ack in my office I pulled out a
list of our big wholesale accounts where the Atummion products had
been shipped by the carloads. The warehouses were distributed in every
state of the union.

Then I ran my eye down the list of products which contained the
devilish Atummion. There were thirty-eight, in all, including a
complete line of men's toiletries, shaving lotion, shampoo, deodorant
and body-dusting powder. I thanked God that men didn't have ovaries.

Dolores Donet--that was the pixie's name--opened my door and deposited
herself gingerly in a chair opposite me.

I said, "You look radiant."

She said, "Don't rub it in, and I'll have a shot of that." I shared my
Haig and Haig with her, and we drank to the newly departed bottom of
the world.

* * * * *

My secretary tried to give me a list of people who had phoned and a
stack of angry telegrams about back-orders, but I waved her away.
"Dolores," I said, "there must have been a boy guinea pig loose in
that pen. It's just too fantastic!"

"Are you accusing me of turning one loose just to get off the hook
myself?" she snapped.

"What you've got, excuses won't cure," I told her, "but we've got to
get facts. My God, if you're right--"

"We've sworn everyone to secrecy," she said. "There's a $10,000 bonus
posted for each employee who knows about this. Payable when the
statute of limitations runs out on possible litigation."

"You can't swear the public to secrecy," I said.

"Think a minute," she said, coldly. "The married women don't need
excuses, and the single girls--who'll believe them? Half of them or
better, have guilty consciences anyway. The rest? They're in the same
boat I was--without a labful of guinea pigs to back them up."

"But--how did it happen in the first place?"

"Bob has been consulting the biologist we retained. He keeps asking
the same question. He says parthenogenesis in higher lifeforms is
virtually impossible. Bob keeps pointing at the little pigs, and
they're going round and round. They're examining the other eleven test
pens now, but there's no question in my mind. I have a personal stake
in this experiment, and I was very careful to supervise the
segregation of males and females."

My sanity returned in one glorious rush. _There was the bugger
factor!_ _Dolores, herself._

In her eagerness to clear her own skirts, Dolores had tampered with
the integrity of the experiment. Probably, she had arranged