Quent glared at the two boys for a moment, his black eyes cold and hard.
"They make kids feel mighty important around here, don't they?"

"They give us jobs to do," said Roger. "Usually we can handle them fine.
Occasionally we run into a space-gassing bum and he makes things
difficult, but we manage to take care of him."

Quent stepped forward in a threatening manner, but Roger did not move.
"Listen," the spaceman snarled, "stay out of my way, you young punk, or
I'll blast you."

"Don't ever make the mistake of touching me, Mister," said Roger
calmly. "You might find that you're the one who's blasted."

Quent stared at them a moment, then spun on his heels and swaggered back
to his ship.

"You know, Roger," said Tom, watching Miles disappear into the hangar,
"I have an idea he is one spaceman who'll back up his threats."

Roger ignored Tom's statement. "Come on. We've got a lot of work to do,"
he said, turning away.

The two cadets headed for the next hangar and boarded a ship with the
picture of a chicken on its nose. While Roger examined the
communications and astrogation deck, Tom busied himself inspecting the
control deck, where the great panels of the master control board were
stripped of everything but absolute essentials. Later, they called Astro
back to make a careful inspection of the power deck on the ship. While
they waited for the Venusian cadet, Tom and Roger talked to the pilot.