But not for any ship. And the odds
against a big hero staying alive are too big!"
"Roger, wait," shouted Tom. "I'll need...." And then the curly-headed
cadet clamped his teeth together and turned back to the task at hand.
He made adjustments on the nozzle of the cutting torch, and then,
focusing his chest light, called to Astro.
"O.K., Astro," he said, "shoot me the juice!"
"Coming up, Tom!" answered Astro. "And wait till I get my hands on that
Manning! I'm going to smear that yellow space crawler from one corner of
the universe to another!"
"Never mind the talk," snarled Roger, who at the moment was re-entering
the tube. "Just get that juice down to this torch and make it fast!"
Tom turned to see Roger crawling back into the tube and adjusting a
cutting torch.
"Glad to have you aboard, Roger," said Tom with a smile that Roger could
not see in the darkness of the tube. The two boys went to work.
Suddenly the torches came to life. And immediately Tom and Roger began
to cut away at the cleats that held the tube lining to the skin of the
ship. Steadily, the cadets worked their way up toward the center of the
ship, cutting anything that looked as though it might hold the giant
tube to the ship.
"Boy," said Tom, "it's getting hot in here!"
From inside the ship, Astro's reassuring voice came back in answer.
"You're getting close to the reactant-mass chamber.
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