"And then one evening," the little guy says, settling back in his chair with a hooker of Saturnian Sling, and that far-away look in his eyes again, "just when I least expected it, my robot butler announced her. "'Oh, I'm so glad you've changed your mind, Miss LaTour,' I greeted her. 'And now if you're ready, we can continue our experiments without further delay.' "'Nix, doc, I ain't here for any more experiments,' were her first words. "I was non-plussed. 'You're not? Then why did you--?' "'Oh, I dunno. I been practisin' that space-warpin' hip-wiggle in private, see? And I been meetin' all sorts of characters. But not the one I got a real interest in.' "I sensed trouble. 'Miss LaTour, if you've come here for--' "'I'm getting bored, Doc. Luigi's gettin' too jealous. Why he even thinks that you--' She leered at me archly. 'Well, never mind. But them few hours I spent with that there Launcelot--' "She began to hum a few bars of the song she used in her--um--routine, despite my pleas. "'Miss LaTour, please don't begin that again!' "'What're ya kickin' about, professor? You're gettin' a free show, ain'tcha? At least up to a point y'are--' "'Please, Miss LaTour, put on that blouse. I must warn you--' "Her lovely bare arms stopped their gyrations. 'Huh? Warn me? About what?' "'That time and space are really fluid, as that ancient philosopher, Einstein, suspected back in the Twentieth Century. You may not reach the same time-space continuum again. Why, you may even--um--wiggle yourself into the middle of a Pharaoh's tomb--or perhaps the bottom of the ocean which now covers what used to be ancient Russia!' "'I'll take my chances, Doc. Hmmm.... Hmmm.... Pretty good, huh?' "'I implore you, Miss LaTour!' "Despite my desperate efforts, she began to remove another of her--um--garments. "'Da de da, my bra. Da de daa doo, my shoe. And now, Launcelot, honey, here I--' "She had come to the hip-wiggle that curiously projected her through some warp in space. There was a sound as though a rubber tube were being sucked inside out--and she vanished." * * * * * The little fella emptied his glass and filled it again. "I waited for what seemed an eternity. But she never reappeared, to this very day." I takes another slug of that Martian wiggle-water myself, then I squints at the professor over my glass. "I guess maybe you been hittin' the bottle yourself lately, huh Doc?" "What? Oh, you don't believe me, do you, Benny?" "Well, it ain't that exactly, but ya gotta admit--" He gets excited again. "Here, I'll show you." He goes to a drawer, takes somethin' soft and shiny out, and comes back, wavin' them under my nose. My nose doesn't object. "I have proof. Take a look at these." They was Helen LaTour's size, all right. I gotta admit that, okay. And they _was_ pretty. Especially when I starts thinkin' of what filled 'em. "She left them behind when she went through that space warp. It's all there is left of her."