Read Online Captain Future 24 - Pardon My Iron Nerves (November 1950) by Edmond Hamilton - Free Book Online Page A

“Because if you don’t, we’ll be wrecked in the swarms. And you don’t want to die. You’d a lot rather go to Interplanetary Prison, than die.”
    The Futuremen securely bound their prisoners. They disabled the fake Comet and left it drifting. They shucked away the disguise from the real Comet, and started into the Zone toward Pallas.
    Curt steered right toward the dangerous meteor-swarms around Pallas. And when disaster seemed imminent what he had foreseen happened. Crain’s nerve broke. The criminal hastily babbled the secret wave-code by means of which they could steer their way through the dangerous swarms.
     
    PIRATES’ PLANET
    Thus the Comet came to Pirates’ Planet. It descended toward the night side, and poised above the dark blot of Red Lake. Miles to the west, the lights of the pirate city, Freetown, threw a glow into the sky.
    “Now take us to the hidden base of the Four,” ordered Curt.
    “Captain Future, I don’t dare!” Crain cried. “You don’t know what the Four are like. They’re devils! It was they who thought up this whole imposture, and picked myself and two others to play it because we were the right height and so on. If you try to meddle with them, they’ll kill you — and then kill me for bringing you here!”
    Curt again applied pressure. “Crain, unless you take us to the Four, do you know what I’ll do? I’ll drop you over there in Freetown. The pirates over there don’t know about your impersonation of me. You’d not be fool enough to tell them or anyone. So when you drop in on them, they’ll think you’re really Captain Future. You know how those outlaws hate me. You can guess what they’ll do to you, thinking that you’re me!”
    Crain’s ghastly face showed that he knew only too well what the bloodthirsty corsairs would do if they thought they had captured Captain Future.
    “All right,” he choked. “I’ll take you to the base of the Four. But you’ll never come out of it alive.”
    He directed Curt to steer the Comet toward a rocky hill on the eastern shore of Red Lake.
    “The whole hill is hollowed out,” he explained. “The secret laboratories of the Four are inside of it.”
    “Good — we’ll land right by it,” Curt declared. “The Four will think our ship is the fake Comet returning. And they’ll think that Grag and Otho and I are Crain and the other doubles coming back from the trip!”
    The audacity of the plan was typical of Captain Future. And it held good chance of success. His hopes were high as he landed the Comet in the darkness beside the rocky hill.
    Crain shakily gave them directions. But before leaving the ship, Curt rapidly prepared three heavy little metal chests which he and Grag and Otho took with them. Simon remained to guard the prisoners.
    “Why do we have to carry these things?” grumbled Grag.
    “We’re supposed to be bringing back platinum and tantalum, aren’t we?” Curt countered. “Besides, they may be useful in other ways.”
     
    CRIMINALS’ HIDE-OUT
    Otho was chuckling as they made their way toward a cunningly disguised opening in the side of the hollow hill.
    “The Four will get an awful shock when they find out the doubles are the real Futuremen.”
    They entered the cavernous opening in the hillside. A passage led through solid rock to a square rock chamber in which was a heavy door.
    Curt touched the electrobell beside the door in the signal he had extorted from Crain. His hand rested on his proton-pistol as they waited.
    “Be ready to jump them the minute we have all four together,” he muttered to the others.
    At that moment, a trap-door opened beneath them. They plummeted down through a vertical shaft into a space beneath. Curt struck a stone floor with a stunning shock...
    Curt woke to find himself tightly bound. Otho was bound also, sitting beside him, and Grag was secured by a heavy chain.
    They were in a big, brightly lit laboratory somewhere inside the hollow hill. Four men faced them — a crafty