Then: "What did you come here for tonight, Mac--the real reason?" he demanded, abruptly. "I ... me ... you ... I mean--Oh, skip it!" the girl stammered, a wave of scarlet flooding her face and down even to her superb, bare shoulders. Then she steadied herself and went on: "You see, I agree with you--as you say, I check you to nineteen decimals. Even Dr. Lacy, with all his knowledge, can be slightly screwy at times, I think." "Oh, so that's it!" It was not, it was only a very minor part of her reason; but the nurse would have bitten her tongue off rather than admit that she had come to that dance solely and only because Kimball Kinnison was to be there. "You knew, then, that this was old Lacy's idea?" "Of course. You would never have come, else. He thinks that you may begin wobbling on the beam pretty soon unless you put out a few braking jets." "And you?" "Not in a million, Kim. Lacy is as cockeyed as Trenco's ether, and I as good as told him so. He may wobble a bit, but _you_ won't. You've got a job to do, and you're doing it. You'll finish it, too, in spite of all the vermin infesting all the galaxies of the macro-cosmic Universe!" she finished, passionately. "Klono's brazen whiskers, Mac!" He turned suddenly and stared intently down into her wide, gold-flecked, tawny eyes. She stared back for a moment, then looked away. "Don't look at me like that!" she almost screamed. "I can't stand it--you make me feel stark naked! I know that your Lens is off--I'd simply die if it wasn't--but I think that you're a mind-reader, even without it!" * * * * * She did know that that powerful telepath was off and would remain off, and she was glad indeed of that fact; for her mind was seething with thoughts which that Lensman must not know, then or ever. And for his part, the Lensman knew what she did not even suspect; that had he chosen to exert the powers at his command she would have been naked, mentally and physically, to his perception; but he did not exert those powers--then. The amenities of human relationship demanded that some fastnesses of reserve remain inviolate, but he had to know what this woman knew. If necessary, he would take the knowledge away from her by force, so completely that she would never know that she had ever known it. Therefore: "Just what do you know, Mac, and how did you find it out?" he demanded; quietly, but with a stern finality of inflection that made a quick chill run up and down the nurse's back.