"What about ourselves, Lance?" Ricky asked quietly. "Dark still won't let us go, you know. He still needs me as a doctor."
Hugh Murdock stepped forward. "Dark would let you both go, for a big enough ransom. I'd like to pay it for you."
The handsomeness of Murdock's gesture moved Kenniston. He was only able to mutter his thanks.
hile Ricky was treating Captain Walls' burned arm, the officer kept looking fascinatedly at that square bottle of milky fluid.
He said hesitantly, "I've a son—back on Earth. For five years he's lain in a cot from the gravitation-paralysis that hit him out on Jupiter. Do you suppose—"
Ricky nodded. "Yes, Captain. I'm sure that we can cure him, now."
There was an uproar out in the clearing. Kenniston went to the door and looked out.
The electric wall had temporarily been dropped, and Kin Ibo and the main body of the pirates were hastily entering the camp with their improvised power-sledges that bore heavy loads of machinery and materials.