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yesterday.

Twenty-four more went to the hospital. Six were sent to the county jail,

to come up in court next Monday. Only there probably isn't going to

be a next Monday, so they won't see anything more in their lives but

their cells. People suddenly realize that this isn't just a nightmare

that will be over tomorrow morning. This is Tuesday. If they haven't

convinced you by Thursday night that you ought to take them to Mars,

they're going to die."
     
     
I was more interested in Pat than in what she said. I remembered that

there were now two vacancies for Mars. There was no argument with what

Marjory had said. I couldn't give one of those priceless places on

my lifeship to someone who might die in a few months or, worse still,

become on Mars an invalid who would have to be looked after.
     
     
I didn't want to see anyone else. I wanted to sit down and think.

But the procession went on.
     
     
Miss Wallace had early lost all sign of youth and become ageless. I knew

she was only thirty, but she could have passed for forty-five or fifty,

if she set her mind to it.
     
     
The reason for her visit was to make a plea that Leslie Darby should go.
     
     
"You may think she's young and frivolous," said Miss Wallace earnestly

(quite unnecessarily, for Leslie was obviously young and no one but Miss

Wallace would have thought her frivolous), "but if you haven't seen her

with children, take my word for it, she has a very special gift. That

will be needed in a new world. Sometimes I'm afraid, Lieutenant Easson --

I hope you don't think this is presumptuous -- that you and other young

men like you will build up a Spartan colony -- hard, brave men and women

with no time for the softer things of life. Perhaps that is right. Only

I feel that the children in such a world will grow up harder and braver

still, and a new race will be born that will be cruel and ignorant and -- "
     
     
"I don't think any of us want that, Miss Wallace," I told her. I got rid

of her soon afterward, for after all she was wasting her time and mine.

Leslie was going. So was Miss Wallace, though she seemed to have no thought

of that. Besides, I had an uncomfortable feeling her sincerity would weaken

me and make me say something I might regret.
     
     
"Let's go out," said Pat. "Otherwise everybody in Simsville will come."
     
     
"Well, don't you think I ought to see them?"
     
     
"You're not their pastor."
     
     
"No, but I can give them life in the hereafter."
     
     
"That's almost blasphemous," said Pat. It surprised me. I wouldn't have

credited her with a clear idea of what blasphemy was, and I'd certainly

never have thought she'd be concerned about it.
     
     
"Anyway, I'd like to know what's bothering Sammy," I said. "I'm curious

to see him sober. I wonder what he wants."
     
     
Pat grunted cynically. "He wants a chance to see Mars, of course," she

said. "Now that he's wakened up in a world in which he has only three

days to live, he's coming to crawl on his belly in front of you."
     
     
I didn't like her to speak like that. One moment she had me on the point

of giving her Marjory Powell's place. The next she confirmed my belief

that that would be a mistake.
     
     
Perhaps I took my job too seriously. Perhaps I thought I really was a god.
     
     
     
     
     
     
6
     
     
I'd never have guessed in a hundred years why Sammy Hoggan wanted to see

me. What had happened to him often happens to people after a hard drinking

bout. Suddenly it is all over, they feel like hell, but their brains are

ice-cold and emotionless. I've known scientists in such circumstances

to come up suddenly, disinterestedly, with the answer to problems that

had been bothering them for years.
     
     
He came in, walking carefully, as if his head was balanced on a single

pin. He was a different Sammy. He looked at me, then at Pat, then back

at me.
     
     
"I wonder if I should say what I came to say, he murmured.
     
     
"Let's hear