“Don’t just stand there!” Bud begged his two friends. “Do something!”
Footsteps came hurrying down the passageway from the lounge, and Darcy Creel poked his head into the bunkroom.
“Oh-oh! I was afraid of that!” he said apologetically. “Come here, Bushy, you little rascal!”
The tiny creature leaped onto Creel’s shoulder and disappeared inside his sport jacket.
“You mean that weird goon belongs to you?” Bud growled, sitting up and glaring at Creel.
“Well-er-yes. Little pet I picked up in Kenya last year.”
“What is it?” Tom put in with a grin.
“A bush baby-or galago. She’s very friendly.”
“Friendly?” Bud swung down from the bunk, landing on the deck with a furious thump. “When I woke up and saw that spook staring at me upside down I almost did a jet takeoff!”
Chow howled with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Bud demanded.
“You were! A great big buckaroo like you scared out o’ his wits by that little critter!”
“I was afraid to move,” Bud fumed. “It might have poked my eye out or bit my nose off.”
“I take it the thing won’t bite?” Tom asked.
“No, of course not,” Creel said hastily. “I should have asked permission to bring Bushy on board,
IVORY IDOL 51
but I didn’t think she’d bother anyone. She was curled up asleep in some of my gear. I didn’t think she’d go off exploring.”
“Okay, but keep her away from me!” Bud said. Still grumbling, he pulled on his loafers and accompanied Tom and Chow to the flight compartment.
With the Sky Queen cruising smoothly at an air speed of well over three thousand knots, the trip to Africa was completed in less than two hours. It was not yet eleven o’clock in the morning when the giant plane swooped down and landed at the airport of Princetown, capital of Ngombia.
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