it's no soap."

"Why not?" boomed Astro over the intercom.

"The only open circuit here is beamed to the _Polaris_. And the radar is
too complicated to change over to audio communications. We haven't got
enough time."

Tom clenched his teeth. He had had the same idea about using the
communications set on the scout to contact the Academy. Now there was
nothing to do but hope Vidac wouldn't find the one they were building.
He called into the intercom again. "Is the radar working well enough for
us to search the asteroid cluster without plowing into any space junk?"

"Yeah," growled Roger. "He left it in working condition all right, but
if we burn out a tube, we're blacked out until we get back. There isn't
a spare nut or bolt in the locker for repairs."

"But what happens if something happens to the radar when we're in the
cluster," called Astro. "We'll be sitting ducks for every asteroid!"

"That's the chance we have to take, Astro," said Tom. "If we complained,
you know what he'd do."

"I sure do," growled Astro. "He'd call us yellow again, because we'd
refused to make the trip!"

"That's the way it adds up," said Tom. "So I guess we'd better get
started. Stand by to blast!"