"I"ll tell you what"s going to happen to me," snapped Shinny. "You"re going to re-enlist me in the Solar Guard, right here! Right now!"
"What?" exploded Connel.
"And then you"re going to retire me, right here, right now, with a full pension!"
"Why you old s.p.a.ce-crawling--" Suddenly he looked around the table and saw the laughing faces of Tom, Roger, Astro, and Alfie.
"All right," he said, "but between your enlistment and your retirement, I"m going to make you polish every bit of bra.s.s on this s.p.a.ce wagon, from the radar mast to the exhaust tubes!"
Shinny smiled his toothless smile and looked at Tom.
"Get the logbook, Tommy," he said. "This is official. I"m going to do something no other man in the entire history of the Solar Guard ever did before!"
"What"s that, Mr. Shinny?" asked Tom with a smile.
"Enlist, serve time, and retire with a full pension, all on the same blasted s.p.a.ceship, the _Polaris_!"
[Ill.u.s.tration]