Captain Future 19 - Outlaw World (Winter 1946) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

Curt denied. “All I want is to get my hands on that Uranian devil for what he did to me.”
    Even as he spoke there came suddenly to their ears the distant sound of an explosion.
    “What the devil?” exclaimed Bork King, his craggy face stiffening. “That came from the camp!”
     
    ALMOST instantly, the explosion was followed by a distant roar of rocket-tubes. And they glimpsed four cruisers rising above the flower forest and darting up into the night sky.
    “There go Ru Ghur and his raiders, curse him!” cried the Martian. “If they’ve taken my radium I’ll get them!”
    He plunged back toward the camp. Captain Future followed him closely.
    “Fiends of Mars!” swore Bork King as they burst into the planet-lit clearing of the flame rose glade. “Look at what they’ve done!”
    The cruisers of the radium raiders were gone, Bork King’s men still lay unconscious around the ground beneath the giant flowers, as before. But an explosion had blown out the whole stern of the Martians’ cruiser, the Red Hope .
    “Ru Ghur exploded your ship’s cycs so you and your men couldn’t get away!” Captain Future said quickly.
    The big Martian was already hastening into the battered ship. He ran to the cabin in which his looted radium had been stored. It was gone.
    Bork King’s broad shoulders seemed to sag, and a look of tragedy came upon his massive face. His eyes were dull with misery.
    “Gone — every gram of it!” he muttered. “And we went through months of hardship and danger to gather that radium together.”
    “It could have been worse,” Curt pointed out. “You might have lost your lives, as well as your loot.”
    “That radium wasn’t mere loot!” snapped Bork King. “It’s true that we took it by force from its original owners, but it wasn’t because of greed.”
    Captain Future looked at him, puzzled. “I don’t understand. I thought you were pirates, like myself.”
    “We’re outlaws, not pirates,” retorted the Martian. “Oh, legally we’re guilty of piracy. But we had to have radium, and had to use force to get it, since for months Ru Ghur’s raiders have swept up the whole supply.”
    “Are you after radium for the same reason as Ru Ghur?” Curt asked directly.
    Bork King shook his head. “I don’t know what that Uranian’s motive is in gathering radium. Nobody does.”
    He volunteered no further information as they emerged from the cruiser and began examining the unconscious men, all Martians like their leader. The men lay in drugged coma from the effects of the sleep-gas.
    They worked for some time to revive the sleepers, and finally the score of men had all been roused.
    Cries of rage broke from them when they learned of the theft of the radium. “We’ll follow that Uranian, blast his whole band, and get the stuff back!” cried a furious young Martian.
    Captain Future spoke up quickly. “And I’m with you in that, if you’ll have me. I’ve got my own score to settle with that fat devil.”
    “We’ll be glad to have you with us. Jan,” said Bork King promptly. “But it’s not going to be easy to follow Ru Ghur. He sabotaged the Red Hope pretty thoroughly. And even if we can get it repaired, we don’t know where the raiders’ secret base is.” He looked at Curt keenly. “Ru Ghur didn’t give you any hint of where his Outlaw World is when you were his prisoner, did he?” he asked.
    Curt shook his head. “No. All he said was that it is a world of whose existence the System peoples don’t dream.”
    A brooding look crossed Bork King’s massive face. “That fits the rumors you hear — that their mysterious Outlaw World lies far outside the Solar System. Yet I can’t believe that.”
    He raised his voice, addressing his men, “We can’t make major repairs to the Red Hope here. The best we can do is to patch it up enough to get us to Iskar, the pirate asteroid. We can complete repairs there, then take Ku Ghur’s trail!”
    The chorus of agreement from the