ve been proud. He realized now that she had done her best
for him. And when every one else had given up hope for him, she had not.
Perhaps she had protected him too much--but she had early learned the
need for protection. He could look at her now in a new light. Her own
father had died early in life, and then her husband soon after her son
had been born. She had faced a tough fight, and had thought to spare him
what she herself had gone through. Too bad she hadn't realized exactly
what she was doing. She was bringing him up with the ability, as the old
epigram had it, to resist everything but temptation.

The temptation to steal that petty cash, to put his hands into a drunk's
pocket and lift the man's wallet, to lie to a pretty girl, to slug a
helpless victim--he had resisted none of them. He had resisted nothing
until that day he had poured the jugful of liquor on the ground and
smashed the jug itself.

But could he blame his mother for all that? It had all been his own
fault.

* * * * *

And it would be his own fault if he failed to resist the new temptation
that now reared its pretty head--Aoooya. She had taken to coming to his
hut-shrine for a private little ceremony of her own. You might almost
have thought that she had fallen in love with him as an individual. He
wondered whether she had been impressed by his helmet. Did she take that
to be his actual head? No, of course not. They had made helmets for
themselves, therefore they knew that the thing he wore was also a
helmet. Perhaps they knew more about him than he thought.

But they continued to worship him, that was the main thing. And Aoooya
brought him, every day, little presents, special flowers and food
delicacies, that argued a personal affection.

This was a danger that he recognized from the beginning. Perhaps a god
_might_ fall in love with a mortal without losing his godliness.
Perhaps. It had happened before. But, however the rest of the tribe
might react to the idea, Bradley had noticed one young man who liked to
stay near the girl, and he knew that this rival wouldn't take kindly to
it at all. He might resent the god's behavior. And what happened when
these people didn't like the way a god behaved? Why, they struck his
head off.

The god might act first, of course. The young man wouldn't stand a
chance against him if he used his gun. In fact, Bradley could blast the
other man unobserved, make him disappear into