A half hour later she was back, all smiles. The idea had gone across big. Dolf, as the leader of the projected expedition, had demanded that Milli be brought along as liaison officer between them and their guide; and the other four committeemen had reluctantly acceded. The execution was accordingly indefinitely postponed. The young couple spent the evening making happy plans for their life together on the outer earth, for as soon as they should arrive in America, Dolf would have no further hold over them. The next day, the Committee of Five announced that, for a change, they were going to give George Abbot an intelligence test. He had represented himself as being one of the scientists of the outer earth; accordingly, they could gauge the caliber of his fellow countrymen by determining his I. Q. Milli was quite agitated when this program was announced, but the ordeal held no terrors for George Abbot. Had he not taken many such tests on earth and passed them easily? So he appeared before the Committee of Five with a rather cocky air. He had yet to see an intelligence test too tricky for him to eat alive. "Start him with something easy," suggested Dolf. "Perhaps they don't have tests on the outer earth. You know, one gains a certain facility by practice." "Milli didn't, in spite of all the practicing which you gave her," maliciously remarked Thig. Dolf glowered at him. * * * * * "What is the cube root of 378?" suddenly asked one of the other members of the committee. "Oh, a little over seven," hazarded Abbot. "Come, come," boomed Thig: "give it to us exactly." "Well, seven-point-two, I guess." "Don't guess. Give it exact, to four decimal places." "In my head?" asked Abbot incredulously. "Certainly!" replied Thig. "Even a child could do that. We're giving you easy questions to start with." "Start him on _square_ root," suggested Dolf kindly. "Remember he isn't used to these tests like our people are." So they tried him with square root, in which he turned out to be equally dumb. Abstract questions of physics and chemistry he did better on; but the actual quantitative problems, which they expected him to solve in his head, stumped him completely. Then they asked him about education on earth, and the qualifications for becoming a scientist, and who were the leaders in his field, and what degrees they held, and what one had to do to get those degrees, etc. Finally they dismissed him. Dolf then sent for Milli. She was gone about an hour, and returned to Abbot wide-eyed and incredulous. "Oh, George," said she, lowering her voice. "Dolf tells me that your intelligence is below that of a five-year-old child! Perhaps that is why you and I get along so well together: we are both morons." * * * * *