"Our race has long been familiar with your so-called magic, dear ones.
We call it hypnotism, and if you think I cannot resist it, remember that
I shot the Old One with his eyes upon me."
Wananda suddenly set the big lever she held into a notch, turned to me,
her face full of a charming surprise which I yet knew was an act.
"So you think you can resist your wives' wills, do you, earthman? Come,
Carna, let us humble his boasts once and, for all!"
Their two lovely faces pressed cheek to cheek, the two pair of eyes
bored into my own, and four quick slim hands gestured about my chin. A
dizzy enervation swam into me as though I were bleeding to death, as
though honey and whiskey were being poured down my throat, as though I
had fallen suddenly onto a pink cloud of spun candy.
Visions of terrific pleasure began to hum in my head, my knees gradually
gave way beneath me, until I was on my knees before the two women. My
hands were unconsciously extended as if to fend them off, and each of
them seized a hand, pulled me to the round bench at the back of the
control cabin. They stroked my cheeks, began to murmur their "magical"
phrases in their mysterious mystic secret words, and my wits began to
float into a very genuine paradise where their two faces, side by side,
became flower and fruit and tree and earth itself.
When I awoke from the dream into which they had sent me, Carna was
seated beside me, nodding sleepily, her head on her chest, and Wananda
had returned to the controls of the ship. As I looked at each of them, I
found _a new something had been added_! I loved each of them equally
well!
I sat up, stretching. Sometimes it is comforting to have problems
decided for one. Now I did not have to go through any excruciating pangs
of conscience or guilt or fight myself into a state of not wanting one
or the other of them. They had just adjusted me to the situation
mentally, and I felt that everything was perfect in the best of all
possible marriages for me!
"Well, I'm getting hungry!" I cried, apropos of nothing except that I
did feel pangs.
My Zoorph did not even get up. She reached out one hand to where a
covered tray sat on the bench beside her, and handed it to me. I took
off the lid, and on it were broiled chops, steaming deliciously baked
beans, some kind of soft brown bread--fruit, a sweet perfumed wine.
"The master is hungry, Carna will provide!"
If I get cross-eyed as Jake Barto, it will be from trying to see two
women at once.
Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Nokomee became the prince's third
wife. I wished her happiness. For me, two are enough!