Free Captain Future 04 - The Triumph of Captain Future (Fall 1940) by Edmond Hamilton

rest of the secret, had been pried out of the wall. They were gone.
    Curt’s gray eyes narrowed.
    “Those missing jewels were taken not long ago,” he declared. “See how unweathered the stone sockets are?” He looked at the Brain. “The mystery is beginning to unravel, Simon. The Life-lord is someone who heard that the secret of the Fountain of Life was here in the heart of the Machine City. So he came here with others. Somehow they evaded the paralyzing force, and read the secret from this wall. He took the most of the jewels with him so nobody else could penetrate the secret.
    “Once he had the secret of the Fountain of Life’s location,” Curt continued his keen reasoning, “the Life-lord went to whatever world the Fountain lies upon. There he found the Fountain. Then he set up the criminal syndicate that now is poisoning the System with the Lifewater taken from the Fountain.”
    “Aye, lad, I believe you have the truth of it,” the Brain rasped thoughtfully. “But the secret seems lost to us now.”
    “Yes, we’re as ignorant as ever of what world the Fountain is on, curse it!” Otho swore.
    “No, we’ve narrowed it down,” Captain Future contradicted. “The last words of this writing say: We found the Fountain of those waters far out on the world of — ‘ That indicates the Fountain’s on one of the planets outward from Mars.”
    “Which narrows it down to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto,” Otho said sarcastically. “That helps a lot.”
    “Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are out, because archeologists know the ancient Martian expeditions never visited them,” Curt retorted. “So the Fountain must be somewhere on Jupiter or Saturn. I’d say Saturn is the best bet. We found Saturnian dust and pollen in that dead Mercurian criminal’s clothes, remember. But we found no Jovian dust.”
     
    THE android’s eyes kindled. “Say, now we’re really getting somewhere. Saturn, you think? Okay, we’ll rocket for there. Let’s turn that world upside down till we find the Life-lord’s hangout, huh?”
    “Not so fast, my impatient friend,” grinned Captain Future. “Saturn is just a guess, so far. And there’s something I still want to inspect here. Did you notice that a couple of these human statues are a lot brighter than the others?”
    “Sure, I noticed that,” Otho answered. Then the android stiffened with amazement. “I get it, Chief! They’re brighter because they haven’t been here long enough to corrode. And if they haven’t been here long, they may be some of the men who came with the Life-lord.”
    “That’s the idea,” Curt Newton nodded. “Come along and we’ll have a look.”
    There were perhaps two score metal figures in this court — men who had been caught in the past by the deadly force and held paralyzed until they were slowly transmuted into solid metal. They stood immovably near the outer edge of the court. None had got farther than that.
    Captain Future found one whose metal was bright and uncorroded by time and weather. It was a Venusian His metal face still wore an expression of frozen horror. Even his clothing was metal now.
    Curt took a compact stereoscopic camera from his belt and photographed the metal man. He noticed another uncorroded figure nearby, a tall Earthman in metal. He photographed that man, too.
    “Here’s another, Chief — a big one!” Otho exclaimed, advancing toward a bright metal figure towering above the others.
    To the horror of Otho, and the amazement of Curt and the Brain, the third metal figure suddenly tined and grabbed Otho.
    “It’s alive!” screeched Otho. “It’s got me!”
    A burst of laughter came from Captain Future.
    “It’s Grag,” Curt cried, relief throbbing through his mirth.
    The big robot was standing, holding Eek. His joy was manifest all over his rigid bearing.
    “How did you escape from those syndicate men who captured you, Grag?” demanded the Brain.
    Grag explained how he had escaped from the