“This was supposed to be a surprise,” Sandy added, “but I’d better tell you now, so you don’t go backsliding on us again. Know who the guest of honor will be at the party?”
Tom shook his head. “I give up.”
“Jerry Walden.”
‘Jerry Walden!” Tom was delighted at the news. “But I thought he was in South Africa.”
“He was,” Sandy explained, “but now he’s back home in Shopton.”
Jerry Walden, a neighbor of the Swifts, had been one of Tom’s boyhood idols. He had studied veterinary medicine and always took care of the Swifts’
family pets, including their two bloodhounds, Caesar and Brutus. As a specialist in rare
MYSTERIOUS RAIDERS 35
animal diseases, he had gone to South Africa to do research on a new virus attacking the cattle herds there.
“That’s great news, Sandy!” Tom exclaimed. “Maybe he can help us with this trouble our space friends are having.”
“O-oh, more work!” Sandy pouted. “I know it’s important, Tom, but can’t you and Bud ever think of anything but work?”
Tom gave her a brotherly hug. “Okay, Sis. We’ll try to make up for it this evening.” A twinkle came into his eyes. “Suppose you two sit down here and read some magazines while I clean up the place. Then we’ll fly over to Fearing for Bud.”
Neither girl noticed the mischievous smile on Tom’s face as they sat down on laboratory stools and began looking through magazines which they had picked up from a nearby shelf.
“All work and no play, eh?” Tom said to himself. “We’ll see.”
Phyl leaned toward Sandy. “Here’s a magazine you ought to like. It’s an aviation digest, showing all the latest planes.”