more effective in annihilating the enemy.

"You've thought 'Love thy enemy' was a soft, gentle, futile doctrine!
Actually, instead of merely killing the enemy it twists his personality,
destroys his identity. He continues to live, but he has lost his
integrity as an entity. The wolf cub never becomes an adult wolf. He
becomes Dog.

"It is not a doctrine of weakness, but the ultimate weapon of
destruction. It can be used to induce any orientation desired in the
mind of the enemy. He'll do everything you want him to--because he has
your love."

* * * * *

"How did you apply that to the Markovians?" asked Joyce in almost a
whisper.

"It was one of the most difficult programs we have ever undertaken,"
said Venor. "There were comparatively few of us and such a tremendous
population of Markovians. We had predicted long ago, even before the
organization of the Council, the situation would grow critical and
dangerous. By the time the Council awoke to the fact and started its
futile debates we had made a strong beginning.

"We arranged to be in the path of a Markovian attack on one of the
worlds where our work was completed. The Markovians were only too happy
to take us into slavery and use us as victims in their brutal sports."

"You didn't deliberately fall into a trap where you allowed yourselves
to be killed and tortured by them?" exclaimed Cameron.

Venor smiled. "The Markovians thought we did. We could hardly do that,
of course. Our numbers were so small compared with theirs that we
wouldn't have lasted very long. And, obviously, it would have been
plain stupid. There is one key that must not be forgotten: An effective
use of love requires an absolute superiority on the levels attainable by
the individual to be tamed. So, in this case, we had to have power to
keep the Markovians from slaughtering us or we would have been unable to
accomplish our purpose.

"Teleportation is of obvious use here. Likewise, psychosomatic controls
that can handle any ordinary wound we might permit them to inflict. We
gave them the illusion of slaughtering and torturing us, but our numbers
did not dwindle."

"Why did you give them such an illusion?" Joyce asked. "And you say you
_permitted_ them to inflict wounds--?"

Venor nodded. "We were in their households, you see, employed as slaves
and assigned the care of their young. The cubs of the wolf were given
into our hands to love--and to tame.

"The