ggins family.
Mr. Huggins was just herding the island's milk cows into the barn for
milking.

Rick kicked at a near-by tree. "Either I'm dumb or it isn't as simple as
we think it ought to be," he said aloud, then went on into the house.

* * * * *

Scotty and Barby had done no better. They gathered at the family table
with long faces and Barby placed the disturbing cable in the middle of
the table as a centerpiece.

"If we look at it long enough, maybe we'll get inspiration," she said.

Professor Julius Weiss, the only one of the three staff scientists who
was at home at the moment, picked up the cable and examined it.

"A cipher, eh?" He adjusted his glasses. "It certainly looks
complicated."

"Any ideas?" Rick asked hopefully.

The little mathematician shook his head. "No, Rick. I could give you the
cube root of the square of the sum of the numbers, or anything like
that, but I'm afraid I wouldn't even know how to start breaking the
code." He added, "John probably could. He had some experience with codes
while in the Navy, I believe."

John was Professor John Gordon. He was on an extended trip to New
Mexico, serving as a consultant to the Navy's guided missiles projects.
The third scientist, Professor Hobart Zircon, was giving a five-week
series of lectures in nuclear physics at Yale.

"I'm afraid Professor Gordon is too far away to help us on this," Rick
said.

Mrs. Brant came in, bringing a heavily laden dish of fresh corn on the
cob. Behind her trotted a shaggy little dog.

Rick snapped his fingers. "Here, Diz."

Dismal ran over and barked at his young master, then he rolled over on
his back and played dead, his only trick. Rick grinned. "Did you bring
him along as an adviser, Mom? I'll bet he'd be as good at solving this
as any of us."

Mrs. Brant smiled. "From what your father told me, I think he might at
that. But why all the long faces? I think it's exciting getting a code
message from Chahda. Why, this is the first time we've had a code
problem on the island since the moon rocket."

Mrs. Brant couldn't have caused a more sudden reaction had she tossed a
lighted firecracker into the middle of the roast.

Barby knocked over her water glass.

Scotty gasped, "Great grasshoppers! A book code!"

Rick strangled on a sip of milk, and when he could get his breath again,
he ran around the table to his mother, kissed her soundly and lifted her
hand high in token of v