ive le Board!_"

"Nubile! Bravo, Tiny! _Quelle delicatesse de nuance!_"

"Three rousing cheers for the Board!"

"Keep still, you nitwits! Let me ask a question!" This came from one of
the twins. "Before you give us the deduction, Jarvis--or will it be an
intuition or an induction or a ..."

"Or an inducement," the other twin suggested, helpfully. "Not that _you_
would need very much of that."

"You keep still, too, Miney. I'm asking, Sir Moderator, if I can give my
deduction first?"

"Sure, Bernadine; go ahead."

"They figured we're going to get completely lost. Then we'll jettison
the Navy, hunt up a planet of our own and start a race to end all human
races. Or would you call this a _see_-duction instead of a
_dee_-duction?"

This produced a storm of whistles, cheers and jeers that it took several
seconds to quell.

"But seriously, Jarvis," Bernadine went on. "We've all been wondering
and it doesn't make sense. Have you any idea at all of what the Board
actually did have in mind?"

"I believe that the Board selected for mental, not physical, qualities;
for the ability to handle anything unexpected or unusual that comes up,
no matter what it is."

"You think it wasn't double-barreled?" asked Kincaid, the psychologist.
He smiled quizzically. "That all this virility and nubility and glamor
is pure coincidence?"

"No," Hilton said, with an almost imperceptible flick of an eyelid.
"Coincidence is as meaningless as paradox. I think they found out
that--barring freaks--the best minds are in the best bodies."

"Could be. The idea has been propounded before."

"Now let's get to work." Hilton flipped the switch of the recorder.
"Starting with you, Sandy, each of you give a two-minute boil-down. What
you found and what you think."

* * * * *

Something over an hour later the meeting adjourned and Hilton and Sandra
strolled toward the control room.

"I don't know whether you convinced Alexander Q. Kincaid or not, but you
didn't quite convince me," Sandra said.

"Nor him, either."

"Oh?" Sandra's eyebrows

"No. He grabbed the out I offered him. I didn't fool Teddy Blake or
Temple Bells, either. You four are all, though, I think."

"Temple? You think _she's_ so smart?"

"I don't _think_ so, no. Don't fool yourself, chick. Temple Bells looks
and acts sweet and innocent and virginal. Maybe--probably--she is. But
she isn't showing a fraction of the stuff she's really got. She