he
end of a string, more interested in the stars that twinkled overhead
than in any fish that might swim past and seize the hook.

"Where are you from, Nick?" asked Connel.

"Born in space," cackled Shinny, "on a passenger freighter carrying
colonists out to Titan. Never had a breath of natural fresh air until I
was almost a grown man. Nothing but synthetic stuff under the atmosphere
screens. My father was a mining engineer. I was the only kid. One night
a screen busted and nearly everybody suffocated or froze to death. My pa
and ma was among 'em. I blasted off after that. Been in the deep ever
since. And you know, by the blessed rings of Saturn, I'd be on a nice
farm near Venusport, living on a pension, if you hadn't kicked me out of
the Solar Guard!"

"Why, you broken down old piece of space junk," roared Connel, "I
oughta--" Connel never finished what he was going to say.

"Attention! Attention! Roger--Astro--Major Connel--come in, please! This
is Tom on the _Polaris_!"

As if they had been struck by a bolt of lightning, the five spacemen sat
up and then raced to the jet boat.

"Connel to Corbett!" roared the major. "Where are you? What happened?"

"I haven't got time to explain now, sir," said Tom. "Loring and Mason
escaped and forced me to take them to Tara. I managed to overcome them
and blast back here. Meet me up about fifty miles above Junior, sir. I'm
bringing the _Polaris_ in!"

"No!" yelled Connel. "It's no use, Tom. We're out of fuel. We've used up
all our power."

"Then stand by," said Tom grimly. "I'm coming in for a landing!"

"No, Tom!" roared Connel. "There's nothing you can do. We're too far
into the sun's pull. You'll never blast off again!"

"I don't care if we all wind up as cinders," said Tom, "I'm coming in!"

The communicator went dead and from the left, over the close horizon of
the small satellite, the _Polaris_ swept into view like a red-tailed
fire dragon. It shot up in a pretouchdown maneuver, and then began to
drop slowly to the surface of the planetoid.

No sooner had the _Polaris_ touched the dry airless ground than the
air-lock hatch was opened. From the crystal port on the control deck,
Tom waved to the men below him.

Shinny climbed into the lock first, followed by Astro, Alfie, Roger, and
Connel. While Roger and Alfie closed the hatch, Astro and Connel
adjusted the oxygen pressure and waited for the supply to build to
normal. At last the hissing stopped, and the hatc