saying goes, the least hidden is the best hidden. We'll have to take a
chance."

"Besides," chimed in Astro, "here in the storeroom, Jeff will have his
eye on it all the time. If Vidac starts getting nosy, Jeff will be able
to shift it to another hiding place without too much trouble."

"Well, that's all we can do now," said Tom, straightening up. "Come on.
Let's get to the scout ship and blast off before Vidac wants to know
what we're doing."

Checking the hiding place one last time, the three cadets left the
storeroom and headed for the jet-boat deck. In a few moments they were
blasting through space toward the rear of the fleet where a rocket scout
was waiting for them. The scouts were being carried by the larger space
freighters to save fuel. Now one had been fueled and was blasting
alongside its carrier ship with a skeleton crew. When the cadets' jet
boat came alongside, the crew of the scout transferred into the jet boat
and the three cadets took over the scout.

On the control deck, Tom checked his instruments and made preliminary
tests on the circuits. Suddenly Roger's voice crackled over the ship's
intercom. "Blast that guy Vidac!" he yelled. "He's one jump ahead of us
again!"

Startled, Tom called into the intercom. "What do you mean, Roger?"

"The ship's communicator," snorted Roger. "I figured once we got aboard
the scout we'd be able to use this set to contact the Academy instead of
having to monkey around with the homemade job back on the _Polaris_. But