The next afternoon, when Ted, Jill, and Randy arrived home from school, Mrs. Kenton told them that the repairmen had taken care of the leak in the drain. It seemed that the hole had been partially stopped up so that the water had collected and frozen in it, causing the pipe to crack.  
Jill had been impatient to talk ever since she had gotten in the house. Now her chance had come. “Mother, you know what Mr. Garland wants us to do?” she asked eagerly.
 
Mrs. Kenton smiled. “What does he want you to do?” she asked.
 
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“He wants us to bring Yank to school for a demonstration lesson in Martian zoology,” Ted broke in.
 
Jill’s face clouded over with disappointment. “I wanted to tell her,” she muttered.
 
“Sorry!” Ted said. “I didn’t know it was a secret.”
 
Jill slapped at him playfully, but Ted ducked in time.
 
“You little clowns stop performing and get ready for supper,” Mrs. Kenton said. “We’re eating early because I have a surprise for you.”
 
“A surprise!” Jill echoed. “What is it?”
 
Her mother smiled secretly but did not answer. Jill ran off to her room and the boys went to theirs. When the children had dressed and washed, they seated themselves at the dining-room table. Mrs. Kenton brought in a large platter of real roast beef.
 
“This is the surprise!” Jill said.
 
“If it isn’t, I’ll settle for it!” Ted put in.
 
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Beef was a rarity on Martian tables. It was brought in only occasionally on the rocket supply ships. Most meat was of the dehydrated and cube variety that took less space.
 
“No, this is not the surprise I was talking about,” Mrs. Kenton said, “although it was to me when the supply boat drove up this morning with special rations.”
 
“Do you mean there is still another?” Jill asked.
 
Her mother nodded and went on. “The beef took only a few minutes to roast in the electronic oven. I remember my grandmother making so much of a pressure cooker. She probably would never have believed there would be an oven of the future that cooked in even less time than the pressure cooker and without any heat whatsoever.”
 
When the main course of the meal was over and apple pie was brought in, the children were sure this was the surprise Mrs. Kenton had promised. She said the supply boat had brought the fresh apples with the meat. But even the treat of apple pie was not the special surprise.
 
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When supper was over Mrs. Kenton conducted the children into the living room and had them gather around a recording machine owned by their father. Mrs. Kenton set a spool of wire rotating and told them to listen.
 
“Hello, kids!” came a voice.
 
“Father!” Jill exclaimed.
 
They listened to a message addressed especially to them. When it was over, Mrs. Kenton explained that their father had called by remote broadcast from his distant work during the day. Then he had had her make a special wire recording for them so that they could hear it later. Mrs. Kenton told them this was the surprise. The children admitted that this was an even greater one than the beef and the apple pie.
 
“I thought Father sounded sort of sad or disappointed,” Jill commented.
 
“You were right, dear,” Mrs. Kenton replied. “Their work hasn’t gone along as well as they expected. They had a small landslide that buried the best of their diggings, which will take larger machinery than they’ve got to unearth. On top of that, the tracks they thought would prove to be a clue to the disappearing Martians aren’t human at all but belong to a group of animals they have already classified.”
 
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“Gee!” Ted murmured sympathetically, remembering how enthusiastic his father had been before he had left. Now the greatest mystery on Mars—that of the disappearing Martians—was just as baffling as before.
 
“Because of this,” Mrs. Kenton said, “they’re ending the expedition ahead of time and coming home.”
 
“That’s why he said he’d be seeing us shortly,” Randy said.
 
“I’m glad to hear that, anyway,” Jill murmured.
 
“When will he be back?” Ted asked.
 
“Within two or three days, he said,” his mother replied.
 
“That will be before the class goes on the ...” Jill burst out, then covered her mouth with her hand as she caught herself.
 
“Before the class goes on what?” Mrs. Kenton asked.
 
“We’ll have to tell her now,” Jill said lamely to the boys.
 
186
“The class is going on a sight-seeing rocket-plane tour of Mars next week,” Ted explained.
 
His mother looked at Jill curiously. “But why such a secret about it?”
 
“We just thought you wouldn’t be especially interested,” Jill said, “since we w............