Matt glanced at the palaeontologist sharply. Ever since that episode on the observation deck, Nesbit had been avoiding him as much as was possible aboard a spaceship. Nesbit couldn't forget that he must have appeared rather silly, Matt realized. He shrugged, started for the house with a great deal of caution. The others followed. They went across the porch, peered through the front door. The room was a mess, Matt saw. Obviously the boar had been lairing in the house. Bones were scattered helter skelter about the floor. "Those look like human bones," said Captain Bascom. Matt nodded grimly. "They are. Look. The skulls!" He pointed at a corner. There were two of them, grinning at them in the morning light that streamed through the glassless windows. The bones had been gnawed, some of them splintered. "That pig!" said Matt. Lynn asked, "D'you mean that boar killed them and ate them?" "I don't know whether he killed them or not. They might have been victims of the plague. But he sure ate them!" "But pigs...." "They'll eat a man, even domestic pigs will--and that fellow was wild." Lynn looked as if she was going to be violently ill. With a grimace of repugnance, Captain Bascom pushed through the front door. Matt followed him inside. His eye lit on a yellowed corner of paper on the mantel. He crossed swiftly to the fireplace. "Look!" he said to the others, who were trooping inside. "It's a newspaper! Maybe now we'll find out what's been happening!" With gentle hands, Matt took the brittle paper from the mantel, unfolded it as they crowded around. SHEPHERDSVILLE GAZETTE Shepherdsville, Ky. Founded 1827 "Well," he said. "We're in Kentucky!" He glanced at the headlines. PLAGUE PARALYZES EARTH "What's the date?" Lynn asked. "October 19th. Not quite seven months ago." "Read it aloud, Matt," said Captain Bascom. PLAGUE PARALYZES EARTH AS WORKERS WALK OUT OF FACTORIES AND POWER PLANTS. CITIES BEING ABANDONED BY HORDES OF FEAR-CRAZED PEOPLE WASHINGTON (WP)--By yesterday at seven A.M. the plague had struck down over a hundred million people in the United States alone, it is estimated. Hysteria has gripped the world. Men and women refused to go to work for fear of catching the plague from their co-workers. The last flash came into this office at 8:20 A.M. yesterday from the WP. Since then, all wires have been dead.... Matt's voice trailed off. "Go on." Lynn urged in a frightened voice. As yet, the germ virus has escaped detection. But Dr. Edward Collins, Ph. D., Sc. D., of the Palomar Observatory, who discovered Nova Centauri a week before the plague struck in the Chilean village of Puquois, has advanced the theory that the disease is caused by life spores too small to be detected in the electronic microscope.