Jonathan held up the wood and shook it, laughing, "This is known in America as a baseball bat. A Louisville slugger. The old hickory, the ash. And the thing that hit Morka Kar was a baseball. Gods! A jest, he called it."
Shar Bytu looked from Morka Kar to Jonathan, saying, "You must destroy him. It is the great rule of mental monomachy."
But Jonathan shook his head, wearily.
Shar Bytu looked down at the Zarathzan. He almost seemed to relish what he did. But it was over in an instant. A few grains of dust settled groundwards. Jonathan felt sick.
The others gathered around him. Their voices were excited.
"A new weapon to fight the flames."
"The Earthling has solved our problem."
"If it baffled a monomachy fighter like Morka Kar, it might work on the flames."
Jonathan tried to explain, looking down at their faces.
"No, no," he cried out, talking down their thoughts. "It isn't a weapon. It's a sport we play back on Earth. I—it—the bat is used to hit a ball. Morka Kar didn't know that. He thought it just a club.