he made out hundreds of men crowded just beyond the force wall. As he drew closer he recognized Koal and Acpsahme in the front ranks. He went into the glassite shack, threw the switch that shut off the segment of the wall. He forced himself to walk across the silver track, say in a calm voice:
"The Dohlmites are dead, Koal. The machine is destroyed. We're free."
A savage cheer rang up from the men. Runners left to inform the rest of the city. Koal seized his hand, nearly wrung it off.
Acpsahme said, "The men of the Venusian Export Lines attacked us. They bit off more than they could chew."
"Pepperell? Where's Pepperell?" asked Norman.