"I'm afraid that's so," she said; "but I thank you for the offer, Mr. Kent." Kent could have sworn that there was an appeal in her eyes, and he stood for a moment, indecisive, Jandron's stare upon him. After a moment's thought he turned to Krell. "You were going to show me the damage the exploding tubes did," he said, and Krell nodded quickly. "Of course; you can see from the head of the stair back in the after-deck." He led the way along a corridor, Jandron and the girl and two of the men coming with them. Kent's thoughts were still chaotic as he walked between Krell and Liggett. What was this girl doing amid the men of the _Martian Queen_? What had her eyes tried to tell him? Liggett nudged his side in the dim corridor, and Kent, looking down, saw dark splotches on its metal floor. Blood-stains! His suspicions strengthened. They might be from the bleeding of those wounded in the tube-explosions. But were they? * * * * * They reached the after-deck whose stair's head gave a view of the wrecked tube-rooms beneath. The lower decks had been smashed by terrific forces. Kent's practiced eyes ran rapidly over the shattered rocket-tubes. "They've back-blasted from being fired too fast," he said. "Who was controlling the ship when this happened?" "Galling, our second-officer," answered Krell. "He had found us routed too close to the dead-area's edge and was trying to get away from it in a hurry, when he used the tubes too fast, and half of them back-blasted." "If Galling was at the controls in the pilot-house, how did the explosion kill him?" asked Liggett skeptically. Krell turned quickly. "The shock threw him against the pilot-house wall and fractured his skull--he died in an hour," he said. Liggett was silent. "Well, this ship will never move again," Kent said. "It's too bad that the explosion blew out your tanks, but we ought to find fuel somewhere in the wreck-pack for the _Pallas_. And now we'd best get back." As they returned up the dim corridor Kent managed to walk beside Marta Mallen, and, without being seen, he contrived to detach his suit-phone--the compact little radiophone case inside his space-suit's neck--and slip it into the girl's grasp. He dared utter no word of explanation, but apparently she understood, for she had concealed the suit-phone by the time they reached the upper-deck. Kent and Liggett prepared to don their space-helmets, and before entering the airlock, Kent turned to Krell. "We'll expect you at the _Pallas_ first hour to-morrow, and we'll start searching the wreck-pack with a dozen of our men," he said. He then extended his hand to the girl. "Good-by, Miss Mallen. I hope we can have a talk soon." He had said the words with double meaning, and saw understanding in her eyes. "I hope we can, too," she said. Kent's nod to Jandron went unanswered, and he and Liggett adjusted their helmets and entered the airlock.