lusion whatever. But the
Americans would be able to make an agreement on methods of observation
with the other bases so that observations in the future would yield a
little more information than had been secured before.

Gail kept a quasi-maternal eye on the children until they dozed off. But
she watched Soames' expression, too. She and Soames and Captain Moggs
rode in the passenger section of the transport a few seats behind the
children.

"I wish I could understand," said Gail, in a low tone to Soames. "The
other children know everything I've taught Zani, and there's been no way
for them to know! They know things they weren't in the room to learn,
and Zani didn't have time to tell them! Yet it doesn't seem like
telepathy. If they were telepaths they could exchange thoughts without
speaking. But they chatter all the time!"

"If they'd been telepaths," said Soames, "they'd have known I was going
to burn their signalling apparatus. They could have stopped me, or tried
to, anyhow."

* * * * *

Captain Moggs had paid no attention. Now she asked, "Why does the public
insist on details of matters the military think should be kept secret?"

"Because," said Gail briefly, "it's the public that gets drowned by a
tidal wave or killed by a cyclone. If strangers from space discover
Earth, it's the public that will suffer."

"But," said Captain Moggs querulously, "it is necessary for this to be
kept secret!"

"Unfortunately," said Soames. "The story broke before that decision was
made."

He thought how inevitable it was that everybody should see the situation
from their own viewpoint only. Captain Moggs from the military; Gail had
a newspaper-woman's angle tempered with feminine compassion. And he was
fascinated by the innumerable possibilities the technology of the
children's race suggested. He yearned for a few days alone with some
low-temperature apparatus. The hand-tool of Fran's bothered him.

He told Gail.

"What has low temperature to do?" she asked.

"They've got some wire that's a superconductor at room temperature. We
can't have superconductors above 18 deg. Kelvin, which is colder than liquid
hydrogen. But a superconductor acts like a magnetic shield, no, not
exactly. But you can't touch a magnet to one. Induced currents in the
superconductor fight its approach. I'd like to know what happens to the
magnetic field. Does it cancel, or bounce, or what? Could it, for
instance, be