or the ensuing five-and-a-fraction months she would be slowing
down.

A few weeks after the turnover, Adams seemed to have more time. At
least, he devoted more time to the expectant mothers, even to the point
of supervising Deston and Jones in the construction of a weirdly-wired
device by means of which he studied and photographed the unborn child
each woman bore. He said nothing, however, until Barbara made him talk.

"Listen, you egregious clam," she said, firmly, "I know darn well I've
been pregnant for at _least_ seven months, and I ought to be twice this
big. Our clock isn't _that_ far off; Carl said that by wave lengths or
something it's only about three per cent fast. And you've been
pussyfooting and hem-hawing around all this time. Now, Uncle Andy, I
want the _truth_. _Are_ we in for a lot of trouble?"

"Trouble? Of course not. _Certainly_ not. No trouble at all, my dear.
Why, you've seen the pictures--here, look at them again ... see?
Absolutely normal fetus--yours, too, Bernice. _Perfect_! No
malformations of any kind."

"Yes, but for what _age_?" Bernice asked, pointedly. "Four months, say?
I see, I was exposed to a course in embryology myself, once."

"But _that's_ the interesting part of it!" Adams enthused. "Fascinating!
And, indubitably, supremely important. In fact, it may point out the key
datum underlying the solution of our entire problem. If this zeta field
is causing this seemingly peculiar biological effect, that gives us a
tremendously powerful new tool, for certain time vectors in the
generalized matrix become parameters. Thus, certain determinants,
notably the all-important delta-prime-sub-mu, become manipulable by ...
but you aren't _listening_!"

"I'm listening, pops, but nothing is coming through. But thanks much,
anyway. I feel a lot better, knowing I'm not going to give birth to a
monster. Or _are_ you sure, really?"

"Of _course_ I'm sure!" Adams snapped, testily, and Barbara led Deston
aside.

"Have you got the _slightest_ idea of what he was talking about?" she
asked.

"Just the slightest, if any. Either that time is relative--no, that's so
elementary he wouldn't mention it. Maybe he's figured out a _variable_
time of some kind or other. Anyway, you girls' slowness in producing has
given the old boy a big lift, and I'm mighty glad of it."

"But aren't you _worried_, sweetheart? Not even the least little bit?"

"Of course not," and Deston very evidently meant just that.

"I