ed to
Peterson. "They say they want to know now whether the milk and egg
story is true. They say they haven't had anything but an official
runaround and a lot of rumor."

"Tell them we neither deny nor confirm the story. Say we are
investigating. We'll give them a formal statement in the morning,"
Peterson ordered.

He left the table and walked to the desk where Johnny was finishing his
list of building supplies.

"What time do you usually get those eggs?" he asked.

"Well, as a rule, Hetty gets out and gathers them up about nine each
morning. But they've probably been laid a couple of hours earlier.

"That's going to make us awfully late to produce anything for those
babbling reporters," the scientist said.

"Come to think of it," Johnny said thoughtfully, "we could rig up a
light in the chicken house and make the hens lay earlier. That way you
could have some eggs about four or five o'clock in the morning."

Barney had been listening.

"And them eggs make a mighty fine breakfast of a morning," he
volunteered cheerfully. Peterson glared at him and Johnny grinned.

"I think the doctor wants the golden kind," he said with a smile.

"Oh, them," Barney said with a snort of disgust. "They wouldn't make an
omelet fit for a hog. You don't want to fuss with them, doc."

* * * * *

Under Johnny's direction, a crew of technicians ran a power line into
the slightly-wrecked chicken house. There were loud squawks of
indignation from the sleeping hens as the men threaded their way
through the nests. The line was installed and the power applied. A
one-hundred-fifty-watt bulb illuminated the interior of the chicken
house to the discordant clucking and cackling of the puzzled birds.

Solomon, the big rooster, was perched on a crossbeam, head tucked under
his wing. When the light flooded the shed he jerked awake and fastened
a startled and unblinking stare at the strange sun. He scrambled
hastily and guiltily to his feet and throwing out his great chest,
crowed a shrieking hymn to Thomas A. Edison. Johnny chuckled as the
technicians jumped at the sound. He left the hen house, went back to
the house and to bed.

He set his alarm clock for 4:00 a.m. and dropped immediately into a
deep and exhausted sleep.

When he and the sleepy-eyed Peterson went into the chicken house at
4:30, there were eleven of the golden eggs resting on the straw nests.

They turned the remainder of the no