Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) Read Online Free PDF

her —”
    “I hear a tapping in the wall,” Grag suddenly announced.
     
    THEY listened. But they heard nothing for a moment. Then footsteps outside their cell door became audible.
    “That must be what you heard,” muttered Otho. “Our keepers coming.”
    A little panel in the bottom of the locked door was suddenly opened, and something was pushed through. Then the opening was closed.
    Their captors had left them two things — a bowl of synthetic-looking mush obviously intended as their rations, and a book. The book was a queer one. Its leaves were of thin, silvery metal. Upon them were pictures of objects and actions, and under each picture an unfamiliar word.
    “Why, it’s an elementary textbook of their language,” Curt said puzzledly. “Maybe they’re not really hostile to us at all.”
    “Maybe that shock they gave me was all in fun,” Otho retorted bitterly.
    “I hear that tapping in the wall again,” Crag interrupted.
    “That tapping is inside your skull, bucket-head,” Otho told the robot impatiently. “Four mechanical brain has stripped a gear, probably.”
    Crag, always sensitive to mention of his mechanical nature, flared up.
    “Why, you miserable little mess of chemicals —”
    “Shut up!” Captain Future ordered them sharply. “I hear that tapping, too. It’s an interplanetary code. Listen!”
    The sound came faint from one wall of their cell.
    “SQ?” it spelled out in the System’s universal code.
    “SQ — who’s there?” Curt translated. His eyes lit. “There are other prisoners in here with us. Maybe it’s Joan!”
    Hastily he rapped in answer, stating his identity and finishing with the same inquiring signal.
    The answer came quickly.
    “Are you new prisoners really the famous Futuremen? I am Tiko Thrin, a scientist of the Syrtis Laboratories of Mars. I’m sorry that you are also captives of the Cometae.
    “The Cometae? Is that what you call these comet folk?” asked Curt.
    “It is what they call themselves,” tapped Tiko Thrin. “I have learned their language and many facts about them, for I have been here ever since the space-liner on which I was traveling was dragged into the comet.”
    “Have you any knowledge of other prisoners here?”
    Curt rapped anxiously. “Especially Marshal Ezra Gurney and a girl, Joan Randall.”
    “Both of them are here in this city of Mloon,” came the quick reply. “I heard them brought in, many days ago. Ezra Gurney is still a prisoner in this place. I have talked with him many times in code. Prisoners in the other cells relay our signals from cell to cell.”
    “Ask him if he and Joan are all right,” Curt directed quickly.
    He waited with fast-beating heart for the answer, feeling a new hope. But when Tiko Thrin’s report came, it brought dismaying information.
    “Ezra is overjoyed that you Futuremen are here. He says he is all right but is worried about the girl. She is not here in prison, he says, but is somewhere in the city.”
    “Ask him what happened to her,” Captain Future bade the Martian anxiously.
    Again minutes dragged by before the relayed answer came.
    “He says that he and Joan were taken before the rulers of the Cometae, King Thoryx and Queen Lulain. They were asked to join the Cometae. Ezra refused and was brought back here. But the girl was not brought back.”
     
    CURT’S anxiety increased. Tiko Thrin tapped on. All prisoners brought here are first given a chance to learn the language and then are asked to join the Cometae. Those who refuse are brought back here, as I was. We are kept locked up until the solitary confinement makes us change our minds. Many prisoners have weakened and surrendered. Perhaps the girl was among them.”
    “If they’re hostile to the System, Joan wouldn’t join them under any circumstances!” Curt tapped back. “She may be trying to deceive them. Tell me, what are these Cometae planning that they need recruits?”
    “I do not know,” came Tiko Thrin’s answer.