ar is faster."

For the first time, Nuwell's face broke into a genuine smile, and his
ordinary charming self shone through.

"Because," he replied drolly, "I've just made that trip by groundcar,
and every bone in my body aches. It may be slower, but I want to go back
by air, where there aren't as many bumps!"

Maya was able to laugh at this. She went up to her room.

It did not take her long to pack, and to dress in a tunic and trousers
for travel. When she came back down to the lobby, Nuwell was waiting,
and they took a groundcar from the chateau to the dome airlock.

The three government agents who had come with Nuwell from Mars City had
the helicopter ready for them on the flat lowland just beyond the
airlock. As the groundcar emerged onto the sage-covered plain, the men
were helping the two policemen from Ophir unload the box containing Dark
Kensington's remains from another groundcar and load it into the baggage
bay of the copter.

Nuwell and Maya slipped into their marsuits, secured the helmets and
climbed out of the groundcar. Nuwell gave his men some final
instructions to follow before returning to Mars City by groundcar. Then
he and Maya went aboard the copter.

They strapped themselves in the seats. Nuwell sealed the copter door,
and released oxygen from the tanks into the interior. When the dials
showed the air to be breathable, he and Maya removed their helmets,
Nuwell started the motor and the craft lifted slowly and smoothly into
the air above the Solis Lacus Lowland.

Nuwell headed the copter northwestward. As soon as they were well on
course, he turned to Maya with a stern expression on his face.

"There's one thing I can't understand at all," he said severely. "What
madness possessed you to resist those men I sent over from Ophir, and
attempt to help Kensington escape?"

She looked at him steadily without replying.

What should she answer? Could she say, "I discovered that I had fallen
in love with Dark Kensington. I found that his reasons for the rebellion
made sense to me, and that you and the government and Marscorp are
wrong"?

What would Nuwell's reaction be if she told this truth?

But it could do no good to say that. It could do the rebels no good,
because now they were scattered and defeated. It could do Dark no good,
because he was dead. She did not think she would suffer personally from
such a revelation, but it could only hurt Nuwell, who loved her.

So, at last, she said: