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

all that radium?” Joan asked. “Have you any idea?”
    “Radium produces almost unlimited atomic power,” the Brain answered thoughtfully. “Ru Ghur has some project in mind that will require vast quantities of power. But what it is, is as much of a riddle as the location of his Outlaw World.”
     
    THEY waited through all that day and night, standing watches and keeping constant lookout at the ship detector.
    But no ship came. Joan began to get discouraged. This waiting, when Captain Future might be in deadly danger, was wearing on her nerves.
    Night came again. Joan restlessly paced the floor of the little metal shack. If this night passed without Ru Ghur’s coming, she would beg them to return to an active search, no matter how hopeless it might be.
    “The little moon is rising,” Otho remarked, from the window. “The cave apes will be coming out soon and —”
    He was interrupted by a low, whirring sound from the ship detector. They sprang to the instrument. Its aura had been cut by a landing vessel.
    “A ship has landed up in the valley!” Simon exclaimed. “Our trap has worked! Make ready, now!”
    Hastily they made final preparations to spring their scientific ambuscade on the men who were stealthily approaching.
     

     
Chapter 10: Planetoid Trap
     
    HARDLY had Curt Newton realized that Su Kuan had finally recognized him as Captain Future, back on the pirate asteroid, than he had acted with the swiftness of thought.
    The Venusian, deadly as a swamp adder wasted no time in accusations. As soon as he had discovered the identity of “Jan Dark,” he had gone for his atom-pistol.
    He had the advantage of the initiative, and his weapon was already out of its sheath. The others at the table were too frozen by the utter unexpectedness of the action to move or speak.
    Captain Future drew and shot with all the speed of which his lightning reflexes were capable.
    “What the devil —” Blacky Malone had began to ejaculate, when two crashing bolts of white atomic fire drowned out his stupefied exclamation.
    Curt Newton’s blast drilled the Venusian’s breast, for he shot to kill.
    Su Kuan’s atom-pistol exploded before he could quite raise it, and the bolt of atomic energy tore a gaping hole in the floor a few yards away.
    The Venusian sagged across the table lifeless. For a moment, the thundering echoes of the two guns were succeeded by a frozen silence. Then came wild cries.
    “Gods of space! That Earthman has dropped Sit Kuan!”
    Pirates of the Venusian’s crew surged forward out of the crowd with roaring shouts of rage, lusting for vengeance. Curt Newton swung, his atom-pistol covering them. “Don’t draw those guns!” he barked.
    His eyes were gray slits, his dark face as though set in metal, as he faced them.
    Bork King, recovering from his shocked surprise, yanked out his own weapon.
    “I’m backing Jan Dark!” he growled harshly. “Su Kuan drew on him without any provocation and Jan shot in self-defense. You all saw it!”
    Curt saw the crowd hesitate doubtfully. He knew that life itself hung in the balance now. For he also knew that if Su Kuan had lived long enough to shout out that he was Captain Future that the pirate throng would have torn him to bits.
    “It was a straight man-to-man fight and by all the laws of the Companions, Jan Dark was right in killing him!” Bork King was bawling. “Su Kuan drew on him without any reason whatever, I tell you!”
    “There must have been some reason for Su to do that!” protested Blacky Malone, glaring at Curt Newton.
    “I had an old feud with Su Kuan,” Captain Future said, in clipped tones. “But he didn’t recognize me at first and I didn’t want any trouble unless he asked for it. He asked for it — and got it.”
    But he was well aware that all that saved him from the vengeance of the Venusian pirate’s crew was a tradition of the Companions of Space, the rough, wild corsair law that a fair fight between two men was the final