This is the last of the Jeff Hawke stories from Junior Express weekly and it is clear that the editors still did not consider that they had the right formula to satisfy their young readers . The first two stories had Jeff as the central character with a young sidekick with whom the readers could identify. The next story “ The space frontier” featured Bobby Agar and his friend Penny as much more proactive characters. In this last one , which is really in the school story tradition ( a kind of Jennings in space) the boys are the main characters and Jeff becomes a somewhat peripheral adult.
The story opens with Jeff and Ricky visiting Mike Cranley , the designer of Earth’s latest and biggest space station. Here they are introduced , not only to a scale model of the new station but also to Cranley’s colleague, the astronomer professor Bodwin. The next day Jeff and Ricky head back to space headquarters where they discover that a ferry-ship returning from the existing space satellite is in trouble. Jeff talks down the pilot, the ferry manages to land safely and its passengers disembark. Among them is Bobby Agar, the boy whose adventures were featured in the last story. Here to meet him are a group of his old school mates including a boy called Scrubby who will feature large in the forthcoming story. The boys also get to meet Jeff Hawke
who tells them that a Space school for cadets is to be opened on the satellite and that those who pass a preliminary exam will be eligible to enroll. All apply for the space-school , but Scrubby has to lie that he has his guardian’s approval to go into space. His guardian, it transpires, is none other than professor Bodwin, the astronomer, who apparently does not approve of space-travel. As the boys arrive at the spaceport, Scrubby spots the professor, and in a bid to evade him, hides in one of the cargo crates that are being loaded onto the ferry ship. The other boys board as passengers and the ship takes off with Jeff Hawke at the controls. Too late does the professor realize that his nephew has stowed away. As the flight progresses , Scrubby breaks out of his crate in the cargo hold and as he does so, he knocks over a suspicious object which begins to tick. Realising that it must be a bomb, he breaks cover and rushes through the ship to the pilot’s cabin to alert Jeff.
Hawke immediately takes charge and manages to eject the bomb through the airlock just seconds before it explodes. On arrival at the space station , Scrubby enjoys brief celebrity for saving the day, but his pleasure is short-lived as the station receives an urgent message from his guardian that he must be returmed to Earth on the next ferry . Once again, and with the collusion of his class mates Scrubby goes AWOL , hidng in one of the station’s many recesses until the ferry has departed. After a search of the remaining freight that accompanied the bomb, a threatening note is found The note demands that the station be evacuated within 24 hours and says that it will be destroyed after that time.
The station commander is anxious to comply, but Jeff, guessing that the ejected bomb, whose mechanism was set off too early by Scrubby , was the device intended to destroy the station, holds his nerve and decides that they will all stay. Part 2 to follow. Skipper Prossitt
