“I do not believe you,” Jud replied, “for how can men communicate with beasts, especially with strange beasts such as this, the like of which man ne’er set eyes on before?”
“Remember that I am a magician,” Myles returned somewhat testily. Then seeing that Jud was still obdurate, he addressed the guards. “You know me for a magician?”
“Yes,” they sullenly admitted.
“And you know the magic on which I am now engaged, and to which all of my recent expeditions relate?”
“Yes,” one replied. “You seek to call down the lightnings of heaven, and harness them to transport your words across the boiling seas.”
“Rightly spoken!” the Radio Man asserted. “Therefore, if you do not stand aside, I shall call those lightnings down for another purpose, namely, to blast you. Stand aside!”
One of the guards spoke to another, “Why should we risk our lives to save his? Let the magician save himself!”
So they stood aside. Myles stepped up to the cage, and he and Doggo each patted the other’s cheek through the bars.
Jud the Excuse-Maker sheepishly explained, “I knew that you were speaking the truth, but I wished to learn what method you would use to handle the soldiers. You did nobly.”
“Bunk!” the earth-man ejaculated, well knowing that the Vairking would not understand him.