He looked at the three cadets and felt a tinge of excitement that did
not show on his scowling face. "Yes," he thought, "they'll make
spacemen. It'll take a little time--but they're good material."
"_Now listen to this!_" he bawled. "We blast off for the Venus space
station in exactly thirty minutes. Get your gear aboard the _Polaris_
and stand by to raise ship." He dropped his voice and pushed out his jaw
a little farther. "This will be the toughest journey you'll ever make.
You'll either come back spacemen, or you'll come back nothing. I'm going
to try my best to make it"--he paused and added coldly--"_nothing!_
Because if you can't take it from me, then you don't belong in space!
Unit _dis_-missed!"
He turned on his heel and disappeared up the slidestairs without another
look at the three rigid cadets.
"Yeah--we'll educate him, all right," said Astro softly, with a wink at
Tom. "Make him think he's done everything for us."
"Ah, go blast your jets!" snarled Roger after he had found his voice.
"Come on," said Tom. "Let's get the _Polaris_ ready. And, fellows, I
mean _ready_!"
Bill Loring and Al Mason stood near the entrance to the control tower of
the Academy spaceport and watched the three cadets of the _Polaris_
scramble into the giant rocket cruiser.
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