“Everybody ready?” Ben called from the air lock.
All answered that they were.
“Start the motors, Mac,” Ben said.
Mac started the rocket motors, at the same time calling, “Hurry up, Ben!”
Garry heard a whirring sound, and the outer door of the flier slid shut, with Ben still in the air lock beyond!
“Hey, wait!” Isaac shouted. “Ben’s in the air lock, and the door’s closed!”
No one could do anything, for in the very next moment the flier kicked out violently sideways, bending everyone over in his seat. There was another jerk forward as the flier went into motion.
“What’s happened?” Captain Eaton called.
“Ben’s tricked us!” Mac replied. “He cut off the magnetic grapples from the air lock that held us fast to the Carefree. How stupid I was! He told me to take over while he checked on some last-minute things.”
“I see it all,” Isaac added. “If we check the weights we’ll probably find out that we would be overloaded with one more passenger. Ben was that one more, and he chose not to come aboard rather than risk the safety of the rest of us!”