inside. He snapped a switch on the side of his desk.

"There; now they can't hear--if any are still hanging around."

Professor Elton looked at him bewilderedly. "I don't get it. After all
the risk we went to, to convince the public that there ain't no
ghosts--as the old saying goes--you arrange to have students hear you
going into a 'report to the home planet' act. And you use a code they
all know. What's the point in undoing it?"

Clayton nodded. "It looks somewhat mad, doesn't it? Well ... the
Psychology Team was sure of the necessity. You see, more and more humans
remain unconvinced each time one of these hoaxes are exposed. The
unconvinced are sure that something fiendish is going on beneath the
surface, that the authorities--all kinds from civil to scientific--are
engaged in a vast cover-up. We can't prevent this belief; we don't know
how to keep it from spreading. So--the alternative is to direct it."

Elton nodded slowly. "I can see possibilities along that line--but just
what direction was this supposed to kind of bring about?"

"Why, obviously, if large-scale invasion from Mars is imminent--and this
is the belief that we're all catering to--then it follows that the
invasion hasn't already taken place. The two of us, and Harvey Gale,
will disappear shortly in one way or another, and gradually public cries
for effective planetary defense will mount.

"You know who will direct the defense."

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Future Science Fiction_ No. 30 1956.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth Invasion, by Henry Josephs

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