The little woman kept her hands before her eyes and shook her head vigorously. "It's immodest," she insisted, "and you must put on your clothes at once. Don't you realize that I'm the queen?"
Reluctantly, Keltry and Dynamon stepped back into their heavy cloaks and zipped them up the front.
"Well! that's better," said the little queen primly. "My goodness," she said with a slight glance, "is everybody on Earth as big and brown as you two?"
"We're about average, I should say," Keltry answered with a smile. "And seriously, we didn't mean to offend you in the matter of clothes."
"Well we, on Saturn," said the little queen, "don't believe in indecent exposure. Now, you say you came in some kind of a carrier?"
"Yes," said Dynamon. "It's up on the surface. We were exploring in the darkness and fell down the long shaft."
"Why weren't you killed?" said the queen, blue eyes wide. Dynamon explained the counter-gravity helmets. It took considerable explanation, because the queen was inclined to disbelieve the whole story. She finally accepted it, however, and then launched into a long series of questions about the Cosmos Carrier and about the state of the Earth. Eventually Dynamon found an opening and started asking questions on his part.
"We're anxious to know about you and your people on Saturn," he suggested. "Have you a name or are you addressed only as Queen?"
"I am Queen Diana," the little woman stated. "The last of my line. I am a Bolton, and the Boltons have been rulers of Saturn ever since we came here."
"Bolton!" Dynamon shouted. "Are you a descendant of Leonard Bolton?"