The big patrolman helped Karen up. Flint stumbled to his feet. The patrolman grabbed him by the collar, roughly. "Come along, kidnapper," he said.
Karen Vaun stared at the patrolman blankly. "Kidnapper?"
The patrolman frowned. "Certainly, Miss Vaun. Don't you know this guy engineered the whole business—having you taken off his plane? He and that Venusian were going to hold you for ransom."
Karen shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "Greeno was merely bringing me out to look at these planetoids while Mr. Flint went to get his big guns for the bat. Kidnapper? Preposterous! Mr. Flint and I are buying these planetoids together."
"What!" Leggett and Hudson said the word simultaneously. And they seemed the only ones in the crowd who could speak. "Together!" Leggett said weakly. "Why this area is a million dollar investment!"
"Two million," Karen said. She took Flint's hand, he standing there as dumbfounded as the rest. "Mr. Flint's going to contribute a million of his own from the sale of the bat. We're going to raise feather-deer here. It would be bad business to kill them all off." She paused, surveying the crowd as if daring anybody to disagree with her. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll get back to Saturn. We have business to discuss." Then she glanced toward the jungle. "Greeno!" she called. "Aren't you coming with us? If you're going to be foreman around our feather-deer ranch, you've got to be in on the conferences."
Greeno stepped out of the shadows, a faint smile softening his stony face. "Attend later conferences," he said. "From what is in your thoughts, don't think I should attend this one."
Karen Vaun blushed, then led Flint quickly away toward his plane.