I wondered if Meigs had forgotten all about the attempt he and his friends had made to abandon the professor and me? He was one of the most inconsistent men I have ever encountered.
"Like yourself and the others, Mr. Meigs," continued the professor, "Mr. Munn and I were taken prisoners——"
"But you were not treated with the same barbarity as the rest of us," burst out Meigs, his small mind finding even that a cause for temper. "You, who engineered the plot, and plunged us all into these terrific difficulties, escape the consequences. What is that banner?"
"We are under the protection of the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Baigol. That is the royal standard."
"Ah," said Meigs bitterly, "you are even received at court—you and a professed thief—while Markham, Popham, Gilhooly, and I are no more than outcasts! Is there no such thing as justice, even on this disgusting planet? Look at me! Look at me!"
His final request for us to look at him was a frantic wail. He yanked savagely at his kirtle, and twisted his bare feet around in fearsome dejection.
"We are looking at you, Mr. Meigs," observed the professor quietly.
"Do you find any pleasure in the spectacle? Does not my situation arouse even a spark of pity? I do not ask Munn for his sympathy, but you, Professor Quinn, although criminally careless in evolving plans and carrying them out, are a scientist, and you must have a heart."
"My heart is wrung with your misfortunes," replied the professor gently, "but I realize that desperate diseases require desperate remedies."
"What disease are you referring to," snapped Meigs, suddenly changing his tack, "and what remedy?"