le countryside is crawling
with Vidac's men looking for them. There's a reward of a thousand
credits for their capture--dead or alive!"

Logan patted the sergeant on the shoulder. "Stop worrying, Jeff. The
cadets are in the house."

"What?"

Logan nodded his head. "Come on inside." He paused and spoke to his son.
"Billy, you scoot down the road to the bend and watch the main highway.
If anyone turns off into our road, you let me know right away!"

"Yes, sir," replied Billy and dashed down the road. Jeff followed Jane
and Logan into the house, and a few moments later, after exchanging
enthusiastic greetings, he and the cadets waited hungrily for Jane to
prepare breakfast.

Finishing the hearty meal in short order and sipping hot bracing coffee,
the three cadets took turns in telling Jeff of their conversations with
Strong, their escape, and their near encounter with Vidac on the highway
the night before.

"What made you come out here, Jeff?" Tom finally asked.

"Well, when I discovered that you had escaped, I knew you'd head for one
of two places, the spaceport or here. I hung around the spaceport all
night waiting for you to show up, and when you didn't, I came here."

"That's dangerous," said Logan. "If you figured it that way, Vidac can
do the same thing. I wouldn't want him to find you boys here. Not that I
don't want to help you, but Vidac might try to connect me with you and
the missing professor. I couldn't take a risk like that with Billy and
Jane. We're in enough trouble."

The farmer then told them how Vidac had forced him to sign a release on
his land while threatening Jane with a ray gun.

"We have to get to the bottom of this mess," said Tom. "The only trouble
is we don't know what he's after or why he's trying to frame us."

"Well," said Roger, glancing at his watch, "whatever we decide, we'd
better do it quickly. It's almost noon."

"Noon!" exclaimed Logan. "Why it can't be more than nine at the most!"
He pulled out a large gold watch from his coverall pocket. "Sure--it's a
quarter to nine!"

Jeff looked at his watch. "Same here!" He smiled. "You must be wrong,
Roger."

"You probably forgot to wind it," said Tom. He glanced casually at his
own watch and suddenly exclaimed. "Say, my watch has three-thirty!"

"And mine says four twenty-two!" cried Astro.

Roger and Tom looked at each other, eyes widening.

"You don't think--?" began Tom, hardly daring to breathe.

"Yes, I do!" said Rog