“Me too. Hey, we’re still not moving, though!” Garry pressed harder on the button, but the elevator refused to move. “We’re stuck here, Garry!” Patch burst out. Garry started banging furiously on the walls of the elevator. “We’ve just _got_ to make ourselves heard, Patch!” he cried. The din was very loud in the cramped compartment, as both boys hammered on the wall. No one came to their rescue, but then a voice spoke over the public-address speaker in the ceiling of the elevator: “Don’t be alarmed, folks. A short circuit in the fuel-pump relay caused us to lose electric power momentarily. But everything has been restored to normalcy. Warning: Three minutes to blast-off.” “It _hasn’t_ been restored!” Garry burst out desperately. The boys pounded on the metal walls until their knuckles hurt. In a final desperate action, Garry slammed his closed fist against the stubborn power button. Instantly, he felt the elevator throb underfoot and begin to descend once more. “Thank goodness!” Garry breathed prayerfully. “But we’ve still got to hurry in order to get off in time! No telling how long we’ve been stuck in this thing!” When the elevator stopped, the doors slid open and the boys ran out. But they found themselves in a strange corridor. “We’re not out of the ship yet!” Garry exclaimed. “We’ve only gone down a deck or two. The elevator must still be fouled up.” “What’ll we do now?” Patch asked in desperation. “Go back into the elevator and try to get to the ground. We’ll have to hurry! The elevator is part of the gantry crane, and it’ll be rolled away any moment!” They rushed back to the closed doors of the elevator. But a sign in red lights on the door read: “DO NOT ENTER. ELEVATOR REMOVED.” “They’ve already taken it away!” Patch said in dismay. “We’ve got to find a place to strap down, or every bone in our bodies will be broken on the blast-off!” Garry said. A speaker along the corridor next gave out with the dread words: “Blast-off in ninety seconds, ladies and gentlemen. Secure your seat harness and listen to the instructions of the stewards. Failure to obey directions could cost you your lives. In the first few moments of acceleration in a rocket ship, there is a crushing blow to the human body. This jolt will occur twice more as the second and third stages blast off. For that reason, it is absolutely necessary that everyone be strapped down securely to his G-couch.” Patch grabbed his friends arm in a fierce grip. “Garry, we’re going to die! We’re going to die!” he cried. Garry shook off Patch and desperately began throwing open doors along the corridor, looking into one room after another. “There must be some G-couches along here,” he said. “I read somewhere that space law says there must be emergency couches on all decks of a rocket ship.” Patch tagged along after Garry, complaining. Garry could not afford to be sympathetic now. Both their lives depended on what he did within the next minute.