ir of the
rest, those who realized that monsters from space who could read human
minds were utterly invincible and infinitely to be dreaded. No matter
what the children looked like, now, they had been declared on an
official fact-revealing broadcast to be extraterrestrial monsters who
could read human minds!

It raised hell.

Once said, it could not be withdrawn. It could be denied, but it would
be believed. In higher echelons of government all over the world it
produced such raging hatred of the children and the United States
together as made all previous tensions seem love-feasts by comparison.
In Russia it was instantly and bitterly believed that all Soviet
military secrets were now in process of being plucked from Russian
brains and given to the American military. Rage came from helplessness
in the face of such an achievement. There could be no way to stop such
espionage, and military action would be hopeless if the Americans knew
all about it before it was tried. In more tranquil nations there was
deep uneasiness, and in some there was terror. And everywhere that men
hated or stole or schemed--which was everywhere--the belief that
everybody's secrets were open to the children filled men with rage.

Of all public-relations enterprises in human history, the world-wide
broadcast about the children was most disastrous.

Soames and Gail could realize the absurdity of the thing, without any
hope of stopping or correcting it.

* * * * *

They went swiftly back to the hidden base in the Rockies. Soames stayed
to have certain minor injuries attended to. Also he needed to get in
touch with the two physicists who had seen the children and known
despair, but who now played at being castaways with gratifying results.
In part he was needed for endless, harassing consultations with people
who wanted urgently to disbelieve everything he said, and managed to
hold on to a great deal of doubt.

Meanwhile there came about a sullen and infuriated lessening of
international tension. No nation would dare plan a sneak attack on
America if it could be known in advance. And nobody dared make threats
if the United States could know exactly how much of the threat was
genuine.

Captain Moggs flew busily back and forth between the east and the hidden
missile base to which the children had been returned. She informed
Soames that the decorated belts had been taken away from the children.
One of them had b