every human being on
Earth scared to death we'll bring back germs and everybody'll die of the
croup!"

Cochrane grinned.

"Good publicity--if we needed it! Actually, they've boosted the show.
From now on every presentation has a dramatic kick it didn't have
before. Now everybody will feel suspense waiting for the next show. Has
Jamison got the Purple Death on the Planet of Smoky Hilltops? Will
darling Alicia Keith break out in green spots next time we watch her on
the air? Has Captain Al of the star-roving space-ship breathed in spores
of the Swelling Fungus? Are the space-travellers doomed? Tune in on our
next broadcast and see! My dear Bill, if we weren't signed up for
sponsors' fees, I'd raise our prices after this trick!"

Holden looked unconvinced. Cochrane said kindly:

"Don't worry! I could turn off the panic tomorrow--as much panic as
there is. Kursten, Kasten, Hopkins and Fallowe had a proposal they set
great store by. They wanted to parcel out a big contest for a name for
mankind's second planet. They had regional sponsors lined up. It would
have been worldwide! Advertisers were drooling over the prospect of
people proposing names for this planet on box-tops! They were planning
five million prize-money--and who'd be afraid of us then? But I turned
it down because we haven't got a helicopter. We couldn't stage enough
different shows from this planet to keep it going the minimum six weeks
for a contest like that. Instead, we're taking off in a couple of hours.
Jones agrees. The astronomers back home have picked out another Sol-type
star that ought to have planets. We're going to run over and see what
pickings we can find. Not too far--only twenty-some light-years!"

He regarded Holden quizzically to see how the last phases affected him.
Holden didn't notice it.

"A contest--It doesn't make sense!"

"I know it isn't sense!" said Cochrane. "It's public-relations! I'm
beginning to get my self-respect back. I see now that a
space-exploration job is only as good as its public-relations man!"

He went zestfully to find Babs to tell her to leave the communicator-set
and let queries go unanswered as a matter of simple business policy.

The sling which swung out of the airlock now became busy. They had
landed on this planet, and they were going to leave it, and there had
been a minimum of actual contact with its soil. So Jamison took his
leggings--put on for the show--and he and Bell went down to the ground
an