"Oh, yeh." Sine's intonation was very dry. "They're giving you a dose of your own medicine."
Nikkia did not reply. As if he apprehended, too late, that his statement might have sounded like a plea for help, he shrugged his massive shoulders with elaborate indifference, saying;
"I and my wives are not afraid to die!"
The Earthmen could no longer watch this ruthless destruction, however, regardless of the provocation.
"You say that pink light is a protection against every known mode of attack?" Sine asked, turning sharply to the governor.
"Yes. And that's sufficient, isn't it?"
"Is it proof against this?" Sine jerked the little tube out of its clip, directed it against a stone parapet that loomed grotesquely through the fog. A brilliant white beam leaped forth, cutting the fog like a bar of platinum. Then there was darkness, and the governor, examining the parapet, noted with growing hope that a stone pillar, a foot in diameter, had been cut off smoothly, cleanly.
"The disintegrating ray!" he murmured. "I have read of that, in fiction. But here! Here it is!"
Suddenly he was all energy.
"Will you use this weapon against our enemies? I assure you that you will be well rewarded. As much eka-iodine as your ship will carry! My own ship is here, in the courtyard. It is swift, and powerful. You have already learned the controls. Take it. Bring down those murderers!"