not gangrene. That's the
way we found the tissue. That appears to be its--normal condition, if
you will."

Mel stared without believing, without comprehending.

Dr. Winters probed the wound open further. "We should see the stomach
here," he said. "What is here where the stomach should be I cannot tell
you. There is no name for this organ. The intestinal tract should lie
here. Instead, there is only this homogeneous mass of greenish,
gelatinous material. Other organs, hardly differentiated from this mass,
appear where the liver, the pancreas, the spleen should be."

Mel was hearing his voice as if from some far distance or in a dream.

"There are lungs--of a sort," the Doctor went on. "She was certainly
capable of breathing. And there's a greatly modified circulatory system,
two of them, it appears. One circulates a blood substance in the outer
layers of tissue that is almost normal. The other circulates a liquid
that gives the remainder of the organs their greenish hue. But how
circulation takes place we do not know. She has no heart."

* * * * *

Mel Hastings burst out in hysterical laughter. "Now I know you're crazy
Doc! My tender, loving Alice with no heart! She used to tell me, 'I
haven't got any brains. I wouldn't have married a dumb reporter if I
did. But so I've got a heart and that's what fell in love with you--my
heart, not my brains.' She loved me, can't you understand that?"

Dr. Winters was slowly drawing him away. "I understand. Of course I
understand. Come with me now, Mr. Hastings, and lie down for a little
while. I'll get you something to help take away the shock."

Mel permitted himself to be led away to a small room nearby. He drank
the liquid the Doctor brought, but he refused to lie down.

"You've shown me," he said with dull finality. "But I don't care what
the explanation is. I knew Alice. She was human all right, more so than
either you or I. She was completely normal, I tell you--all except for
this idea she had the last year or so that we'd gone together on a
vacation to Mars at one time."

"That wasn't true?"

"No. Neither of us had ever been out in space."

"How well did you know your wife before you married her?"

Mel smiled in faint reminiscence. "We grew up together, went to the same
grade school and high school. It seems like there was never a time when
Alice and I didn't know each other. Our folks lived next door for
years."

"Was she a mem