“Doggo!” he cried. “Doggo! They told me you were dead!” But of course all this was lost on the radio speech sense of the prisoner. Vairking soldiers interposed their spears between Myles Cabot and what they believed was sure destruction at the jaws of the black beast. Cabot recoiled. “Jud,” he called out, “order off your henchmen! I am not crazy, nor do I court death. This creature is the only one of the Formians whom I can control. He will prove a valuable ally for us, if I can persuade him to forgive the indignities which your men have already heaped upon him.” “I do not believe you,” Jud replied, “for how can men communicate with beasts, especially with strange beasts such as this, the like of which man ne’er set eyes on before?” “Remember that I am a magician,” Myles returned somewhat testily. Then seeing that Jud was still obdurate, he addressed the guards. “You know me for a magician?” “Yes,” they sullenly admitted. “And you know the magic on which I am now engaged, and to which all of my recent expeditions relate?” “Yes,” one replied. “You seek to call down the lightnings of heaven, and harness them to transport your words across the boiling seas.” “Rightly spoken!” the Radio Man asserted. “Therefore, if you do not stand aside, I shall call those lightnings down for another purpose, namely, to blast you. Stand aside!” One of the guards spoke to another, “Why should we risk our lives to save his? Let the magician save himself!” So they stood aside. Myles stepped up to the cage, and he and Doggo each patted the other’s cheek through the bars. Jud the Excuse-Maker sheepishly explained, “I knew that you were speaking the truth, but I wished to learn what method you would use to handle the soldiers. You did nobly.” “Bunk!” the earth-man ejaculated, well knowing that the Vairking would not understand him. “What means that word?” Jud inquired, much interested. “That,” Myles replied, grinning, “is a complimentary term often applied on my own planet, the earth, to the remarks of our great leaders.” Jud, highly complimented, let it go at that. Myles now ordered paper and a charcoal pencil, and began a conversation with his ant friend. “They told me you were dead,” he wrote. “Or I never would have left the city of Yuriana or deserted your cause.” “My cause died with my daughter, the queen,” Doggo replied. “I alone survive. I escaped by plane, and have been flitting around the country ever since, until my alcohol gave out. Then these furry Cupians captured me. They got me with a net so that I could not fight back. “Also, I was distant from my airship at the time, or it would have gone hard with them for the ship is well stocked with bombs, and rifle cartridges, and one rifle. Now tell me of yourself. How do you stand with these furry Cupians?”