 Why does Martin prefer to live on the yacht?
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] No one, least of all Martin, could dispute that a man's life should be guarded by his kin—but by those who hadn't been born yet? Nobody in the neighborhood was surprised when Martin's mother disappeared and Ninian came to take care of him. He'd been a war baby, born of one of the tides of soldiers—enemies and allies, both—that had engulfed the country in successive waves and bought or taken the women. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it. One day the truant officer came to ask why Martin hadn't been coming to school. When it became clear that his mother was never going to show up again, Ninian bought one of those smallish, almost identical houses that mushroom on the fringes of a city after every war, particularly where intensive bombing has created a number of desirable building sites. Martin was told to call him Uncle Raymond. The adults obviously figured that if a one-car family hired private tutors for their kid, there must be something pretty wrong with him. He had food to eat that he'd never dreamed of before, warm clothes that no one had ever worn before him. The non-glass part of the house was of neat, natural-toned wood, with a neat green lawn in front and a neat parti-colored garden in back. Though they were in the house with him, in their minds and in their talk they were living in another world—a world of warmth and peace and plenty where nobody worked, except in the government service or the essential professions. There was no devastation, no war, no unhappiness, none of the concomitants of normal living. It was then that Martin began to realize that either the whole lot of them were insane, or what Ninian had told him at first was the truth. When Martin was sixteen, Raymond took him aside for the talk Ninian had promised five years before. "And Conrad really got upset over the way Earth has been exploiting the not so intelligent life-forms on the other planets," Raymond continued. We're virtually the same people ... although it is amazing what a difference two hundred odd years of progress and polish can make in a species, isn't it?" And, on those worlds, it's far cheaper to use native labor than to ship out all that expensive machinery.
 Martin is used to being isolated now. The people on land live in a different world than he does.
 Martin is used to being isolated now. The people on land live in a different world than he does.  The people on land were always at war. Martin wants no part of it.  The people on land are too different from the cousins. Living on the yacht avoids questions from locals.  Martin thinks being on the ocean will make it harder for Conrad to find him.