d his heart jumped
up into his throat. The needles of all the gauges and meters were
dancing back and forth as though they were being flicked with invisible
fingers.

Tom grabbed the intercom and shouted wildly. "Astro! Emergency space
speed! We've got to get out of here!" Tom whirled around to face Vidac
and Hardy. "You'd better call Professor Sykes up here, right away," he
declared.

"Why? What's the matter?" stuttered Hardy.

"Something's interfering with our whole electrical system, sir," replied
the cadet.

"What's that, Corbett?" snapped Sykes, stepping quickly through the
hatch into the control room. Tom was about to repeat his statement when
suddenly the rockets blasted loudly, and the ship tossed and rocked,
throwing everyone off his feet. Astro had applied emergency power to his
reactors, sending the _Polaris_ hurtling back into the safety of space.

"By the rings of Saturn," bawled Sykes, after he had adjusted to the
sudden acceleration, "I'll have that space-brained idiot court-martialed
for this!"

"It's not his fault, Professor," said Hardy, getting to his feet again.
"If Corbett hadn't ordered emergency space speed, we'd all be smeared
across that plain down there." He pointed to the scanner screen where
the surface of Roald could be seen receding rapidly.

"Umph!" snorted Sykes, "let me take a look at that control board."

Quickly and surely, the professor tested every major circuit in the
giant panel. Finally he straightened up and turned to face Hardy.

"Governor," he said quietly, "I'm afraid you'll have to forget about
landing on Roald until I can find the reason for the disturbance."

"Then it's not caused by any malfunction aboard the ship?" Vidac broke
in.

Sykes shook his head. "Whatever force field caused those instruments to
react the way they did came from Roald. You'll have to stand off until I
can go down and make a complete investigation."

"Well, what do you think it is?" asked Hardy.

"It might be one of a hundred things," replied the professor. "But I
wouldn't attempt to land down there until we know what's causing the
interference and can counteract it."

"Space gas!" exploded Vidac. "Is this another of your tricks, Corbett?"

"Tricks, sir?" asked Tom stupidly, so incredible did the lieutenant
governor's question seem.

"Yes, _tricks!_" roared Vidac. "Get out of the way. I can take this ship
down." He sat down in the pilot's chair and called Roger on the radar
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