Second stage Lensman by Edward Elmer Smith

trunks, made of something that looked like glamorete, blazed with
    gems. A cleverly concealed dagger, with a jeweled haft and a vicious little fang of a
    blade. Rings, even a thumb-ring. A necklace which was practically a collar flashed all
    the colors of the rainbow. Bracelets, armlets, anklets and knee-bands. High-laced dress
    boots, jeweled from stem to gudgeon. Ear-rings, and a meticulous, micrometrically
    precise coiffure held in place by at least a dozen glittering buckles, combs and
    barrettes.
         "Holy Klono's brazen tendons!" the Lensman whistled to himself, for every last,
    least one of those stones was the clear quill. "Half a million credits if it's a millo's worth!"
         But he was not particularly interested in this jeweler's vision of what the well-
    dressed lady zwilnik will wear. There were other, far more important things. Yes, she
    had a thought-screen. It was off, and its battery was mighty low, but it would still work;
    good thing he had blocked the warning. And she had a hollow tooth, too, but he'd see to
    it that she didn't get a chance to swallow its contents. She knew plenty, and he hadn't
    chased her this far to let her knowledge be obliterated by that hellish Boskonian drug.
         They were at the door now. Disregarding the fiercely-driven metal protests of his
    companion, Kinnison flung it open, stiffening up his mental guard as he did so.
    Simultaneously he invaded the zwilnik's mind with a flood of force, clamping down so
    hard that she could not move a single voluntary muscle. Then, paying no attention
    whatever to the shocked surprise of the assembled Lyranians, he strode directly up to
    the Aldebaranian and bent her head back into the crook of his elbow. Forcibly but gently
    he opened her mouth. With thumb and forefinger he deftly removed the false tooth.
    Releasing her then, mentally and physically, he dropped his spoil to the cement floor
    and ground it savagely to bits under his hard and heavy heel.
         The zwilnik screamed wildly, piercingly at first. However, finding that she was
    getting no results, from Lensman or Lyranian, she subsided quickly into alertly watchful
    waiting.
         Still unsatisfied, Kinnison flipped out one of his DeLameters and flamed the
    remains of the capsule of worse than paralyzing fluid, caring not a whit that his vicious
    portable, even in that brief instant, seared a hole a foot deep into the floor. Then and
    only then did he turn his attention to the redhead in the boss's chair.
         He had to hand it to Elder Sister—through all this sudden and to her entirely
    unprecedented violence of action she hadn't turned a hair. She had swung her chair
    around so that she was facing him. Her back was to the athletic dancer who, now
    holding a flawlessly perfect pose, was going on with the act as though nothing out of the
    ordinary were transpiring. She was leaning backward in the armless swivel chair, her
    right foot resting upon its pedestal. Her left ankle was crossed over her right knee, her
    left knee rested lightly against the table's top. Her hands were clasped together at the
    nape of her neck, supporting her red-thatched head; her elbows spread abroad in easy,
    indolent grace. Her eyes, so deeply, darkly green as to be almost black stared up
    unwinkingly into the Lensman's—"insolently" was the descriptive word that came first to
    his mind.
         If the Elder Sister was supposed to be old, Kinnison reflected as he studied
    appreciatively the startlingly beautiful picture which the artless Chief Person of this tribe
    so unconsciously made, she certainly belied her looks. As far as looks went, she really
    qualified—whatever it took, she in abundant measure had. Her hair was not really red,
    either. It was a flamboyant, gorgeous auburn, about the same color as Clarrissa's own,
    and just as thick. And it wasn't all haggled up. Accidentally, of course, and no doubt
    because on her particular job her hair didn't get in the way