!"

Bill shook his head. "I'll do this my way," he said.

Kenny glared at him, then laughed harshly. "You won't have a chance," he
said. "The boys won't stand for it. I'm going to spread the word around,
and you'd better not try to stop me."

That did it. I'd been holding myself in, but I had a sudden,
overpowering urge to send my fist crashing into Kenny's face, to send
him crashing to the sand. I started for him, but he jumped back and
started shouting.

I can't remember exactly what he shouted. But he said just enough to put
a noose around my neck. Every man and woman between the shacks and the
well swung about to stare at me. I saw shock and rage flare in the eyes
of men who usually had steady nerves. They were not calm now--not one of
them.

IV

It all happened so fast I was caught off balance. In the harsh Martian
sunlight human emotions can be as unstable as a wind-lashed dune.

A crazy thought flashed through my mind: Will Molly believe this too?
Will she join these madmen in their wild thirst for vengeance? My need
for her was suddenly overwhelming. Just seeing her face would have
helped, but now more men had emerged from the shacks and I couldn't see
beyond them. They were heading straight for me and I knew that even Bill
would be powerless to stop them.

You can't argue with an avalanche. It was rolling straight toward me,
gathering momentum as it came--not one man or a dozen, but a solid wall
of human hate and unreason.

Bill stood his ground. He had drawn his gun, and he started shouting
that the prints couldn't have been made by my shoes. I chalked that up
to his credit and resolved never to forget it.

I knew I'd have to make a dash for it. I ran as fast as I could, keeping
my eyes on the glimmer of sunlight on rising dunes, and deep hollows
which a carefully placed bullet could have quickly changed into a burial
mound.

A sudden crackling burst of gunfire ripped through the air. Directly in
my path the sand geysered up as the bullets ripped and tore at it.
Somebody wasn't a good marksman, or had let blind rage unnerve him and
spoil his aim. A lot of somebodies--for the firing increased and became
almost continuous for an instant, a dull crackling which drowned out the
whispering and the sighing of the wind.

Then abruptly all sound ceased. Utter stillness descended on the
desert--an unnatural, terrifying stillness, as if nature herself had
stopped breathing and was waiting for someone t