"To find Ilse," answered Kortha, settling his big frame in the plasticine seat. His hands went forth to punch buttons and twist dials. The tubes behind him roared their power, shaking the entire ship. He taxied the flier across the square and yanked back hard on the repellever. The nose went up sharply, and riding the air currents on blunt wings, the flier rose above the ruins of white Yassa and aimed its prow at the desert. Kortha slipped in the automatic controller, and ran fingers through his fur jacket. "Ilse will know the politics I've missed in living on the desert for three years. She will know if we can raise a force strong enough to fight Guantra. We'll need men and money and ships. Guantra has cornered the market on those, right now." "You wouldn't go to Ilse before. Why will you now?" "Three years ago I crippled a man, Xax. Hurlgut, who was my best friend. It was in a fit of rage. I couldn't control my temper. And--I was afraid that some day I'd do something like that to Ilse. I couldn't afford to let that happen. I love her too much. There was only one thing to do, since I couldn't master my own emotions. "I ran away. I came here across Syrtis Major to the Yassan desert because it is so far from life. Nothing exists away out here. If Hurlgut or Ilse were to send searching parties, it would be like looking for a sword out in the asteroid belt. "I picked a good spot, all right. It took them three years to find me. They wouldn't have found me yet if I hadn't helped an occasional unfortunate who'd come to try his luck at mining in the Yassan sands." "Mining?" puzzled Xax. "In the desert?" "There's a lot of copper mixed into that sand. Some day I hope to learn why. Cliffs of metal abound on Mars. The cliffs around Ruuzol, for instance. But enough of that. Let me explain about myself. I came to the desert and lived alone. High hopes were mine that the silence and loneliness and my work would teach me control. I don't know how well I succeeded in that, but in another thing I did have success. "On the long winter nights, I saw lights in Yassa, Xax. Man-made lights. Electritorches and solar-beams. Now everyone on Mars knows that Yassa is a deserted city, and deadly. Lights didn't belong there. I wanted to go to Yassa to see who walked its dead streets. But as a test, I curbed myself, fought my yearning. I mastered it. I wondered and puzzled, but I stayed on the desert. Some day I would go, but not yet. Finally the lights went away, and did not return. "I know now that those lights were carried by Guantra's science staff, who discovered the secret of the tower of Zut, and used it. They took away the weapons they could use and left the others, thinking no one could fathom their use. They thought me dead. Bah, the fools! "Then when Ilse came for me, I realized the truth. Guantra had sent men to Yassa. But if I went to Yassa, I might prevent their taking anything of value from the city. I was too late!"