ped
cadet climbing through the hatch into the power deck, followed by Sid.
Sweating, his body streaked with grease, the belt of rocketman's tools
swinging from his hips, Astro pounded the two spacemen on the back. "We
did it!" he roared, turning to hug Sid who was equally grimy and naked
to the waist.

"Did what?" demanded Kit.

"You know that by-pass feeder you said wouldn't hold a pressure of more
than D-18 rate?" said Astro eagerly.

When Kit nodded, Astro roared triumphantly, "Well, it'll hold more than
D-18 rate now!"

"What do you mean?" demanded Kit.

Astro's involved and detailed reply in engineering terms was almost
gibberish to Tom, but he understood enough of the unit construction to
sense that Astro had done something extraordinary.

"And he did it all himself, too," said Sid quietly. "I didn't do any
more than hold the tools."

"But I still don't understand," protested Kit. "The by-pass won't take
more than D-18."

"We built another one," said Astro proudly. "Since you were making a
small unit, you naturally built a small by-pass feeder. We made a big
one." Astro grinned. "I admit that it looks a little lopsided, with that
tank joint on the side nearly twice as big as the whole cooling unit,
but if you'll cut your motors and give me fifteen minutes to change that
line, I'll give you a reactant feed at D-30 rate."

[Illustration]

"D-D-30," stammered Kit. "You're space happy!" He glanced over at Sid.
"Is that right, Sid?" he asked, almost hesitantly.

The youth nodded. "It'll work, Kit. And believe me, I didn't have a
thing to do with it. It was his idea and I thought he was nuts too. But
he can holler louder than I can and--well, he's bigger'n I am and--" Sid
shrugged his shoulders. "He went and did it."

"I want to see that thing for myself!" exclaimed Kit, jumping out of his
seat. "Take over for a while, Tom."

Tom slid under the controls of the sleek ship, and while Astro, Sid, and
Kit went below to the power deck, he began to figure their speed at a
D-30 rate. He used a pencil at first, scribbling on a piece of paper,
but the answer he reached was so fabulous, he put the ship on automatic
gyro control and climbed to the radar deck where he checked the figures
on the electronic calculator. When the result was the same, he let out a
whoop.

When he returned to the control deck again, Astro, Kit, and Sid were
already working the master control panel, adjusting some of the controls
to ta