care to, and I will try to answer them. Nothing is barred now
this room is shielded against any spy-ray or communicator beam operable upon
any known frequency.”
There war a brief and rather uncomfortable silence, then Kinnison suggested,
diffidently.
“Might it not be best, sir, to tell us all about it, from the ground up? I imagine that
most of us are in too much of a daze to ask intelligent questions.”
“Perhaps. While some of you undoubtedly have your suspicions, I will begin by
telling you what is behind what you have been put through during the last five, yearn.
Feel perfectly free to break in with questions at any time. You know that every year one
million eighteen-year-old boys of Earth are chosen as cadets by competitive
examinations. You know that during the first year, before any of them see Wentworth
Hall, that number shrinks to less than fifty thousand. You know that by Graduation Day
there are only approximately one hundred left in the class. Now I am allowed to tell you
that you graduates are those who have come with flying colors through the most
brutally rigid, the moat fiendishly thorough process of elimination that it has been
possible to develop.
“Every than who can be made to reveal any real weakness is dropped. Most of
these are dismissed from the Patrol. There are many splendid men, however, who, for
some reason not involving moral turpitude, are not quite what a Lensman must be.
These men make up our organization, from grease-monkeys up to the highest
commissioned officers below the rank of Lensman. This explains what you already
know — that the Galactic Patrol is the finest body of intelligent beings yet to serve under
one banner.
“Of the million who started, you few are left. As must every being who has ever
worn or who ever will wear the Lens, each of you has proven repeatedly, to the cold
verge of death itself, that he is in every respect worthy to wear it. For instance, Kinnison
here once had a highly adventurous interview with a lady of Aldebaran II and her
friends. He did not know that we knew all about it, but we did
Kinnison’s very ears burned scarlet, but the Commandant went imperturbably on.
“So it was with Voelker and the hypnotist of Karalon, with LaForge and the
bentlam-eaters, with Flewelling when the Ganymede-Venus thionite smugglers tried to
bribe him with ten million in gold . . . . .
“Good Heavens, Commandant!” broke in one outraged youth. “Do you — did you
— know everything that happened?”
“Not quite everything, perhaps, but it is my business to know enough. No man
who can be cracked has ever worn, or ever will wear, the . Lens.. And none of you need
be ashamed, for you have passed every test. Those who did not pass them were those
who were dropped.
“Nor is it any disgrace to have been dismissed from the Cadet Corps. The million
who started with you were the pick of the planet, yet we knew in advance that of that
selected million scarcely one in ten thousand would measure up in every essential.
Therefore it would be manifestly unfair to stigmatize the rest of them because they were
not born with that extra something, that ultimate quality of fiber which does, and of
necessity must, characterize the wearers of the Lens. For that reason not even the man
himself knows why he was dismissed, and no one save those who wear the Lens
knows why they were selected — and a Lensman does not talk.
“It is necessary to consider the history and background of the Patrol in order to
bring out clearly the necessity for such care in the selection of its personnel. You are all
familiar with it, but probably very few of you have thought of it in that connection. The
Patrol is of course an outgrowth of the old Planetary Police systems, and, until its
development, law enforcement always lagged behind law violation. Thus, in the old
days following the invention of the automobile, state troopers could not cross state
lines. Then when the National Police finally took charge, they could not follow the
rocket-equipped criminals across the national boundaries.
“Still later, when interplanetary flight became a commonplace, the Planetary
Police were at the same old disadvantage. They had no authority off their own worlds,
while the public enemies flitted unhampered from planet to planet. And finally, with the
invention of the inertialess drive and the consequent traffic between theworlds of many
solar systems, crime became so rampant, so utterly uncontrollable, that it threatened
the very foundations of Civilization. A man could perpetrate any crime imaginable
without fear of consequences, for in an hour he could be so far away from the scene as
to be completely beyond the reach of the law.
“And helping powerfully toward utter chaos were the new vices which were
spreading from world to world, among others the taking of new and horrible drugs.
Thionite, for instance, occurring only upon Trenco, a drug as much deadlier than heroin
as that compound is than coffee, and which even now commands such a fabulous price
than a man can carry a fortune in one hollow boot-heel.
“Thus the Triplanetary Patrol and the Galactic Patrol came into being. The first
was a pitiful enough organization. It was handicapped from without by politics and
politicians, and honey-combed from within by the usual small but utterly poisonous
percentage of the unfit — grafters, corruptionists, bribe-takers, and out-and-out
criminals. It was hampered by the fact that there was then no emblem or credential
which could not be counterfeited — no one could tell with certainty that the man in
uniform was a Patrolman and not a criminal in disguise.
“As everyone knows, Virgil Samms, then Head of the Triplanetary Patrol,
became First Lensman Samms and founded our Galactic Patrol. The Lens, which,
being proof against counterfeiting or even imitation, makes identification of Lensmen
automatic and positive, was what made our Patrol possible. Having the Lens, it was
easy to weed out the few unfit. Standards of entrance were raised ever higher, and
when it had been proved beyond ‘question that every Lensman was in fact incorruptible,
the Galactic Council was given more and ever more authority. More and ever more
solar systems, having developed Lensmen of their own, voted to join Civilization and
sought representation on the Galactic Council, even though such a course meant giving
up much of their systemic sovereignty.
“Now the power of the Council and its Patrol is practically absolute. Our
armament and equipment are the ultimate, we can follow the law-breaker wherever he
may go. Furthermore, any Lensman can commandeer any material or assistance,
wherever and whenever required, upon any planet of any solar system adherent to
Civilization, and the Lens is so respected throughout the galaxy that any wearer of it
may be called upon at any time to be judge, jury, and executioner. Wherever he goes,
upon, in, or through any land, water, air, or apace anywhere within the confines of our
Island Universe, his word is LAW.
“That explains what you have been forced to undergo. The only excuse for its
severity is that it produces results — no wearer of the Lens has ever disgraced it.
“Now as to the Lens itself. Like every one else, you have known of it ever since
you could talk, but you know nothing of its origin or its nature. Now that you are
Lensmen, I can tell you what little I know about it. Questions?”
“We have all wondered about the Lens, sir, of course,” Maitland ventured. “The
outlaws apparently keep up with us in science. I have always supposed that what
science can build, science can duplicate. Surely more than one Lens has fallen into the
hands of the outlaws?”
“If it had been a scientific invention or discovery it would have been duplicated
long ago,” the Commandant made surprising answer. “It is, however, not essentially
scientific in nature. It is almost entirely philosophical, and was developed for us by the
Arisians.
“Yes, each of you was sent to Arisia quite recently,” von Hohendorff went on, as
the newly commissioned officers stared, dumbfounded, at him and at each other. “What
did you think of them, Murphy?”
“At first, sir, I thought that they were some new kind of dragon, but dragons with
brains that you could actually feel. I was glad to get away, sir. They fairly gave me the
creeps, even though I never did see one of them so much as move.,,
“They are a peculiar race,” the Commandant went on. “Instead of being
mankind’s worst enemies, as is generally believed, they are the sine qua non of our
Patrol and of Civilization. I cannot understand them, I do not know of anyone who can.
They gave us the Lens, yet Lensmen must not reveal that fact to any others. They