“Uh, no, Sir,” Garry replied with hesitation. “We’ve been by ourselves ever since this flier left the Von Braun Space Station. It’s a pretty long story, Sir.”
“The name is Captain Eaton, boys.” The man winked at them, showing his white teeth in another smile. “Oh, I’m not really a space captain. I wouldn’t deceive you. The Carefree is a private ship, and the men call me ‘Captain’ because I’m the owner.”
Captain Eaton’s dark, alert eyes flickered over the interior of the flier.
“I thought whoever was in this ship must be in some sort of trouble,” he said, “because of your erratic flight. That’s why we latched onto you, to see if we could be of some help.”
“We do need help, Captain,” Patch said earnestly. “We don’t know the first thing about running this thing. We had just about given ourselves up for lost.”
“How in the world did you get into such a spot as this?” Captain Eaton asked.
“Well, Sir,” Garry explained, lowering his eyes, “you see, we’re stowaways, although we’ve been able to escape being caught all this time. We didn’t mean to be stowaways, Captain. We were helping an officer aboard the Orion with his gear, and the rocket blasted off before we could get out.”
“Say, I’ll bet your parents are worried to death about you,” Captain Eaton said.
“No, Sir,” Patch answered. “You see, we’re orphans, and we lived in an orphanage back in the United States.”
“I see,” the elderly man replied, stroking his short, snowy beard. Then suddenly he grinned broadly. “Well, fellows, how would you like to be rescued?”