s."

"But wait until you see all the wonders of the laboratory! That is why I
am showing you all this."

Northwood drew his handkerchief and mopped his brow. "It sickens me,
Doctor! The more I see, the more pity I have for Adam--and the less I
blame him for his rebellion and his desire to kill and to rule. Heavens!
What a terrible thing you have done, experimenting with human life."

"Nonsense! Can you say that all life--all matter--is not the result of
scientific experiment? Can you?" His black gaze made Northwood
uncomfortable. "Buck up, young friend, for now I am going to show you a
marvelous improvement on Nature's bungling ways--the Leyden jar mother."
He raised his voice and called, "Lilith!"

The woman whom they had met on the field came forward.

"May we take a peep at Lona's twins?" asked the scientist. "They are
about ready to go to the growing dome, are they not?"

"In five more minutes," said the woman. "Come see."

* * * * *

She lifted one of the black velvet curtains that lined an entire side of
the laboratory and thereby disclosed a globular jar of glass and metal,
connected by wires to a dynamo. Above the jar was a Life Ray projector.
Lilith slid aside a metal portion of the jar, disclosing through the
glass underneath the squirming, kicking body of a baby, resting on a bed
of soft, spongy substance, to which it was connected by the navel cord.

"The Leyden jar mother," said Dr. Mundson. "It is the dream of us
scientists realized. The human mother's body does nothing but nourish
and protect her unborn child, a job which science can do better. And so,
in New Eden, we take the young embryo and place it in the Leyden jar
mother, where the Life Ray, electricity, and chemical food shortens the
period of gestation to a few days."

At that moment a bell under the Leyden jar began to ring. Dr. Mundson
uncovered the jar and lifted out the child, a beautiful, perfectly
formed boy, who began to cry lustily.

"Here is one baby who'll never be kissed," he said. "He'll be nourished
chemically, and, at the end of the week, will no longer be a baby. If
you are patient, you can actually see the processes of development
taking place under the Life Ray, for babies develop very fast."

Northwood buried his face in his hands. "Lord! This is awful. No
childhood; no mother to mould his mind! No parents to watch over him, to
give him their tender care!"

"Awful, fiddlesticks! Come