at them.

"These men have told me how the rebel had turned the tables and gained
the advantage of you before their arrival," said Nuwell. "They say that
before he was killed, he confessed to them that he was Dark Kensington,
one of the major rebel leaders who escaped from the Childress Barber
College. I believe that coincides with your identification of him,
doesn't it?"

"Yes," answered Maya in a low voice. "He was Dark Kensington. I saw him
once at the college, and he identified himself to me then as a
supervisor."

She did not feel called on to say anything more, and to tell Nuwell what
Dark himself had told her about the rebellion and his part in it.

"Very good," said Nuwell with satisfaction. "We've captured the Chief,
the peculiar-looking individual who escaped by driving his copter
through the city dome. All the indications are that he and Kensington
were the two top figures in the rebellion. I think all that's needed now
is for you to identify the body positively as Kensington, Maya."

He indicated the wooden box, which lay, lidless, on the floor.
Reluctantly, Maya stepped up to it, and looked down into it.

The pain which distorted Dark's face when he lay writhing from the
heatgun blast was gone from his features. They were calm and peaceful in
death.

Maya gazed down at his face wistfully, sorrowfully, then turned away.

"Well?" asked Nuwell impatiently.

"Yes," she murmured. "That's Dark Kensington."

"Very good," said Nuwell, and turned to the two men. "We'll take the
body to the hydroponic farm for the vats," he said. "There'll be others
after the trials and executions of the rebels we've captured."

"Do you have to do that?" protested Maya. "Why can't you give the man a
decent burial out here in the lowland?"

"Don't interfere in matters which are none of your affair," replied
Nuwell brusquely. "Bodies of criminals are always sent to the vats.
They're constantly short of bodies, as it is, and we can't very well
send them corpses of law-abiding citizens."

He turned away. As Maya accompanied him across the corridor, the two men
from Ophir began nailing the lid on the wooden box that contained Dark
Kensington's remains.

At the elevator, Nuwell said:

"Get your things packed as soon as you can. I want to go back to Mars
City right away by copter. I have some things I want to talk to you
about, very seriously, but they can wait until we're airborne."

"Why by copter?" asked Maya. "Groundc