d the children from Idlewild into New York. In time
the car dived down into the freight entrance of the new Communications
Building on 59th Street. Secret Service men had cleared all corridors so
the children reached their dressing-rooms unseen.

Linda Beach appeared an hour later and began the rehearsal.

The children gathered the purpose of the thing by watching the monitors.
They chattered together, and the girls went pleasantly through what was
expected of them. Hod seemed quite numb, and Fran scowled. But he was
more gracious when he saw Soames going through similar antics.

The rehearsal ended. There was another long wait. This was to introduce
the children--from a totally unknown and superior civilization--to a
world which considered them strangers from space, when they were
actually from a much more improbable homeland. The world was waiting to
see this. Time dragged.

All over the world people were waiting to get a first glimpse of
creatures whose coming might mean the end of the world.

Presently it began.

The show, naturally, opened with a tremendous fanfare of trumpets,
played from tape.

Then Linda Beach appeared. She introduced Gail and Soames and Captain
Moggs.

This broadcast was supposed to be strictly informative. It was, however,
produced with the attitude and the technique and the fine
professionalism of specialists in the area of subconscious selling. So
it put its audience--the vast majority of it--into the exact mood of
people who surrender themselves to mildly lulling make-believe. When
Captain Moggs told of the finding of the ship, her authoritative manner
and self-importance made people feel, without regard to their thoughts,
that she was an un-funny comedian. The audience remembered with
decreasing concern that some interesting monsters were supposed to be in
the show later and that they were waiting to see them.

The introduction of the children was a disappointment, but a mild one.
When they were produced and identified, the television-watching syndrome
was fully developed. There was a feeling, of course, that the show fell
down in interest and that it did not live up to its advance publicity.
But the television audience is used to that. Its members continued to
watch with slightly dulled eyes, listening with partly attentive ears,
automatically waiting for a commercial when it could get some beer or an
equivalent without missing anything.

Even when tumult and confusion began;