"Better think it over, gentlemen," advised Lucile, as the prisoners continued to hold out against signing.
And this was exactly what they did. After more than twelve hours, during which they were allowed neither food nor drink (it being impossible to digest anything in a paralyzed state), the victims realized that they had no chance except to sign, or miserably to perish. And not being of the stuff of which heroes are made, they grumblingly asked the guards to deparalyze them sufficiently to let them sign the paper.
Thus it came about that Dan was again delivered from the bas.e.m.e.nt prison, and that he and his wife were restored to one another"s arms.
Thus, thanks to his discovery and her application of it, the earth was saved from the most terrible peril in history, and gradually was brought back to its true orbit. And thus, after Dan had broadcasted all he knew about the plots of the Triumvirate, Hogarth, Wiley and Malvine were discredited and disgraced, and, deserted by their confederates, stood trial for Dan"s kidnapping and imprisonment. The last that was heard of them, they were still serving their twenty-year terms at Wilmott Penitentiary.
As for the Cosmic Deflector--after the earth"s...o...b..t was righted, the secret of it was sealed in a vault at Merlin University. "I"ve discovered, Lucile," remarked Dan, shortly after his release, "it"s not a safe invention to entrust in human hands.
"But there"s one thing," he went on, as his lips moved toward hers, "if it drew the earth out of its...o...b..t, it also drew us closer together."
Her answering smile told him that, so far as they were concerned, the Deflector had been a success.