Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

destroy us all!"
    Otho understood, for all indigenous races of Venus spoke the same language. Otho at once saw an opportunity. He figured these marsh men must have been spying on the base, and guessed that they must hate the machine men as they hated all intruders.
    "I am a demon, but a good demon," Otho declared loftily. "I have come to help you against the evil metal ones yonder. You wish to be rid of them, do you not?"
    "Yes, lord!" exclaimed a marsh man eagerly. "They came scores of days ago and built their floating place. We tried to drive them away, but they had weapons that blasted us and forced us to flee. Can you with your magic disperse them?"
    "I can," Otho assured them, "but I will need the help of all your fighting men. Lead me to your village."
    The marsh men excitedly started forward through the morass. They did not walk as ordinary men would do, but in a queer stooped fashion on all fours, half-running and half-swimming in the swamp. By thus avoiding the upper tangle of vines and brush, they could make extraordinarily rapid progress. Otho, lithe as he was, had to work hard to keep up with them as they traveled through the nighted morass.
    Oog clung to his neck, shivering when he heard distant roars of marsh tigers.
    The marsh men led Otho to the shore of a black lake. Domes of plastered mud rose from its surface. The marsh men dived down into the water and vanished. They had entered the domed huts of their amphibious people. Presently hundreds of heads popped up from the water.
    The whole population of the village had been summoned and was coming ashore.
     
    OTHO eagerly explained his plan to the primitive, fierce marsh men, after he had reduced them to awe by another of Oog's transformations.
    "If all of you will follow me to attack the evil metal ones, we can destroy them all," he promised.
    The marsh men hesitated. "Lord, we know you are a very powerful demon, but the metal ones are powerful also," the chief said. "They have weapons that blast fire and destroy us before we can get near them."
    "They won't this time," Otho declared. "You will all follow me to their base. Most of you will approach one side of the base and make a fake attack The metal ones will rush to that side to meet you. You'll retreat at once. Meanwhile I and the rest of you will be entering the base from the other side. They'll not be expecting that. I will be able to seize my ship there. It has weapons with which I can blast all the metal ones before they realize what is happening."
    The marsh men clustered their seallike heads together for a few minutes, whispering.
    Then their leader spoke.
    "The plan is good. We will do what you ask."
    "Come on, then!" Otho said eagerly. And as the whole party started through the marsh, he muttered: "Oog, you redeemed yourself."
    There were two hundred marsh men, the whole fighting strength of their village. Yet they made little sound in traversing the vast, choked swamp. They knew every path and dim trail, and advanced on a wide front in the steamy darkness, each marsh man carrying a spear and stabbing-knife. Otho was enjoying this. The reckless android loved such adventures, and the fact that there was desperate battle ahead added zest.
    "Lord, there is a small party of beings close ahead!" a marsh scout came back to report. "They are not men like us."
    "Then they must be machine men searching for me," Otho decided swiftly. "Surround them and then jump them!"
    Even more silently than before the amphibious fighting men spread out in a big circle.
    Then they closed upon the small party they could clearly hear floundering through the black swamp.
    "Now!" Otho cried when the machine men were surrounded. "Close in and kill them all!"
     

     
Chapter 6: Rocket Clue Sunward
     
    CAPTAIN FUTURE'S proton pistol had leaped into his hand as he heard the ominous, swishing sounds in the dark marsh all around them. Grag, Ezra and Joan had halted with him, and the Brain was floating beside him. "Marsh men are