“… Woken them up, by-Georgel” he said, once we were seated in overplump chairs in the sitting room of his hotel suite with drinks hi our hands. He paused, catching his breath stagily a little before coming out with emphasis on the “-George!” as if he wished me to notice that he had been about to use the name of the deity, but had recollected himself in time. It was, I began to find out, a regular trick of his, this catching himself from profanity or obscenity as if in the nick of time.
“-the common people-the rural people,” he said leaning confidentially toward me. “They were asleep here. They’ve been asleep for years. Lulled to sleep by those sons of-Belial on the Exotics. But that business on Coby woke them up. Opened their eyes!”
“Lulled to sleep-how?” I asked. “Song and dance, song and dance!” O’Doyne rocked back and forth on the couch. “Stage-show magic! Headshrinker’s tactics-oh, a thousand and one things, Newsman. You wouldn’t believe it!”
“My readers might,” I said. “How about citing some instances?”
“Why-darn your readers! Yes, I say-darn your readers!” He rocked forward again, glaring proudly at me. “It’s the common inhabitant of my own world I’m concerned with! The common inhabitant. He knows what instances, what coercions, what wrongs! We’re not a sideshow here, Mr. Olyn, though maybe you think so! No, I say-darn your readers, and- darn you! I’ll get no man in trouble with those robed-babies by citing exact instances.”
“You don’t give me much to write about, in that case,” I said. “Suppose we shift our ground a little, then. I understand mat you claim that the people of the present government are maintained in power only by Exotic pressures on Ste. Marie?”
“They are appeasers, plain and simple, Mr. Olyn. The government-no, no! Call them the Green Front, which is all they are! They claim to represent all the people of Ste. Marie. They-You know our political situation, here?”
‘ ‘I understand,” I said,’ ‘that your constitution laid out your planet originally into political districts of equal areas, with two representatives to a planetary government from each district. Now I understand your party claims that the growth of city population has allowed the rural districts to control the cities, since a city like Blauvain with half a million inhabitants has no more representation than a district with three or four thousand people in it?”
“Exactly, exactly!” O’Doyne rocked forward and boomed confidentially at me. “The need for reap-portionment is acute, as it always has been in such historic situations. But will the Green Front vote themselves out of power? Not likely! Only a bold move-only a grass-roots’ revolution can get them out of power and our own party, representing the common man, the ignored man, the disenfranchised man of the cities, into government.”
“You think such a grass-roots’ revolution is possible at the present time?” I adjusted downward the volume control on my recorder.
“Before Coby, I would have said-no! Much as I would have hoped for such a thing-no! But, since Coby-” He stopped and rocked triumphantly backward, looking at me significantly.
“Since Coby?” I prompted, since significant looks and significant silences were no use to me in doing a job of straight reporting. But O’Doyne had a politician’s caution about talking himself into a corner.
“Why, since Coby,” he said, “it’s become apparent-apparent to any thinking man of this world-that Ste. Marie may have to go it alone. That we may have to do without the parasitic, controlling hand of the Exotics. And where are men to be found who can steer this troubled ship of Ste. Marie through the stormy trials of the future? In the cities, Newsman! In the ranks of those of us who have always fought for the common man. In our own Blue Front party!”
“I understand,” I said. “But under your constitution wouldn’t a change of representatives require an election? And can’t an election only be called for by a majority vote of the current representatives? And don’t the Green Front have that majority now, so that they are unlikely to call an election that would put most of them out of office?”
“True!” he boomed. “True!” He rocked back and forth, glaring at me with the same broad hint of significance.
“Then,” I said, “I don’t see how the grass-roots’ revolution you talk about is possible, Mr. O’Doyne.”
“Anything is possible!” he answered. “To the common man, nothing is impossible! The straws are in the wind, the wind of change is in the air. Who can deny it?”
I shut off my recorder.
“I see,” I said, “we’re getting nowhere. Perhaps we could make a little better progress off the record?”
“Off the record! Absolutely! Indeed-absolutely!” he said heartily. “I’m as willing to answer questions off the record as on, Newsman. And you understand why? Because to me, on-on and off-are one and the same. One and the same!”
“Well, then,” I said, “how about some of these straws in the wind? Off the record, can you give me an example?”
He rocked toward me and lowered his voice.
“There are-gatherings, even in the rural areas,” he muttered. “Stirrings of unrest-this much I can tell you. If you ask me for places-names-why, no. I won’t tell you.”
“Then you’re leaving me with nothing but vague hints. I can’t make a story out of that,” I said. “And you’d like a story written on this situation, I suppose?”
“Yes, but-” His powerful jaw set. “I won’t tell you. I won’t risk-I won’t tell you!”
“I see,” I said. I waited for a long minute. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then fidgeted upon the couch. “Perhaps,” I said slowly, “perhaps there’s a way out of this.”
He flashed a glance almost of suspicion at me, from under white eyebrows.
“Perhaps I could tell you instead,” I said quietly. “You wouldn’t have to confirm anything. And of course, as I say, even my own remarks would be off the record.”
“You-tell me?” He stared hard at me.
“Why not?” I said easily. He was too good a public man to let his bafflement show on his face, but he continued to stare at me. “In the News Services we’ve got our own avenues of information; and from these we can build up a general picture, even if some parts are missing. Now, speaking hypothetically of course, the general picture on Ste. Marie at this moment seems to be pretty much the way you’ve described it. Stirrings of unrest, gatherings and rumblings of discontent with the present-you might say, puppet-government.”
“Yes,” he rumbled. “Yes, the very word. That’s what it is, a-darn puppet government!”
“At the same time,” I wenl on, “as we’ve already discussed, this puppet government is well able to subdue any kind of local uprising, and is not about to call an election that will remove it from power; and-barring the calling of such an election-there seems no constitutional way of changing the status quo. The highly able and selfless leaders that Ste. Marie might otherwise-I say might, being neutral myself, of course-rind among the Blue Front, seem legally committed to remaining private citizens without the power to savri their world from foreign influence.”
“Yes,” he muttered, staring at me. “Yes.”
“Consequently, what course remains open to those who would save Ste. Marie from her present government?” I went on. “Since all legal avenues of recourse are stopped up, the only way left, it may seem to brave men, strong men, is to set aside normal procedure in such times of trial. If there are no constitutional ways to remove the men presently holding the reins of government, they may end up being removed otherwise, for the ostensible good of the whoie world of Ste. Marie and everyone on it.”
He stared at me. His lips moved a little, but he said nothing. Under the white eyebrows, his faded blue eyes seemed to be popping slightly.
“In short-a bloodless coup d’etat, a direct and forcible removal from office of these bad leaders seems to be the only solution left for those who believe this planet needs saving. Now, we know-”
“Wait-” broke in O’Doyne, booming. “I must tell you here and now, Newsman, that my silence mustn’t be construed as giving consent to any such speculation. You shall not report-”
“Please,” I interrupted in my turn, holding up a hand. He subsided rather more easily than one might have expected. “This is all perfectly theoretical supposition on my part. I don’t suppose it has anything to do with the real situation.” I hesitated. “The only question in this projection of the situation-theoretical situation-is the matter of implementation. We realize that as far as numbers and equipment, forces of the Blue Front outnumbered a hundred to one in the last election is hardly to be compared with the planetary forces of the Ste. Marie Government.”
“Our support-our grass-roots’ support-”
“Oh, of course,” I said. “Still, there’s the question of actually taking any physically effective action in the situation. That would take equipment and men-particularly men. By which I mean, of course, military men able either to train raw native troops, or themselves to take powerful action-“