the
O.D. catches him out of quarters, he'll be doing his studying while he's
polishing up the mess hall."

Suddenly the door to the room burst open and slammed closed. Tom and
Astro whirled to see their missing unit mate lounging against the
doorframe, grinning broadly.

"Roger!"

"Where've you been, blast you?"

Tom and Astro both jumped forward and spoke at the same time. The
blond-haired cadet merely looked at them lazily and then sauntered
forward, pulling six small study spools from his pockets.

"You wanted these study spools, didn't you?" he drawled, giving his unit
mates three apiece. "Be my guest and study like mad."

Tom and Astro quickly read the titles of the spools and then looked at
Roger in amazement. They were the ones the unit needed for their
end-term exams, the ones all the cadets needed.

"Roger," Tom demanded, "how did you get these spools? The library was
out of them this afternoon. Did you take them from another unit's
quarters?"

"I did not!" said Roger stoutly. "And I don't like your insinuations
that I would." He grinned. "Relax! We have them and we can breeze
through them in the morning and have them back where they belong by noon
tomorrow."

"Where they belong!" Tom exclaimed. "Then you have no right to them."

"Listen, hot-shot!" growled Astro. "I want to know where you got these
spools and how."

"Well, if that isn't gratitude for you!" muttered Roger. "I go out and
risk my neck for my dear beloved unit mates and they stand around
arguing instead of buckling down to study."

"This is no joke, Roger," said Tom seriously. "Now for the last time,
will you tell us how you got them?"

Roger thought a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. "All right," he
said finally. "When I went down to the library to see if it was our turn
for them yet, I found that we were still twenty-seventh in line."

"Twenty-seventh?" gasped Astro.

"That's right, spaceboy!" snorted Roger. "So I tried to con that little
space doll of a librarian into moving our names up on the list, but just
then an Earthworm cadet came in with an order from Tony Richards of the
_Capella_ unit, an order for the very spools we needed."

"You mean, you took them from an Earthworm?" queried Tom.

"Well, I didn't take them exactly," replied Roger. "I waited for him out
on the quadrangle and I told him he was wanted in the cadet dispatcher's
office right away and that I would take the spools on up to Tony."

"And you