"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 s.p.a.ceman climbed out.
"Jeff Marshall!" yelled Billy.
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Logan, Jane, Billy." Jeff noticed the sudden look of relief that pa.s.sed 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 whole 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 s.p.a.ceport or here. I hung around the s.p.a.ceport 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 Roger. "Remember what happened to the instruments?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Uranium!" exclaimed Astro.
The word echoed in the kitchen like the blast of a bomb. The boys looked at each other, too startled to explain to Logan and Jane, who, though they were listening intently, were unable to fathom the boys" reasoning.
"Where were you last night?" asked Jeff quickly.
Roger described as nearly as he could remember the exact route that they had traveled in making their way to the Logan farm.
"Hey, I think I"ve got the answer, fellows!" Tom suddenly exclaimed.
"If Vidac came out here last night and took over Mr. Logan"s farm, and we"re falsely accused of getting rid of the professor, and the professor is missing, there must be something to tie it all together. Vidac wouldn"t do the things he"s done, unless he"s got a rocket-blasting good reason!"
Roger quickly added, "And he wouldn"t try to buck Captain Strong unless he was playing for high stakes!"
"Right," said Tom. "The only thing that could have caused our watches to go haywire, like the ships instruments, would be uranium. Lots of uranium. And uranium is the only thing valuable enough to make Vidac take such long chances."
"But how can you tell it"s uranium?" asked Logan.
"Our watches are not ordinary timepieces, sir," explained Tom. "They are specially constructed for use in s.p.a.ce travel. Each watch is electrically controlled and highly sensitive."
"Electric?" repeated Logan in amazement. "Electric wrist watches? That small thing?"
Tom smiled. "Each is charged by a miniature power pack, sir."
"The uranium deposits out in the hills affected these watches,"
continued Astro, "the same way they affected the electronic instruments on the s.p.a.ceships coming in to Roald."
"I"ll tell you what," said Jeff. "I"ll make a check."
"Wait a minute," said Logan. "I just remembered something--"
"What, sir?" asked Tom.
"Professor Sykes! He was out here poking around in my fields and up in the hills from dawn till dark. Said he was making some soil tests. I yelled at him for stepping all over some baby fruit trees."
"That"s it, then," said Roger grimly. "This area is jumping with uranium and Vidac now has t.i.tle to the land!"
"Don"t be so sure," said Tom. "We still need proof."
"Isn"t using force to take the land away proof enough?" snapped Logan.
"Wait a minute!" said Jeff. "If you want proof, I know where to get it."
"Where?" asked Tom.