gs appeared. Gail was immediately composed and
remote. But one hand, holding Soames' sleeve, still quivered a little.

"It's dreadful!" said Captain Moggs. "You'll never be able to believe
what's happened! The Russians have pictures of the spaceship! The
pictures Mr. Soames took! They know everything! They must have gotten
the pictures when their planes landed at Gissell Bay! But how?"

* * * * *

Soames could have answered, and quite accurately. Some enterprising
member of the Russian scientific team had been left alone in the
developing-room at the base.

"They gave copies of the pictures to the UN assembly," wailed Captain
Moggs. "All of them! They say they are pictures of the alien ship which
landed--and they are--and they say that we Americans took the crew to
the United States--which we did--but they say we're now making a treaty
with the non-human monsters who came in the ship! They say that we're
selling out the rest of humanity! That we're making a bargain to betray
the world to horrors out of space, in return for safety for ourselves!
They demand that the United Nations take over the ship and its crew."

Soames whistled softly. The charge was just insane enough to be
credited. There was no longer a ship, too, and the children were far
from monsters. So there was no way to convince anyone that America even
made an honest attempt to satisfy or answer the complaint. The matter of
the children and their ship had been badly handled. But there was no way
to handle it well. The coming of the children was a catastrophe any way
you looked at it.

"There was nothing to be done," mourned Captain Moggs, "but state the
facts. Our delegation said the ship crashed on landing, and its
occupants needed time to recover from the shock and to develop some way
to communicate with us. Our delegation said a complete report hadn't
even been made to our government, but that one will be prepared and made
public immediately."

Gail looked up at Soames in the darkness. He nodded.

"That report," said Soames. "That's us. Particularly you."

"Yes," said Gail confidently. "You write the technical side, and I'll do
a human-interest story for the UN that will make everybody love them!"

Soames felt more than usually a scoundrel.

"Hold it," he said unhappily. "It's all right to make the kids
attractive, but not too much. Do you remember why?"

Gail stopped short.

"They don't come from a comfortab