"Terran sum," he said. And then, with meaning, "Homino sum." "Then you are, naturally, hungry," Juba said. "You have no need to come armed. Let me take you to my home. There are only my sisters and I and the mother." "Yes," he said, and took her other hand. She blushed, because he was strangely attractive, and because the thought came to her that his ways were gentle, and that if he spoke a soft 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 and the mother. The little sisters--all bouncy blond curls and silly with laughter--their reaction to everything was excitement. And the mother--how could she seem so different from her daughters when they were so completely of her? They had no genes but her genes. And yet, there she sat, so dignified, offering a generous hospitality, but so cold Juba could feel it at the other end of the table. So cold--but the Man would not know, could not read the thin line of her taut lips and the faint lift at the edges of her eyes. Juba brought him back to the ship that night, knowing he would not leave the planet. "Mother," Juba said, kneeling before the mother and clasping her knees in supplication. "Mother ... isn't he ... different?" "Juba," the mother said, "there is blood on his hands. He has killed. Can't you see it in his eyes?" "Yes. He has a gun and he has used it. But mother--there is a gentleness in him. Could he not change? Perhaps I, myself...." "Beware," the mother said sternly, "that you do not fall into your own traps." "But you have never really known a man, have you? I mean, except for servants?" "I have also," she said, "never had an intimate conversation with a lion, nor shared my noonday thoughts with a spider." "But lions and spiders can't talk. That's the difference. They have no understanding." "Neither have men. They are like your baby sister, Diana, who is reasonable until it no longer suits her, and then the only difference between her and an animal is that she has more cunning." "Yes," Juba said resignedly, getting to her feet. "If thus it is Written. Thank you, Mother. You are a wellspring of knowledge." "Juba," Mother said with a smile, pulling the girl's cloak, for she liked to please them, "would you like him for a pet? Or your personal servant?" "No," she said, and she could feel the breath sharp in her lungs. "I would rather.... He would make a good spectacle in the gladiatorial contests. He would look well with a sword through his heart." She would not picture him a corpse. She put the picture from her mind. But even less would she picture him unmanned.