But the moment the man touched the stool the bird's mind gave Hanlon a clear picture of a procedure it had witnessed many times. He gasped, and called out to the Corpsmen, "That stool! Never mind looking at the closet itself or that other stuff. Bring the stool out here!"
The surprised lieutenant jumped down, and carried the little ladder over to where Hanlon was standing with the bird.
"Unscrew the left rear leg—about the middle, I believe."
The officer up-ended the stool, and after a moment's work found out how to unscrew the leg—it had a reverse thread. In a few more instants he had it off, and they all gasped.
The leg was hollow, and in it were a number of tightly-rolled sheets of very thin, tough paper.
The Corpsman started to unroll the papers, but at a quick signal from Hanlon, Admiral Hawarden stepped forward.
"I'll take those, Lieutenant. I think, for the time being, at least, we need search no further. Since most of the papers we have found here are purely planetary matters, they're not for us to meddle with, even though we have permission to do so. Back to Base—if these are not what we want we can start again later."
As the men filed out, Hawarden activated the visiphone, and got the minister's office at the imperial palace. "Find anything we want there, Captain?" he asked the man who answered.
"Not yet, sir."
"Report back to Base, then. I think we've got it here."