"Edmond Hamilton - Calling Captain Future" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

strong, invisible current, but the rocket-tubes

T HE last bolt gave way. Captain Future leaped for- seemed utterly powerless. At appalling speed, the
ward through the single compartment of the space- space-boat was whirled through the void.
boat, to the simple controls. He opened one of the throt- He realized the terrible peril into which they had
tles carefully. fled. Its nearness had been haunting him during all this
The space-boat veered aside from the towering wall time.
of the racing cruiser, and began moving off in a course "The cruiser has given up the pursuit!" Joan cried
at right angles to that of the larger ship. It was impelled joyfully. "They're turning back тАУ leaving us!"
by a subdued blast of its own small rocket-tubes. Captain Future's tanned face was grim.
The Legion ship, a black, unlighted mass, moved on "They're doing so because they don't want to be
away through the vast gulf of starry space, rapidly dis- trapped as we're trapped."
appearing. Curt turned the space-boat in a course back "Trapped?" cried Kansu Kane. "What do you
Sunward. mean?"
"We've made it!" Joan cried eagerly. "Oh, Captain "We can't get out of this ether-current," Curt gritted.
Future, I never thought тАУ" "It's too strong. And its whirling us on into the most
Kansu Kane interrupted wrathfully. dangerous spot in space, one from which no interplane-
"All my notes, all the fruit of weeks of work left in tary ship has ever escaped."
that ship!" he sputtered to Captain Future. "And you Joan's hand went to her throat. "You mean тАУ"
dared lay hands on me тАУ" Captain Future nodded grimly.
"Be quiet тАУ we're not out of danger," Curt interrupt- "Yes. We're being carried into the Sargasso Sea of
ed sternly. "They'll find that stunned man quickly. Space."
When they do, and discover our escape in this boat,
they'll turn back тАУ"
He was opening the throttles to the limit as he CHAPTER V
spoke. The little space-boat darted Sunward at mount- Trail to Pluto
ing velocity.

W
Abruptly it shuddered, bucked wildly, and then
HEN Otho, the android, and his antagonist, were
righted itself and sped smoothly on again.
hurled from the speeding ship of the Legion of
"What was that?" Kansu Kane asked startledly.
Doom, the starlit desert was fully fifty feet below.
"Ether-current," Curt replied briefly. The tanned
Plunging down through the darkness, fiercely
face of the red-headed scientific wizard tautened.
clutching his opponent, Otho made a supreme effort to
"We're in a dangerous part of space тАУ"
twist his own body uppermost.
"Captain Future! They're after us!" Joan cried.
The synthetic man, the swiftest and most agile of be-
Curt turned swiftly. Back there against the stars, the
ings, succeeded in his maneuver. In the split-second of
black mass of the Legion of Doom cruiser was again
fall, he turned his antagonist beneath him, and it was
rapidly growing visible.
that other man who hit the ground and cushioned Otho's
"I thought they would be," Curt said between his