cely have made the flight any
faster. Tom felt his heart sinking. The hope that Kit Barnard could
catch the black _Space Knight_ was faint now.

"Shall I call Ganymede again and see if they have anything new?" Tom
asked finally.

"Yes, do that, Tom," Kit replied.

The curly-haired cadet quickly climbed the ladder to the radar bridge
and sat wearily in front of the teleceiver.

"Spaceship _Good Company_ to Ganymede spaceport," he called. "Come in,
Ganymede."

Seconds later, the voice of the Ganymede control operator crackled over
the loud-speaker in reply. "Ganymede station to _Good Company_. Go
ahead."

"Can you give me any information on the departure time of _Space Knight_
from Ganymede?"

"She has not blasted off yet. She is having trouble in her after
burners."

"How long do you estimate it will take for her to effect repairs and
blast off?" asked Tom, a note of rising hope in his voice. While the
black ship had made it to Ganymede under full power without refueling,
the strain might have damaged her seriously. Tom waited patiently for
the reply, drumming his fingers on the table in his excitement.

"Not more than sixteen hours, _Good Company_," the Ganymede operator
finally answered. "Where are you now?"

Tom quickly ascertained his position and relayed it to the tiny
Jovian-moon station. "Space sector fourteen, chart B for baker." After
the metallic voice had repeated the information, Tom asked for
information on Roger Manning.

"No such person has reported to this office, Cadet Corbett," came the
negative reply. "End transmission."

"End transmission," said Tom gloomily and slumped back into his chair.
Something had happened to Roger, or he had completely blown his top. And
in the light of past performances by the blond-haired radar expert, Tom
could not decide which. Roger had threatened many times that if he
should ever leave the Academy, he would do it quietly, without fanfare.

There was no better place to drop out of sight than on Ganymede, for it
was here that the deep spacers, gigantic spaceships that hauled supplies
to the colonies of Alpha Centauri, Tara, and Roald made their last stop.
If Roger had finally made good his threat to leave the Academy, Ganymede
was the logical place to do it.

But why?

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 11

"Yeow!"

Astro's bull-like roar echoed through the _Good Company_. Tom and Kit
jumped around in their seats to stare dumfounded at the half-strip