Connel couldn't find any reason to give them to us,"
sneered Roger. "What a busted rocket he's getting to be!"

"Yeah," agreed Astro quietly.

The three cadets began their round again, their eyes heavy with lack of
sleep, their arms and legs leaden, and their desire to become successful
Space Cadets more determined than ever. But they didn't know they had
started a chain reaction that would affect their very lives.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 5

"We passed!"

Tom turned away from the lists posted on the dormitory bulletin board
and with his arms around Astro and Roger pushed through the knot of
cadets.

"Yeow!" bellowed Astro.

"We made it," murmured Roger with a note of disbelief in his voice. "We
made it!" And then, with the realization that he was still a Space Cadet
for at least another term, he turned and began pounding Astro on the
back. "You big Venusian ape, we made it."

Arm in arm, the three cadets strolled across the quadrangle and shouted
to friends they passed. Occasionally they fell silent when they saw a
boy carrying his gear to the supply building. These had failed to pass
the rigid examinations.

Near the Tower of Galileo, the cadets came face to face with Tony
Richards, McAvoy, and Davison. The two units looked at each other
silently, remembering what had happened only four short weeks before.
Then they all smiled and pounded each other on the back, congratulating
each other on passing. Neither of the units had made top honors as a
result of their fight and the trial, and having to spend so much time on
guard duty, but they had passed and that was the most important thing.
The boys all adjourned to the credit exchange and gorged themselves on
Martian fruit pies covered with ice cream. Finally the party broke up
when Tom remembered that he and his unit mates had to go on guard duty
in half an hour.

"Well," said Tony Richards, rising, "we relieve you guys at midnight, so
we might as well hit the sack right now. I've been waiting for this
night for a long time."

"No study," sighed Davison. "What heaven! I feel as if I've been
pardoned from prison."

The three boys of the _Capella_ crew said good-by to Tom, Roger, and
Astro, and walked off. Tom settled back in his chair and sighed. "Sure
wish I was in their boots," he said. "I don't see how I'm going to get
through tonight."

"Don't think about it," said Roger. "Only seven more days to go, and
then we go on summer cruise with the