"Nine thousand five hundred feet a second," yelled Roger.
"Stand by, Astro, Roger! Hang on tight, and spaceman's luck!"
"Ten thousand feet a second!" Roger's voice was a hoarse scream.
"_Fire stern rockets!_" bawled Tom.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER 16
Under the tremendous drive of the stern rockets, the silver ship
suddenly hurtled forward as if shot out of a cannon. The dangerous tube
slid out of the stern of the ship and was quickly left behind as the
_Lady Venus_ sped in the opposite direction.
"That's it," yelled Tom, "hold full space speed! We dumped the tube, but
we're still close enough for it to blow us from here to Pluto!"
"I tracked it on the radar, Tom," yelled Roger. "I think we're far
enough away to miss--"
At that moment a tremendous flash of light filled the radar scanner as
the mass exploded miles to the rear of the _Lady Venus_.
"There it goes!" shouted Roger.
"Great jumping Jupiter," yelled Tom, "and we're still in one piece! We
did it!"
From the power deck, Astro's bull-like roar could be heard through the
whole ship.
"Gimme an open circuit, Tom," said Astro. "I want to operate the air
blowers down here and try to get rid of some of that radiation. I have
to get into the control chamber and see what's going on."
Tom flipped a switch on the board and set the ship on automatic flight.
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