"I suppose you're right, Astro," replied Tom. "But why in the stars
would he leave the ship?"

"Whatever he's done, I'm sure Roger has a good explanation," replied the
big Venusian. But inwardly he couldn't help feeling that Roger, somehow,
had gotten into another scrape which would, in the end, reflect on the
whole unit. Neither Tom nor Astro cared much for their own individual
reputations, but they were concerned about the record of the unit. Roger
had managed to pull himself out of some narrow scrapes, but there was
always the first time for everything. Leaving his post as monitor in the
race was as serious as anything he had done so far.

"Heads up, Tom!" Kit called out. "Meteor storm in our course. We've got
to change our heading."

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the young cadet, pushing aside his concern over
his unit mate and concentrating on routine flight operations.

On and on, the sleek ship plummeted through the black depths of space
beyond Jupiter, heading for the planet Saturn and her magnificent rings
of different colors, and to her largest satellite with its deadly
methane ammonia gas atmosphere, the crystal-bearing moon, Titan.

* * * * *

"They are approaching the spaceport, sir," called the Titan
control-tower operator, and Strong jumped to the radarscope to stare at
the two blips on the screen. Only a mile separated them, with Quent
Miles' _Space Knight_ ahead.