The sight of the professor and myself caused the Gaddbaizets to come to an abrupt halt. They had undoubtedly heard of us, but they were far from expecting to encounter us there at that time. The officer was the first to recover his wits, and approached the place where we were standing, holding his talking machine over his head and punching its keys vigorously. His first words were a command to the soldiers: "Hold your zetbais and make no move against these fierce colossi until you get further orders from me!" Then, to us: "Behemoths! Whence come you and why are you protecting the monster in the red kirtle?" Meigs, it could easily be seen, was not on familiar terms with the word-boxes. So far as he was concerned, the captain’s words fell on deaf ears. "We are from Baigol," said the professor, giving an amiable twist to his words by a deft use of Key 7, "and come on an errand from the king of that country. This gentleman is a friend of ours——" "A friend!" screeched the captain’s machine. "He is a thief and has stolen a hundred djins of kaka from our sovereign storehouse." I thrilled an amused laugh on the seventh key of my own machine. "How do you know he is a thief?" I asked. "Did you try the indexograph on him?" "I’ll do the talking, Mr. Munn," said the professor in our own tongue; then added to the officer: "There must be some mistake, captain. This gentleman has a very good reputation and would not commit a theft, such as you describe." "He bears the proof of it upon his person," answered the captain. "It is the kirtle." Now, a djin is a unit of measurement and corresponds to the inch of our system; from which it follows that Meigs stood convicted of stealing about eight feet of red kaka—enough to make kirtles for a score of the Baigadds. "What are you harping about?" asked Meigs. "They say you are a thief, Mr. Meigs," said I. "Thief!" he blustered, glaring at the captain over the professor’s shoulder. "I deny it, sir, I deny it!" "He says you stole that kirtle you have on," I continued. "A man has a right to clothe himself as well as he may," answered Meigs, aggrieved. "I do not count that theft. The country should see that a man is provided with a respectable covering." This was too good an opportunity for the professor to let slip. "Suffer your mind to drift back to your own planet, sir," said he. "It is your opinion that our government owes every poor man a suit of clothes?" J. Archibald Meigs cringed under the blow. It was a thrust at his clothing trust, and it found the weak point in his armor. "Circumstances are different here," he mumbled. "In some ways, yes; in other ways, no. King Gaddbai is the monopolist of this planet. He controls the kaka output and charges for it accordingly." The captain of the royal guard was growing impatient.