"Lower your voice, Mister, and don't talk back!" But Hanlon's
mind-probing was receiving approbation now. "I saw you cheating, and I
know what I saw. Do you want to resign, or will you force me to take you
to the commandant?"

"I don't know who you are, but you're a stupid fool!" Hanlon apparently
lost all control of himself, and his voice and red face showed the anger
he was simulating so well. "If you think you're going to frame me out of
this class and out of graduating, you're a confounded idiot! Ask any of
these chaps here--they all know I'm not a cheat."

But the cadets, though puzzled and dismayed, were far too clever to get
mixed up in this unexpected brawl. They all sat, eyes lowered but faces
straight ahead, arms folded across their chests, having no part in it at
all.

The examining instructor, a man much larger and heavier than Hanlon's
five feet eleven inches and one hundred and seventy-five pounds, rushed
down from the platform. He grabbed at the cadet's arms, but Hanlon
swivelled away, then stepped back in and struck at the officer.

That was mutiny! It was unthinkable for a cadet to strike an officer,
under any circumstances or provocation.

The teacher, however, snared the cadet in a neo-judo hold that no
neophyte, however skilled or strong could break. He dragged the
struggling Hanlon up to the rostrum and, with his elbow, activated the
intercom.

"Ask the commandant to come to room 12-B. A cadet, caught cheating at
examinations, has mutinied."

Still holding the struggling, angry Hanlon, the instructor-officer
excoriated his victim for such breach of cadet honor. Hanlon, meanwhile,
yelled insults and oaths. He twisted and squirmed as though trying to
escape, although he had quickly realized he was now being held in a
loose though apparently-valid grip he could have broken easily had he so
desired.

Yet during all this Hanlon was receiving from the officer's mind the
distinct impression that the latter hated what he was doing, yet was
approving the way the new SS man was playing his part. Further, Hanlon
sensed he was being welcomed into the fellowship of those unknown SS men
to whom he was now brother.

Soon Admiral Rogers, followed by two hulking space marines, came running
into the room.

"What's going on here?" he barked.

Quickly the teacher repeated his charges, while Hanlon yelled denials
and vituperations at the moronic imbecile who dared accuse him of such
treachery.

"I'm