"What happened to Philip Morgan?" asked Tom.
"What color slip did he have?"
"Blue."
"Anything besides green washed out," replied Mike quickly. "Now let's
see, you have a replacement for Morgan in this unit. An astrogator."
"Greetings, gentlemen," drawled a voice that Tom recognized without even
looking. "Allow me to introduce myself to my new unit-mates. My name is
Manning--Roger Manning. But then, we're old friends, aren't we?"
"Stow that rocket wash, Manning," snapped Mike. He glanced at the clock
over the door. "You have an hour and forty-five minutes until lunch
time. I suggest you take a walk around the Academy and familiarize
yourselves with the arrangement of the buildings."
And then, for the first time, Tom saw the hard little spaceman smile.
"I'm glad you made it, boys. All three of you." He paused and looked at
each of them in turn. "And I can honestly say I'm looking forward to the
day when I can serve under you!"
He snapped his back straight, gave the three startled boys a crisp
salute, executed a perfect about-face and marched out of the room.
"And that," drawled Roger, strolling to the bunk nearest the window, "is
the corniest bit of space gas I've ever heard."
"Listen, Manning!" growled Astro, spinning around quickly to face him.
"Yeah," purred Roger, his eyes drawn to fine points, hands hanging
loosely at his sides.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42