"In that case, go to it," the Lensman declared. "I can take it."
Day after day and week after week the "advanced instruction" went on, with the pupil becoming ever stronger, until he was taking without damage thrusts that would have slain him instantly a few weeks since. The bouts became shorter and shorter, requiring as they did such terrific outpourings of mental force that not even the master could stand the awful strain for more than half an hour at a time.
And now these savage conflicts of wills and minds were interspersed with real instruction, with lessons neither painful nor unpleasant. In these the aged scientist probed gently into the youngster's mind, opening it and exposing to its owner's gaze vast caverns whose very presence he had never even suspected. Some of these storehouses were already partially or completely filled, needing only arrangement and connection. Others were nearly empty. These were catalogued and made accessible. And in all, permeating everything, was the Lens.
"Just like clearing out a clogged-up water system; with the Lens the pump that wouldn't work!" exclaimed Kinnison one day.
"More like that than you at present realize," assented the Arisian. "You have observed, of course, that I have not given you any detailed instructions nor pointed out any specific abilities of the Lens which you have not known how to use. You will have to operate the pump yourself; and you have many surprises awaiting you as to what your Lens will pump, and how. Our sole task is to prepare your mind to work with the Lens, and that task is not yet done. Let us on with it."
Eventually the time came when Kinnison could block out entirely the suggestions of his mentor, but he did not reveal that fact; nor, now blocked out, could the Arisian discern it. The Lensman gathered all his force together, concentrated it, and hurled it back at his teacher; and there ensued a struggle none the less Titanic because of its essential friendliness. The very ether seethed and boiled with the fury of the mental forces there at grips, but finally the Lensman beat down the other's screens. Then, boring deep into his eyes, he willed with all his force to see that Arisian as he really was. And instantly the scholarly old man subsided into a—a brain! There were a few appendages, of course, and other appurtenances and incidentials to nourishment, locomotion, and the like, but to all intents and purposes the Arisian was simply and solely a brain.
He willed with all his force to see him as he really was. And instantly—the scholarly old man subsided into a brain.