"No! Damned if I will!" Sine shouldered his iron-hard body through the close-packed counselors, so that he stood directly before The Manager, who did not shrink from the formidable young man. "If you murder those poor Mugs in the black hemisphere, I'm your enemy from now on!"
"And I!" The words boomed and reverberated in the vaulted chamber, and Lents moved his bulky body beside Sine.
"And I too!" Kass' naked, skinny torso glistened with sweat. "The First Race may be murderers, but they're magnificent murderers. They wouldn't forget their friends!"
The Manager's large, liquid eyes seemed suddenly filmed over. He jerked his enormous head sharply, snapped:
"We waste time. Put these meddlers out through the locks, that they may feed the fish."
But Gnom again interposed.
"If The Manager will permit—there is much water on Earth. They may know how to swim—might go to the top and escape—"
"True, Gnom. I have a truly great brain, as all the oppressed admit, but details escape me. Call one of the watch, put them to death first."
Gnom turned, looked into one of the larger passages that centered on that room. He turned his blank, scaly face.