"I'm afraid it is, Roger," said Tom. "But we're going to make sure that
everything that's supposed to be in a spaceship is in this one."

"When I blast off, I don't intend carrying any passengers," growled
Miles behind them. "If you're going to inspect, then inspect and stop
gabbing."

"Let's go," said Tom grimly.

The three boys split up and began crawling around in the network of
exposed supporting beams and struts that took the place of decks and
bulkheads. It did not take them long to determine that Quent Miles' ship
was in perfect condition for blast-off. With but a few minutes to spare,
they returned to face Miles at the air lock.

"O.K., you're cleared," Tom announced.

"But it'll take more than a light ship to win this race," said Roger,
and unable to restrain himself, he added, "You're bucking the best space
busters in the universe!"

"One of them"--Quent held up his finger--"is dead."

"Yeah," growled Astro, "but there are plenty more just as good as Gigi
Duarte."

The intercom buzzer sounded in the ship and Quent snapped, "Beat it!
I've got a race to win." He pushed the three cadets out of the air lock
and slammed the pluglike door closed. From two feet away it was
impossible to spot the seams in the metal covering on the port and the
hull.

"Clear ramp! Clear ramp!" Strong's voice echoed over the spaceport. Tom,
Roger, and Astro scurried down the ladder and broke away from the ramp
in a run. They knew Quent Miles would not hesitate to blast off whether
anyone was within range of his exhaust or not.

"Blast off, minus five, four, three, two, one--_zero!_"

Again the spaceport reverberated to the sound of a ship blasting off.
All eyes watched the weirdly painted black ship shudder under the surge
of power, and then shoot spaceward as if out of a cannon.

"Well, ring me around Saturn," breathed Tom, looking up into the sky
where the black ship had disappeared from view. "Whatever Quent Miles
is, he can sure take acceleration."

"Spaceman," said Astro, taking a deep breath, "you can say that again.
Wow!"

"I hope it broke his blasted neck," said Roger.

* * * * *

"And you saw him messing around here, Sid?" asked Kit Barnard of his
young helper.

"That's right," replied the crew chief. "I was on the control deck
checking out the panel and I happened to look down. I couldn't see too
well, but it was a big guy."

[Illustration]

"Messing around the reactor