Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Amazing Stories June 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Steps 1, 2 and 3 went according to
plan. Then she moved on to....
STEP IV
By ROSEL GEORGE BROWN
ILLUSTRATOR VARGA
he first time Juba saw him, she couldn't help recalling thedescription of Ariovistus in Julius Caesar: Hominem esse barbarum,iracundum, temerarium.
She unpinned the delicate laesa from her hair, for Terran spacemen areeducated, and if they have a choice, or seem to have, prefer seductionto rape.
Step. I. A soft answer turneth away wrath, leaving time for makingplans.
He caught the flower, pleased with himself, Juba saw, for notfumbling, pleased with his manhood, pleased with his morality indeciding not to rape her.
Rule a—A man pleased with himself is off guard.
He was big, even for a Man, and all hair, and in his heavy arms theveins were knotted and very blue. He had taken off his shirt, lettingthe air blow shamelessly over him.
It was true he was wonderful to see. And Juba knew that such is thenature of our violences, if she had been born into such a body, shetoo, would be a thing of wars and cruelty, a burner of cities, acarrier of death and desolation.
His face softened, as though the hand of Juno had passed over it.Softly he gazed at the flower, softly at Juba.
Rule b—This is the only time they are tractable.
"Vene mecum," she bade him, retreating into the glade—what was leftof it after his ship burned a scar into it. She ran lightly, so as togive the impression that if he turned, only so far as to pick up theweapon on the ground by his shirt, she would disappear.
"I follow," he said in her own language, and she stopped, surprisetangling her like a net. For she had been taught that Men speak onlyNew-language in our time, all soft tongues having been scorned todeath.
She should not have stopped. He looked back toward his gun. "Wait amoment," he said. His "a"'s were flat and harsh, his words awkwardlysequenced.
"Come with me," she said, and ran off again. She had been caught offguard.
Would he follow her? "Wait!" he cried, hesitated, and came after heragain. "I want to get my gun." He reached for Juba's hand.
She shrank back from him. "Mulier enim sum." Would he get the force ofthe particle? What could he fear from a mere woman?
When he had followed her far enough, when he had gone as far as hewould, for fear of losing his way from his ship, she let him take herhand.
"Terran sum," he said. And then, with meaning, "Homino sum."
"Then you are, naturally, hungry," Juba said. "You have no need tocome armed. Let me take you to my home. There are only my sisters andI and the mother."
"Yes," he said, and took her other hand.
She blushed, because he was strangely attractive, and because thethought came to her that his ways were gentle, and that if he spoke asoft tongue, perhaps he was not like other Men.
Rule c—They are all alike.
"Come," Juba said, turning, "We are not far from the cottages."
She watched, during the meal, to see how he impressed the sisters