k at the boys, he
followed Jane out.

Just as Bush started to close the door, Tom stepped forward. "How about
something to eat," he demanded, "and some story tapes to pass away the
time?"

"Yeah," said Roger, picking up Tom's cue, "and we don't want anything
you'd select either. It might be too infantile! Send Jeff Marshall up
here so we can get what we want!"

"I'll see about it," sneered Bush, slamming the door behind him.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Roger asked Tom.

"Yes. If there is anyone we can trust, it's Jeff. Let's hope that space
jerk outside comes through!"

"Well," growled Astro, "if worse comes to worse, we can always jump
him."

"Uh--uh," said Tom, shaking his head. "We wouldn't get past the first
corridor. If we escape, and we will, we've got to have help from someone
on the outside!"

"But won't they be watching Jeff too?" asked Astro.

"Sure they will, but we've got to take that chance. If Vidac holds us
for trial here on Roald, and we're convicted, the only place for a
review of the case will be the Solar Council Chamber back on Earth."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" asked Astro.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it," said Roger. "Before the case would
come up for a review, we would have already spent at least two years on
a prison rock!"

Meanwhile, in his office in the Administration Building, Lieutenant
Governor Vidac listened with mounting apprehension to a report from the
communications control officer of Roald.

"We just received a message from Captain Strong aboard the Solar Guard
cruiser _Orion_ requesting landing data here on Roald," the voice
crackled impersonally over the teleceiver.

"How far out is he?" asked Vidac, suddenly growing pale.

"He should arrive within four hours."

"All right," said Vidac, regaining his composure. "Give him all the
information he needs."

"What about the instrument disturbance?"

"Tell him everything."

"Yes, sir," replied the control officer, and the teleceiver screen went
blank.

Vidac got up and began to pace the floor, pondering the reasons for
Strong's sudden unannounced visit. He could be coming to check on the
Space Cadets, he thought. Or it might be a routine check of the progress
of the colony. Or he might know about the uranium. There had been an
investigation of the soil on the satellite by the original expedition.
But if they had known anything about it, reasoned Vidac, it would have
been claimed for the So