"I think it's all right," Ramey reassured them. "Yes, I know it is. See, he's going in it himself. Come on. We'll never find out what this is all about if we don't take a chance."
He stepped into the chamber behind Sugriva. The others followed. The blue lord closed the door.
This chamber, too, had a control panel on one wall. To this the emperor went, adjusted small dials and pressed a plunger. Sheila screamed. Cries of alarm ripped the throats of Lake and Dr. Aiken. Ramey Winters was conscious that he, too, had cried aloud under the impact of a lance of fiery pain piercing his brain. From the ceiling of the chamber a radiation terrible to look upon blazed down upon them, its intangible beam of light seemed to smash them with tangible force. Ramey staggered a step forward, clutching for Sugriva. But even as he did so, he was aware that the ruler pressed another button, that the radiation had died, and the pain was suddenly gone.
His head throbbed and burned. He cried, "Damn you! What's the big idea? What are you trying to do to us?" But there was disarming candor in the blue man's smile. "Peace, my friend," he soothed. "There will be no more pain. It is over now."
"Over?" repeated Ramey. "It had damned well better be over. You can't—" Then he halted, his mouth foolishly agape, as realization of what had happened dawned upon him.
He had spoken to the Lord of Angkor. And the blue lord had answered. And each of them had understood the other!
Sheila Aiken stared at their new acquaintance wildly.
"You—you're speaking English!"