Ten wild Planeteers riding an
asteroid! Sunny space, what a great big thermonuclear stunt!
Koa remarked, "It must be good. The lieutenant is getting a real atomic
charge out of it."
"Sit down," Rip ordered. "You'd better, because you might fall over when
you hear this. Listen, men. Two days ago the freighter _Altair_ passed
through the asteroid belt on a run from Jupiter to Mars." He sat down,
too, because deceleration was starting. As his men looked at each other
in surprise at the quickness of it, he continued, "The old bucket found
something we need--an asteroid of pure thorium."
The enlisted Planeteers knew as well as he what that meant. There were
whistles of astonishment. Koa slapped his thigh. "By Gemini! What do we
do about it, sir?"
"We capture it," Rip said. "We blast it loose from its orbit and ride it
back to Earth."
He sat back and watched their reactions. At first they were stunned.
Trudeau, the Frenchman, muttered to himself in French. Dominico, the
Italian, held up his hands and exclaimed, "Santa Maria!"
Kemp, one of the American privates, asked, "How do we do it, sir?"
Rip grinned. "That's a good question. I don't know."
That stopped them. They stared at him. He added quickly, "Supplies came
aboard at Marsport.
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