No sooner had the door closed on the Caligan envoy, than Lete sprang to her feet. She was clad in the fur of some jungle beast. A sword and dagger hung at her waist. She made Jupiter think of a savage Joan of Arc more than ever and he could feel his heart sink.
"There is but one answer," she flashed, "and that's to attack! Attack tonight before they can bring up reinforcements.
"This is the first time the Kagans have been united. Do they think we're foolish enough to throw away everything for the life of a man and a girl!"
The Nehogan general shook his head. He looked somewhat like Reiloc except that he was older, heavier.
"After all," he said, "many men will die during the battle. Is that any reason to abandon the fight? What's the life of two people against the whole world? I don't understand it. The Anolyn must be very desperate to offer such terms. It is a trick, maybe."
"No," said Jupiter. "No, I don't think it's a trick." But he knew that it would be impossible to explain his feelings either to the cave girl or the Nehogan general. Such sentimentality was foreign to their natures. If he attempted to dissuade them from their purpose, they would go ahead in spite of him. And he couldn't blame them.
"But why wait until then?" Lete demanded hotly, "When the Anolyn will be expecting us?"
"To give me time to get inside and open the gate," he told her.
"You can get inside the city?" the Nehogan general asked incredulously. "Undetected?"
"Yes," said the general grimly, "if you can get the gate open it may mean the difference between victory and defeat. When will you start?"
Jupiter was staring at the spires and steeples of the city by the _Dra Dur_, bathed in the angry orange rays of the setting sun.
Jupiter dismounted the needle ray. It never had been intended to serve as a hand weapon. It was like carrying a fifty millimeter anti-aircraft gun, but on this planet of mild gravity he was able to handle it well enough.
He encased it carefully in waterproof wrappings. Then he broke out a spacesuit.
Sun up. The order was to attack at sun up! It didn't give him much time.
The Yogolians knew nothing about reducing a fortified city, but they had cut timbers for scaling ladders. The cavemen could run up them like monkeys. They should carry the walls by sheer numbers.