t. The mercury inside the ball
began to play its role in the game, and as though it had a brain of its
own, the ball spun, stopped, bounced, and spiraled in every direction,
with the cadets kicking, lunging, and scrambling for a clean shot.
Finally Astro reached the tumbling sphere and booted it away from the
group. There was a roar of laughter from the _Arcturus_ unit and a low
groan from Tom and Roger. Astro saw that he had kicked the ball over his
own goal line.

[Illustration]

"Why, you clobber-headed Venusian hick!" yelled Roger. "Can't you tell
the difference between our goal and theirs?"

Astro grinned sheepishly as the three jogged back to their own goal to
line up once more.

"Lay off, Roger," said Tom. "How come you didn't get Richards on that
play?"

"I slipped," replied the blond cadet.

"Yeah, you slipped all right," growled Astro good-naturedly, "with a
great big assist from Richards."

"Ah, go blast your jets," grumbled Roger. "Come on! Let's show those
space crawlers what this game is all about!"

But before the cadet referee could drop his hand, a powerful, low-slung
jet car, its exhaust howling, pulled to a screeching stop at the edge of
the field and a scarlet-clad enlisted Solar Guardsman jumped out and
spoke to him. Sensing that it was something important, the two teams
jogged over to surround the messenger.

"What's up, Joe?" asked Roger.

The enlisted spaceman, an Earthworm cadet who had washed out of the
Academy but had re-enlisted in the Solar Guard, smiled. "Orders for the
_Polaris_ unit," he said, "from Captain Strong."

"What about?" asked Roger.

"Report on the double for new assignments," replied the guardsman.

"_Yeeeeooooow!_" Astro roared in jubilation. "At last we can get out of
here. I've been doing so blamed much classroom work, I've forgotten what
space looks like."

"Know where we're going, Joe?" asked Tom.

"Uh-uh." Joe shook his head. He turned away, then stopped, and called
back, "Want a lift back to the Tower?"

Before Tom could answer, Richards, the captain of the _Arcturus_ unit
spoke up. "How about finishing the game, Tom? It's been so long since
we've had such good competition we hate to lose you. Come on. Only a few
more minutes."

Tom hesitated. It had been a long time since the two units had played
together, but orders were orders. He looked at Roger and Astro. "Well,
what about it?"

"Sure," said Roger. "We'll wipe up these space jokers in nothi