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

hour, toward the distant green spot that was Uranus. Finally Otho completed the work that had engrossed his spare time for many days.
    “All done, Johnny,” he told the tough youngster. “You can put those tools back in the locker.”
    “Say, what is this thing you’ve made?” Johnny Kirk demanded.
    “Yes, what is this great scientific achievement you’ve been talking about?” asked Curt Newton, who had come over to them now.
    The thing Otho had made was a crazy-looking little tin mannikin three feet high, with grotesque, round arms and legs and a bucket-like tin head in which were two staring artificial eyes.
    “Goofy-looking, isn’t it?” Otho chuckled. “It’s got a little atomic power-plant in it, and a voice that speaks from records.”
    “But what’s the idea of this wacky automaton?” Curt demanded.
    “You remember that time Grag gave me a ribbing by pretending to make an android like me out of mud and old oil?”
    Captain Future grinned.
    “Sure, I remember. The old boy sort of put it over you, that time.”
    “Well, here’s where I pay him back,” Otho declared. “Watch!”
    Otho touched certain switches on the back of his goofy little tin-headed automaton. A humming of power came from within the little tin figure. It started to move, walking stiffly on its grotesque legs. It walked straight forward to the control-room where Grag sat in the pilot chair. The tin mannikin stopped beside Grag, looked up at the robot with staring artificial eyes, and then spoke in its mechanical record-voice.
    “Papa!” it cried, in a loud, rusty voice.
    Grag, thunderstruck with amazement, stared down at the little bucket-headed tin figure that was claiming him as its parent.
    “Papa, don’t you know me?” cried the small tin figure in its rusty voice, “i’m Grag, Junior — your little sonny boy!”
    Grag nearly fell out of the pilot chair with astonishment. The big robot could hardly find his voice.
    “What in the name of space —”
    “Papa, I’ll never leave you now that I’ve found you!” the tin mannikin was declaiming shrilly. “You may be just a mess of rusty old iron, but you’re all the family I’ve got!”
    Grag looked wildly around. Then, as he saw Curt shaking with silent laughter and Otho doubled up with glee, he began to understand. He snatched up the declaiming tin mannikin and inspected it. A brief glance was enough to show Grag the record inside that was speaking.
    He hurled “Grag, Junior” at Otho, with a roar of rage. Otho, helpless with mirth, just managed to duck the flying mass of tin.
    “You cursed rubber imitation of humanity!” yelled Grag at the android. “I’ll get you for that joke! You just wait!”
    Otho was choking with laughter. “I’ll — never forget as long as I lived how Grag looked when that thing cried Papa!” he gasped.
    The Comet flew on and on. Uranus showed a small green disk ahead, and they could clearly see the four bright specks of its satellites. Young Johnny Kirk gazed dismally at the planet from beside Curt’s pilot-chair.
     
    “YOU’RE not really going to turn me over to the sky-cops at Uranus, are you?” he begged Curt hopefully. “Aw, have a heart, Captain Future! I’d make a swell Futureman once I’ve learned some science from you.”
    Curt Newton grinned.
    “I believe you, Johnny. But we’ve got to drop you. We’re going into a struggle that’s too dangerous for any youngster. Besides,” he added consolingly, “before we leave you at Uranus we’re visiting its moon, Ariel. You’ll get a look at that wild little world.”
    “Wild is right,” grunted Grag, over Curt’s shoulder. “That Skal Kar who built a laboratory there must have been crazy to pick that monster-ridden moon.”
    “Skal Kar had his reasons, I’m certain,” Curt said thoughtfully.
    Uranus soon bulked as a great, cloudy green sphere in the starry heavens. Captain Future expertly swung the Comet in around the darker, little globe of Ariel, the