"With Astro doing the last stretch to the canal carrying me and dragging Tom," said Roger as he sipped his hot broth.
The room in the chief engineer's quarters at the atmosphere station was crowded with workers, enlisted Solar Guardsmen and officers of the Solar Guard. They stood around staring in disbelief at the three disheveled cadets.
"But how did you ever survive?" asked Strong. "By the craters of Luna, that blasted desert was hotter this past month than it has ever been since Mars was first colonized by Earthmen. Why--why--you were walking through temperatures that reached a hundred and fifty degrees!"
"You don't have to convince us, sir," said Roger with a smile. "We'll never forget it as long as we live."
Later, when Tom, Roger and Astro had taken a shower and dressed in fresh uniforms, Strong came in with an audioscriber and the three cadets gave the full version of their adventure for the official report back to the Academy. When they had finished, Strong told them of his efforts to find them.
"We knew you were in trouble right away," said Strong, "and we tracked you on radar. But that blasted storm fouled us all up. We figured that the sand would have covered up the ship, and that the chances of finding you in a scout were very small, so I got permission from Commander Walters to organize this ground search for you." He paused. "Frankly we had just about given up hope. Took us three weeks finally to locate the section of desert you landed in."
"We knew you would come, sir," said Tom, "but we didn't have enough water to wait for you--and we had to leave."
"Boys," said Strong slowly, "I've had a lot of wonderful things happen to me in the Solar Guard. But I have to confess that seeing you three space-brained idiots clinging to that raft, ready to eat a raw fish--well, that was just about the happiest moment of my life."
"Thank you, sir," said Roger, "and I think I can speak for Tom and Astro when I say that seeing you here with over a hundred men, and all this equipment, ready to start searching for us in that desert--well, it makes us feel pretty proud to be members of an outfit where the skipper feels that way about his crew!"
"What happens now, sir?" asked Tom.
"Aside from getting a well-deserved liberty, it's back to the old grind at the Academy. The _Polaris_ is at the spaceport at Marsopolis, waiting for us." He paused and eyed the three cadets with a smile. "I guess the routine at Space Academy will seem a little dull now, after what you've been through."
"Captain Strong," said Astro formally, "I _know_ I speak for Tom and Roger when I say that _routine_ is all we want for a long time to come!"
"Amen!" added Tom and Roger in unison.
"Very well," said Strong. "_Polaris_ unit--Staaaaand _TO_!"
The three boys snapped to attention.
"You are hereby ordered to report aboard the _Polaris_ at fifteen hundred hours and stand by to raise ship!"
He returned their salutes, turned sharply and walked from the room.
Outside, Steve Strong leaned against the wall and stared through the crystal shell of the atmosphere station into the endless desert.
"Thank you, Mars," he said softly, "for making spacemen out of the _Polaris_ crew!" He saluted sharply and walked away.
Tom suddenly burst from the room with Roger and Astro yelling after him.
"Hey, Tom, where you going?" yelled Roger.
"I've got to get a bottle of that water out of the canal for my kid brother Billy!" shouted Tom and disappeared down a slidestairs.
Roger turned to Astro and said, "That's what I call a real spaceman."
"What do you mean?" asked Astro.
"After what we've been through, he still remembers that his kid brother wants a bottle of water from a canal as a souvenir!"
"Yeah," breathed Astro, "Tom Corbett is--is--a real spaceman!"
[Illustration]
[Illustration]