As he had predicted, the newspapers soon heard of the new investigations and the noon headlines, shown over the TV, were large and frightening. "Are Flu Victims Sterile?" the _Daily Mail_ screamed hysterically in three inch letters and went into a long discourse based only on a cautious statement, attributed to Dr. Smith, that some experimental animals, after the flu, showed a decrease in procreative powers. _The Sun_ was more cautious but the tune was the same. An hour after the papers appeared, Hallam ordered all telephone lines to the Laboratory shut down and a short dictated speech, intended to calm the hysteria, was played continuously over the trunks and repeated on both radio and TV. The mayor came to the hospital, as mad as a clucking hen whose eggs have been disturbed, as indeed they had. She cooled off considerably after Hallam spoke to her on the inside telephone, and, in cooperation with the local director of the RCMP, the head of the Metropolitan School Board, the Medical Officer of Health and various other officials summoned to the spot, agreed to form a Public Safety Committee to take immediate action if the need arose. They too, after their meeting, could only sit and wait for Smith's report. "Why didn't you go down and talk to them sir?" I said later. "I don't want to get the flu." I smiled condescendingly. "Oh? I didn't think it would mean that much to you." "It doesn't," he said levelly, "but it would to you and Pat if I brought it back up here with me." There was nothing I could say. I have seldom felt so foolish. * * * * * Later in the day, I played a lazy game of cribbage with Hallam while Pat knitted and watched TV at the other end of the room. Deciding to have some fun, as the Chief dealt a new hand, I picked up the paper that was lying on the table. "Say, Pat, here's a little item that should interest you," I said, and pretended to read. "Lovely woman scientist, possible Nobel prize winner, knits little things and dreams of rose-covered cottage. I always wanted at least ten children, our reporter quotes Mrs.--" I started loudly, cocking one eye over the top of the paper; but I didn't finish. Pat got up abruptly. For an instant I thought she would throw the wool at me, needles and all. "You stinker ... you absolute stinker," she spat at me, and almost ran from the room. "Lord! She must be getting stir crazy," I said, bewildered. "John, sometimes I think you spent too many years overseas," Hallam said quietly. "You still can't imagine how a woman thinks." That broke up the crib game. Neither of us had the heart to continue. For the first time I really began to imagine a world full of sterile people; the falling population; the frustrated family life; the emptying houses; the already empty schools. "God, what a dreary prospect," I said aloud. "And we were worrying about overpopulation." The Chief caught my train of thought but he just nodded. There was no answer.