race for Astro. Tom, covering Astro on the left wing, saw the cadet
sweeping in and lunged in a desperate attempt to stop him. But he
missed, leaving Astro unprotected against the three members of the
_Arcturus_ unit. With his defense gone, Astro kicked at the ball
frantically but just grazed the side of it. 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