"I read about your trial! It was so exciting! I've always wanted to meet a bad man."
Marmaduke Karns grinned bashfully. "You're Sandra Adstrom! I've had your pictures from the rotogravure section pasted all over my cell!"
It was Sandra's turn to blush. She noted that if Marmaduke had more color he wouldn't be so bad looking, even if he were a little underweight.
"Karns is going to lead an expedition into The Black Hole," Commander General Adstrom explained. "He's going to invent a weapon to conquer Limio."
"Oh!" Sandra caught her breath. "How soon?"
"Not for a few weeks," Marmaduke explained. "I've got to invent the weapon first."
"Oh, then you could drop over to my house for tea," Sandra smiled. "Some of my friends would like to meet you. Perhaps you could autograph their copies of the court records of your trial."
Karns quickly accepted the invitation. The officer showed him out of the room.
The commander general turned to his daughter.
"Nice work, child," he said. "No man will execute Karns, but Limio has no such limitations. The fool did not even suspect that he was under a death sentence the minute our scientists found the antidote for the extract in his veins."