"The car is exactly under the crater opening, and you will have a clear path aloft. Therefore I would advise that you throw the lever to ninety the instant the door is fastened."
I nodded.
"I think that is all. Your work is simple enough, for in order to reach Terra you have only to reduce or expand the energy of the anti-gravity cubes. We will now go below and rejoin the king."
"Just a few minutes more, professor," I begged. "This may be our last opportunity for a private talk, and there is something I wish to tell you."
He turned back from the top of the iron stairway.
"Go ahead, Mr. Munn," said he.
"All of us whom you brought to Njambai," I proceeded, "are changed men. To you alone we owe this, and I wish to go on record, here and now, for giving you credit. I see my past as I thought I never should see it, and I realize how I have wasted a large part of my life. I shall prove a worthy citizen, if we succeed in getting back to Earth, and it is you who have brought about my reformation."
A glow came to the professor's face. He held up one hand protestingly.
"It is the truth," I insisted. "You have argued with me constantly ever since we were thrown together, and it was while on the road to Baigol that the truth of your arguments suddenly came home to me."
I stretched out my hand, but he held back.