closely as we go from here to the hospital ship. Second, you haven’t a ship fit to take
the ether, your main injector toggles have all been broken off at the pivots. If your
mechanics work at top speed, new ones can be put on in exactly two hours. Third, there
is going to be a severe earthquake in precisely two hours and thirty minutes, one which
should make this base merely a memory.”
“An earthquake! Don’t bluff, Blakeslee-you couldn’t do that!”
Well, perhaps not a regular earthquake, but something that will do just as well. If
you think I’m bluffing, wait and find out. But common sense should give you the answer
to that-I know exactly what Helmuth is doing now, whether you do or not. At first I
intended to wipe you all out with out warning, but I changed my mind. I decided to leave
you alive, so that you could report to Helmuth exactly what happened. I wish I could be
watching him when he finds out how easily one man took him, and how far from
foolproof his system is-but we can’t have everything. Let’s go!”
As the group hurried away, Mac loitered until she was near Blakeslee, who was
bringing up the rear.
“Where are you, Kim?” she whispered urgently.
“I’ll join up at the next corridor. Keep farther ahead, and get ready to run when
we do!”
As they passed that corridor a figure in gray leather, carrying an extremely heavy
object, stepped out of it. Kinnison himself set his burden down, yanked a lever, and ran
-and as he ran fountains of intolerable heat erupted and cascaded from the mechanism
he had left upon the floor. Just ahead of him, but at some distance behind the others,
ran Blakeslee and the girl.
“Gosh, I’m glad to see you, Kim”, she panted as the Lensman caught up with
them and all three slowed down. “What is that thing back there?”
“Nothing much-just a KJ41Z hot-shot. Won’t do . any real damage-just melt this
tunnel down so they can’t interfere with our get-away.”
“Then you were bluffing about the earthquake?” she asked, a shade of
disappointment in her tone.
“Hardly,” he reproved her. “That isn’t due for two hours and a half yet, but it’ll
happen on scheduled time.”
“How?”
“You remember about the curious cat, don’t you? However, no particular secret
about it, I guess-three lithium-hydride bombs placed where they’ll do the most good and
timed for exactly simultaneous detonation. Here we are – don’t tell anybody I’m here.”
Aboard the vessel, Kinnison disappeared into a stateroom while Blakeslee
continued in charge. Men were divided into watches, duties were assigned, inspections
were made, and the ship shot into the air. There was a brief halt to pick up Kinnison’s
speedster, then, again on the way, Blakeslee turned the board over to Crandall, the
pilot, and went into Kinnison’s room.
There the Lensman withdrew his control, leaving intact the memory of everything
that had happened. For minutes Blakeslee was almost in a daze, but struggled through
it and held out his hand.
“Mighty glad to meet you, Lensman. Thanks. All I can say is that after I got
sucked in I couldn’t . . .
“Sure, I know all about it-that was one of the reasons I picked you out. Your
subconscious didn’t fight back a bit, at any time. You’re to be in charge, from here to
Tellus. Please go and chase everybody out of the control room except Crandall.”
“Say, I just thought of something!” exclaimed Blakeslee when Kinnison joined the
two officers at the board. “You must be that particular Lensman who has been getting in
Helmuth’s hair so much lately I”
“Probably-that’s my chief aim in life.”
“I’d like to see Helmuth’s face when he gets the report of this. I’ve said that
before, haven’t I? But I mean it now, even more than I did before.”
“I’m thinking of Helmuth, too, but not that way.” The pilot had been scowling at
his plate, and now turned to Blakeslee and the Lensman, glancing curiously from one to
the other. “Oh I say . . . . . A Lensman, what? A bit of good old light begins to dawn, but
that can wait. Helmuth is after us, foot, horse, and marines. Look at that plate!”
“Four of ’em already!” exclaimed Blakeslee. “And there’s another! And we
haven’t got a beam hot enough to light a cigarette, nor a screen strong enough to stop a
firecracker. We’ve got legs, but not as many as they’ve got. You knew all about that,
though, before we started, and from what you’ve pulled off so far you’ve got something
left on the hooks. What is it? What’s the answer?”
“For some reason or other they can’t detect us. All you have to do is to stay out
of range of their electros and drill for Tellus.”
“Some reason or other, eh? Nine ships on the plate now -all Boskonians and all
looking for us-and not seeing us-some reason! But I’m not asking questions . . . . .
“Just as well not to. I’d rather you’d answer one. Who or what is Boskone?”
“Nobody knows. Helmuth speaks for Boskone, and nobody else ever does, not
even Boskone himself-if there is such a person. Nobody can prove it, but everybody
knows that Helmuth and Boskone are simply two names for the same man. Helmuth,
you know, is only a voice-nobody ever saw his face until today.”
“I’m beginning to think so, myself,” and Kinnison strode away, to call at the office
of Head Nurse MacDougall.
“Mac, here’s a small, but highly important box,” he told her, taking the neutralizer
from his pocket and handing it to her. “Put it in your locker until you get to Tellus. Then
take it, yourself, in person, and give it to Haynes, himself, in person, and to nobody
else. Just tell him I sent it-he knows all about it.”
“But why not keep it and give it to him yourself? You’re coming with us, aren’t
you?”
“Probably not all the way. I imagine I’ll have to do a flit before long.”
“But I want to talk to you !” she exclaimed. “Why, I’ve got a million questions to
ask you !”
“That would take a long time,” he grinned at her, “and time is just what we ain’t
got right now, neither of us,” and he strode back to the board.
There he labored for hours at a calculating machine and in the tank, finally to
squat down upon his heels, staring at two needle-like rays of light in the tank and
whistling softly between his teeth. For those two lines, while exactly in the same plane,
did not intersect in the tank at all! Estimating as carefully as he could the point of
intersection of the lines, he punched the “cancel” key to wipe out all traces of his work
and went to the chart-room. Chart after chart he hauled down, and for many minutes he
worked with calipers, compass, goniometer, and a carefully-set adjustable triangle.
Finally he marked a point-exactly upon a numbered dot already upon the chart-and
again whistled. Then.
“Huh !” he grunted. He rechecked all his figures and retraversed the chart, only
to have his needle pierce again the same tiny hole. He stared at it for a full minute,
studying the map all around his marker.
“Star cluster AC 257-4736,” he ruminated. “The smallest most insignificant,
least-known star-cluster he could find, and my. largest possible error can’t put it
anywhere else . . . kind of thought it might be in a cluster, but I never would have looked
there. No wonder it took a lot of stuff to trace his beam-it would have to be four
numbers Brinnell harder than a diamond drill to work from there.”
Again whistling tunelessly to himself he rolled up the chart upon which he had
been at work, stuck it under his arm, replaced the others in their compartments, and
went back to the control room.
“How’s tricks, fellows?” he asked.
“QX,” replied Blakeslee. “We’re through them and into clear ether. Not a ship on
the plate, and nobody gave us even a tumble.”
Fine! You won’t have any trouble, then, from here in to Prime Base. Glad of it,
too-I’ve got to flit. That’ll mean long watches for you two, but it can’t very well be
helped.”
“But I say, old bird, I don’t mind the watches, but . . . . .”
“Don’t worry about that, either. This crew can be trusted, to a man. Not one of
you joined the pirates of your own free will, and not one of you has ever taken active
part . . . . .
“What are you, a mind-reader or something?” Crandall burst out.
“Something like that,” Kinnison assented with a grin, and Blakeslee put in.
“More than that, you mean. Something like hypnosis, only more so. You think I