re you absolutely sure that our refusal--Belle's and mine, I mean--to
breed down will be valid with them?"

"Positive."

"Then the whole society from which we come will have to be strictly
monogamous, in the narrowest, most literal sense of the term. No
exceptions whatever. Adultery, anything illicit, has always been not
only unimaginable, but in fact impossible. We pair--or marry, or
whatever they do here--once only. For life. Desire and potency can exist
only within the pair; never outside it. Like eagles. If a man's wife
dies, even, he loses all desire and all potency. That would make it
physically impossible for you two to follow the Hodellian Code. You'd
both be completely impotent with any women whatever except your
mates--Belle and me."

"That will work," Belle said. "_How_ it will work!" She paused. Then,
suddenly, she whistled; the loud, full-bodied, ear-piercing,
tongue-and-teeth whistle which so few women ever master. Her eyes
sparkled and she began to laugh with unrestrained glee. "But do you know
what you've done, Lola?"

"Nothing, except to suggest a solution. What's so funny about that?"

"You're wonderful, Lola--simply priceless! You've created something
brand-new to science--an impotent tomcat! And the more I think about
it...." Belle was rocking back and forth with laughter. She could not
possibly talk, but her thought flowed on, "I just love you all to
pieces! An _impotent tomcat_, and he'll _have_ to stay true to me--Oh,
this is simply _killing_ me--I'll _never_ live through it!"

"It _does_ put us on the spot--especially Jim," came Garlock's thought.

* * *

He, too, began to laugh; and Lola, as soon as she stopped thinking about
the thing only as a problem in anthropology, joined in. James, however,
did not think it was very funny.

"And that's less than half of it!" Belle went on, still unable to talk.
"Think of Clee, Lola. Six two--over two hundred--hard as nails--a
perfect hunk of hard red meat--telling this whole damn cockeyed region
of space that he's impotent, too! And with a perfectly straight face!
And it ties in so _beautifully_ with his making no response, yes or no,
when she propositioned him. The poor, innocent, impotent lamb just
simply didn't have even the faintest inkling of what she meant! Oh,
my...."

"Listen--_listen_--_listen_!" James managed finally to break in. "Not
that I want to be promiscuous, but...."

"There, there, my precious lit