spaceships have a disturbing effect on primitive races such as yours."

In spite of Homer's determination not to believe this girl, he felt an admiration in the way she played her role. He wondered if there was really a spaceship on the golf course. It would certainly have a disturbing effect on early morning golfers. Good heavens! C. J. Fader belonged to Cambridge Manor!

"Miss—er—Qalith," Homer said, "your being here presents problems, whether or not you are from the Pleiades! You must understand that this isn't the proper thing to do." Homer glanced toward the window and quickly moved over to the venetian blinds which he turned downward, just in case one of the neighbors looked in. "I must sit down and think a moment. Then we'll decide what must be done."

"I know what I'm going to do," said Qalith. "So you decide what you're going to do."

Homer had a bottle of bourbon in his kitchen cabinet. The board of trustees of Faderfield Junior College frowned on faculty drinking of any sort, and of course alcoholic beverages were forbidden on the campus under strictest penalties—expulsion for a student, dismissal for an instructor. But Homer was extremely moderate and there were times when he felt that whisky had a respectable place in the scheme of things. He poured himself a drink, after offering one to Miss Qalith. She declined.

"I must be careful what I eat and drink on strange planets," she said.

"A wise forethought," Homer said, with a nod. He mixed the whisky with tap water, dropped in an ice cube and began sipping it as he sat in a straight-backed chair opposite her.

"Now," he began, "I won't question anything you've said. It doesn't matter really whether you were born in Faderfield, the next county or a planet 200 light years distant. There's one fact we can't deny. You are a woman. Right?"

"You are perceptive, sir—"

"My name's Homer," he said. He smiled and she smiled back. Homer finished his drink and put aside the glass. "I'm a man."

"That I had already perceived."

"Do men and women—ah—occupy the same lodgings on Planet 12?"

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