air. The blaster flew from his hands
at the impact of landing and spun out near me. In one quick motion I
rolled over and covered it with my body.

* * * * *

Ledman clawed his way to me with tremendous effort and tried wildly to
pry the blaster out from under me, but without success. I twisted a bit,
reached out with my free leg, and booted him across the floor. He
fetched up against the wall of the Dome and lay there.

Val rolled over to me.

"Now if I could get free of this stuff," I said, "I could get him
covered before he comes to. But how?"

"Teamwork," Val said. She swivelled around on the floor until her head
was near my boot. "Push my oxymask off with your foot, if you can."

I searched for the clamp and tried to flip it. No luck, with my heavy,
clumsy boot. I tried again, and this time it snapped open. I got the tip
of my boot in and pried upward. The oxymask came off, slowly, scraping a
jagged red scratch up the side of Val's neck as it came.

"There," she breathed. "That's that."

I looked uneasily at Ledman. He was groaning and beginning to stir.

Val rolled on the floor and her face lay near my right arm. I saw what
she had in mind. She began to nibble the vile-tasting tangle-cord,
running her teeth up and down it until it started to give. She continued
unfailingly.

Finally one strand snapped. Then another. At last I had enough use of my
hand to reach out and grasp the blaster. Then I pulled myself across the
floor to Ledman, removed the tanglegun, and melted the remaining
tangle-cord off.

My muscles were stiff and bunched, and rising made me wince. I turned
and freed Val. Then I turned and faced Ledman.

"I suppose you'll kill me now," he said.

"No. That's the difference between sane people and insane," I told him.
"I'm not going to kill you at all. I'm going to see to it that you're
sent back to Earth."

"_No!_" he shouted. "No! Anything but back there. I don't want to face
them again--not after what they did to me--"

"Not so loud," I broke in. "They'll help you on Earth. They'll take all
the hatred and sickness out of you, and turn you into a useful member of
society again."

"I hate Earthmen," he spat out. "I hate all of them."

"I know," I said sarcastically. "You're just all full of hate. You hated
us so much that you couldn't bear to hang around on Earth for as much as
a year after the Sadlerville Blast. You had to take right off for Mars
wit