"Where are the others?" he demanded.
"They ran out on me."
"Ran out on you. I thought you three were supposed to be such good buddies?"
"When the chips were down," said Astro as harshly as he could, "they turned out to be nothing but yellow rats!"
"Which way did they go?"
"I don't know," said Astro. "It happened last night. We went to sleep, and when I woke up, they were gone."
"Where'd they go?" snarled the man, pushing the ray gun into Astro's back.
"I—I—" Astro pretended he didn't want to talk.
"I'll freeze you, so help me," said the man. "I'm going to count five—one, two, three, four—"
"Don't! I'll tell you!" cried Astro. "I'm not sure, but I think they headed back for the city. We were talking about it last night. We figured it would be the best place to hide."