In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by a Council. The public loved her--but a majority of it had gone astray when she disappeared--lured by Tarrano's glowing promises.
Maida told Georg all this with a sweet, gentle sadness that was pathetic. And with an earnest, patriotic fervor--the love of her country and her people for whom she would give her life.
She added: "If only I could get back there, Georg--I could make them realize the right course. I could win them again. Tarrano will play them false--_you_ know it, and so do I."
Pathetic earnestness in this girl still no more than seventeen! And Georg, sitting beside her, gazing into her solemn, beautiful face, felt that indeed she could win them, with those limpid blue eyes and her words which rang with sincerity and truth.
They sat generally in an unofficial instrument room adjoining the government offices. A room high in a spire above the upper levels of the city. And around them rolled the momentous events of which they were the center.
The time limit of the Earth Council's ultimatum to Tarrano expired. Already Tarrano had answered it with defiance. But on the stroke of its expiration, came another note from him. Georg read it from the tape to Maida:
_"To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject----"_
A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to recall it. He had already recalled it, in fact. He assured the Council that it was now on its way back, direct to Washington. He had done this because he felt that the Earth leaders were making a mistake--a grave mistake in the interests of their own people. Georg Brende was in Washington--that was true. But Georg Brende was a silly, conceited young man, flattered by his prominence in the public eye, his head turned by his own importance. Dr. Brende had been a genius. The son was a mere upstart, pretending to a scientific knowledge he did not have.
"Trickery!" exclaimed Georg. "But he knows the people may believe it. Some of them undoubtedly will."