roy replied. "I knew we would
need them for the new units you and Commander Walters were planning."

"Guard!" shouted Barret suddenly. "Guard!" He turned and called to Roger
and Astro, who were standing guard at the doors. They both came running
up, their blasters held at ready.

"What is it?" demanded Astro. "What's going on here?"

"Arrest that man!" shouted Barret. Astro and Roger looked questioningly
at Troy. They did not know him personally but had seen him around the
hangar and knew that he worked closely with the professor and Barret.

Still vaguely distrustful of Barret's behavior, Astro turned to
Hemmingwell. "How about it, Professor?" he asked. "Do we haul this guy
in?"

Hemmingwell looked at Troy steadily. "Pat, you knew about that new unit
I was building?"

"Yes, sir," replied Troy forthrightly. "I accidentally overheard you and
Commander Walters discussing it. From what you said about it, I knew you
would need new timers for the oscillators--"

Roger and Astro had heard about the vital unit that had not been
destroyed, and realized that Troy was admitting to knowledge he
shouldn't have had. Roger raised the blaster menacingly. "All right,
buster!" he growled. "Move this way and move slowly."

"Professor," exclaimed Troy, "you're not going to let them--!"

"I'm sorry, Pat," said the professor, a dejected look in his eyes. "I
have nothing to do with it now. You should have told me that you knew
about the new unit. And the fact that you were here the night it was
destroyed, well--" He shrugged meaningfully and turned away.

"All right, buster," growled Astro, "do you move or do I move you? It
makes no difference to me."

Troy took a look at the blasters leveled at him and silently walked
between them to the hangar door. Barret and Professor Hemmingwell
remained at the workbench, following the trio with their eyes.

Later, after Troy had been safely locked in the Academy brig, Firehouse
Tim Rush sat at his desk in the small security shack taking down the two
cadets' reports.

"... And upon the orders of Dave Barret and Professor Hummingbird--"
Roger was saying.

"Hemmingwell," snapped Firehouse. "_Hemmingwell_."

"--Hemmingwell"--nodded Roger with a wink at Astro--"we brought the
suspect to the officer of the guard, Firehouse Tim Rush."

"Can that Firehouse, ya squirt!" growled Rush. "Only my friends can call
me that. And you two are not in that classification."

"O.K., Fireman," said Roger