The mathematician ran toward him and the Lensman stared. He had never known Cardynge to hurry—in fact, he was not really running now. He was walking, even though his legs were fairly twinkling in their rapidity of motion. As he approached Kinnison his mad pace gradually slowed to normal.
"Oh—time must be cockeyed here, too," the Lensman observed. "Look over there—see how fast those fellows are moving, and how slow those others over that way are?"
"Ah, yes. Interesting—intensely interesting. Truly, a most remarkable and intriguing phenomenon," the fascinated mathematician enthused.
"But that wasn't what I meant. Swing this plate—it's on visual—around outside, so as to get the star aspect and distribution. What do you think of it?"
"Peculiar—I might almost say unique," the scientist concluded, after his survey. "Not at all like any normal configuration or arrangement with which I am familiar. We could perhaps speculate, but would it not be preferable to secure data first? Say by approaching a solar system and conducting systematic investigations?"
"Uh-huh"—and again Kinnison stared at the wispy little physicist in surprise. Here was a man! "You're certainly something to tie to, ace, do you know it?" he asked, admiringly. Then, as Cardynge gazed at him questioningly, incomprehendingly:
"Skip it. Can you hear me, Henderson?"
"Yes—just barely."
"Shoot us across to one of those nearer stars, stop, and go inert."
"QX, chief." The pilot obeyed.