cteria the human body cannot resist? May they not
bring back plagues and epidemics? Have they prepared themselves to use
my discovery only for the benefit of mankind? Or have they been
precipitous? I shall have to apply myself to the devising of methods by
which my discovery--made so that Humanity might attain hitherto
undreamed-of-heights--I shall have to devise means by which it will be
truly a blessing to mankind!"

Dabney, of course, had tasted the limelight. All the world considered
him the greatest scientist of all time--except, of course, the people
who knew something about science. But the first actual voyagers in space
had become immediately greater heroes than himself. It was intolerable
to Dabney to be restricted to taking bows on programs in which they
starred. So he wrote a star part for himself.

The bearded biologist who followed him was to have lectured on the
pictures and reports forwarded to him beforehand. But he could not
ignore so promising a lead to show how much he knew. So he lectured
authoritatively on the danger of extra-terrestrial disease-producing
organisms being introduced on Earth. He painted a lurid picture, quoting
from the history of pre-sanitation epidemics. He wound up with a
specific prophecy of something like the Black Death of the middle ages
as lurking among the stars to decimate humanity. He was a victim of the
well-known authority-trauma which affects some people on television when
they think millions of other people are listening to them. They depart
madly from their scripts to try to say something startling enough to
justify all the attention they're getting.

The broadcast ended with a sentimental live commercial in which a
dazzlingly beautiful girl melted into the arms of the worthy young man
she had previously scorned. She found him irresistible when she noticed
that he was wearing a suit she instantly knew by its quality could only
come from Harvey's.

On the planet of glaciers and volcanoes, Holden fumed.

"Dammit!" he protested. "They talk like we're lepers! Like if we ever
come back we'll be carriers of some monstrous disease that will wipe out
the human race! As a matter of fact, we're no more likely to catch an
extra-terrestrial disease than to catch wry-neck from sick chickens!"

"That broadcast's nothing to worry about," said Cochrane.

"But it is!" insisted Holden. "Dabney and that fool biologist presented
space-travel as a reason for panic! They could have