"We couldn't do otherwise. We had to come here, learn your secret...."
"And did hereupon murderously set upon and slay certain of our citizens—"
"Us?" cried Flick Muldoon. "Us set upon and slayed? Listen, you blue-skinned baboon, we came here as friendly as fleas on a pup's tail. Your boys are the ones who started the fighting!"
"We do therefore," continued the Jovian Councillor sternly, "hereby condemn and sentence you—"
Gary drew a deep, regretful breath. Well, here it came. Imprisonment. A long wrangle of extraditionary rites ... transportation back to Earth, there to stand trial before a jury of Earthmen ... a dreary, tedious, legalistic process, wasting precious—oh, so precious—time! He twisted restlessly under the knowledge that while worlds dillydallied, disaster crept ever nearer. If he could only make these people understand—
Then his petulance died, appalled. For the Councillor was speaking again, and from his lips were falling words that in his wildest imaginings Gary had not dreamed to hear. Words which not only wasted precious time but spelled forever an end to their vital mission. Dreadful words of doom.
"Do hereby condemn and sentence you," intoned the Chief Councillor stridently, "to ... immediate execution!"
CHAPTER XI
Flight Through the Fourth
As in a dream, Gary Lane heard those solemn words fall from the lips of his Jovian judges. Execution! Immediate execution! This, then, was to be the end of their adventure; this their recompense for having fought single-handed to stay the doom which threatened the entire system of worlds circling the tiny star called Sol!