"It is, too," she interrupted. "You've got to consider what I did, and that it's no job for a girl with a weak stomach. Besides, the Boh's head took the fabled Mrs. O'Neil by surprise. She didn't know that her husband used to be in the wholesale mayhem-and-killing business. I do. "And lastly, you big lug, do you think that I'd be making such barefaced passes at you--playing the brazen hussy this way--unless I was very, _very_ certain of the truth?" "Huh?" he demanded, blushing furiously. "I thought that you were running a blazer on me before--you really do _know_, then, that--" He would not say it, even then. "Of course I know!" She nodded; then, as the man spread his hands helplessly, she abandoned her attempts to keep the conversation upon a light level. "I know, my dear; there is nothing we can do about it yet." Her voice was unsteady, her heart in every word. "You have to do your job, and I honor you for that, too; even if it does take you from me. It will be easier for you, though, I think, and I _know_ that it will be easier for me, to have us both know the truth. Whenever you are ready, Kim, I'll be here--or somewhere--waiting. Clear ether, Gray Lensman!" and, rising to her feet, she turned back toward the hospital. "Clear ether, Chris!" Unconsciously he used the pet name by which he had thought of her so much. He stared after her for a minute, hungrily. Then, squaring his shoulders, he strode away. * * * * * And upon far Jarnevon Eichmil, the First of Boskone, was conferring with Jalte via communicator. Long since, the Kalonian had delivered through devious channels the message of Boskone to an imaginary director of Lensmen; long since he had transmitted this cryptically direful reply: "Lensman Morgan lives, and so does Star A Star." Jalte had not been able to report to his chief any news concerning the fate of that which the speedster bore, since spies no longer existed within the reservations of the Patrol. He had learned of no discovery that any Lensman had made. He could not venture any hypothesis as to how this Star A Star had heard of Jarnevon or had learned of its location in space. He was sure of only one thing, and that was a grimly disturbing fact indeed. The Patrol was re-arming throughout the Galaxy, upon a scale theretofore unknown. Eichmil's thought was cold: "That means but one thing. A Lensman invaded you and learned of us here--in no other way could knowledge of Jarnevon have come to them." "Why me?" Jalte demanded. "If there exists a mind of power sufficient to break my screens and tracelessly to invade my mind, what of yours?"