Part 2

"Yep," said Kellog dreamily. Carmichael would have to write off another asset, for local power could not possibly compete with Tellurian now that there was a way to transmit it. And the power monopoly was the biggest plum in Wolf's basket.

In an hour the first surges of energy were coming in from Earth, flowing from the antichron into the local radio distributing emission set. The electricians at the plant simply tuned out on Titan Power and in on the laboratory set. The shift was made.

* * * * *

Carmichael did not take the fresh assault upon him lying down. He promptly went about getting an injunction against the unfranchised sale of power, but it was several days before he could get it issued. In the meantime, with the full facilities of the shop at his disposal, Kellog had completed a batch of sight-sound antichrons for use in communication. He hired and instructed operators. Then the machines were focused on the various important planets, satellites and asteroids. At one stroke Saturnport became the central clearing house of the Solar System for news. If necessary, a Pluto signal could be relayed through Titan to Earth in only the time necessary to make the connections. Etherways was at once ruined. All its equipment was junk, except for nearby use.

"That ought to hurt," observed Billy Wade, jubilantly. "They say Wolf had a pile of Etherways Preferred."

"Probably," said Kellog. But he was smarting under the injunction. The corrupt local court had forbidden the outside sale of power. Not only that, the Saturnport Council--all creatures of Carmichael--issued an edict prohibiting the importation of power generated outside of Titan. This time the shops did have to close down until Kellog could improvise some old-fashioned magnetic generators of the field-armature type. Not content with inflicting those inconveniences on Kellog, Carmichael might be expected next to bring suit for personal damages ensuing from the collapse of Etherways. Etherways represented the investment of important money, and the men who lost were not the type who would console themselves that their company had been replaced by something incomparably better.

"I've got to go all the way," concluded Kellog, soberly. "If I don't get him, he'll get me."

Again he put his and Wade's head together and designed a new type of antichron. It was three-dimensional--a cubical box, to be exact, with four sides and a bottom, but open at the top. It worked on the same principle as the flat screen, but with slight variations. It operated as a shuttle, not continuously.

Kellog put one of his television machines in focus with the mine on Mimas. Miman Mines was only partly owned by Carmichael; he controlled the industries on the lesser satellites by virtue of his strangle-hold on transportation. So the manager was willing to talk to Kellog.

"What do you pay that buccaneer to haul ore to Titan?" asked Kellog.

"Twenty cents a ton."

"I'll haul it for two."

"You can't," objected the manager. "The Trans-Saturnian Lighter Service's charter says--"

"I know what it says," snapped back Kellog. "My father drew it up. It confers a perpetual monopoly on all intersatellite _ship-borne_ commerce. Now listen. Clear a place about twenty feet square and arrange to dump ore in it from twenty feet or more above. Mark it off with safety lines and don't ever let a man step across the lines. Then watch my smoke."

He cut the connection long enough to send similar instructions to the receiving station by the smelter. Then he watched through the antichron while the preparations were being made at both ends of the line. When they were ready he turned the machine over to Wade.

Wade sat down and got to work. His job was very much like that of the operator of a grab bucket. He kept his eyes on the visual screen, his hands on the controls of the cubical one.

Current!--the empty cube appears on Mimas--an avalanche of ore fills it--shift current--it disappears from Mimas, appears at the smelter on Titan--the unloading cradle on which it materializes tips and dumps the ore--when it is upright again, shift current. Mimas, fill; Titan, dump. Mimas, fill; Titan, dump. That was all there was to it. Hundreds of tons a minute, delivered in Titan the day it is mined.

"That shoots Interplanetary Transportation and Trans-Saturnian all to hell, I should say," drawled the editor of the _Herald_, who had been invited to watch the demonstration. He was conducting a campaign to have Carmichael's injunction revoked. Now that the people knew cheap power was available, they were angry about it. "Yes," continued the editor, "they're sunk. I'm going to stroll down to the bank and draw out my balance before the run starts."

"What do you mean?" asked Kellog.

"Plenty. The bank is really a sort of holding company for Wolf. Now that his companies are all shot, it'll crash. You may not know it yet, but Carmichael is ruined. He will be a very sick wolf in an hour or so."

* * * * *

Who is the Wolf of Saturn? People on Titan will point out a blowzy, sodden old derelict who hangs out in a dive near the skyport and tell you that "Carmy," as they call him now, used to wear that title. He was a big shot once, they say.

But if you should ask any of the frequenters of the big building on lower Manhattan who the Wolf of Saturn is, they will tell you instantly. It is a crackpot on Titan by the name of Kellog. He was the fellow who ruthlessly and without warning wrecked two of the biggest and most profitable enterprises in the universe--Etherways, Inc., and Interplanetary Transport--and many of the smartest financiers of the System with it. What a guy! Not only that, but he wrecked the System's entire price structure with his cheap services. "Benefactor?" they will squall. "He's a wild man--a wolf!"