ffenders against the laws of organized society. And yet
they had failed to break his defiant spirit or to convince him of the
infallibility of his creed that might makes right. Nor had they taken
from him the gorillalike strength that was in his broad squat body, the
magnificent brute lustihood that made him a terror to police and citizen
alike. Instead, the many periods of incarceration had only served to
increase his hatred of mankind and his contempt of the forces of law and
order. Especially was he contemptuous of the book-learning that gave the
authorities their power.

As the pain back of his eyes abated, Luke could see dimly the shaft of
light that slanted down from the porthole to the bare steel floor. His
sight was returning, yet he lay there still, growling in his throat, his
mind occupied with thoughts of his checkered past.

* * * * *

Steel-worker, mechanic, roustabout, he had worked in most of the
populous cities of Earth and had managed to get into serious trouble
wherever he went. It was his boast that he had never killed a man except
in fair fight. And yet, at thirty, finding himself wanted by the police
of a half dozen cities of Earth, he had signed up in the black gang of a
tramp ethership bound for Mars, knowing he would never return and caring
not at all.

At first, he had been riotously happy in the changed life on the new
world. There had been plenty of soul-satisfying brawls and plenty of
chulco, the fiery Martian distillate. On his many and frequent jobs
there were excellent opportunities to rebel against authority, and he
had fomented numerous mutinies in which he was always victorious but
which usually landed him in one of the malodorous Martian jails for a
more or less extended stay.

Then had come that final fracas in the Copau foundry on the bank of
Canal Pyramus. Overly optimistic, Luke's new boss had struck out at the
chunky, red-headed Earthman during an inconsequential argument and had
promptly measured his length in a sand pile as a hamlike fist crashed
home in return. They had picked up the foreman and taken him to the
infirmary where it was found that his skull was fractured and that he
had little chance for life. There were the red police after that, and
Luke, single-handed, trounced four of them so soundly and thoroughly
that someone sent in a riot call. It had taken a dozen of the reserves
to club him into submission at the last.

Th