Robert: the Greatest of Three Evils

"Then there's nothing we can do," Robert replied. "I can't swim and I don't suppose that the monkeys can either. Come on, back to the palace."

"Hold on a moment," Astra said. "Having transported their captives back to the ship, they must be intending to send a boat back to the beach, in order to pick up those two crewmen that your monkeys killed, as well as anyone they might have found in the palace. So all we have to do is wait here until the boat returns, overpower its crew, row out to the ship, deal with the slavers left on board and free our people."

"All we have to do! We wouldn't have a hope in Hell of doing that, even if I could get the monkeys to help."

"Perhaps not. But the two possible consequences of failure, of being killed or being taken as slaves, both seem to me to be preferable to spending the rest of my life marooned on this island with only you for company."

1. For once Robert is reduced to silence.
2. "Still playing hard to get," Robert chuckles. "Anyway, there are the palace staff, so it wouldn't just be us."
3. Just then, they see that the ship's boat is indeed being lowered into the water, as Astra had predicted would happen.
4. Evidently the slavers must have taken possession of the bottle and discovered the genie, because Astra and Robert suddenly find themselves aboard the ship (without the monkeys).

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