Oh, buddy, I really don't want to do this, thought Nat - and then he realized that he didn't have to. He swung the barrel of his ray gun over to the toaster, instead - and depressed the firing stud.
Nothing happened. Then something did.
Nothing happened, in the sense that the gun didn't discharge, and the toaster wasn't vaporized. But something else did happen, in the sense that Nat was captured. Because while Nat had been talking to the Doctor, Ignatius had wormed his way ever so slowly closer; so that when the gun did not fire, Ignatius seized Nat from behind.
The disintegrator pistol clattered to the floor, and the detector device fell so hard that it shattered, sputtered, and finally went silent.
Well that's nice, anyway, thought Nat. That thing made an awful racket.
