She pushed away, her eyes amazed.
"And," he added happily, "you will also be glad to know that you and I and your father are going to collect the reward for finding the hibernaculum!"
"Really, Ralph? That was your intention all along? You weren't going to free them? Oh, I was hoping so hard you were going only after the reward—"
She switched her glance over his shoulder. Pity wrenched her face.
Something hit Ralph Unterzuyder hard on the back of the head. He fell straight down ten thousand miles, and lay there for quite a while studying patterns of light that squirmed in his head.
Captain Foshag was dragging him to a chair. His tufted eyebrows came close. He put a slopping cloth on Unterzuyder's forehead.
He said, "For the time, you're a prisoner in this cabin. I trust the experience will teach you some truths. Wickedness secretes various poisons in the body, particularly the heart and the liver. Change your ways, and you may indeed live a long life!"
The door burst open and Beecher lunged in. His shrewd eyes rested on Unterzuyder.
"Sorry I had to bop you, Unterzuyder," he said in clipped accents. "But it was the best way to get you out of the picture and keep you from talking to Bigger Bailes. You might have messed up the works. As it was, we told him the truth."