The bearded biologist who followed him was to have lectured on the pictures and reports forwarded to him beforehand.  But he could not ignore so promising a lead to show how much he knew.  So he lectured authoritatively on the danger of extra-terrestrial disease-producing organisms being introduced on Earth.  He painted a lurid picture, quoting from the history of pre-sanitation epidemics.  He wound up with a specific prophecy of something like the Black Death of the middle ages as lurking among the stars to decimate humanity.  He was a victim of the well-known authority-trauma which affects some people on television when they think millions of other people are listening to them.  They depart madly from their scripts to try to say something startling enough to justify all the attention they’re getting.

The broadcast ended with a sentimental live commercial in which a dazzlingly beautiful girl melted into the arms of the worthy young man she had previously scorned.  She found him irresistible when she noticed that he was wearing a suit she instantly knew by its quality could only come from Harvey’s.

On the planet of glaciers and volcanoes, Holden fumed.

“Dammit!” he protested.  “They talk like we’re lepers!  Like if we ever come back we’ll be carriers of some monstrous disease that will wipe out the human race!  As a matter of fact, we’re no more likely to catch an extra-terrestrial disease than to catch wry-neck from sick chickens!”

“That broadcast’s nothing to worry about,” said Cochrane.

“But it is!” insisted Holden.  “Dabney and that fool biologist presented space-travel as a reason for panic!  They could have 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