AH, HE WAS NO DUMMY, that Colonel. Bobby had seen the twinkle in his eye as he glanced into the preserve closet. Because, shucks! there wasn’t any mistaking Mom’s way of doing up preserves. With little red bands around each jar, and her firm, crabbed handwriting telling what was inside.
“In all respects!” he said again. And reached for Sam Wilkes’ pudgy paw. “Congratulations, Sir! You’ve earned possession of the planetoid Eros. Your power-plant is among the finest it has ever been my pleasure to view; you have undeniably cleared and planted the required number of acres, your food supply is well above the minimum requirements—”
“But see here!” Wade’s face was an ugly red. “I’m not satisfied, Colonel. There’s something fishy about this. The farmlands we inspected were barely out of the see
