"Yes, sir,” answered the obese spymaster triumphantly. “Her mental control finally weakened, and she thought of what her father had told her. The psychophone put it all into the record.
"With what she told to guide us, we can land safely on Erebus and get the radite, sir!” the Uranian continued exultantly. “We wouldn't have had a chance without her secret. For it seems that there's only one spot on Erebus where men can land without meeting a ghastly fate."
Haskell Trask's pale green, bony face twitched with visible emotion. The dictator's gloomy eyes flashed.
"You'll sail at once for Erebus and get the radite!” he ordered Cheerly. “A naval cruiser is waiting in the court now. As soon as you get the radite and start back with it, flash word to me by audio. When I get your message, I'll order our fleets to blast sunward at once for the attack on the Alliance."
His fists clenched. “Then at last our day will have come! Even while our fleets are crushing the Alliance navies, we will be making that radite into bombs that will break the resistance of the inner worlds utterly."
"I'll take the girl and a psychophone with me to Erebus, sir,” Cheerly said shrewdly. “She may know a little more about Erebus than her conscious thoughts have revealed. If that is so, I'll get it out of her."
Trask, recalled from his oratorical flight, nodded his head indifferently.
"Take her, then. But make all speed to Erebus and back. Remember, the mightiest armada in the system's history will be waiting for your message as a signal for it to sail sunward!"
John Thorn had listened in gathering horror. This was the end of all hope, surely! Cheerly would get the radite and there would be no chance for the Alliance ever to operate Philip Blaine's great secret weapon in the lunar caverns—"Philip Blaine's great secret weapon in the lunar caverns,” the psychophone attached to Thorn was blaring.
Too late, Thorn suppressed his thoughts! In his momentary horror, he had let his thoughts stray, and the psychophone over his head had been speaking them.