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so

sure of one stranger, for individuals can be mad enough to kill the only

man who can save them. But three -- they couldn't be as mad as that,

in the same way, all at once.
     
     
"Now what?" I asked. "More particularly, why?"
     
     
They all carried guns. The leader drew his and gestured with it, like

a schoolboy.
     
     
"We mean to go to Mars, Easson," he said, his voice deliberately

muffled. "If you get that clear for a start, we'll understand each

other better."
     
     
"Then you'd better get out before I recognize any of you," I told them.

"Otherwise it's very sure none of you will."
     
     
"One of us is going to stick beside you until takeoff. We figure that'll

make a difference. We -- "
     
     
His talking like a cowboy irritated me. For all I knew they might be kids

playing a game.
     
     
"Get to hell out of here," I told diem, "before I tear your masks off.

What kind of a fool do you think I am?"
     
     
Nobody moved. So I explained the obvious. "If I die, nobody from Simsville

goes to Mars," I said, a little more patiently. "They won't send another

lieutenant now. So that won't help you. If you stick beside me as you say,

it can only last until we get to Detroit, and then we'll be split. You

won't be able to do anything about that. Then I can have you thrown into

a cell somewhere and that's that. If you get me to promise anything --

which would be very easy, for I'll say anything you like -- it will last

only till I know I'm safe. Then the program's as before. Is that clear?"
     
     
I looked from one to another of them. "Okay," I said. "You know where

the door is. You just came in.
     
     
They went. As easily as that. I gave them credit for having realized

before they came that that was probably what would happen. I couldn't

really blame them for trying. I might have been weak enough and stupid

enough to fall in with their plans. But it was a poor effort.
     
     
I'd had enough of my room. I went out to go to Henessy's. I saw the Stowes

out with Jim and waved to them. They waved back tentatively. They belonged

to the small group who still cared a great deal about what people would

think. They didn't want anyone to say they were fawning on me, begging

for what everyone wanted.
     
     
I saw Betty Glessor and Morgan Smith, who haven't been mentioned so far

because I never thought of them. I had exchanged about ten words with

them. But they were next on the list to the Powells.
     
     
That's what it came to in the end. The more I learned about people, the

more likely they were to come off my list. Perhaps Smith was a drinker

and a doper and a sadist and a killer -- I hadn't time to find out.

I didn't know he was any of these things, so I could take him to Mars.
     
     
Tentatively I scratched out the Powells and marked in Smith and Glessor.
     
     
Still looking after them, I almost ran into Leslie. She had no job, now

that school was closed. She grinned. I stopped, having nothing to say,

but no reason to walk past her when she seemed to want to talk.
     
     
"What are you doing?" she asked -- a silly question if ever I heard one.
     
     
"Just killing time," I said.
     
     
"Like me to help you?"
     
     
"If you have any bright ideas."
     
     
She knew a little place down the valley I hadn't had a chance to see.

She said it was a good place to think of when remembering Earth.
     
     
It was curious, I'd never thought of that. Perhaps because I'd lived in

three country districts and four cities before I was ten, I had never

felt any duty to any one place. I hadn't thought much about leaving

Earth forever. I had realized vaguely that Harry Phillips would do so

with a pang; but if everybody left on Earth was going to die, I was

going to leave it without any regrets. What was Earth, anyway? Just a

place. Define planets generically, and you had Mars and no loss on the

deal that technology couldn't make up in a hundred years or so.
     
     
But as Leslie spoke I understood