with it? She just says that she'd
rather die or go to prison than go back on her convictions and knuckle
under to me. If she could only forget that she'd ever met that man
Kensington!"

"Well, as for that, it might not be so hard to arrange," suggested
Placer quietly.

Nuwell stared at him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You're not familiar with the details of our work here, are you,
Nuwell?"

"I thought I was, pretty well. But what you just said doesn't strike a
chord."

"As you know, the Toughs and Jellies are originally criminals and
vagabonds you have smuggled to us for experimental purposes. One major
effect of our initial glandular experiments with them, which makes them
into Toughs and Jellies, is that they lose all memory of their past."

"I don't want a flabby woman, like a Jelly!" exclaimed Nuwell with a
shudder.

"I think we could eliminate the memory, permanently, without any
physical changes at all," said Placer. "There are some pretty good
scientists here. I expect the operation would cut down her thinking
ability pretty heavily, though. I think it would still be slightly
higher than that of the Jellies, but you couldn't ever expect her again
to get above the intellectual level of a child of six or eight
terrestrial years."

"I don't care anything about an intelligent woman," answered Nuwell
ruthlessly. "If she weren't so proud of her intelligence now, I wouldn't
have so much trouble with her. I want her as a beautiful woman, which is
all a woman has a right to expect from a man, and if she were less
intelligent and more tractable I might be able to train her to become
the sort of wife a man of my profession and position requires."

Placer speared a bite of steak, casually, with his fork.

"Any time you say the word," he said carelessly.

"I'll give her the rest of today," said Nuwell with decision. "I'll work
her over again with the whip this afternoon, and if she doesn't break
I'll tell her what she can expect. Then, if that doesn't do the trick,
I'll turn her over to you the first thing tomorrow."

"Tonight would be better," suggested Placer. "The initial surgery takes
only about thirty minutes, and she'd do better to rest a night after
that. It alone will remove a great deal of her volitional power. The
entire series of operations will require about three days."

"Tonight it is, then," said Nuwell, "if she doesn't break this
afternoon."

Maya sat in her locked room, her tunic and