serve for a few thousand years,
they allowed Man to go his merry way, just to teach him a lesson."

The boys in the back of the room were definitely in a trance.

Forrester sighed. "And the inevitable happened," he said. "From the
eighth century B.C., Old Style, until the year 1971 A.D., Old Style,
Man's lot went from bad to worse. Without the Gods to guide him he bred
bigger and bigger wars and greater and greater empires--beginning with
the conquests of the mad Alexander of Macedonia and culminating in the
opposing Soviet and American Spheres of Influence during the last
century."

Spheres of Influence....

Forrester's gaze fell on the blonde girl again. She certainly had a
well-developed figure. And she did seem so eager and attentive. He
smiled at her tentatively. She smiled back.

"Urg ..." he said aloud.

The class didn't seem to notice. That, Forrester told himself sourly,
was probably because they weren't listening.

He swallowed, wrenched his gaze from the girl, and said: "The
Soviet-American standoff--for that is what it was--would most probably
have resulted in the destruction of the human race." It had no effect on
the class. The destruction of the human race interested nobody.
"However," Forrester said gamely, "this form of insanity was too much
for the Gods to allow. They therefore--"

The bell rang, signifying the end of the period. Forrester didn't know
whether to feel relieved or annoyed.

"All right," he said. "That's all for today. Your first assignment will
be to read and carefully study Chapters One and Two of the textbook."

Silence gave way to a clatter of noise as the students began to file
out. Forrester saw the front-row blonde rise slowly and gracefully. Any
doubts he might have entertained (that is, he told himself wryly, any
_entertaining_ doubts) about her figure were resolved magnificently. He
felt a little sweat on the palm of his hands, told himself that he was
being silly, and then answered himself that the hell he was.

The blonde gave him a slow, sweet smile. The smile promised a good deal
more than Forrester thought likely of fulfillment.

He smiled back.

It would have been impolite, he assured himself, not to have done so.

The girl left the room, and a remaining crowd of students hurried out
after her. The crowd included two blinking boys, awakened by the bell
from what had certainly been a trance. Forrester made a mental note to
inquire after their records and to