“What’s up, Sparky?” Rock asked.
“Jack Judas told me you wanted help in finishing up over here and for me to come over,” Sparky replied.
“We didn’t send for you,” Rock told Sparky. “It must be a trick to get the most of us over here. Come on, you guys! We’ll go over and have a show-down with Kalmus right away!”
But before they could launch themselves, Kalmus had already begun his act of treachery.
“Look what those crooks are doing!” Shep exclaimed.
The boys could hardly believe what they saw. It was more like a bad dream. The cable had jerked away from the side of the Northern Cross as its magnetic attraction was broken. Then the five saw Kalmus lean out and pull it into the Dog Star.
“We’re too late!” Rock groaned.
The ex-cadets shouted in frustration and anger at the cold-blooded act. Over their suit radios, they warned their former partners of the consequences of abandoning men in space. But even as they yelled themselves hoarse, Rock knew it wasn’t going to do any good. Kalmus had simply gotten the jump on them, something that had probably been planned at the very beginning of the voyage.
The outer door of the Dog Star closed. A feeling of utter desperation took possession of Rock. Here they were, five of them, marooned on a ghost ship in space, without any foreseeable chance of returning alive to Earth.