Captain Future 24 - Pardon My Iron Nerves (November 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Read Free Book Online

was televised by the news-services, showing his jewels to the System, bragging of his good fortune, playing his part to the hilt.
    “Aren’t you worried over the safety of your jewels, Mr. Willison?” the interviewer asked him smilingly.
    “Not me!” Curt answered boastfully. “I’m an old hand on the interplanetary frontier, and I know how to look after what’s mine. I’ve sold one of the stones, and the rest are safe with me, from any thief.”
    Curt had really sold one of the jewels. With the money thus derived, he set up as a newly-rich millionaire in an elaborate mansion near New York. Otho, in appropriate disguise, was his butler. The trap was now ready, and they waited for the Chameleon to enter it.
     
    AT LAST — A VISITOR!
    Weeks passed, but nothing happened. Curt was not impatient. He had known the Chameleon was clever, and he guessed that the notorious thief was carefully checking the trail of those jewels before acting.
    Then one night, Otho came gravely into the library and told Curt, “A caller to see you, Mr. Willison. It is a Mr. Norman Thaine.”
    Under his breath, Otho hissed, “It’s him! The X-Ray alarm at the door showed that he’s carrying an atom-pistol.”
    “All right, show him in,” Curt said loudly to his “butler.”
    Mr. Norman Thaine was a well-dressed, studious looking young Earthman of quite ordinary appearance. He came to the point at once.
    “Mr. Willison, like everyone else I’ve heard of your sun-stones. I’m very much interested in them.”
    “What do you mean — interested?” barked the disguised Captain Future, pretending to scowl suspiciously.
    “Let me explain.” said Norman Thaine earnestly. “I am a jewel-collector. I can afford to pay a good price for your stones, since a space-ship invention of mine a few years ago made me fairly wealthy. You can check my references, if you wish. I’d like to see the jewels.”
    Curt looked over the documents Thaine handed him. They seemed authentic. Yet he was certain that this man was the Chameleon.
     
    A SURPRISE ATTACK
    He nevertheless went to a secret cupboard and took from it the little casket in which were the eleven blazing yellow sun-stones.
    “There they are, Mr. Thaine,” he drawled. “Beauties, aren’t they? You sure you can afford to buy one?”
    “Yes, of course,” said Thaine. As he stepped forward, his hand went into his jacket-pocket.
    “No you don’t, Chameleon!” exclaimed Curt, and plunged forward before the man could draw the gun in his pocket.
    Captain Future’s surprise attack caught the other before he could resist. Curt’s swift ju-jitsu onslaught had the man overpowered in a moment.
    Ten minutes later, Commander Halk Anders of the Patrol came in answer to Curt’s call.
    “There’s your Chameleon, Halk,” grinned Curt, pointing to the prisoner.
    “You must be crazy!” said Norman Thaine. “I’m not the Chameleon.”
    “Then why,” Curt asked him dryly, “were you reaching for the atom-pistol in your pocket?”
    “I wasn’t reaching for that — I was reaching to show you the money in my pocket, to convince you I could buy one of the jewels.” Thaine retorted. “I carried the gun, for protection of my money.”
    “He did have a big sum of money in that pocket,” Otho reported.
    “Sure stolen money,” grunted Halk Anders. “He’s the Chameleon all right.”
    “But I’m not!” Thaine insisted. “Those identity-papers —”
    “All forged, without doubt,” the Commander snorted. “Captain Future, you’ve done the Patrol a big service getting this fellow. I’m glad that I can tell those scared shipping companies now that it’s safe to go through Sector 16, since the Chameleon’s caught now.”
     
    THAINE PROVES HIS IDENTITY!
    The telenews blazoned the news to the whole System in the following hour. The Chameleon captured at last — by Captain Future!
    People remarked, “Well, he was slick enough to fool the Patrol a long while, but the Futuremen were a