A fierce growl of approval of the suggestion went up from the other pirate captains. Even old Stilicho Keene was looking at Thorn and his two comrades with accusation in his face.
"Boy, I never thought you Planeteers would do a thing like this,” said the old pirate dismally.
Thorn was thinking with desperate rapidity. Should he tell Lana the truth, that they Planeteers were, agents of Earth who only sought the Erebus secret to get the radite that would save the Alliance?
He saw that it would gain nothing to tell. It would make no difference to the girl, who was so bitter against Earth she would do nothing to help that world. And it would give away the great secret that the Alliance had a weapon with which it might be able to resist the League attack.
"Lana, listen to me,” Thorn said rapidly. “I'm not denying that we Planeteers came here seeking the secret of Erebus. We have a vital reason for wanting it, and when you wouldn't tell it, I had to try to steal it. I admit all that.
"But I want to warn you that there's someone else here, someone right here in this room now, if I'm right, who means to get that secret and use it to take millions of lives. You can save all those lives by giving us the secret and letting us go!"
"You pile one lie on another!” blazed Lana. “You try to cover your own guilt by accusing innocent men!"
"Let's take them out and blast them down now!” cried Brun Abo,
"It's the penalty for treachery among the Companions,” old Stilicho said miserably. “I guess we got to do it."
Lana Cain paled a little. She shook her head.