"QX. Well, fellows, I'd like to stay here with you, and so would Kit, but we've got chores to do. I don't have to tell you to be careful, but I'm going to, anyway. BE CAREFUL! And as soon as you get done, come back home just as fast as Klono will let you. Clear ether, fellows!" "Clear ether, Kim!" Lensman father and Lensman son boarded their speedster and left. They traversed the tube and emerged into normal space, all without a word. "Kit," the older man ground out, finally. "This gives me the colly wobblies, no less. Suppose some of them--or all of them--get killed out there? Is it worth it? I know it's my own idea, but will we need it badly enough to take the chance?" "We will, Dad. Mentor says that we will." And that was that. XXIV. Kit had had to get back to normal space as soon as possible, in order to be available in case of need. He wanted to get back in time to help his sisters pull themselves together. Think as he would, he could find no flaw in any one of them; but he knew that Mentor would find something or other the matter with each of them. Not a weakness in any ordinary sense, but a strength which was not the ultimate. Kinnison had had to get back because his business was really pressing. He had called a conference of all the Second-Stage Lensmen and his children; a conference which, bizarrely enough, was to be held in person and not via Lens. "Not strictly necessary, of course," the Gray Lensman half-apologized to his son as their speedster neared the point of rendezvous with the _Dauntless_. "I still think that it's a good idea, though, especially since we were all so close to Lyrane anyway." "So do I. It's been a mighty long time since we were all together. Everybody's there now except Nadreck--he'll board about the same time we do." They boarded. Spacehounds both, they saw to it that their speedster was dogged down solidly into her chocks before they went to the main saloon. "Hi, Mums! Still stopping traffic at all intersections, I see!" Kit lowered his mother's feet to the floor and attempted the physically impossible feat of embracing all four of his sisters at once. By common consent the Five used only their eyes. Nothing showed. Nevertheless, the girls blushed vividly and Kit's face twisted into a dry, wry grin. "It was good for what ailed us, though, at that--I guess." Kit did not seem to be at all positive. "Mentor, the lug, told me no less than six times that I had arrived--or at least made statements which I interpreted as meaning that. And Eukonidor just told me that I was a 'finished tool,' whatever that means. Personally, I think that they were sitting back and wondering how long it was going to take us to realize that we never could be half as good as we used to think we were. Suppose?" "Something like that, probably. We've shivered more than once, wondering whether we are really finished products yet or not."