“A mystery?” Tom frowned.
“I sure have. First off I thought Bud was playin* another one o’ his jokes on me. But it happened again while you fellers were over on Fearin’ Island. So I figure somethin’ mighty queer is goin’ on.”
“What do you mean, Chow?” Tom asked.
“It’s my pots an’ pans-they talk to me!”
CHAPTER X
RADIO LEAK
TOM could hardly believe Chow’s statement. “Are you kidding, Chow?”
The stout old cook looked indignant.
“Brand my coyote stew, o’ course I ain’t kiddin’. I tell you my pots an’ pans have been spoutin’ all kinds o’ funny lingo. Had me thinkin’ I was goin’ plumb loco for a while!”
Tom grinned sympathetically. “Okay, I believe you, Chow. But what did they say?”
“Well, there was one voice sayin* ‘Rocket overdue at space station-Horton will conduct search.’ Then there was some gibble-gibble about a cosmic radiator report from Wright Field Aeromed-ical Lab. And this mornin’ my big stew kettle starts reeling off some stuff about lox-zinc diethyl an’ solid fuel propellants or some such foolishness.”
“Foolishness!” Tom had bolted up out of his chair. “Chow, do you realize what all that stuff was?”
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90 THE RACE TO THE MOON
“Shucks, no. I couldn’t make head or tail out of it.”
“Those were top-secret radio messages coming into Swift Enterprises!” Tom asserted.
The bald-headed chef was thunderstruck. “R-r-radio messages?” Chow stuttered. “But I didn’t hear this stuff over the radio. I told you my pots an’ pans was speakin’ it!”
“That’s just it-they must have been functioning as loudspeakers,” Tom said urgently. “Come on down to the galley and show me where all this happened.”
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