“It’s that faulty antenna!” Rock groaned.
The crackling continued. Just as Hugh was about to give up, a voice came in weakly again. It was a voice the boys had to strain to hear, but they caught the vital message: “Hugh—Rock!” it said. “We picked up your SOS. We’ve had to make an emergency landing on Luna.”
“Leo!” Shep said. “It’s Leo!”
“Ask him quickly if Ed is all right and what their position is,” Rock said to Hugh.
“Yeah, we’re both all right,” came Leo’s reply. “Our position—”
A rattle of static cut him off. The boys groaned. It would be impossible to search the moon for a space ship. They had to get the exact location from Leo.
They listened hopefully. Hugh kept talking, saying that they weren’t getting clear reception.
Then Leo’s distorted voice came through again briefly. This time he got out the latitude and longitude of the Dog Star. Rock eagerly wrote it down.
“Here comes Kalmus!” they heard Leo say next in a frenzied voice.
That was the last they heard. There followed a garbled sound and then complete silence.