"Ain't that too bad," snarled Mason.
"Look," said Tom desperately, "I'll promise you nothing will happen to you. We'll let you go free. We'll—"
Loring cut him off. "Shut your trap and concentrate on them controls! You and Major Connel and them other punks are the only guys between me staying free or going back to a prison asteroid. So you don't think I'm going to let them stay alive, do you?" He grinned crookedly.
"You dirty space crawler!" growled Tom and suddenly leaped up from the control seat.
Loring raised the paralo-ray gun threateningly. "One more move outta you and I'll freeze you so solid you'll think you're a chunk of ice!" he yelled.
Mason stepped to the other side of the control deck. They had Tom blocked on either side.
"Now get back to them controls, Corbett," snarled Loring, "or I'll give it to you right now."
"O.K., Loring, you win," said Tom. He sat down and faced the control panel. He tried hard not to smile. They had fallen for it. Now they were separated. Mason remained on the opposite side of the room. Tom took a deep breath, crossed his fingers, and put the next step of his plan into action. He reached out and pulled the master acceleration switch all the way back. The Polaris jumped ahead as if shot out of a cannon.
"Hey," growled Mason, "what're you doing?"
"You want more speed, don't you?" demanded Tom.