Since the Boyssian system was less than a hundred parsecs from Radelix, a couple of hours found the Lensman staring down upon another green and Earthly world. Very Earthly indeed was this one. There were polar ice caps, areas of intensely dazzling white. There was an atmosphere, deep and sweetly blue, filled for the most part with sunlight, but flecked here and there with clouds, some of which were slow-moving storms. There were continents, bearing mountains and plains, lakes and rivers. There were oceans, studded with islands great and small.
But Kinnison was no planetographer, nor had he been gone from Tellus sufficiently long so that the sight of this beautiful and homelike world aroused in him any qualm of nostalgia. He was looking for a pirate base; and, dropping his speedster as low into the night side as he dared, he began his search.
Of man or of the works of man he at first found little enough trace. All human or pseudohuman life was apparently still in a savage state of development; and, except for a few scattered races, or rather tribes, of burrowers and of cliff or cave dwellers, it was still nomadic, wandering here and there without permanent habitation or structure. Animals of scores of genera and species were there in myriads, but neither was Kinnison a biologist. He wanted pirates; and, it seemed, that was the one form of life which he was not going to find!
But finally, through sheer, grim, bulldog pertinacity, he was successful. That base was there, somewhere. He would find it, no matter how long it took. He would find it if he had to examine the entire crust of the planet, land and water alike, kilometer by plotted cubic kilometer! He set out to do just that; and it was thus that he found the Boskonian stronghold.
It had been built directly beneath a towering range of mountains, protected from detection by mile upon mile of native copper and of iron ore.
Its entrances, invisible before, were even now not readily perceptible, camouflaged as they were by outer layers of rock which matched exactly in form, color, and texture the rocks of the cliffs in which they were placed. Once those entrances were located, the rest was easy. Again he set his speedster into a carefully observed orbit and came to ground in his armor. Again he crept forward, furtively and skulkingly, until he could perceive a shimmering web of force.
With minor variations, his method of entry into the Boskonian base was similar to that he had used in making his way into the patrol base upon Radelix. He was, however, working now with a surety and a precision which had then been entirely lacking. His practice upon the patrolmen and his terrific bout with the four Lensmen had given him knowledge and technique. His sitting in judgment, during which he had touched almost every mind in the vast assemblage, had taught him much. And, above all, the grisly finale of that sitting, horribly distasteful and soul-wracking as it had been, had given him training of inestimable value; necessitating as it had the infliction of the ultimate penalty.
He knew that he might have to stay inside that base for some time; therefore he selected his hiding place with care. He could, of course, blank out the knowledge of his presence in the mind of any one chancing to discover him; but since such an interruption might come at a critical instant, he preferred to take up his residence in a secluded place. There were, of course, many vacant suites in the officers' quarters—all bases must have accommodations for visitors—and the Lensman decided to occupy one of them. It was a simple matter to obtain a key, and, inside the bare but comfortable little room, he stripped off his armor with a sigh of relief.
Leaning back in a deeply upholstered leather arm chair, he closed his eyes and let his sense of perception roam throughout the great establishment. With all his newly developed power he studied it, hour after hour and day after day. When he was hungry the pirate cooks fed him, not knowing that they did so. He had lived on iron rations long enough. When he was tired he slept, with his eternally vigilant Lens on guard.