ided to risk it. "He's a jet trucker. I saw him out at the spaceport
today."

The two men looked at each other. "Little guy, with a sort of funny
twitch in his eye?" asked Cag.

"Yes," replied Tom. "That's him. Know him?"

"He hangs out in a joint across the street," said Monty. "Come on
outside. I'll show you where it is. And his name's Pistol, in case you
want to know."

"Pistol," said Tom. "That's an odd name."

"Not when you consider he carries a pistol all the time," snorted Cag.

Tom and the two men walked to the door and out into the street.

"What do you want to see him about, anyway?" asked Monty, as they walked
to the corner.

"Just wanted to talk to him about the jet-trucking business."

"What about it? We're truckers, me and Cag, we could probably tell you a
lot more than Pistol."

"Maybe," said Tom. "But I want to talk to Pistol."

They stopped at the corner and Monty stepped off the curb into the
street. "See that light down there," he said, pointing down the block,
"the one just above the door?"

Tom turned to look. "Where--?"

He suddenly felt a sharp jolting pain in the back of his head and then
everything went black.

"Nice work, Cag," commented Monty.

"What'll we do with him?" asked Cag.

"Throw him in the back of the truck and get outta here," said Monty,
pulling Tom's limp form into the shadows of an alley. "I'll get in touch
with the boss and tell him what's happened. And you better send out word
to get Pistol. He must know something."

"Right," said Cag. "Gee, Corbett's getting his nice clean uniform messed
up."

Dirty gutter water flowed over Tom in the dark Martian alley as the boy
lay deathly still.

CHAPTER 9

"What!" exclaimed Major Connel. "Give me that again."

The messenger from the Solar Guard headquarters on Mars repeated the
message. "Cadet Corbett has not been in his hotel since last night,
sir," he said. "He was seen leaving the service entrance at about 2100
hours. There is no report as to his whereabouts, sir."

Standing at the foot of the ladder leading to the main air lock of the
_Polaris_, Major Connel turned to Carter Devers angrily.

"This is the end!" he shouted. "I've had as much of this foolishness as
I'm going to take. When that young space brat comes back, I'm going to
throw the book at him."

"Now, now, Major," said Devers. "I wouldn't be too hard on the lad. How
do you know that he isn't in some kind of trouble?"

"That's just i