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.He snapped a couple of sentences of directions at me, and thenPage 30 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsaid'Scram!' That's all.""Sure that was all?" Costigan asked."Didn't he add 'and stay scrammed'?""He didn't say it, exactly, but the implication was clear enough.""The one point of similarity," Jill commented."Now you, Jack.You havebeenlooking as though we were all candidates for canvas jackets that lace tightlyup theback.""Uh-uh.As though maybe 1 am.I didn't see anything at all.Didn't evenland on theplanet.Just floated around in an orbit inside that screen.The thing I talkedwith was apattern of pure force.This Lens simply appeared on my wrist, bracelet andall, out of thinair.He told me plenty, though, in a very short time-his last word being forMme not tocome back or call back.""Hm.m.m." This of Jack's was a particularly indigestible bit,even for JillSamms."In plain words," Costigan volunteered, "we all saw exactly what weexpected tosee.""Uh-uh," Jill denied."I certainly did not expect to see a woman.no; what eachof us saw, I think, was what would do us the most good-give each of us thehighestpossible lift.I am wondering whether or not there was anything at all reallythere.""That might be it, at that." Jack scowled in concentration."But theremust havebeen something there these Lenses are real.But what makes me mad is that theywouldn't give you a Lens.You're just as good a man as any one of us-if Ididn't know itwouldn't do a damn bit of good I'd go back there right now and.""Don't pop off so, Jack!" Jill's eyes, however, were starry."I know youmean it,and I could almost love you, at timesbut I don't need a Lens.As a matter offact, I'll bemuch better off without one.""Jet back, Jill!" Jack Kinnison stared deeply into the girl's eyes-butstill did not usehis Lens."Somebody must have done a terrific job of selling, to make youbelieve that.or are you sold, actually?""Actually.Honestly.That Arisian was a thousand times more of a womanthan Iever will be, and she didn't wear a Lens-never had worn one.Women's minds andLenses don't fit.There's a sex-based incompatibility.Lenses are as masculineaswhiskers-and at that, only a very few men can ever wear them, either.Veryspecial men,like you three and Dad and Pops Kinnison.Men with tremendous force, drive,and scope.Pure killers, all of you; each in his own way, of course.No more to bestopped than aglacier, and twice as hard and ten times as cold.A woman simply can't havethat kind ofa mind! There is going to be a woman Lensman some day-just one-but not forPage 31 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlyears andyears; and I wouldn't be in her shoes for anything.In this job of mine, of.""Well, go on.What is this job you're so sure you are going to do?""Why, I don't know!" Jill exclaimed, startled eyes wide."I thought Iknew all aboutit, but I don't! Do you, about yours?"They did not, not one of them; and they were all as surprised at thatfact as thegirl had been."Well, to get back to this Lady Lensman who is going to appear some day,Igather that she is going to be some kind of a freak.She'll have to be,practically,because of the sex-based fundamental nature of the Lens.Mentor didn't say so,in somany words, but she made it perfectly clear that.""Mentor!" the three men exclaimed.Each of them had dealt with Mentorl"I am beginning to see," Jill said, thoughtfully."Mentor.Not a realname at all.Toquote the Unabridged verbatium -- had occasion to look the word up the otherday and Iam appalled now at the certainty that there was a connectionquote; Mentor, awise andfaithful counselor; unquote.Have any of you boys anything to say? I haven't;and I ambeginning to be scared blue."Silence fell; and the more they thought, those three young Lensmen andthe girlwho was one of the two human women ever to encounter knowingly an Arisianmind, thedeeper that silence became.CHAPTER 4"So you didn't find anything on Nevia." Roderick Kinnison got up, depositedthe inch-longbutt of his cigar in an ashtray, lit another, and prowled about the room;hands jammeddeep into breeches pockets."I'm surprised.Nerado struck me as being a B.T.O.Ithought sure he'd qualify.""So did I." Samms' tone was glum."He's Big Time, and an Operator; butnot bigenough, by 'far.I'm-we're bothfinding out that Lensman material is damnedscarce stuff.There's none on Nevia, and no indication whatever that there ever will beany.""Tough.and you're right, of course, in your stand that we'll haveto haveLensmen from as many different solar systems as possible on the GalacticCouncil or thething won't work at all.So damned much jealousy-which is one reason why we'rehere inNew York instead of out at The Hill, where we belong-we've found that outalready, evenin such a small and comparatively homogeneous group as our own system-theSolarianCouncil will not only have to be made up mostly of Lensmen, but each and everyPage 32 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlinhabited planet of Sol will have to be represented-even Pluto, I suppose, intime.And bythe way, your Mr.Saunders wasn't any too pleased when you took Knobos of MarsandDalNalten of Venus away from him and made Lensmen out of them-and put themmilesover his head.""Oh, I wouldn't say that.exactly.I convinced him.but atthat, sinceSaunders is not Lensman grade himself, it was a trifle difficult for him tounderstand thesituation completely.""You say it easy-`difflcult' is not the word I would use.But back to theLensmanhunt." Kinnison scowled blackly."I agree, as I said before, that we neednon-humanLensmen, the more the better, but I don't think much of your chance of findingany.Whatmakes you think.Oh; -I see.but I don't know whether you'rejustified or not inassuming a high positive correlation between a certain kind of mental abilityandtechnological advancement.""No such assumption is necessary.Start anywhere you please, Rod, andtake itfrom there; including Nevia.""I'll start with known facts, then.Interstellar flight is new to us.Wehaven't spreadfar, or surveyed much territory.But in the eight solar systems with which weare mostfamiliar there are seven planets-I'm not counting Valerie -which are very muchlike Earthin point of mass, size, climate, atmosphere, and gravity
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