"And you say that this radite will save the inner planets from dreadful conquest, if you can take it back?” he asked.
"We hope it will,” Thorn answered tensely. “If Blaine's secret weapon is effective—"
"I do not see,” said the glowing man slowly, “what weapon or invention could ever defeat such a fleet as you say the outer planets have gathered."
The old doubt and fear that Thorn had felt increasingly as the days went by, tautened his voice as he answered.
"We don't know either how Blaine can hope to do that, what the nature of his mysterious weapon is,” Thorn admitted. “Yet, that secret of his is the one last possible chance to prevent the conquest of the Alliance."
He voiced a desperate appeal to Nison. “Earth is your native world, as Mars is that of your companion. It's to prevent the wreck and ruin of those two worlds, and of Venus and Mercury too, that we're asking you to help us find the radite."
"I will help you,” Clymer Nison said slowly, his tragic radiant face heavy with thought. “Though the Earth you serve cannot be the Earth of nine centuries ago from which I came, yet it is still Earth."
His glowing companion, the little Martian, Chan Gray, slowly nodded his head, and spoke to the Planeteers for the first time.
"Aye,” he said huskily. “And I remember the Mars of five centuries ago — the pleasant desert cities, the sun shining on the polar snows. I would not want the hordes of the outer planets to devastate that."
"You know where the radite lies?” Thorn asked Nison eagerly.