Clair was smiling happily, now. But Gramps had a frown on his face.
"So what do we do with 'em?"
"Simple," I replied. "We wait for the government ship. It'll be here in a few weeks. They're not going anywhere in the meantime."
Gramps continued to frown. "You think we oughta report what they was lookin' for? The Ruskie weapon, I mean...."
I laughed. "That won't be necessary, Gramps. We'll do even better than that. We'll tell them what the weapon is."
Clair looked at me dumbfounded and I found myself grinning at both her and Gramps.
"Jerry! You can't be serious—we didn't really find the weapon!"
"We not only found it, we used it, hon," I told her. "I did some fast thinking while I was up on the rocks before. In a way I was in the same boat the Ruskies were when we beat them. I had to use desperate means—anything I could, and mainly something that would start fear, a panic...."
"But I don't see—" Clair was confused.
"The Ruskies had a powerful weapon, all right," I replied. "The only trouble was they used it too late. Fortunately for us we still had time—and our opponents weren't too bright mentally anyway. If they had been it might not have worked. Matter of fact, that's the big thing that licked the Ruskies. We were a bit too shrewd for them. Our military leaders saw right through their weapon."