"Coming to pay us a visit, fellas?" asked Roger blandly.
"You know blasted well why we were coming," snapped McAvoy, the second member of the Capella crew.
Davison, the third member of the unit, stepped forward. "Give us back our study spools," he demanded.
"Take it easy," said Tom in a calm voice. "We were bringing them back to you."
"I'll bet," snapped McAvoy.
"Relax," growled Astro. "Tom said we were returning them. We admit it was a dirty trick, but you haven't lost much time. Half an hour maybe."
"Don't try to cover for Manning, Astro," said Tony heatedly. "It's a shame you two guys are stuck with a bad rocket like Manning in your unit."
"Bad rocket!" exclaimed Roger.
"Now, wait a minute, Tony," Tom said, advancing toward the broad-shouldered cadet. "We are returning the spools, and we apologize for yanking them from the Earthworm. But that doesn't mean we'll listen to that kind of talk about Roger."
"He stole them, didn't he?" retorted Davison.