Free Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan (September 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

tumultuous shadows of the valley. It remained a mystery of shaking moonlight, mist and darkness.
    It looked peaceful. And yet the message of this stranger, Keogh, had cried for help against an evil too great for him to fight alone.
    Simon was acutely conscious of the dreary rustling of the lichens. His microphonic auditory system could hear and distinguish each separate tiny note too faint for normal ears, so that the rustling became a weaving, shifting pattern of sound, as of ghostly voices whispering — a sort of symphony of despair.
    Pure fancy, and Simon Wright was not given to fancies. Yet in these nights of waiting he had developed a definite sense of foreboding. He reasoned now that this sad whispering of the forest was responsible, his brain reacting to the repeated stimulus of a sound-pattern.
    Like Curt, he hoped that Keogh would come soon.
    Time passed. The Rings filled the sky with supernal fire, and the moons went splendidly on their eternal way, bathed in the milky glow of Saturn. The lichens would not cease from their dusty weeping. Now and again Curt Newton rose and went restlessly back and forth across the clearing. Otho watched him, sitting still, his slim body bent like a steel bow. Grag remained where he was, a dark immobile giant in the shadows, dwarfing even Newton’s height.
    Then, abruptly, there was a sound different from all other sounds. Simon heard, and listened, and after a moment he said:
    “There are two men, climbing the slope from the valley, coming this way.”
    Otho sprang up. Curt voiced a short, sharp, “Ah!” and said, “Better take cover, until we’re sure.”
    The four melted into the darkness.
    Simon was so close to the strangers that he might have reached out one of his force-beams and touched them. They came into the clearing, breathing heavily from the long climb, looking eagerly about. One was a tall man, very tall, with a gaunt width of shoulder and a fine head. The other was shorter, broader, moving with a bearlike gait. Both were Earthmen, with the unmistakable stamp of the frontiers on them, and the hardness of physical labor. Both men were armed.
    They stopped. The hope went out of them, and the tall man said despairingly, “They failed us. They didn’t come. Dan, they didn’t come!”
    Almost, the tall man wept.
    “I guess your message didn’t get through,” the other man said. His voice, too, was leaden. “I don’t know, Keogh. I don’t know what we’ll do now. I guess we might as well go back.”
    Curt Newton spoke out of the darkness. “Hold on a minute. It’s all right.”
     
    CURT moved out into the open space, his lean face and red hair clear in the moonlight. “It’s he,” said the stocky man. “It’s Captain Future.” His voice was shaken with relief.
    Keogh smiled, a smile without much humor in it. “You thought I might be dead, and someone else might keep the appointment. Not a far-fetched assumption. I’ve been so closely watched that I dared not try to get away before. I only just managed it tonight.”
    He broke off, staring, as Grag came striding up, shaking the ground with his tread. Otho moved in from beyond him, light as a leaf. Simon joined them, gliding silently from among the shadows.
    Keogh laughed, a little shakily. “I’m glad to see you. If you only knew how glad I am to see you all!”
    “And me!” said the stocky man. He added, “I’m Harker.”
    “My friend,” Keogh told the Futuremen. “For many years, my friend.” Then he hesitated, looking earnestly at Curt. “You will help me? I’ve held back down there in Moneb so far. I’ve kept the people quiet. I’ve tried to give them courage when they need it, but I’m only one man. That’s a frail peg on which to hang the fate of a city.”
    Curt nodded gravely. “We’ll do all we can. Otho — Grag! Keep watch, just in case.”
    Grag and Otho disappeared again. Curt looked expectantly at Keogh and Harker. The breeze had steadied to a wind, and Simon was