"Miss LaTour!" I was desperate. "Do you realize what this would mean to science?" I tried to explain to her, "For centuries, man has tried to find the answer to the secrets of the action of mass subject to certain movements at certain speeds, knowing that mass and energy were identical--" "I coulda given them the answer any time they wanted to catch me at the Little Venus Burly-que," she retorted fliply. "I use plenty of energy, but, brother, I never waste a movement." "Please, young lady, this flippant attitude toward science--" "What do I care about science? All I want is my routine. Now, can you hep me to what's putting the crimp in my act, so's I can iron out that there fourth-dimensional wiggle?" "I'd have to study this peculiar phenomenon much more closely--" "Nothin' doin'! You seen all you're going to!" "But you don't understand," I pleaded. "Lissen! I built myself up from a walk-on in the chorus. Worked hard, see? Figured out my own bumps and grinds and hip-rolls, just so's I could make myself the biggest tease name in the galaxy. And now, what goes? I got what you call a fourth-dimensional wiggle that gets me out through somebody's space warp into somebody's back yard who lived before I was born! This here thing's warpin' my personality. I'm fed up," she cried. I was frantic. "But you've a debt to society--" "Lissen. I pay my debt every time I walk out on that stage. Think of all the men I make forget they're married, or their office, or factory or farm troubles--or their income taxes! How would _they_ feel, if I disappeared in the middle of my strip? They want to see _more_ of me, not _less_! "I thought maybe you could help me lick this thing--whatever you call it. But under that beard you're just like all them other guys. I'm fed up on double talk. Let's just forget the whole thing, Doc. Good-by, professor!" And with that, she flounced out of my apartment. * * * * * Well, the little guy stopped talkin', then, and takes another drink and I find I been sittin' on the edge of my chair, like I was stymied by a paralaray. "B-but--you said that she disappeared from here," I says like a guy in a trance. "Oh yes indeed," he smiles at me. "I was too wrapped up in her by then to let her off so easily." "Y'mean--you followed her up?" "I felt sure that if I could just see her again, and explain the value of her peculiar, indeed amazing talent, to science--well, at any rate I knew where to go. I had never in all my life frequented one of those burlesque houses. "After the performance I endeavored to see her backstage. That was when I had my first brush with Mr. Luigi." "Tough character, ain't he?" "Extremely so. He warned me not to bother her, and when I tried to explain, he threatened me.