re a way out. I never thought much before of how mad it must be
for you."

He took the folder. He looked up at the double moons painting the night
a fantastic shifting wave of changing light. And then he looked down at
Gloria Munsel again, at the glinting shine of her hair.

"Goodbye," he said. "I might stay after all--except that a lot of men on
Earth are waiting for me to tell them something. They'll be surprised.
I--" He hesitated. Her eyes widened. Warmth of emotion moved him and he
said, or started to say, "I love you," and many other things, but she
interrupted him.

"Don't please, Eddie. Anything you said now would sound just like what
my devoted husband says, every day. I'd rather you wouldn't say anything
at all now, Eddie, just goodbye."

"Goodbye then," he said again.

He looked back from the opened door in the ship's cargo bin. Her face
was shining up at him, her lips slightly parted, her cheeks wet. It was
a picture he would never be able to forget, even if he wanted to.

"When you forget to shave in the mornings, Eddie, think of me."

* * * * *

Bowren stood up and addressed the investigation committee which had sent
him to Mars. He hadn't made any statements at all up to this moment. The
ten members of the Committee sat there behind the half-moon table. None
of them moved. Their faces were anxious. Some of them were perspiring.

Eddie told them what he had seen, what he had heard, his own impressions
about the whole thing, about his escape. He left out certain personal
details that were, to him, unnecessary to this particular report.

The Committee sat there a while, then started to talk. They talked at
once for a while, then the Chairman rapped for order and stood up. His
face had an odd twist to it, and his bald head was pocked with
perspiration.

Eddie Bowren took the book of micro-film from under his arm, the one
Gloria Munsel had given him. He put it on the table. "That has been
thoroughly checked by scientists, and their report is included. I
thought it surely was a false report, until they checked it. The first
page there gives a brief outline of what the micro-film contains."

The Chairman read, then looked up. He coughed. He mopped at his head.

Eddie said. "As I saw it up there, this is the way it's going to stay.
We'll never get into space, not without using the methods that were used
with me. And they're too destructive. I've been examined. I could