Peter Danley took his final examination the following day. All by himself, he went through the procedure of positioning his ship, setting up a rocket drill, firing it, and setting in an anchor. It was only a small rock, nine meters through, but the job was almost the same as with the big ones. Not far away, Captain St. Simon watched the Earthman's procedure through a pair of high-powered field glasses. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when the job was done.
"Jules," he said softly, "I am sure glad that man didn't hurt himself any."
"Yes, suh! We'd of sho' been in trouble if he'd of killed hisself!"
"We will have to tell Captain Brand that our pupil has done pretty well for such a small amount of schooling."
"I think that would be proper, m'lud."
"And we will also have to tell Captain Brand that this boy wouldn't last a month. He wouldn't come back from his first trip."
There was no answer to that.
Three days later, amid a cloud of generally satisfied feelings, Edway Tarnhorst and Peter Danley took the ship back to Earth.