He felt as though he needed that alcoholic sterilization of his mouth. Maynard's stomach was unused to liquor in such undilution. It reacted; got rid of the alcohol as soon as it could by filtering it into the blood stream. In other words, Guy became slightly drunk on a total of five drinks. Unevenly, Guy went to the main room, where he was immediately taken in tow by two women. "Now," said the one on his right, "we have you to ourselves. Tell us about Mephisto." "How did you find it?" _I found it cold and forbidding._ "To think that it was undiscovered for all of these years!" _Too bad I did find it._ "You found it, and you conquered it. That makes it almost your own planet, Guy." _I'll trade it for a chance to seek it again._ They prattled on, not noticing his silence. They wouldn't have heard him if he had spoken, for they poured the questions at him without waiting for an answer. "Was it exciting to go all the way out there?" _It was deadly. They hit us with all they had._ "Tell us about the battle. We want to hear the final words on the finish of the fight. Tell us how you captured the weapon that destroyed all Mephisto. Was that thrilling?" _Thrilling?_ Maynard saw a white face with closed eyes, neatly placed in endless rows of other faces. He heard the voice of the chaplain saying again: "--vast though the universe be, and though you travel it endlessly, there you will find His work--" _How could death be thrilling?_ "You make me sick," said Maynard uncertainly. "He's drunk." "Yes, I'm drunk," he roared. "And you'd be dead or worse than drunk if you'd seen what I had to live with. What do you know of death and of war? _Thrilling? Exciting? Wonderful?_ Bah. It was rotten, as sordid, and as ungodly as running opium! Sending men to their death. Fighting a war against an enemy that knows it is fighting for its right to live. "Fighting for what? So that you and your kind can sit here and praise the unlucky man who is destined to return for these medals. "Fighting to make the Solar System bend to Terra's will, that's what it is. What did we want of Mephisto? Nothing except tribute. I'm sick and tired of people telling me that I did a wonderful job. A brilliant job of butchering, that's what they mean!" "Guy, take it easy. They mean no harm," interposed Kane. "If they want to see how thrilling war is," blazed Guy, "let 'em go out and see!" "Take it easy!" "Let 'em help cut the leg from a corpse so that it can be grafted onto a lad with his leg shot off!" stormed Guy. "Let 'em watch a ship fall ten thousand miles into a planet, and watch it blaze as it hits the air." "It's all over," Kane told him. He turned to the rapidly collecting group and said: "Permit me to apologize. Guy has been through hell, and shock still claims him." "It's over?" asked Guy. "It'll never be over. It'll go on and on and on until the last Terran is dead and forgotten."