in his radar sights and firing, with no way of knowing which was
friend and which was foe.

Tom, Roger, and Astro watched the dogfight on the scanner in horrified
fascination. Never before had they seen such maneuvering, as the giant
ships avoided collision sometimes by inches. Once, Tom tore his eyes
away from the scanner when he saw a rocket destroyer plow through the
escaping swarm of jet boats after one of the pirate ships had been hit.

Fire and change course, fire and change course, again and again, Coxine
performed the miracle of escaping the deadly atomic blasters aboard the
Solar Guard ships.

Suddenly the three cadets saw the outline of a rocket cruiser bearing
down on them. The white blip on the scanner came closer and closer to
the heart of the scanner. Just in time Coxine saw it and shouted for a
course change. But even as the _Avenger_ swung up and away from the
attacking ship, the cadets saw the flash of flame from the cruiser's
turrets and a moment later felt the bone-rattling shudder of a near
miss.

The control deck suddenly filled with smoke. A flash fire broke out in
the control panel and the circuits sparked and flared. Tom was thrown
across the room and Roger landed on top of him.

"Up ninety degrees! Full starboard thrust!" roared Coxine into the
intercom. "Hurry, you space crawlers! We've got to get out of here!"

Tom quickly realized that in the smoke and confusion Coxine couldn't
possibly direct the ship back into the fight. There was only one
explanation. He was deserting his fleet and trying to escape.

And then, over the noise and confusion, Tom could hear the sound of
struggling bodies and Coxine muttering an oath between his teeth.

"I'll break you in two, you blasted space rat!"

There were more sounds of struggle, and Tom and Roger heard Astro's
voice replying grimly:

"Do it and then talk about it, big shot!"

Slowly the smoke cleared from the control deck and Tom and Roger
strained their eyes to see through the thick cloud. There, in front of
them, stood Astro, torn strands of rope dangling from his arms, in
mortal combat with Coxine. The two giants were holding each other's
wrists, their feet spread wide, legs braced, grimacing faces an inch
apart, struggling to throw each other off balance.

[Illustration: _Astro and Coxine were locked in mortal combat_]

Tom and Roger watched the two huge spacemen brace against each other,
muscles straining and faces turning a slow r