n Roald."

"Trial!" exclaimed Astro.

"How'd you find that out?" asked Tom.

"They called all the colonists together and gave us pieces of paper with
numbers on them," said Logan. "Then they put all the numbers into a bowl
and picked twelve of them out again. The people that held those numbers
were told that they were going to be the jury at your trial for the
murder of Professor Sykes!"

"Murder?" exclaimed Roger.

"Blast my jets!" roared Astro. "They can't do that! We're under Solar
Guard jurisdiction!"

"That's what I told them," snorted Logan. "You see, my number was
pulled. I got up and opened my big mouth. I should have kept quiet and
sat on the jury, and then had my say where it would have meant
something!"

"Then they took you off the jury?" asked Roger.

"Yep," said Logan. "Me and everyone else they thought might be
prejudiced!"

"We came to tell you," said Jane, "because we wanted you to know what
was going on and to see if there was anything we could do to help."

"We already tried to help in a lot of ways," said Logan. "We tried to
get that space jerk outside to let you escape. I offered him--well, I
offered him a lot, but he wouldn't do it."

"What are you going to do?" asked Jane, looking at Tom.

"I don't know, Jane," said Tom. "But we've certainly got to do
something. If we ever stand trial here on Roald--"

Tom was interrupted by a loud banging on the door, followed by the click
of the lock. Then the door was opened and Bush stepped inside.

"All right, Logan," said Bush. "Time's up!"

"But--but," complained Logan, "we've only been here two minutes!"

"Time's up, I said," sneered Bush. He raised his ray guns threateningly.

"Well, I guess we'd better go," said Logan. He turned and shook hands
with each of the cadets. "Good luck, boys," he said with a smile. "Don't
worry. We'll find someway of getting you out of this mess!"

"Thanks for telling us, sir," said Tom.

"Telling you what?" demanded Bush.

"That the world is round and that you're a square-headed space crawler,"
said Roger casually.

"A real big mouth, eh!" snarled Bush. "Why, I oughta--" He raised his
guns again, but just at the moment Jane walked into the line of fire and
stood there quietly. Bush stepped back. It was just enough to break the
tension.

"Go on!" Bush growled. "Get out of here!"

"Don't get rough," said Logan, "or I might tell your boss you took a
bribe to let us see the cadets!" With a parting win