y's statement, Tom asked, "Who is
Coxine, Captain Strong?"

Strong was silent and Shinny turned to the cadets.

"When your skipper here was a young feller just starting out in the
Solar Guard," the old man explained, "he was on a routine flight out to
Titan and there was a mutiny. Coxine was the ringleader. The captain
joined up with Coxine after they had put his skipper in the brig. When
he had Coxine's confidence, he regained control of the ship and sent
Coxine and the others to a prison asteroid. Coxine has hated the captain
ever since and swore to get him."

"But how did he pull the holdup on Ganymede, then?" asked Roger.

"Coxine escaped from the prison asteroid in a jet boat, disguised as a
guard," continued Shinny. "Only man ever to escape. He drifted around in
the belt for a while and was picked up by a freighter going to Ganymede.
The freighter had been out rocket-hopping among the asteroids,
collecting the prospectors' small supplies of uranium and taking the
stuff back to Ganymede for refining. Wallace happened to be dead-heading
on the freighter. When they got to Ganymede, and Coxine saw all the
money lying around at the Credit Exchange to pay off the prospectors, he
convinced Wallace to go in with him and they robbed the Exchange. Coxine
was caught red-handed, but Wallace got away. In fact, the Solar Guard
didn't know Wallace had anything to do with it. So Coxine was taken back
to the prison asteroid, and Wallace has been driftin' around the system
ever since."

"But, Mr. Shinny," asked Astro, "if you knew Wallace was tied up with
the robbery of the Credit Exchange, why didn't you tell the Solar Guard
before now?"

"Sonny," sighed Shinny, "most of what I know is space dust and space
gas. But even so, I don't think Commander Walters or Captain Strong, or
even you boys, would think much of me if I went around like an old space
crawler, blowin' my jets all over the place."

Strong had listened to Shinny fill in the background of Bull Coxine with
a thoughtful look in his eyes. He remembered all too clearly the mutiny
on the ship out to Titan. Coxine had been an enlisted Solar Guard petty
officer aboard the ship. He had made great strides in two years and was
being considered as an officer candidate on the very day he tried to
take over the ship. When Strong regained control later, he talked to
Coxine, trying to find out why he had started the mutiny. But the man
had only cursed him, swearing vengeance.