Captain Future 16 - Magic Moon (Winter 1944) Read Online Free Page B

studio.”
    “Sure, I’ll pretend Grag is a load of old iron I’m delivering,” cracked Otho, and then ducked the blow the irate robot aimed at him.
     
    NEXT morning when “Chan Carson” reported at the telepicture studio, he glanced surreptitiously into the property room. The Brain was resting on a shelf, and Grag stood stiff and motionless in a corner.
    No ordinary human being could have endured the long periods of immobility which these two must preserve to maintain their imposture. But the Brain often spent days brooding in immobile silence upon his scientific reveries. And Grag had not the nerves of an ordinary man.
    Still, the robot muttered a complaint when Captain Future entered. “This playing dead is going to be monotonous, in time.”
    “You’ll soon have a chance for movement and action,” Curt Newton reassured. “The expedition will soon be starting.”
    Otho, made up again as Rizo Thon, darted into the property room excitedly. He brought dismaying news.
    “Chief, I thought you were going to keep this whole business from Joan. Well, she’s here in the studio at the present moment.”
    Curt Newton was thunderstruck. “Impossible! Joan doesn’t even know that we’re back yet from outer space.”
    “Nevertheless, she’s here,” retorted the android. “She’s out there talking to Jeff Lewis now.”
    Incredulously, Captain Future hurried out across the noisy, big studio. He found Jeff Lewis by the door of his office.
    And with the telepicture producer was a figure at sight of which his heart leaped. An Earthgirl, slim in severe brown jacket and space-slacks, whose dark hair was bare and whose firm, lovely little face was flushed with emotion of some sort as she talked.
    It was Joan Randall — the secret agent of the Planet Patrol who had been the gay, gallant comrade of the Futuremen on many adventures, and whom Curt Newton loved.
    He wanted to stride forward and take her in his arms, but he forced down the impulse. He dared not let Joan Randall know of the hazardous enterprise on which they Futuremen were engaged. He knew only too well that she would insist on joining them, to her own grave peril.
    Joan was speaking indignantly to the producer. “I won’t stand for it, Mr. Lewis! As soon as I heard about this picture you’re planning, I came here to protest against it. I won’t allow you to make a cheap, silly thriller about Captain Future.”
    Jeff Lewis tried to soothe her. “It’ll be a great film, Miss Randall — a tribute to the Futuremen. There won’t be a thing in it that isn’t true. Why, we’re going to enormous risk and expense to film it in the identical scenes of their exploits.”
    “The Ace of Space!” said Joan scornfully. “It’s absurd! Captain Future isn’t a glory-hunting story-hero. He’s a real man, the finest in the System, who has risked his life and endured every form of hardship to help the System peoples, to crush criminals preying on them and to push the frontiers of space further back.
    “And you want to make money by glamorizing a man like that! I won’t permit it! The Futuremen can’t protest, for they’re still out in deep space, but I’m here and I’ll adopt every possible legal means to halt this silly picture.”
    Curt Newton’s heart warmed to her staunch loyalty. And Jeff Lewis looked more worried. “You couldn’t legally stop the picture, because everything in it will be true,” the producer answered. “The story of ‘The Ace of Space’ is based on the epic struggle of the Futuremen with the Legion of Doom, and every incident of the plot really happened.”
    Joan Randall was unappeased. “Unless I’m certain your story is going to stick to the truth, I’ll ask for an injunction against your making the film. It will at least delay the thing until Captain Future returns.”
    “You mustn’t do that,” pleaded Jeff Lewis. “Our expedition is all ready to start. I have an idea. Come into my office and I think we can iron this