n he be made to stay away?"

"Oh ... Grand Lady Neldine and that perfectly stunning Grand Lady Lemphi
they picked out for Jim ... they're such _nice_ people ... and the
Gunther genes...." As Lola thought on, her expressive face showed a
variety of conflicting emotions before it hardened into decision. "The
answer to both questions--the only possible answer--is no. I subscribe;
on the exact terms you stipulated. And you don't believe, Clee, that my
thesis had anything to do with my holding out at first?"

"Certainly I don't. Besides...."

"What thesis?" Belle asked.

* * *

"For my Ph.D. in anthropology. I thought I had it made, but it just went
down the chute. And I don't know if any of you realize just how nearly
impossible it is to make a really worthwhile original contribution to
science in that field."

"As I started to tell you, Brownie," Garlock said, "I don't think you've
lost a thing. There's a bigger and better one coming up."

"_What_?"

"Sh-h-h-h," Belle stage-whispered. "He's got a theory--such a weirdie
that he won't talk about it to anybody."

"It isn't a theory yet--at least, not ripe enough to pick--but it's
something more than a hunch," Garlock said.

"But what could _possibly_ make as good a thesis as those extra-galactic
tapes?" Lola wailed. "They would have made my thesis a summer breeze."

"More like a hurricane--the hottest thing since doctorate disputations
first started," Garlock said. "However, as I started to say twice
before, it still will be. Intra-galactic tapes will be just as good. In
this case, better."

"W-e-l-l ... possibly. But we haven't any."

"That is what this conference is about. We can't destroy the stuff we
have unless we can replace it with something better. My idea is that we
should visit a few--say fifty--Tellus-type planets in this galaxy; the
ones closest to Tellus. I'm pretty sure they'll be inhabited by _Homo
Sapiens_. There's a chance, of course, that they'll be like Hodell and
the others we've seen; in which case I don't see how we can keep Gunther
genes confined to Earth. However, I'm pretty sure in my own mind that
we'll find them all very much like Tellus, Gunther and all. What would
you think of _that_ for a thesis, Lola?"

"Oh, wonderful!"

"Okay. Now to get back to whether we want to check in or not. I don't
like to duck out without letting them know we can handle this
heap--after a fashion, that is; they don't need t