The helmet clanged shut, shutting out the pleas and threats that came from Stutsman's throat. * * * * * Stutsman saw distant stars, cruel, gleaming eyes that glared at him. Empty space fell away on all sides. Numbed by fear, he realized where he was. Manning had picked him up and thrown him far into space ... out into that waste where for hundreds of light years there was only the awful nothingness of space. He was less than a speck of dust, in this great immensity of emptiness. There was no up or down, no means of orientation. Loneliness and terror closed in on him, a terrible agony of fear. In four hours his air would be gone and then he would die! His body would swirl and eddy through this great cosmic ocean. It would never be found. It would remain here, embalmed by the cold of space, until the last clap of eternity. There was one way, the easy way. His hand reached up and grasped the connection between his helmet and the air tank. One wrench and he would die swiftly, quickly ... instead of letting death stalk him through the darkness for the next four hours. He shivered and his hand loosened its hold, dropped away. He was afraid to hasten death. He wanted to put it off. He was afraid of death ... horribly afraid. The stars mocked him and he seemed to hear hooting laughter from somewhere far away. Curiously, it sounded like his own laughter.... * * * * * "I'll make it easy for you, Manning," Chambers said. "I know that all of us are guilty. Guilty in the eyes of the people and the law. Guilty in your eyes. If we had won, there would have been no penalty. There's never a penalty for the one who wins." "Penalty," said Greg, his eyes half smiling. "Why, yes, I think there is. I'm going to order you aboard the _Invincible_ for something to eat and to get some rest." "You mean to say that we aren't prisoners?" Greg shook his head. "Not prisoners," he said. "Why, I came out here to guide you back to Earth. I hauled you out here and got you into this jam. It was up to me to get you out of it. I would have done the same for Stutsman, too, but ..." He hesitated and looked at Chambers. Chambers stared back and slowly nodded. "Yes, Manning," he said. "I think I understand." _CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE_ Chambers lit his cigar and leaned back in his chair. "I wish you could see it my way, Manning," he said. "There's no place for me on Earth, no place for me in the Solar System. You see, I tried and failed. I'm just a has-been back there." He laughed quietly. "Somehow, I can't imagine myself coming back in the role of the defeated tribal leader, chained to your chariot, so to speak."