ng again, Tom?" Sticoon suggested.
"He might be awake now."

Tom grinned, but in his heart he did not think it very funny. It was no
joke that Captain Strong had called him to contact Roger. And Tom was
worried. So far, he had not been able to reach the blond-haired cadet.
He settled himself in front of the communicator and began calling the
black ship again.

"Rocket ship _Space Lance_ to rocket ship _Space Knight_! Come in!"

He waited. Nothing but static and silence greeted him.

"_Space Knight_, come in!"

He waited again as the sleek white ship plummeted deeper into space
toward the first refueling stop on Deimos, one of the small twin moons
of Mars. Still there was no acknowledging reply from the black ship that
had streaked ahead of them after the blast-off.

"I'm going to try to contact Kit Barnard," said Tom. "Maybe he can pick
up Miles' blip on his radar."

Tom made the necessary adjustment on the audioceiver and broadcast the
call for the owner-pilot of the _Good Company_. Finally, after repeated
tries, he heard a faint signal and recognized the voice of his unit mate
Astro.

"What's the matter, Astro?" asked Tom. "I can hardly hear you."

"We're having trouble with the by-pass lines to the generators," replied
Astro. "We've cut down to standard space speed, and Sid and Kit are
making repairs now."

"Have you heard from Roger?" asked Tom across the vast abyss of space
separating them. "I've been trying to contact the _Space Knight_ for the
last six hours and can't get any acknowledgment."

"Haven't seen it," replied Astro. "Lost contact with her a long time
ago. She moved ahead at emergency space speed and we lost her on our
radar an hour after we blasted off."

"O.K., Astro. Hope Kit gets his wagon going again. We've got to make a
race of this, or the people throughout the system will be disappointed."
He turned and winked at Wild Bill.

"Listen, you curly-haired twerp!" roared Astro, and it seemed to Tom
that he could hear his friend without the loud-speaker. "We're going to
give you the hottest run of your lives when we get going!"

"O.K., Astro," said Tom. "If you can contact Roger, tell him to get in
touch with Captain Strong right away. He's probably blasted off on the
_Polaris_ by now."

"Right, Tom. End transmission."

"End transmission."

Tom turned back to the skipper of the _Space Lance_ with a feeling of
despair. "I can't figure it out, Bill," he said. "Roger's pulled some
b