me?"

"Yes!" cried Stephanie. "Oh, yes. Go on."

"The C. E. L. has sixty-eight people in Congress for the current term.
We hope to raise that number to seventy-five for next election. It's a
long fight, a slow uphill fight, and frankly, my dear, we need all the
help we can get. People--young women like yourself, my dear--are
entirely too lethargic, if you'll forgive me."

"You ought to forgive _me_," said Stephanie, "if you will. You know,
it's funny. I had vague ideas about helping Kit, about finding some
way to get him back. Only to tackle something like that alone.... I'm
only twenty-one, just a girl, and I don't know anyone important. No
one ever comes back, that's what you hear. But there's a rotation
system, you also hear that. If I can be of any help...."

"You certainly can, my dear. We'd be delighted to have you."

"Then, eventually, maybe, just maybe, we'll start getting them rotated
home?"

"We can't promise a thing. We can only try. And I never did say we'd
try to get the boys rotated, my dear. There is a rotation system in
the law, right there in Public Law 1182. But if no men have ever been
rotated, there must be a reason for it."

"Yes, but--"

"But we'll see. If for some reason rotation simply is not practicable,
we'll find another way. Which is why we call ourselves the
C.E.L.--Complete Emancipation League--for women. If men must embark on
the Nowhere Journey--the least they can do is let their women
volunteer to go along with them if they want to--since it may be
forever. Let a bunch of women get to this Nowhere place and you'll
never know what might happen, that's what I say."

Something about the gray haired woman's earthy confidence imbued
Stephanie with an optimism she never expected. "Well," she said,
smiling, "if we can't bring ourselves to Mohammed.... No, that's all
wrong! ... to the mountain...?"

"Yes, there's an old saying. But it isn't important. You get the idea.
My dear, how would you like to go to Nowhere?"

"I--to Kit, anywhere, anywhere!" _I'll never forget yesterday, Kit
darling. Never!_

"I make no promises, Stephanie, but it may be sooner than you think.
Morning be hanged, perhaps I will have some sherry after all. Umm, you
wouldn't by any chance have some Canadian instead?"

Humming, Stephanie dashed into the kitchen for some glasses.

* * * * *

There were times when the real Alaric Arkalion III wished his father
would mind his o