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

out.”
    They came face to face with Curt Newton as they turned around. Newton held his breath. He wore his ‘Chan Carson’ disguise. But he was not sure that it would be proof against Joan Randall’s keen glance.
     
    SHE seemed startled by the sight of him. For just a moment gladness leaped into her brown eyes. Then it died away as she looked at him more closely.
    “For a moment, I thought —” she began.
    “You thought it was Captain Future?” Jeff Lewis finished for her, smiling. “It’s no wonder, for we picked him for the close resemblance. This is Chan Carson, who is to play Future in the film.”
    Joan looked frowningly at ‘Chan Carson’. “You don’t look like a spaceman to me.”
    Newton answered timidly. “No, I’ve never been off the Earth. I hope I don’t get space-sick on this trip.”
    Her brown eyes snapped. “And you are going to play Captain Future.”
    There was the ghost of a smile in Curt Newton’s eyes as he watched her and Jeff Lewis enter the producer’s office.
    Jim Willard came up. “Ready for your space-exploits, Carson? The expedition is going to take off tomorrow morning.”
    Newton managed to look nervous. “So soon?” he gulped.
    He did not see Joan Randall again but later that morning he heard Jeff Lewis speak of her to the assistant director.
    “That Randall girl would have delayed the whole expedition,” Lewis told young Willard. “But I thought up a way to convince her that the picture would be true to Future’s character.”
    Next morning, the Perseus lay ready for take-off. Crowds jammed the spaceport to watch the “Ace of Space” expedition depart. The publicity given the picture had interested the whole System in it.
    Bands were playing, thousands of hands waving, as the last actors and technicians came up the gangway. Captain Future, with “Rizo Thon” and Jim Willard, watched from the promenade deck.
    “There’s Lura making her usual last-minute entrance,” said the cynical young assistant director. “And Valdane with her, as usual.”
    The glamorous blonde actress was waving to the enthusiastic crowd as she came up the gangway. Behind her followed the chubby figure of Jon Valdane, a beaming smile on his pink face. He was accompanied by Su Thuar and by a tall, cadaverous-looking blue-skinned Saturnian.
    “The Saturnian is Kin Kurri, one of Valdane’s stooges in the System Council,” remarked Willard. “He’s coming along as Valdane’s guest.”
    Curt Newton’s eyes narrowed. The presence of the Saturnian politician more than ever convinced him that Valdane’s conspiracy against Styx was on a big scale. But what was the nature of it?
    The space-doors slammed shut. Bells rang warning, and the loudspeakers of the ship uttered their mechanical caution. “Take-off time in five minutes.”
    Curt Newton pretended shaky apprehension. He looked at Willard fearfully. “Will the start shake us up much?”
    “No, it’ll be easy if you sit in one of these space-chairs,” Willard told him, and added ironically, “Remember, you’re the greatest spaceman alive — in this picture.” Newton huddled in one of the shock-absorbing deck-chairs, the picture of nervous timidity. Then with a thunderous crash of rockets, the Perseus rose in the air and roared rapidly upward through the sunlight.
    Curt Newton gasped and choked. “I — I’d better go down to my cabin. I’m afraid I’m going to be space-sick.”
    “Go ahead then, ‘Captain Future’,” said Willard with a shrug of disgust. Unsteadily, Newton rose to his feet. His real motive was a desire to inspect the lower decks as soon as possible.
    Suddenly he stiffened. He saw, farther along the deck, a slim feminine figure in gray space-slacks who was looking down through the transparent deck-wall at the receding Earth. It was Joan Randall!
    “She isn’t coming with us, is she?” he asked Willard in dismay.
    Willard nodded. “Why, yes, she is. Jeff told me this morning.”
    Captain Future felt