"Joseph Green - Forgotten Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Joseph)

brush.
"I wonder if passengers are allowed in this part of the ship," Ken said cautiously.
"Oh, come on," Jim replied impetuously. "If we're not supposed to be here, someone
will tell us soon enough."
The passage ended at a door and Jim opened it without hesitation. The boys found
themselves in a small cabin with a viewport.
 "We're in luck!" Jim laughed. "We've got the place to ourselves."
Through the glassteel crystal of the viewport they saw the Earth, huge and round,
hanging in the black immensity of space.
"Strange, isn't it?" Jim sighed. "The Pioneer is going close to thirty thousand miles an
hour, and yet we seem to be standing still while the Earth spins around."
Fascinated by the view the boys stared in silence. Finally, Jim turned to his brother.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Our new home on the Moon. And about Earth."
There was a suggestion of sadness in the boy's voice.
"Homesick, Ken?"
"A little."
"Well, Dad's job is on the Moon and Mother is with him," Jim said. "So I guess we
belong up there, too."
Ken nodded in silent agreement. He was watching a moving light on the dark side of the
Earth.
"I wonder if that's the Space Cruiser," he said.
"It's coming up fast," Jim replied. "Looks like the jet-stream of a rocket."
The light grew larger, glowing bright against the night half of the Earth. Soon the boys
could make out the dim outline of the cigar-shaped spaceship. The forward rockets were
blasting, braking the ship's speed.
Ten minutes later, the Space Guard cruiser was floating quietly alongside the Pioneer.
A hatch opened near the blunt nose of the ship and a figure crawled out. He was dressed in
the bright orange-colored uniform of the Space Guard.
As the hatch closed behind him, the spaceman hurled himself head first toward the
Pioneer. For a few minutes, the body floated weirdly through space. Then, as he neared the
Pioneer, the man suddenly threw his head backward. The movement carried his feet
forward in a half-circle somersault, and ahnost immediately the spaceman's boots struck the
hull of the ship.
The magnetos on his spaceboots held. The man swayed for a moment, then turned and
walked up the hull of the Pioneer.
As he passed the viewport, the Space Guard flashed a look at Jim and Ken. An instant
later, he had shuffled over the curve of the ship's side and was gone.
Jim and Ken caught a glimpse of the man's face. It was thin and dark, with a large,
hooked nose and a pair of black glittering eyes.
The Space Guard cruiser was now dropping back to Earth. The rocketubes of the
Pioneer began to blast, sending shudders through the ship.
Jim and Ken were so absorbed with the scene that they failed to hear the door open
behind them. The sudden click of its closing startled them.
A boy their own age stepped through the doorway. Surprised at finding the cabin
occupied, the newcomer stopped and stared at the brothers suspiciously.
He was short and slim, with bright red hair and a nose that was snubby and peppered
with freckles. He wore the light-blue clothes of a spaceman, with long trousers tucked into
the tops of his spaceboots and a close-fitting shirt open at the collar.
"Come on in," Ken greeted him cheerfully.