seemed to move through the
air, not over the surface. Rather rapidly, apparently. No one in the
story was surprised. That's what tipped me off. No sign of amazement
at such an outrageous thing. Later the matter was amplified.

_... his eyes moved from person to person._

There it was in a nutshell. The eyes had clearly come apart from the
rest of him and were on their own. My heart pounded and my breath
choked in my windpipe. I had stumbled on an accidental mention of a
totally unfamiliar race. Obviously non-Terrestrial. Yet, to the
characters in the book, it was perfectly natural--which suggested they
belonged to the same species.

And the author? A slow suspicion burned in my mind. The author was
taking it rather _too easily_ in his stride. Evidently, he felt this
was quite a usual thing. He made absolutely no attempt to conceal this
knowledge. The story continued:

_... presently his eyes fastened on Julia._

Julia, being a lady, had at least the breeding to feel indignant. She
is described as blushing and knitting her brows angrily. At this, I
sighed with relief. They weren't _all_ non-Terrestrials. The narrative
continues:

_... slowly, calmly, his eyes examined every inch of her._

Great Scott! But here the girl turned and stomped off and the matter
ended. I lay back in my chair gasping with horror. My wife and family
regarded me in wonder.

"What's wrong, dear?" my wife asked.

I couldn't tell her. Knowledge like this was too much for the ordinary
run-of-the-mill person. I had to keep it to myself. "Nothing," I
gasped. I leaped up, snatched the book, and hurried out of the room.

* * * * *

In the garage, I continued reading. There was more. Trembling, I read
the next revealing passage:

_... he put his arm around Julia. Presently she asked him if
he would remove his arm. He immediately did so, with a smile._

It's not said what was done with the arm after the fellow had removed
it. Maybe it was left standing upright in the corner. Maybe it was
thrown away. I don't care. In any case, the full meaning was there,
staring me right in the face.

Here was a race of creatures capable of removing portions of their
anatomy at will. Eyes, arms--and maybe more. Without batting an
eyelash. My knowledge of biology came in handy, at this point.
Obviously they were simple beings, uni-cellular, some sort of
primitive single-celled things. Beings no more develo