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                                LORELEI

                          By CHARLES V. DeVET

                  She was everybody's sweetheart--but
                       not every man's at once!

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
             Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1961.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


Seven days stranded on Europa. Seven days without hope. The courage
that had sustained me, like the numbness after a fatal blow, was
beginning to slip away. All that seventh day my nerves balanced on a
thin jagged edge. And that night the anamorph visited me in my bubble
cubicle.

I caught the sheathed rustle of a crinoline skirt and a scent of Peri
fragrance, and I knew she had come. Stubbornly I kept my face averted,
and tried my best not t