Captain Future 07 - The Magician of Mars (Summer 1941) Read Online Free PDF

Earth.”
    “What was Quorn’s message?” Curt Newton demanded grimly.
    Captain Willis fumbled in the pocket of his space-jacket.
    “It was this,” he said.
    And the freighter-captain drew an atom pistol from his pocket and fired it pointblank at Captain Future!
     

     
Chapter 4: Solar System University
     
    CURT NEWTON had moved swiftly a second before the freighter-captain drew the weapon. Curt had noticed something significant about the old spaceman’s appearance which warned him an instant before the deadly attack.
    Thus it was that when the crackling blast of atomic force from the pistol shot toward him, Captain Future was already lunging beneath it. It blazed past his red head. The next moment he was upon Willis. A quick wrench of the freighter-captain’s wrist sent the weapon from his hand.
    The others had been too stunned by the unexpected attack to move. But now, with a booming roar of rage, Grag leaped forward and pinioned Captain Willis inside his great metal arms.
    “He tried to kill you, Chief!” roared the robot. “I’ll break him into bits!”
    “No, wait!” Curt cried to Grag. “Hold him, but don’t hurt him!”
    Ezra Gurney uttered a dumfounded exclamation.
    “Devils of space, I can’t understand this! Jimmy Willis is one of my oldest space-pals. Why would he try to kill you?”
    “Ul Quorn bribed him to do this!” Joan cried, her eyes blazing.
    “No, not that,” declared Curt Newton. “This man isn’t responsible for his actions — he’s a mere tool of Quorn’s, operated by remote brain-control.”
    “Remote brain-control?” repeated Halk Anders bewilderedly. “What are you talking about?”
    “It’s one of the pleasant little devices of the Magician of Mars,” Curt answered grimly. “A tiny instrument which, when it is imbedded in a man’s skull and attached to his brain’s nerve-centers, completely cuts out his own will and personality and makes him a mere automaton controlled from a distance by a similar instrument. The control is along an undimensional beam that operates almost instantaneously over any distance.”
    Curt pointed to a faint scar on the crown of the bald head of Captain Willis.
    “That’s where the control-instrument was implanted in his skull. This man is a mere automaton now. From somewhere in the System, Ul Quorn is at this moment seeing and hearing through this man’s eyes and ears.”
    “A trick of that devil Quorn to murder you, Chief!” Otho cried. “He must have planted the control in Willis’ skull when he had him as a hostage aboard his own ship, and then sent him here to get you!”
    Captain Future nodded calmly.
    “Undoubtedly he did. That’s why I was on guard when this man came in. It seemed strange to me that Ul Quorn would have allowed him to go free after the robbery of his ship. Quorn is ordinarily ruthless, as shown by the fact that he left no survivors after his Pluto and Neptune raids. I figured he had some hidden reason for letting Captain Willis go. And observing Willis closely, I noticed that he didn’t seem to know his friend Ezra Gurney. That made me remember Quorn’s brain-control device. I spotted the scar on his head just before he acted.”
    James Carthew, the President, had witnessed the astounding scene with unbelieving eyes. Now he spoke incredulously.
    “Then that man Quorn can at this moment see and hear us through the senses of Captain Willis?”
    “He can,” Curt Newton declared. “Ul Quorn’s will rules this man’s body from whatever place in the System that Quorn is lurking in at this moment.”
    Captain Willis spoke. His eyes stared straight into Captain Future’s face as his loud, deep voice sounded.
    “You’re right, Future,” he said. “This is Ul Quorn talking.”
    The President shivered.
    “Good God — this is uncanny!”
    Willis’ stiff lips moved again.
    “I knew you’d be called in against me, Future, so I laid this little plan. Neat, wasn’t it? It would have succeeded against