the patrol perfected itself. One of its greatest advances came with the invention of the Lens; which, being proof against counterfeiting or imitation, renders identification of all Lensmen automatic. The patrol then set up its own military courts and executed the few of its members guilty of misconduct. Standards of entrance were raised ever higher, and when it had become evident that the patrol was, to a man, incorruptible, it was granted more and ever more authority.

"Now its power is practically absolute. Its armament and equipment are the ultimate; its members can follow the lawbreaker wherever he may go. Furthermore, a Lensman can commandeer any material or assistance, wherever and whenever required; and the Lens is so respected throughout the galaxy that any wearer of it may be called upon at any time to be judge, jury, and executioner. Wherever he goes, upon, in, or through any land, water, air, or space, anywhere within the confines of our Island Universe, his word is law.

"That, I think, explains what you have been forced to undergo. The only excuse for its severity is that it produces results. In the last hundred years no wearer of the Lens has disgraced it. Any questions? About the Lens, for instance?"

"We have all wondered about the Lens, sir, of course," Maitland ventured. "The outlaws apparently keep up with us in science. Boskone himself is supposed to be a genius, and to have surrounded himself with a scientific staff second to none in the known universe. I have always supposed that what science can build, science can duplicate. Surely more than one Lens has fallen into the hands of the outlaws?"

"If it had been a scientific invention it would have been duplicated long ago," the commandant made surprising answer. "It is, however, not essentially scientific in nature. It is almost entirely philosophical, and was developed for us by the Arisians.

"Yes, each of you was sent to Arisia quite recently," Von Hohendorff went on, as the newly commissioned officers glanced at each other in dawning understanding. "What did you think of them, Murphy?"

"At first, sir, I thought that they were some new kind of dragon; but dragons with brains that you could actually feel. I was glad to get away, sir. They fairly gave me the creeps, even though I never did see one of them so much as move."

"They are a peculiar race," the commandant went on. "Essentially antisocial—or rather, supremely indifferent to all material things. For hundreds of thousands of 

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