against his chin. "But you almost got blasted."

"Guard! Stand to!"

Startled, Roger whirled around to see Firehouse Tim behind him, his
battered and beaten face clouded with rage. "Drop that animal at once,"
the petty officer roared.

Roger stooped over to let the kitten run free and it dashed away into a
crack between the boxes and disappeared.

"Manning," began the enlisted spaceman, "the next time I catch you not
attending to your duty, I will bring you up on charges of neglect! Carry
on!" Rush spun on his heel and vanished into the darkness.

"Blasted muscle-bound squirt!" sneered Roger under his breath,
shouldering his rifle and resuming his slow patrol outside the hangar.

For three weeks, Tom, Roger, and Astro, along with the three members of
the _Capella_ unit, had been spending close to eight hours a day on
guard duty, eight to ten hours a day in classroom work, and the rest of
the time studying. They only averaged some two to three hours of sleep
per day. They were dead tired but they stuck to their task doggedly,
without complaint.

Around them, the work on Professor Hemmingwell's project had proceeded
with amazing speed. The tunnel promised by Dave Barret had been finished
in less than five days, with the rail for the monorail spur installed
overhead as each yard of the shaft was completed. In the second week,
scores of cars loaded with building materials began rolling into the