Free Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

stopped. You haven't lost any ships."
    "Is that true?" Curt immediately asked Rissman. "You have the biggest company and produce more ships than any other, yet none of yours has been stolen?"
    "That's right, I've lost no ships," Rissman admitted.
    "How do you account for the fact that the hijackers don't bother you?"
    The hard-faced Earthman shrugged. "The Rocketeers who test our ships over at Suicide Station are ordered to take every precaution against theft. No slipshod inefficiency about me! That's why these ship thieves haven't been able to get any of our craft."
    "All of us have told the Rocketeers to take precautions when testing our ships in space," Lan Tark said coldly. "Yet our ships continue to vanish, Rissman. Yours don't."
    Captain Future was thinking quickly. It was certainly suspicious that not one Rissman space ship had been stolen.
    He shot a sharp question at Christian Rissman.
    "You were saying something, when you entered, about offering to buy out the other factories?"
    "I made them a fair offer," Rissman grumbled. "They wouldn't accept."
    "We wouldn't sell out to you and give you a monopoly of the space ship manufacturing industry," Zamor declared angrily. "And after we rejected your offer, these space ships thefts began. It looks like the thefts are designed to bankrupt us, so that we'll have to sell to you."
    "That is true," purred Ak Kalber, the plump yellow Uranian. "It has the appearance of a deliberate plan to force us out."
    "Bah, your lying accusations don't bother me!" Rissman exploded. "I don't need to resort to crime to force you bunglers out of business. I'm already selling more ships than any of you, simply because my ships are better and the whole System knows it. You can tell a Rissman ship anywhere you see it, not only because it has a different and better design of cyclotron, tubes and hull, but because it performs better. Rissman ships won the last two Round-the-System Races, and a Rissman will win the next race that's coming up. I know how to build ships!"
    He turned violently to Captain Future.
    "These bunglers are not above getting up this whole space ship hijacking business, just to discredit and ruin me. That may be why none of my ships has been bothered, so that suspicion would be cast on me. They know they can't compete with me fairly."
    Zamor, the hot-tempered little Mercurian, made an angry answer.
    "You Earthmen are too cocky! You wouldn't be able to make your ships were it not for the metals here on Mercury. Why didn't you stay on your own planet and build your ships?"
    "We got our concession from the System Government," Rissman said. "We've complied with all its regulations."
    "Yes, all you other-planet manufacturers have come swarming in to Mercury to exploit my world's resources," Zamor accused bitterly. "The Mercury authorities should never have agreed to let you start factories here."
    Rissman laughed curtly. "You accuse me of seeking a monopoly, yet you would dearly love to monopolize the metal resources of Mercury, Zamor. It would give you a stranglehold on the space ship industry."
    Captain Future had deliberately incited the quarrel between these hostile magnates, and had been listening keenly. Now he intervened.
    "We're not getting anywhere with all these charges and counter-charges. I have some further questions to ask."
    They subsided, though Rissman still glared angrily at the others.
    "Have any of you ever used semi-intelligent machines as workers in your factories, instead of human laborers?" Curt asked.
    He was thinking of the machine men who were being used to capture the space ships, though he did not mean to disclose how much he knew. All denied having ever done so.
    "You know the Government restricts the use of robots as factory laborers," Gray Garson said.
    "Any of you ever have anything to do with the manufacturer of such intelligent machine-workers?" Curt pressed.
    Again the general answer was negative. But Curt noticed that Durl Cruh, the senior of the