Captain Future 04 - The Triumph of Captain Future (Fall 1940) Read Online Free

moon-pup.
    “Eek is always scared, the little sissy,” retorted Otho. Then he peered ahead in alarm. “Split my atoms — look at that display.”
     
    A BOILING sea of electric force glared in front of them. The violet electric brush and snapping sparks in the control room were becoming nerve-racking. They were feeling the fierce breath of the comet’s awful power.
    Yet Captain Future still drove the little ship toward the awesome coma. Looking for an opening in the great shell of force, his searching gray eyes refused to be daunted by the glare.
    There was a queer smile on Curt’s tanned face. It was in moments of peril like this, in audacious defiance of the blind forces of the Universe, that Captain Future felt most alive.
    “I think I see an opening,” he said quietly. “Hold tight, boys. I’ll have to shoot her through at full speed.”
    “Curtis, wait!” came a rasping cry from the Brain back in the laboratory cabin. “Come here and look at Earth.” Curt turned the ship off. Locking the controls, he turned with the other two Futuremen into the laboratory cabin. The Brain moved his lens eye from the incredibly powerful telescope so Captain Future could look through it.
    Earth was like a little gray ball in the heavens, companied by the smaller, whiter Moon. But even at this distance the telescope brought into bright clarity the brilliant point of light blazing on Earth’s northern pole.
    “It’s the signal! boomed Grag in his deep voice. “The President is calling you, Master.”
    “Hang it all,” said Curt in disappointment. “Just when were about to get inside this comet. Now we have to give it up.”
    Simon looked meaningly at Captain Future with his inscrutable lens eyes.
    “It must be important, lad,” rasped the Brain. “The President never summons us by that signal, unless he has a good reason.”
    Curt nodded, frowning. “I know. We’ve got to blast for Earth and find out what’s up. But why in the name of a thousand Sun imps did this have to come up just now?”
    Carrying Simon, he led them back to the control room.
    He swept the little teardrop ship around, by a vicious jab on the throttles. Then, opening all rocket-tubes to the limit, he sent the swift craft hurtling at dizzily accelerating speed toward Earth.
    Otho was more excited than any of the others.
    “Troubles afoot in the System. I smell action ahead. Let’s hope it’s something serious.”
    “You space-struck idiot,” growled Curt Newton. “I can toss you back into that comet if you want action so badly.”
    Grag grunted agreement.
    “Otho is always craving trouble. But when it comes, we have to pull him out of it.”
    “When did you ever put me out of any jam?” Otho retorted disdainfully.
    “How about that time on Pluto?” Grag demanded.
    Curt Newton slapped listening to their bickering. His face sobered as he and the Brain stared at the gray planet toward which they were rushing.
    “Wish I knew what’s wrong,” Curt muttered. “Things seemed quiet enough since we cleaned up that mess out at Neptune.”
    The little teardrop ship, the Comet blasted on at top speed toward the Earth and its summoning signal. Captain Future thought somberly of the many times he had answered that call. Each time, he and the Futuremen had found themselves called on to battle deadly perils. Was it to be the same this time?
    “We can’t always win,” he thought grimly. “We’ve been lucky, but the law of averages eventually has to turn against us.”
     
    HIS mind was going back over the amazing career that had been his in the past few years. For his was the blazing career of Captain Future!
    Years ago at Curt Newton’s birth, that career had been made inevitable by an amazing synthesis of events. Everything seemed to have combined to produce the greatest adventurer in all interplanetary history.
    Curt’s father had been Roger Newton the brilliant young Earth scientist. But Roger Newton had been too brilliant for his own