“Elephant fricassee.”
Bud spluttered and choked. After Tom had pounded him, Bud gasped, “Elephant?”
“Yup. I ordered the meat special from an importer an’ stewed it up with bananas an’ okra. Figgered we might call the stuff jumbo gumbo.”
Tom was quaking with laughter at Bud’s expression but managed to nod approvingly. “Ties in with that pink elephant on the sign, eh?”
“That’s what gave me the idea,” Chow explained. “But Gus says his partner jest dreamed up a new name fer the diners that’s sure to attract lots o’ business, so the elephant’s comin’ down.”
“I’ll bet I know why it’s comin’ down-‘cause
A TERRIFIED FACE 23
the partner got a taste of this jumbo gumbo,” Bud whispered as the Texan ambled off.
While they ate, Tom told his father about his latest space-prober observations of the Green Orb. He also explained his hunch about the existence of life on the weird sky object.
Mr. Swift was startled. “Whether or not you’re right, son, I think you should report all this to Washington. Government scientists are trying to find out all they can about the Orb.”
“Good idea, Dad. I’ll call Bernt Ahlgren.”
Ahlgren, a top scientist of the Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency, was an old friend. Tom telephoned him.
“Hmm. Sounds as if you’re right that the prober beam caused the Orb to glow last night,” Ahlgren said, after hearing Tom’s report. “That will take some real explaining by astronomers.”
As to the electromagnetic reaction which had damaged the prober, and whether it indicated life on the Green Orb, Ahlgren was more cautious. But he was keenly interested in the theory.
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