Haynes relented enough to let von Hohendorff go first, and both were given the necessary injections. The commandant was then strapped solidly into a chair; his head was clamped so firmly that he could not move it in any direction.
The Posenian swung his needle rays into place; two of them, diametrically opposed, each held rigidly upon micrometered racks and each operated by two huge, double, rock-steady hands. The operator looked entirely aloof—being eyeless and practically headless, it is impossible to tell from a Posenian's attitude or posture anything about the focal point of his attention—but the watchers knew that he was observing in microscopic detail the tiny gland within the old Lensman's skull.
Then Haynes. "Is this all there is to it, or do we come back for more?" he asked, when he was released from his shackles.
"That's all," Lacy answered. "One stimulation lasts for life, as far as we know. But if the treatment is successful you'll come back—about day after tomorrow, I think—to go to bed here. Your spare equipment won't fit and your stumps may require surgical attention."
Sure enough, Haynes did come back to the hospital, but not to go to bed. He was too busy. Instead, he got a wheel chair, and in it he was taken back to his now-boiling office. And in a few more days he called Lacy in high exasperation.
"Know what you've done?" he demanded. "Not satisfied with taking my perfectly good parts away from me, you've taken my teeth, too. They don't fit—I can't eat a thing! And I'm hungry as a wolf—I was never so hungry before in all my life! I can't live on soup, man; I've got work to do. What are you going to do about it?"
"Ho-ho-haw!" Lacy roared. "Serves you right—von Hohendorff is taking it easy here; sitting right on top of the world. Easy, now, sailor, don't rupture your aorta. I'll send a nurse over with a soft-boiled egg and a spoon. Teething—at your age—Haw-ho-haw!"
But it was no ordinary nurse who came, a few minutes later, to see the port admiral; it was the sector chief herself. She looked at him pityingly as she trundled him into his private office and shut the door, thereby establishing complete coverage.
"I had no idea, Admiral Haynes, that you ... that there—" She paused.
"That I was so much of a machine-shop rebuild?"—complacently. "Except in the matter of eyes—which he doesn't need, anyway—our mutual friend Kinnison has very little on me, my dear. I got so handy with the replacements that very few people knew how much of me was artificial. But it's these teeth that are taking all the joy out of life. I'm hungry, confound it! Have you got anything really satisfying that I can eat?"