"Stilicho, you brought these three men here?” the girl asked the old Martian. “Who are they?"
"Yes, who are they?” squeaked Jenk Cheerly, the obese, beady-eyed Uranian. “What's all the mystery about them?"
Stilicho Keene's rheumy eyes glistened, and his wrinkled face quivered with excitement as he answered.
"Why, they're just three lads I picked off a wreck coming back, and fetched along to Turkoon,” he quavered. The old man paused to enjoy his coming triumph, then added, “Maybe you've heard of these three boys. They're called the Three Planeteers."
"The Three Planeteers!"
Brun Abo, the squat Jovian, uttered that startled cry. He and everyone else in the room stared at John Thorn and Sual Av and Gunner Welk in rigidly frozen amazement.
The beady eyes of Jenk Cheerly, the fat Uranian, were wide with astonishment. Kinnel King, the Earthman, stiffened. And Lana Cain's dark blue eyes narrowed incredulously as she stared at Thorn's dark face.
"It's them, all right,” muttered the Jovian in a moment. “I've seen their pictures on reward notices."
"Those pictures on the notices were poor likenesses,” said Sual Av, a grin on his froglike face. “They hardly did me justice, as you can see for yourselves."
"What do you Planeteers want here, if you are the Planeteers?” demanded Jenk Cheerly suspiciously.