Treachery in Outer Space

Treachery in Outer Space, by

Carey Rockwell and Louis Glanzman This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Treachery in Outer Space
Author: Carey Rockwell and Louis Glanzman
Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18786]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE

THE TOM CORBETT SPACE CADET STORIES
By Carey Rockwell
STAND BY FOR MARS! DANGER IN DEEP SPACE ON THE TRAIL OF THE SPACE PIRATES THE SPACE PIONEERS THE REVOLT ON VENUS TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE SABOTAGE IN SPACE THE ROBOT ROCKET

[Illustration]
A TOM CORBETT Space Cadet Adventure

TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
By CAREY ROCKWELL
WILLY LEY Technical Adviser

GROSSET & DUNLAP Publishers New York

COPYRIGHT, 1954, BY ROCKHILL RADIO
[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: EXTENSIVE RESEARCH SHOWS NO EVIDENCE OF REQUIRED COPYRIGHT RENEWAL]
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ILLUSTRATIONS BY LOUIS GLANZMAN

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

ILLUSTRATIONS
Frontispiece
"Great galaxy! There must be a hundred ships!" 27
The giant Venusian held up the oil-smeared test tube 63
"Yeow!" bawled Astro. "Thanks, sir. Thanks a million!" 102
Tom got down on his knees and felt around for an opening 131
"Look!" Strong cried. "It's Brett's ship!" 151
It would be a rough ride, but at least he was hidden 165
Slowly and cautiously he began climbing 181
"Proceed to quadrant five and seize the Space Knight!" 196

TREACHERY IN OUTER SPACE
CHAPTER I
"All right, you blasted Earthworms! Stand to!"
Three frightened cadet candidates for Space Academy stiffened their backs and stood at rigid attention as Astro faced them, a furious scowl on his rugged features. Behind him, Tom Corbett and Roger Manning lounged on the dormitory bunks, watching their unit mate blast the freshman cadets and trying to keep from laughing. It wasn't long ago that they had gone through the terrifying experience of being hazed by stern upperclassmen and they knew how the three pink-cheeked boys in front of them felt.
"So," bawled Astro, "you want to blast off, do you?"
Neither of the three boys answered.
"Speak when you're spoken to, Mister!" snapped Roger at the boy in the middle.
"Answer the question!" barked Tom, finding it difficult to maintain his role of stern disciplinarian.
"Y-y-yes, sir," finally came a mumbled reply.
"What's your name? And don't say 'sir' to me!" roared Astro.
"Coglin, sir," gulped the boy.
"Don't say 'SIR'!"
"Yes, sir--er--I mean, O.K.," stuttered Coglin.
"And don't say O.K., either," Roger chimed in.
"Yes ... all right ... fine." The boy's face was flushed with desperation.
Astro stepped forward, his chin jutting out. "For your information," he bawled, "the correct manner of address is 'Very well.'"
"Very well," stammered Coglin.
Astro shook his head and turned back to Tom and Roger. "Have you ever seen a greater display of audacity and sheer gall?" he demanded. "The nerve of these three infants assuming that they could ever become Space Cadets!"
Tom and Roger laughed, not at the three Earthworms, but at Astro's sudden eloquence. The giant Venusian cadet usually limited his comments to a gruff Yes or No, or at most, a garbled sentence full of a veteran spaceman's oaths. Then, resuming his stern expression, Roger faced the three boys.
"Sound off! Quick!" he demanded.
"Coglin, John."
"Spears, Albert."
"Duke, Phineas."
"You call those names?" Roger snorted incredulously. "Which of you ground crawlers is radar officer?"
"I am, very well," replied Spears.
The blond-haired cadet stared at him in amazement.
"Very well, what?" he demanded.
"You said that's the correct form of address," replied Spears doggedly.
Roger turned to Tom. "Well, thump my rockets," he exclaimed, "I didn't know they made them that dumb any more!"
"Who is the command cadet?" asked Tom, suppressing a grin.
"I am, very well," replied Duke.
"How fast is fast?"
"Fast is as fast must be, without being either supersonic or turgid. Fast is necessarily that amount of speed that will not be the most nor the least, yet will be sufficient unto the demands of fast ..." Duke quoted directly from the Earthworm Manual, a book that was not prescribed learning in the Academy, but woe unto the Earthworm who did not know it by heart when questioned by a cadet upperclassman.
"What is a blip on a radar, Mister?" demanded Roger of Spears.
"A blip is never a slip. It is constant with the eye of the beholder, and constant with the constant that is always--" Spears faltered, his face flushing with embarrassment.
"Always what?" hounded Roger.
"I--I don't know," stammered the fledgling helplessly.
"You don't know?" yelled Roger. He looked at Tom and Astro, shaking his head. "He doesn't know." The two cadets frowned at the quivering boy and Roger faced him again. "For your information, Mr. Spears," he said at his sarcastic best, "there are five words remaining in that sentence. And for each word, you will spend one hour