The portable radio-phone from the wrecked Stardust was brought in and set up on a stand immediately in front of Gerry. Olga set up the sigmoid antenna on its duralite frame, and twisted the dials to the space-ship's wave length. Then she took the transmitter.
"Calling Steve Brent on the Viking! Calling Steve Brent on the Viking! Please come in!" she repeated over and over.
At last the answering signal lit up, and Steve's familiar voice came from the receiver.
"This is Steve Brent. Who is calling?"
Olga held the transmitter before Gerry's mouth. Lansa nodded to one of the torturers, who drew a white hot iron from one of the braziers and held it a little way from Closana's face.
"One false word and that iron goes into the girl's eyes," the Lord of Giri-Vaaka warned in a low hiss. "After that, all of you will live in agony for weeks before we have finished. Tell him to land near the city and bring all but a single watch-man to the east gate where they will be well received."
"Hello Steve. This is Gerry Norton!" Gerry said. Brent's voice shook with excitement.
"Jumping ray-blasts, chief, we all thought you were done for! Where did you go? What happened? Where are you now?"
"I'm being well entertained in the city of Vaaka-Havson. These Scaly Men are very pleasant and friendly when you get to know them. Cross the Giri River by a bald hill...."
Gerry finished the directions for the coming of the Viking and the landing of its crew as ordered by Lansa. As the radio was turned off, the Lord of the Scaly Ones stood up with his thin lipped smile.