"No," said the chairman. "And had you been armed, I doubt that the encounter would have been different. Fighting unarmed against a Martian who is holding a MacMillan at the ready is not considered the kind of thing that any intelligent man would attempt. The fault lies with the security office, not with you." His chief, Greggor of the Bureau of Exploration asked: "Is this an official decision? I want it made clear that my assistant is not responsible for his trouble." "Maynard is not to be held responsible. When the word came via Senior Executive Williamson, the investigation of the kidnaping act disclosed that the blame--if any--was to lie with Security. Off the record, I can not see how any security bureau could cope with such boldness. It was born of desperation and bred of terror--and it died for lack of sheer weight and velocity." "Thank you," said Space Marshal Greggor. * * * * * Guy went on, telling his partly-memorized tale, until he was again questioned. "You hadn't felt the brunt of the electrolysis before the _Mardinex_ was attacked?" "It had just started. The final explosion broke my straps and destroyed the electrolysis equipment." "And you couldn't make your way to a lifeship at that time?" "I did as soon as I came to, and realized that I was alone. The least damaged lifeship required repairs that were completed several hours later. By that time we were passing through the midst of Martian territory and I thought it best to lie low." "You preferred to take the chance of orbiting rather than running the Martian gauntlet?" "Orbiting was no chance, sir. Running the gauntlet would have been sheer suicide since the Martians were extremely interested in the _Mardinex_. They had most of their grand fleet out watching. Only my velocity--which prevented any attempt to stop me--and my acceleration--which prevented any attempt to try to match my speed--got me past safely. I am certain that they put a pointer on me as we went past." "By what reasoning?" "I would have done it, sir, if the cases had been reversed." "Naturally," said the chairman. "Proceed, Maynard." "Knowing that any deviation of the _Mardinex_ or electrical activity aboard would register at the Martian detector stations, at least until we were out of safe range, I proceeded to make the lifeship as spaceworthy and as comfortable as I could. I took plenty of spare equipment--" "Of what sort?" "Sheer gadgetry, sir, I've had a few ideas, and this looked as though I'd have plenty of time to try them out. I powered the lifeship far beyond her normal power because I had to get back home from a ship leaving the System at better than ten thousand miles per second." "In order to bring out the resourcefulness of my assistant," said Greggor, "I want the record to state that he prepared for the boredom he knew would come." "It is recorded."