r doesn't make a Martian invasion," Rick reminded him.
"Let's keep it up."

By lunchtime they had interviewed a dozen people who claimed to have
seen flying saucers. All details of the sightings had been noted in
Scotty's book. During lunch, at a small restaurant in the old town of
Oxford, they scored three more times after interviews with fishermen.

After lunch, they crossed the Choptank and headed south to the little
town of Vienna. From there the route led to the shore town of Elliott,
back to Vienna, and past the corner of Delaware to Salisbury, a
good-sized town on the Maryland Eastern Shore.

There was a newspaper office in Salisbury. A chat with the editor and a
quick skim through the back files added more data to the growing list.
Rick had a hunch there was a pattern shaping up, but he could not be
sure until the information was all laid out for examination.

By the time the boys met Steve at the small airport, both Rick and
Scotty had writer's cramp, and the notebook was nearly used up. They had
recorded over half a hundred sightings.

Steve listened to a report of their day with an appreciative smile.
"Nothing like a mystery for keeping you two out of mischief," he told
them. "Want to eat out? Or cook a steak in the yard?"

"Eat out," Scotty said promptly.

"We can get steak at home," Rick added. "But not Chesapeake Bay clam
fritters or Maryland crab cakes."

Steve had a favorite place of his own, a small, nondescript joint called
"Louie's Crab House" up the Choptank River, near the town of Denton.
There, on wooden trestle tables covered with brown wrapping paper, he
introduced them to a favorite Chesapeake Bay pastime known as a "crab
feast."

The waiter set wooden blocks in front of them, with a round piece of
hardwood, a fork, and a sharp paring knife. A stack of paper napkins was
supplied, and individual pots of melted butter completed the setting.

The boys waited impatiently, hungry, but trusting Steve's word that the
result was worth the wait. The waiter reappeared carrying a huge tray,
stacked with a towering pyramid of whole crabs, steaming and red, coated
with the spices in which they had been cooked. Placing the tray on the
table, the waiter asked, "Anything else?"

Scotty said, dazed, "I don't believe there's anything else left in the
kitchen. We have all the crabs in the world right here."

"Only three dozen," the waiter said. "Jumbos, of course. You want
anything, you yell."

Uni