"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 without a moment's delay, didn't you? You hated Earth so much you _had_ to leave." "Why are you telling all this to me?" "Because if you'd stayed long enough, you'd have used some of your pension money to buy yourself a pair of prosthetic legs, and then you wouldn't need this wheelchair." Ledman scowled, and then his face went belligerent again. "They told me I was paralyzed below the waist. That I'd never walk again, even with prosthetic legs, because I had no muscles to fit them to." "You left Earth too quickly," Val said. "It was the only way," he protested. "I had to get off--" "She's right," I told him. "The atom can take away, but it can give as well. Soon after you left they developed _atomic-powered_ prosthetics--amazing things, virtually robot legs. All the survivors of the Sadlerville Blast were given the necessary replacement limbs free of charge. All except you. You were so sick you had to get away from the world you despised and come here." "You're lying," he said. "It's not true!" "Oh, but it is," Val smiled. I saw him wilt visibly, and for a moment I almost felt sorry for him, a pathetic legless figure propped up against the wall of the Dome at blaster-point. But then I remembered he'd killed twelve Geigs--or more--and would have added Val to the number had he had the chance. * * * * * "You're a very sick man, Ledman," I said. "All this time you could have been happy, useful on Earth, instead of being holed up here nursing your hatred. You might have been useful, on Earth. But you decided to channel everything out as revenge." "I still don't believe it--those legs. I might have walked again. No--no, it's all a lie. They told me I'd never walk," he said, weakly but stubbornly still. I could see his whole structure of hate starting to topple, and I decided to give it the final push. "Haven't you wondered how I managed to break the tangle-cord when I kicked you over?" "Yes--human legs aren't strong enough to break tangle-cord that way."