was made the committee assigned
families to live together.

As soon as the order was issued, Ken's mother suggested they invite the
Larsens to move in with them. The Swedish family was happy to accept.

Thanksgiving, when it came, was observed in spirit, but scarcely in
fact. There were some suggestions that Mayor Hilliard should order
special rations for that day and for Christmas, at least, but he stuck
to his ironhard determination that every speck of food would be
stretched to the limit. No special allowance would be made for
Thanksgiving or any other occasion until the danger was over.

Ken and his father and their friends had done their share of criticizing
the Mayor in the past, but they now had only increasing admiration for
his determination to take a stand for the principles he knew to be
right, no matter how stern. Previously, most of the townspeople had
considered him very good at giving highly patriotic Fourth of July
speeches, and not much good at anything else. Now, Ken realized, the
bombastic little man seemed to have come alive, fully and miraculously
alive.

* * * * *

The day after Thanksgiving Ken and Professor Maddox were greeted by Mrs.
Maddox upon coming home. "Maria wants you to come to the radio shack
right away," she said. "There's something important coming in from
Berkeley."

They hurried to the shack, and Maria looked up in relief as they
entered. "I'm so glad you're here!" she cried. "Dr. French is on the
radio personally. I've been recording him, but he wants to talk to you.
He's breaking in every 10 minutes to give me a chance to let him know if
you're here. It's almost time, now."

Ken and his father caught a fragment of a sentence spoken by the
Berkeley scientist, and then the operator came on. "Berkeley requesting
acknowledgment, Mayfield."

Ken picked up the microphone and answered. "This is Mayfield, Ken Maddox
talking. My father is here and will speak with Dr. French."

Professor Maddox sat down at the desk. "This is Professor Maddox," he
said. "I came in time to hear your last sentence, Dr. French. They tell
me you have something important to discuss. Please go ahead."

Ken switched over to receive, and in a moment the calm, persuasive voice
of Dr. French was heard in the speaker. "I'm glad you came in, Dr.
Maddox," he said. "On the tape you have my report of some experiments we
have run the last few days. They are not finished, and if cir