"It's not important," said Kit. "I won a place in the finals and now the
boys and Sid have helped me clean it out."

Strong nodded. "All right. I guess one seems to balance out the other.
Forget it." He smiled. "And excuse me for jumping like that and thinking
that you would do anything--er--" He hesitated.

"That's all right, Steve." Kit spoke up quickly to save his friend
embarrassment.

Strong turned to the cadets. "I've got news for you three. You are going
to monitor the race by yourselves."

Tom, Roger, and Astro looked at each other dumfounded as Strong quickly
outlined the plan. Later, when Sid and Kit were working inside the
ship, he told them of the sudden danger on Titan.

"So I'm going to leave it up to you which ship you want to ride," he
concluded. "The commander has suggested that Roger not be sent along
with Miles on the _Space Knight_. He seems to think the two of you
wouldn't get along."

"On the contrary, skipper," said Roger, "I'd like the opportunity of
keeping an eye on him."

Strong thought a moment. "Not a bad idea, Roger," he said as he turned
to Astro. "And I suppose you want to ride with Kit and his reactor?"

Astro grinned. "Yes, sir. If I may."