movement to his left. He raised the deadly ray
gun, and his finger tightened on the trigger.

"Advance and be recognized," he said over the sights of the gun.

"_Mee-ooo-wwww!_"

A tiny white kitten flashed out of a gap between two boxes and ran to
his feet, purring, rubbing up against his space boots.

[Illustration]

"Well, blast my rockets!" Roger laughed. He slung the gun over his
shoulder and reached down to pick the kitten up in his arms. He began
stroking its fur and making little soothing noises. He started back to
the other end of his patrol post.

"You're a cute little fella," murmured Roger, nuzzling the kitten
against his chin. "But you almost got blasted."

"Guard! Stand to!"

Startled, Roger whirled around to see Firehouse Tim behind him, his
battered and beaten face clouded with rage. "Drop that animal at once,"
the petty officer roared.

Roger stooped over to let the kitten run free and it dashed away into a
crack between the boxes and disappeared.

"Manning," began the enlisted spaceman, "the next time I catch you not
attending to your duty, I will bring you up on charges of neglect! Carry
on!" Rush spun on his heel and vanished into the darkness.

"Blasted muscle-bound squirt!" sneered Roger under his breath,
shouldering his rifle and resuming his slow patrol outside the hangar.

For three weeks, Tom, Roger, and Astro, along with the three members of
the _Capella_ unit, had been spending close to eight hours a day on
guard duty, eight to ten hours a day in classroom work, and the rest of
the time studying. They only averaged some two to three hours of sleep
per day. They were dead tired but they stuck to their task doggedly,
without complaint.

Around them, the work on Professor Hemmingwell's project had proceeded
with amazing speed. The tunnel promised by Dave Barret had been finished
in less than five days, with the rail for the monorail spur installed
overhead as each yard of the shaft was completed. In the second week,
scores of cars loaded with building materials began rolling into the
deserted plain several miles away from Space Academy. Then, one morning,
nearly a thousand construction workers arrived and built a hangar in
thirty-six hours. No sooner had the huge building been completed than a
tight guard had been placed around it. Specially designed
identification tags were issued to the guards and workers on the
project. Gradually the huge store of cases and boxes outside the h