Captain Future 08 - The Lost World of Time (Fall 1941) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

bellowing brontosaurs clambering out of the marsh in answer to the girl's call — all these made the picture wholly unearthly.
    "That girl's no visitor from another planet," said Curt Newton with conviction. "Her dress and the spear indicate that she belongs to some rather primitive people native to Earth."
    "But there just weren't any native human being this early in time!" Otho protested baffledly. "No fossils have ever been found —"
    "I know, but we can see for ourselves that Earth does have human inhabitants in this Mesozoic age," Curt replied. "A race that's even tamed some of the dinosaurs, Lord knows how."
    "It wouldn't be so hard, lad, to domesticate those vegetarian reptiles," answered the Brain. "They're stupid and docile. They'd furnish a great food supply, a sort of reptilian cattle."
    That the calling girl was anxious was evidenced by the urgency of her ululating summons and the way in which her white face turned constantly northward, as though in dread. The brontosaurs, too, seemed to sense something. The great reptiles were splashing and slipping in their haste to leave the marsh. Yet it was Otho, with his super-keen senses, who saw the danger before the girl did.
    "Something coming down along the marsh-edge from the north!" he whispered, peering tensely. "Something big — Gods of Jupiter, look!"
    His horrified whisper became a strangled cry. Curt turned and saw. And Captain Future, who had faced the weirdest monsters of scores of worlds back in his own time, felt the hackles rise on his neck.
    It seemed at first only a big, formless shadow that was swiftly advancing in a hopping run along the marsh from the north. Only when it came closer did Curt's dilated eyes make out the twenty-foot-high reptilian body, the two giant legs on which it ran in ostrich fashion, the massive skull thrust slightly forward and grinning with great fangs.
    "Tyrannosaurus, a flesh-eater!" he shouted. "It's after the brontosaurs. That's why the girl was calling them in. There it goes!"
    Things happened with the speed of a meteor's rush in the next few seconds. As Captain Future spoke, the towering tyrannosaurus had rushed forward toward the ungainly brontosaurs, which had just reached shore. A hissing, hideous scream broke from the charging monster. With a hoarse bawling of utter panic, the brontosaurs turned and lumbered away in Earth-shaking flight.
    The girl, seeking to turn and flee, was struck by one huge, sweeping tail and knocked from her feet. The tyrannosaurus, charging forward after its fleeing prey, stopped when it reached the girl. Her white body had attracted its wicked, glittering red eyes. Its massive head plunged down toward her —
    A flash of white force quickly bored a tiny, seared hole in the tyrannosaurus' scaled breast. Captain Future had snatched out his proton pistol as he saw the girl fall. Stung by the burning beam, the tyrannosaurus whirled swiftly on its mighty limbs. Curt kept the beam boring into its scaled breast.
    "Grag, Otho — use your rays on the same spot!" Curt yelled as the Futuremen came rushing after him.
    Three brilliant proton beams tore into the towering horror's breast, enlarging the charred hole in its scales, yet the creature was not fatally wounded. The seat of its reptilian life was tiny, difficult to find, compared with its great body.
     
    IT CHARGED forward with ground-quaking rush, directly toward Otho. With an agility no human being could have matched, Otho sprang out of its path.
    "Its eye!" Curt shouted desperately. "We can't kill it through that armor. Use your beams on its left eye!"
    He shot as he spoke, driving his proton beam toward the glittering red eye of the looming monster. With a heart-stopping bellow of rage and pain, the tyrannosaurus whirled again. Full in its path now was the girl, who had regained her feet and was darting away. One huge paw was held out to grab her as it charged.
    Swifter than thought, the Brain flashed forward. With a thrust of his traction