The other girls did not quite come to blows as to which of them was to get him next; and shortly--he never did know exactly how it came about--he found himself dancing with a luscious, cuddly little brunette, clad--partially clad, at least--in a high-slitted, flame-colored sheath of some new fabric which the Lensman had never seen before. It looked like solidified, tightly woven electricity! "Oh, Mr. Kinnison!" his new partner cooed, ecstatically. "I think that all spacemen, and you Lensmen particularly, are just too perfectly darn _heroic_ for anything! Why, I think that space is just _terrible_! I simply can't _cope_ with it at _all_!" "Ever been out, miss?" he grinned. He had never known many social butterflies, and temporarily he had forgotten that such girls as this one really existed. "Why, of _course_!" The young woman kept on being exclamatory. "Clear out to the Moon, perhaps?" he hazarded. "Don't be ridic! _Ever_ so much farther than _that_! Why, I went clear to _Mars_! And it gave me the screaming _meamies_, no less. I thought I would _collapse_!" That dance ended ultimately, and other dances with other girls followed; but Kinnison could not throw himself into the gaiety surrounding him. During his cadet days he had enjoyed such revels to the full, but now the whole thing left him cold. His mind insisted upon reverting to its problem. Finally, in the throng of young people on the floor, he saw a girl with a mass of red-bronze hair and a supple, superbly molded figure. He did not need to await her turning to recognize his erstwhile nurse and later assistant, whom he had last seen just this side of far-distant Boyssia II. "Mac!" To her mind alone he sent out a thought through his Lens. "For the love of Klono, lend a hand--rescue me! How many dances have you got ahead?" "None at all--I'm not dating ahead." She jumped as though someone had jabbed her with a needle, then paused in panic; eyes wide, breath coming fast, breast pounding. She had felt Lensed thoughts before, but this was something else, something entirely different. Every cell of her brain was open to that Lensman's mind--and what _was_ she seeing! She blanketed her thoughts desperately, tried with all her might not to think at all! [Illustration: _She froze suddenly, a gasp of horror half suppressed. She was seeing things--sensing things beyond comprehension_--] "QX, Mac," the thought went quietly on within her mind, quite as though nothing unusual were occurring. "No intrusion meant. You didn't think it; I already knew that if you started dating ahead you'd be tied up until day after tomorrow. Can I have the next one?" "Sure, Kim." "Thanks--the Lens is off for the rest of the evening." She sighed in relief as he snapped the telepathic line as though he were hanging up the receiver of a telephone.