er. That way, if anything
goes wrong, one or two of us might get away."

"All set?" asked Roger.

"Ready," nodded Astro.

"Let's go."

The three boys separated, and a moment later, when his unit mates were
in position, Tom stood up and walked across the clearing, exposing
himself to the house. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Astro and
Roger moving in on the left and right. Billy was working in the front
yard with his father, mixing chemicals. Jane was standing by the doorway
of the house digging in a bed of flowers. Tom continued to walk right
through the front yard and was only ten feet away from Billy before the
youngster looked up.

"Tom!"

Logan turned and saw the cadet walking toward him. He stared. After a
night scrambling around the hills, Tom looked as if he had been
shoveling coal.

"Hello, Mr. Logan," said Tom, looking around. "Are you alone?"

"Yes," Logan replied. "Where are the other boys?"

"They're coming," said Tom, waving his arm toward his friends.

Astro and Roger rose from their places of concealment and darted
forward.

"Get in the house, quick!" ordered Logan. "Vidac and his flunky Winters
were out here last night and--" He didn't finish. The unmistakable roar
of a jet car approaching rapidly was heard. The cadets raced for the
house, following Jane into the farmer's bedroom, where they hid in a
closet. Jane returned to the front of the house and stood with her
father and Billy to watch the cloud of dust kicked up by the jet car as
it raced along the dirt road toward them.

"If it's them space crawlers again," said Logan to his children, "let me
do the talking."

"Who else could it be?" asked Jane.

"I don't know," said Logan. "But remember, if it is Vidac, we might be
the only thing between those three boys inside and a long term on a
prison rock!"

The jet car entered the cleared area in front of the house and stopped
in a cloud of dust. Logan, grim-faced, followed by Billy and Jane walked
across the yard to the car and waited. The door opened and a man in the
uniform of an enlisted spaceman climbed out.

"Jeff Marshall!" yelled Billy.

"Hello, Mr. Logan, Jane, Billy." Jeff noticed the sudden look of relief
that passed over Logan's face. "Is there something wrong?"

"Not a thing, Jeff," said Logan. "Come on in the house. We've got a
surprise for you."

"Thank you, sir," said Jeff. "But I'm afraid I'm not in the mood for
surprises. The cadets have escaped and the who