nervous titter rippled through the
ranks. McKenny spun around and glared. There was immediate silence.

"What's your name?" He turned back to the boy.

"Corbett, sir. Cadet Candidate Tom Corbett," answered the boy.

"Wanta be a spaceman, do ya?" asked Mike, pushing his jaw out another
inch.

"Yes, sir!"

"Been studying long hard hours in primary school, eh? Talked your mother
and father deaf in the ears to let you come to Space Academy and be a
spaceman! You want to feel those rockets bucking in your back out in the
stars? _EH?_"

"Yes, sir," replied Tom, wondering how this man he didn't even know
could know so much about him.

"_Well, you won't make it_ if I ever catch you disobeying orders again!"

McKenny turned quickly to see what effect he had created on the others.
The lines of bewildered faces satisfied him that his old trick of using
one of the cadets as an example was a success. He turned back to
Corbett.

"The only reason I'm not logging you now is because you're not a Space
Cadet yet--and won't be, until you've taken the Academy oath!"

"Yes, sir!"

McKenny walked down the line and across the platform to an open
teleceiver booth. The ranks were quiet and motionless, and as he made
his call, McKenny smiled. Finally, when the tension seemed unbearable,
he roared, "At ease!" and closed the door of the booth.

The ranks melted immediately and the boys fell into chattering clusters,
their voices low, and they occasionally peered over their shoulders at
Corbett as if he had suddenly been stricken with a horrible plague.

Brooding over the seeming ill-fortune that had called McKenny's
attention to him at the wrong time, Tom sat down on his suitcase to
adjust his boot. He shook his head slowly. He had heard Space Academy
was tough, tougher than any other school in the world, but he didn't
expect the stern discipline to begin so soon.

"This could be the beginning of the end," drawled a lazy voice in back
of Tom, "for some of the more enthusiastic cadets." Someone laughed.

Tom turned to see a boy about his own age, weight and height, with
close-cropped blond hair that stood up brushlike all over his head. He
was lounging idly against a pillar, luggage piled high around his feet.
Tom recognized him immediately as Roger Manning, and his pleasant
features twisted into a scowl.

"About what I'd expect from that character," he thought, "after the
trick he pulled on Astro, that big fellow from Venus."