We all looked at Lije.
Up to now, he hadn't said hardly anything.
"Suppose we were being conquered in that way," Lije said quietly. "What could the government do?
Suppose they told you, Marv, that Candy was an invasion weapon. You'd either laugh at them or get mad and vote somebody in who wasn't such a damn fool.
Suppose they told you to get rid of her. Good-by, Washington."
"Well, sure" Marv said vigorously.
"Another thing," Lije said. "Suppose the government stopped that factory in Passaic from turning out girls like Candy and Kim and Choo-Choo and Dallas and April and Tracyand that would be pretty close to sacrilegechances are 99 to 1 that somebody or something would get a warning to Venus: plan number one has failed; start plan number two.
And number two might be the messy kind.
Any race that knows enough about science to make a womanand by golly! they are women, all except for the babiesand knows enough about me to make a woman like Kim, I don't want to tangle with."
We just sat there, no more objections in us, trying to get used to the idea.
Intellectually, we were convinced. But we couldn't face the consequences.
"Wait a fraction," said By. "Lije, you talked real certain for a man who was just supposing."
"I ought to," Lije said. "It's all true.
Maybe I shouldn't be letting it out, but the government's been going around with this thing for years now.
Maybe you fellows can figure out an answer.
We can't.
If it gets out for good it would start such a panic that the Venusians wouldn't have to wait a century."
Suddenly Marv blurted out, "I won't give up Candy.
I don't care what she is, I couldn't ask for anything more in a woman.
And anyone who tries to take her away had better come armed and with friends."
"I guess we know how you feel," Jess said, "because we all feel the same way."
We nodded.
"Nevertheless, we got to make a real sacrifice.
The way I look at it, we're soldiers now, and soldiers got to face hardship."
We all nodded, grimly.
I never did get to bet that full house.
Well, we've done it.
The Venusians, when they come back next century, are in for a nasty surprise.
Life is a mite different now.
Take yesterday, for instance. I locked up my bankI'm president nowand walked a few blocks to a little cottage with a white fence around it.
The kids came tumbling out the door: Kit, 5; Kevin, 4; Laurie, 3; Linda 2; and Karl, 1.
They swarmed over me like ants over a crumb, holding my legs, tugging at my arms.
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" they shouted, all except Karl, who doesn't talk yet, but he clings as hard as anybody.
I dragged them to the front door, feeling only half my 44 years. There I peeled them away, one by one, and smacked them, once on the face, once on the bottom.
"Well," Jane said nastily, "did you decide you could spend a few minutes with your family?"
I grunted something and pecked at her sweaty cheek.
She'd been bending over the stove, fixing supper for the brood.
"You're sure you can spare the time?" she asked sarcastically.
"We wouldn't want to deprive anybody of your company."
I went and sat down in my favorite chair, not answering.
It's better not to answer.
Jane is large and round again, eight months along, and they're worse then.
They're bad enough usually but worse then.
But I could tell she was glad to see me.
"Goodness knows," she snarled, "it isn't as if we need you.
You can leave any time you feel like it."
"Yes, dear," I said, but I knew better than to move.
"Just because you pay the bills," Jane said, shaking a spoon at me, "you think you own us.
Well, let me tell you"
You see how it is? The Venusians made one big mistake: they forgot the basic mating peculiarity of the human species: the female is naturally monogamous, and the male, polygamous.