Free Captain Future 19 - Outlaw World (Winter 1946) by Edmond Hamilton

find the raiders quickly. And since we haven’t an idea where their Outlaw World is, we must let them find us. We’ll go to some wild asteroid, and then let the news get out that we’re prospectors who have located a rich radium deposit. Ru Ghur and his band will come to take the radium, away from us — and we’ll be waiting for them.”
    Otho’s green eyes flashed. “And we’ll wring everything we want to know out of that cursed Uranian, and rescue the Chief!”
    “Yes,” boomed Grag, with indestructible confidence in Captain Future, as he saw Joan’s anxious face, “we’ll find the Chief all right.”
    “What asteroid was you figgerin’ on, Simon?” asked Ezra Gurney.
    “It must be some uninhabited, unexplored asteroid,” Simon declared. “I believe Zuun would be best for our purpose.”
    Ezra’s face lengthened. “That ‘toid they call the World of the Cave Apes? They say those critters are sure death.”
    “We’ll find a way to keep them off,” promised the Brain. “And by selecting Zuun we will avoid arousing Ru Ghur’s suspicions.”
    When the Comet entered the asteroid zone, it required all Otho’s skill to pilot the little ship through the dangerous meteor swarms and planetoid-families. They had to proceed with care, though they chafed at any delay.
    At last, the little ship approached Zuun. The rocky asteroid, circled by its small “moon,” presented a bleak and forbidding landscape of hills and chasms, as they dropped toward its sunlit side.
    “That long valley on the equator looks like a good spot to set up our trap,” the Brain decided. “Land near that chasm, Otho.”
    When the Comet landed the Futuremen brought out the spare hull-plates the ship carried, and bolted them together into a small metal shack. They erected this little structure close by the edge of the chasm.
    Eek and Oog, glad to escape from the ship, frisked beneath their feet. By the time the work was finished, the short day of Zuun was waning. On the telaudio of the Comet Ezra Gurney called the distant headquarters of the Planet Patrol, with a request.
    “They’ll do as we ask,” Ezra said, when he turned off the telaudio. “The telaudio news services will broadcast an item about the rich radium strike made by a couple of prospectors here on Zuun.”
    “That will bring Ru Ghur’s band quickly,” Simon declared.
    He had Grag and Otho carry certain instruments and machines out of the ship and into the shack.
    “Now we’ve got to hide the Comet ,” he told them. “Ru Ghur would recognize it instantly.”
    We can conceal it in that chasm,” Otho suggested.
    “That’s a good idea,” approved the Brain. “But hurry, for it’s nearly dark and the cave apes will soon be coming out.”
    During the day they had seen no sign of the fearsome monsters. But they knew that the great cave apes inhabited the labyrinth of caves and chasms below, preying on the rich cavern fauna, and emerging only by night.
    Otho and Grag entered the Comet and dropped the ship slowly into the narrow chasm, landing it on a wide ledge covered by white fungi.
    “The cave-apes won’t bother it here,” Otho declared, “for I’ll turn on the auxiliary generator to give the hull an electric charge. Any of ‘em who touch it will get a shock.”
    “Speaking of the cave apes, here they come now!” cried Grag.
    Otho jumped to the port-hole, and uttered a sharp exclamation. The darkness was almost complete, but enough thin starlight sifted down to allow him to see the incredible creatures who were clambering up onto the ledge from the lower depths.
    There were more than a dozen of the monsters — huge, white-skinned apelike giants. The adult males and females were at least eighteen feet in height, and even the young were seven feet high. Their shambling legs and arms, round heads, and phosphorescent eyes gave them a peculiarly terrifying appearance.
    The cave apes were hunting through the white fungi for large black cave crabs, which