hospitality? Had it
passed out while he was roaming the spaces? He leaned over, harsh
words tumbling for exit, when suddenly he checked himself. There was
something strange about that fierce blank stare. The man's face, too,
he saw now, was lined and worn; suffering had left its multitudinous
imprint upon an ordinarily rotund countenance.

Hilary shouted suddenly: "Good morning." The man did not answer, nor
did he stir from his unvarying pose. Deaf! The returned Earthman
suffered swift pity. With gentle forefinger he prodded the man.

The reaction was astounding. The man cowered like a pricked balloon;
little strangling moans forced themselves out of clenched teeth. Dumb,
too! His face jerked around to the direction of Hilary's gentle
prodding. Merciful heavens, the man was blind also! Two vacant
red-rimmed sockets stared pitifully at him--the eyeballs were gone,
ripped out.

But what struck Hilary particularly was the mortal terror that was
depicted on the blind man's face. It was as though he expected some
cruel, crippling blow to follow; as though it were the last straw on
the back of unmentionable former agonies. Hilary shuddered. It was not
good to witness such animal fear. A dark shadow blotted out the
brightness of the Earth-day for him. There was something wrong here,
something that required a good deal of explanation.

* * * * *

His probing eyes went thoughtfully over the poor cowering wretch.
Those careworn features were familiar, somehow. Where had he seen the
man before? Suddenly he stiffened, choking an exclamation. The man was
bound immovably to his seat. Thin metal links, almost invisible,
encircled his feet; held the elbows taut against the fluted columns of
the seat-back.

Hilary's space-tanned features hardened; the light gray of his eyes
darkened. All the pleasure of his homecoming vanished. The kindly
Earth seemed suddenly grown inimical. What had happened in the five
long years of his absence? This would have been impossible on the
Earth he had known; a man, manifestly the victim of hideous tortures,
bound like a wild animal to the seat of a public conveyor.

He went swiftly into action. From the depths of a capacious pocket he
fished a sheathed blade of stellite, triply keen; its razor-sharp edge
sawed smoothly at the bonds.

In his mounting anger Hilary had paid no attention to the scattering
of people occupying the cushioned chairs of the speeding convey