“Wowl Is this your spaceman?” Bud inquired.
Tom nodded, then grinned at his callers’ gaping expressions. Each was trying to imagine how the “thing” would look in action.
“Sure is a queer-lookin’ buckarool” Chow commented, when Tom finished explaining how it was supposed to work.
On a sudden impulse, the old cowpoke took off his ten-gallon hat and plumped it on the creature. Then he removed his polka-dotted red bandanna BRUNGARIAN COUP 53
and knotted it like a neckerchief just below the star head.
Tom laughed heartily as Bud howled, “Ride ‘em, spaceman!”
Tom was eager to notify his mysterious space friends that the container was now ready to receive the brain energy. Bud went with him by jeep to the space-communications laboratory. Chow, however, stayed behind and stared in fascination at the odd-looking robot creature.
The stout cook walked back and forth, eying the thing suspiciously from every angle. “Wonder what the critter eats?” he muttered.
Feeling in his shirt pocket, Chow brought out a wad of his favorite bubble gum. Should he or shouldn’t he? “Shucks, won’t hurt to try,” the old Texan decided.
Chow unlocked the hinged point of the star head and popped the gum inside.
He was somewhat disappointed when nothing happened. Feeling a trifle foolish, Chow finally removed his hat and bandanna from the creature and stumped off.
Meanwhile, in the space-communications laboratory, Tom was pounding out a message on the keyboard of the electronic brain. Tom had invented this device for automatically coding and decoding messages between the Swifts and their space friends. It was connected to a powerful transmitting-and-receiving apparatus, served by a