Captain Future 07 - The Magician of Mars (Summer 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

want to be a Futureman.”
    Grag uttered a booming sound of mirth.
    “Look what wants to be a Futureman!”
    Johnny Kirk scowled at the great robot.
    “Don’t you laugh at me, you big hunk of iron. I’m liable to put the blast on you.”
    Captain Future chuckled.
    “Now don’t go bullying Grag,” he admonished. “How in the world did you get into the Comet?”
    “Aw, that was easy,” the tough youngster answered nonchalantly. “I ain’t got no folks and I pick up a living running errands around Government Tower, see? And I always keep my eyes peeled so I’ll spot your ship if it ever comes. For I decided to join up with you. I’ve heard all about the swell jobs you and these guys have pulled.”
    Curt kept his face straight.
    “Nice of you to say that, Johnny. But why didn’t you try to get into the Planet Patrol Academy, instead?”
    “The Planet Patrol? Them sissies?” echoed Johnny Kirk scornfully. “Say, they’re a bunch of dressed-up cream puffs. It’s you and the Futuremen that really have the adventures. And you’re the only guy I’d ever take orders from, Captain Future.”
    Curt Newton saw the hero worship in the tough youngster’s eyes, and was a little touched.
    “You still haven’t told us how you got into the Comet,” he said.
    “It was a cinch,” retorted Johnny. “This morning I spotted this ship of yours landing on the top of Government Tower. It was the chance I was waiting for, so I went right up to it.”
    “You couldn’t get through the Planet Police and President’s offices on the top floors,” declared Otho incredulously.
    “Don’t I know that?” retorted Johnny Kirk. “So I go up to the floor just under them, pretending I’m bringing a message, and then I slip out the window and shinny up the outside wall with these ‘climbers.’ ”
    The boy took from his pocket a set of four flat rubberoid vacuum-cups, designed to be strapped to wrists and knees and often utilized by burglars for climbing sheer outside walls.
    “Where’d you get these things?” Curt Newton demanded.
    Johnny grinned.
    “I won a kit of burglar tools, gambling by the spaceport docks with a Martian burglar. Figured I might need it some time. These folding vacuum-cup ‘climbers’ are part of that burglar-kit. They got me up the wall to the Tower top, and it was easy then to slip into the ship and hide out in that locker.”
    “Blast me down!” swore Otho incredulously. “Can you figure this kid climbing up that wall like that? I’d hate to do it myself!”
    “What are we going to do with him?” boomed Grag. “We don’t want to go all the way back to Earth with him.”
    “No,” rasped the Brain impatiently. “We’ve no time to lose in this fight against Quorn.”
     
    CURT NEWTON shrugged, with assumed rueful expression.
    “Guess there’s nothing to do but toss him out into space, boys,” he declared.
    Johnny Kirk wasn’t scared. The tough youngster gave Curt a wise, knowing grin.
    “Aw, you can’t kid me, Captain Future. You wouldn’t do that. I know all about you, see? Since I was a kid down by the space-docks, I’ve been reading and hearing everything they tell about you.”
    Curt laughed. “Okay, Johnny — you stay aboard. When we get to Uranus, we’ll have to turn you over to the Police for return to Earth.”
    “Aw, you don’t have to do that, do you?” pleaded the youngster. “I’d make a swell Futureman. Give me one of them atom guns to use and I’ll show you I can blast ‘em down.”
    “Bloodthirsty little devil, isn’t he?” commented Otho. “Come on, my embryo-Futureman, you can help me in my experiment. I need someone to hand me tools.”
    Grag grunted in disgust.
    “So you’re going on with your wacky scientific work, eh? I bet it’ll be good.”
    “You’ll soon have your curiosity gratified, Grag,” grinned the android as he started to take his metal pieces from a cabinet.
    The Comet throbbed on out through the solar spaces for hour after