"I'm going to take the chance you Planeteers can save her. It looks like the only chance the lass has got. I'm going to release you, and we'll head out in my ship for Saturn, before Brun Abo and the rest find out what I've done."
"Will the crew of your ship follow you?” Thorn asked quickly, his pulses pounding with excitement and hope.
"Hell, they'd sail straight into the sun if I laid the course!” exclaimed the old pirate. His cracked voice throbbed with eagerness as he continued. “I'll have to steal the wave key of this brig from the Council House to let you out. And I'll pass a whisper to my crew to gather in the Venture at once."
The old Martian hastened away through the starlight. John Thorn swung round to his comrades.
"It's a fighting chance we've got now, at least!” he exclaimed.
"A pretty slim one,” said Gunner Welk somberly. “How in hell's name are we to get that girl away from Saturn in the teeth of all the League forces? An army couldn't do it."
"We'll have to do what an army couldn't, then,” Thorn said grimly. “There must be some way."
Presently they glimpsed Stilicho Keene hastening back to their prison. At the old Martian's heels followed a great, gray shape with blazing green eyes, Lana's space dog, Ool.
Stilicho turned the wave-key's beam on the lock. The frequencies actuated the delicate mechanism, and the door opened.
"I had a time stealing the wave-key!” panted the old man as Thorn and his comrades emerged. “Brun Abo and the rest are up in the Council House. As soon as they remember you three, they'll be here to have you executed."