"Yeah," said Simms. "Be pretty stupid if we're caught now!"
The two men climbed down into the power deck and began the job of refitting the freighter from chemical to atomic drive. Having already outfitted the vessel with atomic engines, it was a simple matter to change the exhaust, reset the feed lines, and emplace the protective lead baffles. In an hour the two spacemen were ready to blast off.
"There she is," said Simms, standing back to survey their work. "As fast as anything in space, except the Solar Guard cruisers on hyperdrive."
"O.K.," said Wallace. "Let's get out of here!"
Minutes later, in a jet car speeding along the main highway toward the exposition grounds, Captain Strong, Mike Hawks, and the three cadets of the Polaris saw a rocket ship blast off. They watched it disappear into the dark space above.
"That might be they," said Strong to Hawks. "I'd better alert the patrol ship near the space station and tell them to pick them up."
"That couldn't be Wallace and Simms, sir," said Astro.
"How do you know, Astro?" asked Strong.
"That was an atomic-powered ship. The wagon Wallace and Simms have is a chemical job. I know the sound of her jets almost as well as I do the Polaris."
Hawks looked at Strong.