"Oh, forget it," groaned Tom. "I'm too tired to think about it now.
Let's just report to Captain Strong and get some sack time. I'm all out
of reactant."

"I suppose Astro will spend half the night trying to figure out what it
took Kit Barnard years to build," mused Roger.

"And if I know Astro," chuckled Tom, "he'll get it figured out too!"

As the two weary cadets continued their ride into the Academy grounds,
on another slidewalk going in the opposite direction, Quent Miles
watched the darkening countryside closely. It was several miles from the
Academy to the monorail station, and the moving belt dipped and turned
through the rugged country that surrounded Space Academy. Suddenly Quent
straightened, and making certain no one was watching him, he jumped off
the slidewalk and hurried to a clump of bushes a few hundred yards away.
He disappeared into the thick foliage and then reached inside his tunic
and pulled out a paralo-ray gun.

"You in here, Charley?" Miles whispered.

There was a movement to his left and he leveled the gun. "All right!
Come out of there!"

The bushes parted and Charley Brett stepped out. "Put that thing away!"
he snarled. "What's that for?"

"After I got your message to meet you out here, I didn't know what was
up, so I brought this along just in case," Quent replied. "What's so