and the sheer, dominating power he had just shown. Toward what conclusion did that
fact point?
The furious anger disappeared from Helmuth’s face as though it had been wiped
therefrom with a sponge, and he became again the cold calculating mechanism of flesh
and blood that he ordinarily was. This conception changed matters entirely. This was
not an ordinary revolt of an ordinary subordinate. The man had done something which
he could not possibly do. So what? The Lens again . . . . . again that accursed
Lensman, the one who had somehow learned really to use his Lens!
“Wolmark call every vessel at Boyssia base,” he directed crisply. “Keep on
calling them until someone answers. Get whoever is in charge there now and put him
on me here.”
A few minutes of silence followed, then Vice-Commander Krimsky reported in full
everything that had happened and told of the threatened destruction of the base.
“You have an automatic speedster there, have you not?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Turn over command to the next in line, with orders to move to the nearest base,
taking with him as much equipment as is possible. Caution him to leave on time,
however, for I very strongly suspect that it is now too late to do anything to prevent the
destruction of the base. You, alone, take the speedster and bring away the personal
files of the men who went with Blakeslee. A speedster will meet you at a point to be
designated later and relieve you of the records.”
An hour passed. Two, then three.
“Wolmark! Blakeslee and the hospital ship have vanished, I presume?”
“They have.” The underling, expecting a verbal flaying, was greatly surprised at
the mildness of his chief’s tone and at the studious serenity of his face.
“Come to the center.” Then, when the lieutenant was seated, “I do not suppose
that you as yet realize what – or rather, who – it is that is doing this?”
“Why, Blakeslee is doing it, of course.”
“I thought so, too, at first. That was what the one who really did it wanted us to
think.”
“It must have been Blakeslee. We saw him do it, sir – how could it have been
anyone else?”
“I do not know. I do know, however, and so should you, that he could not have
done it. Blakeslee, of himself, is of no importance whatever.”
“We’ll catch him, sir, and make him talk. He can’t get away.”
“You will find that you will not catch him and that he can get away. Blakeslee
alone, of course, could not do so, any more than he could have done the things he
apparently did do. No. Wolmark, we are not dealing with Blakeslee.”
“Who then, sir?”
“haven’t you deduced that yet? The Lensman, fool — the same Lensman who
has been thumbing his nose at us ever since he took one of our first-class battleships
with a speed-boat and a firecracker.”
“But-how could he?”
“Again I admit that I do not know-yet. The connection, however, is quite evident.
Thought. Blakeslee was thinking thoughts utterly beyond him. The Lens comes from
Arisia. The Arisians are masters of thought-of mental forces and processes
incomprehensible to any of us. These are the elements which, when fitted together, will
give us the complete picture.”
“I don’t see how they fit.’
“Neither do I-yet. However, surely he can’t trace . . . . ”
“Just a moment! The time has come when it is no longer safe to say what that
Lensman can or cannot do. Our communicator beams are hard and tight, yes. But any
beam can be tapped if enough power be applied to it, and any beam that can be tapped
can be traced. I expect him to visit us here, and we shall be prepared for his visit. That
is the reason for this conference with you. Here is a device which generates a field
through which no thought can penetrate. I have had this device for some time, but for
obvious reasons have not released it. Here are the diagrams and complete
constructional data. Have a few hundred of them made with all possible speed, and see
to it that every being upon this planet wears one continuously. Impress upon everyone,
and I will also, that it is of the utmost importance that absolutely continuous protection
be maintained, even while changing batteries.
“Experts have been working for some time upon the problem of protecting the
entire planet with a screen, and there is some little hope of success in the near future,
but individual protection will still be of the utmost importance. We cannot impress it too
forcibly upon everyone that every man’s life is dependent upon each one maintaining
his thought-screen in full operation at all times. That is all.”
When the messenger brought in the personal files of Blakeslee and the other
deserters, Helmuth and his psychologists went over them with minutely painstaking
care. The more they studied them the clearer it became that the chief’s conclusion was
the correct one. THE Lensman could read minds.
Reason and logic told Helmuth that the Lensman’s only purpose in attacking the
Boyssian base was to get a line on Grand Base, that Blakeslee’s flight and the
destruction of the base were merely diversions to obscure the real purpose of the visit,
that the Lensman had staged that theatrical performance especially to hold him,
Helmuth, while his beam was being traced, and that that was the only reason why the
visiset was not sooner put out of action, and finally, that the Lensman had scored
another clean hit.
He, Helmuth himself, had been caught flat-footed, and his face hardened and his
jaw set at the thought. But he had not been taken in. He was forewarned and he would
be ready, for he was coldly certain that Grand Base and he himself were the real
objectives of the Lensman. That Lensman knew full well that any number of ordinary
bases, ships, and men could be destroyed without damaging materially the Boskonian
cause.
Steps must be taken to make Grand Base as impregnable to mental forces as it
already was to physical ones. Otherwise, it might well be that even Helmuth’s own life
would presently be at stake-a thing precious indeed. Therefore council after council was
held, every contingency that could be thought of was brought up and discussed, every
possible precaution was taken. In short, every resource of Grand Base was devoted to
the warding off of any possible mental threat which might be forthcoming.
* * *
Kinnison approached that star cluster with care. Small though it was, as cosmic
groups go, it yet was composed of some hundreds of stars and an unknown number of
planets. Any one of those planets might be the one he sought, and to approach it
unknowingly might prove disastrous. Therefore he slowed down to a crawl and crept up,
light-year by light-year, with his ultra-powered detectors fanning out before him to the
limit of their unimaginable reach.
He had more than half expected that he would have to search that cluster, world
by world, but in that, at least, he was pleasantly disappointed. One corner of one of his
plates began to show a dim glow of detection. A bell tinkled and Kinnison directed his
most powerful master plate into the region indicated. This plate, while of very narrow
field, had tremendous resolving power and magnification, and in it he saw that there
were eighteen small centers of radiation surrounding one vastly larger one.
There was no doubt then as to the location of Helmuth’s base, but there arose
the question of approach. The Lensman had not considered the possibility of a screen
of lookout ships-if they were close enough together so that the electromagnetics had
even a fifty percent overlap, he might as well go back home. What were those outposts,
and exactly how closely were they spaced? He observed, advanced, and observed
again, computing finally that, whatever they were, they were so far apart that there
could be no possibility of any electro overlap at all. He could get between them easily
enough-he wouldn’t even have to baffle his flares. They could not be guards at all,
Kinnison concluded, but must be simply outposts, set far outside the solar system of the
planet they guarded, not to ward off one-man speedsters, but to warn Helmuth of the
possible approach of a force large enough to threaten Grand Base.
Closer and closer Kinnison flashed, discovering that the central object was
indeed a base, startling in its immensity and completely and intensively fortified, and
that the outposts were huge, floating fortresses, practically stationary in space relative
to the sun of the solar system they surrounded. The Lensman aimed at the center of
the imaginary square formed by four of the outposts and drove in as close to the planet
as he dared. Then, going inert, he set his speedster into an orbit-he did not care