They stood around staring in disbelief at the three disheveled
cadets.
"But how did you ever survive?" asked Strong. "By the craters of Luna,
that blasted desert was hotter this past month than it has ever been
since Mars was first colonized by Earthmen. Why--why--you were walking
through temperatures that reached a hundred and fifty degrees!"
"You don't have to convince us, sir," said Roger with a smile. "We'll
never forget it as long as we live."
Later, when Tom, Roger and Astro had taken a shower and dressed in fresh
uniforms, Strong came in with an audioscriber and the three cadets gave
the full version of their adventure for the official report back to the
Academy. When they had finished, Strong told them of his efforts to find
them.
"We knew you were in trouble right away," said Strong, "and we tracked
you on radar. But that blasted storm fouled us all up. We figured that
the sand would have covered up the ship, and that the chances of finding
you in a scout were very small, so I got permission from Commander
Walters to organize this ground search for you." He paused. "Frankly we
had just about given up hope. Took us three weeks finally to locate the
section of desert you landed in."
"We knew you would come, sir," said Tom, "but we didn't have enough
water to wait for you--and we had to leave."
"Boys," said Strong slowly, "I've had a lot of wonderful things happen
to me in the Solar Guard.
Pages:
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241