"Where is your proof?" demanded Barret.
"Right there!" snorted Major Connel, pointing to the sleeping figure of Professor Hemmingwell.
"What do you mean?" demanded Barret.
"He'll swear that you deliberately sent this ship into full drive while I was out on the hull checking the rings."
"He can't," protested Barret. "He was on the bridge! He couldn't have seen a thing!"
Tom shook his head gently. "Barret, after what you've done to his ship and the projectile operation," he said, "Hemmingwell will swear to anything."
"It's a frame-up!" shouted Barret.
"And what do you think you did to us?" snarled Roger.
Barret flushed and turned away. "You can't scare me," he muttered. "Go ahead. Let him swear to whatever he wants."
Connel stepped back grimly and turned to Astro and Roger. "All right, boys," he said. "Take him below and see if you can't get some different answers out of him." The hardened spaceman turned his back and walked to the viewport.