"Perhaps it would be best. But he will not be easy to kill. Tharol Sen
will take you to him. Perhaps by the time fate has to choose between
you and Roper, her blindness will be gone, and she can make a clear
choice of her own...."
"How did you--"
With a convulsive grimace, Sen Bas was dead. Moments later, when Tharol
Sen appeared loaded with medical supplies, Torry glared at her. Her
face a chalk mask, she whimpered.
"Forget it," Torry said angrily. "It's too late for tears."
"Why did you try to save him?"
"If you have to ask, you'd never understand."
Tharol Sen shuddered. "I don't understand anything about you. Who you
are. Why you hate us so--"
"Who says I do?"
"Roper. He says--"
"Never mind what he says. I suppose there's no use trying to convince
you that he never tells the truth if a lie will serve as well. He's
a known criminal, a thief and swindler, and even a murderer. A man
who abandoned his wife on Earth, and a small child he's never seen.
Frankly, I don't understand you, and I'm not sure I'd want to. You're
quite determined to marry him?"
"Quite." Tharol Sen stiffened.
"Well, that's your hard luck. He's no good. No good for you, or anyone.
Not even for himself."
"Nothing you can say matters. He told me about that wife. She's too
sane, too normal and practical for him. He thinks that I--"
Torry was not listening. Contrasting Tharol Sen with Rose, he was
almost inclined to agree with Roper, and envy him such a loyal and
spirited defender. The girl was pure-blood Martian, with all the eery
beauty of the strange race. She was young but vibrantly alive and
human. There was emotional depth in her, and a passionate savagery that
might inspire a man to passion, or to devotion, depending upon the man.
"Besides," finished Tharol Sen, "there is no other man like him."
"Not quite like him, fortunately." Torry laughed bitterly. "I'm a lot
like him, if you haven't noticed. But nicer ... and sometimes smarter."
"That's a matter of opinion," she said acidly. "Yours and mine. But you
do resemble him. You're ... you're not--"
"I'm afraid I am. I'm ashamed to admit it, but Bart Roper and I had the
same mother. He's my half-brother."
* * * * *