Chapter V: Part 5

He released the boys and clasped Ben to him as if he were another lost son. Then the others came forward, their faces gleaming with the overwhelming joy they felt at seeing the lost ones returning.

“Ben, you old trickster you!” Mac shouted, pounding his friend on the back. “How in the world you came out of that thing alive I’ll never know. But right now I don’t care _how_ you did it!”

“Welcome home, stranger!” Isaac said, shaking Ben’s hand vigorously as only Isaac could do.

“It’s most gratifying to see you, Ben,” Mr. Klecker said in his butler’s tone of voice, which, however, did not mean that he was any less deeply moved than the others.

Gino then came forward and took his turn at greeting Ben and the boys. The celebration went on for several more minutes, and the little flier was pleasantly noisy with joking and happy talk.

But, finally, Commander Staples had to interrupt the celebration with a smiling, apologetic voice: “I hate to break up this little party, but we’ve got to start back to the mining settlement. You see, I’m on duty and I’ve got a busy schedule. They have accommodations for all of you at the settlement, and you can make your future plans as soon as you’ve arrived there.”

The prisoners of so long a time in the cramped quarters of the flier were only too willing to get out of their prison. The commander and his assistant went back to the Service flier to get space suits for those who did not have them.

After the suits had been distributed, Commander Staples gave a piece of paper to Captain Eaton. “Here’s a message for you, Sir, that our radio picked up.” He winked at the boys. “Something tells me they’ll be as interested in it as you will be.”

The captain read the message and then turned to Garry and Patch with a warm expression. “Boys, it looks as though the adoption will go through as soon as we go back for a short time and make the arrangements.”

“Gee, I—I don’t know what to say,” Garry murmured, almost too excited and happy for words. “It sounds too good to be true!”

“They’re the best words you could have said to us, Sir,” Patch added. “Isn’t it just great, Garry!” His sparkling eyes showed how much he meant it.

“It’ll be a little strange being called, ‘Father,’” the captain said, smiling, “but I think I’ll get used to it pretty quickly.”

Captain Eaton stared off with a faraway look. “We’ll make up for lost time, boys. We’ll see as much of the universe as the old _Carefree_ will carry us to. Yes, we’ll fix her up again if it takes the rest of my fortune. You’ll get your education among the stars, my sons, and you’ll be that much wiser because of it.”

Garry and Patch exchanged happy glances. Garry thought they were wiser already, just from knowing the grand skipper of the _Carefree_.

Transcriber’s Notes

--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.

--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)

End of Project Gutenberg's Young Stowaways in Space, by Richard Mace Elam