ounding
him on the back, grabbing his hands, and mauling him until he had to cry
out for peace.

"Take it easy," he cried. "Relax, will you! You'll tear me apart!"

"You're the happiest sight I've seen in weeks, sir!" shouted Tom.

"Yeah," drawled Roger, grinning from ear to ear. "I couldn't be happier
if you had brought along a ship full of space dolls!"

"When did you get here, sir?" asked Astro. "Why didn't you let us know?"

The questions tumbled out of the boys' mouths thick and fast, and Strong
let them chatter until their initial burst of elation had worn itself
out. Then, after quickly bringing them up to date on all news of the
Academy, and news of Earth, he pulled up a chair and faced them
solemnly. The three cadets braced themselves to tell him about their
experiences since leaving Atom City.

"There's a lot to tell, sir," began Tom. "But we're only going to give
you the facts as we know them, sir. And then let you decide."

Then starting from the beginning, when they were first relieved of their
stations on the _Polaris_ on the way out to the satellite, the three
cadets related their experiences with Vidac, Hardy, and Professor Sykes.
They ended with a detailed account of their being held for the
disappearance of the professor.

"And you say that the colonists were forced to pay for their food on the
trip out?" asked Strong incredulously.

"Yes, sir," said Tom. "And later, after the ships crashed, there was a
shortage of farm tools and equipment, which meant that the colonists
would have to farm with chemicals. Vidac made them sign over part of
their future profits and mortgage their land holdings to get the
chemicals."

"And four hundred ships crashed in landing? Hasn't anybody figured out
why yet?" Strong asked.

Roger shook his head. "The instruments just went out, sir," he said. "I
never saw anything like it, and when the professor wanted to go down in
a jet boat first to investigate, Vidac insisted on taking the _Polaris_
down, anyway. He brought her in by the seat of his pants...."

"Only because Tom took over when he got cold feet," chimed in Astro.

"Yeah," agreed Roger. "But the others couldn't do it. They just splashed
in."

"And there hasn't been any explanation of why the instruments went out?"

"I haven't heard any, sir," said Astro. "Professor Sykes started out
right after we landed to investigate the satellite, but I never heard
anything more about it. When I asked him one da