Many people did not understand the last.
Bud did.
The morning of the day the starmen returned, Norma came into Bud's office. She was practically bursting with excitement. Thoughts of what their knowledge would contribute to Earth, the marvelous advances in medicine, in physics, in art that hovered just within reach....
On her way through the secretary's office, she passed a slight, nattily dressed man wearing a hat.
For a puzzled second she furrowed her brow. Then memory came. He had been investigated by the Senate Crime Committee. She bit her lip in exasperation. Why would Bud be willing to see someone like that?
"Wasn't that—?" she demanded, bursting into Bud's office.
He got up with quick awkwardness. His face was bloodless. "Ohhhhhh," he sighed. "I didn't expect—Hello, Sis."
"Wasn't that—?" she began again.
"It's, it's, it's, he, he...." Bud indicated the box on his desk. "From an old friend."