He turned away from the mike and fired the starboard jets full blast,
making a sweeping curve in space and heading the _Polaris_ back to
Junior.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 20

"There's only one answer, boys," said Connel. "Loring and Mason have
escaped and taken over the ship. I can't think of any other reason Tom
would abandon us like this."

The jet boat was crowded. Alfie, the smallest, was sitting on Astro's
lap. For more than an hour they had circled above the copper satellite,
searching the surrounding skies in vain for some sign of the _Polaris_.

"Major," said Roger, who was hunched over the steering wheel of the
small space craft, "we're almost out of fuel. We'd better drop down on
the night side of Junior, the side away from the sun. At least there
we'd be out of the direct heat."

"Very well, Roger," said Connel. "In fact, we could keep shifting into
the night side every hour." Then he added quietly, thoughtfully, "But
we're out of fuel, you said?"

"Yes, sir," said Roger. "There's just enough to get down." Roger sent
the craft in a shallow dive. Suddenly the rockets cut out. The last of
the fuel was gone. Roger glided the jet boat to a smooth stop on the
night side of the planetoid.

"How much longer before the reactor units go up?" asked Shinny.

Connel turned, thinking he had heard something on the communicators,
then answered Shinny's question. "Only four hours," he said.

The crew of spacemen climbed out of the jet boat into the still
blackness of the night side of the planet. There wasn't anything left to
do.

They sat around on the hard surface of the planet, staring at the
strange stars overhead.

"You know," said Astro, "I might be able to set up something to convert
some of the U235 in the reactors to fuel the jet boat."

"Impossible, Astro," said Alfie. "You'd need a reduction gear. And not
only that, but you haven't any tools to handle the mass. If you opened
one of those boxes, you'd be fried immediately by the radiation!"

"Alfie's right," said Connel. "There's nothing to do but wait."

Major Connel turned his face up as far as he could in the huge fish-bowl
helmet to stare at the sky. His eyes wandered from star cluster to star
cluster, from glowing Regulus, to bright and powerful Sirius. He stifled
a sigh. How much he had wanted to see more--and more--and more of the
great wide, high, and deep! He remembered his early days as a youth on
his first trip to Luna City; h