"Edmond Hamilton - Captain Future 13 - The Face of the Deep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Edmond)

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But Kim Ivan, the big, battered Martian who
shared a neighboring cell with Boraboll, fat
Uranian swindler, greeted Curt with a calm grin.
"Nice of you to come down and visit us boys,
Future," said the big pirate. His froglike grin
deepened. "Looking for something special?" Curt
scanned that cell twice running before he answered.
But there was no tool, instrument or tiniest scrap of
metal anywhere in it, nothing whatever hidden. He
looked up at the grinning pirate.
"You've kept things here pretty quiet, Kim," he
remarked. "You seem to have the others pretty well
under control."
"Sure, I won't let 'em start any trouble," Kim
Ivan affirmed. "I'm a peace-loving man, that's why."
Ezra snorted. "A peace-loving man who led the
biggest pirate band since Rok Olor was on the
loose."
The big pirate laughed. "Aw, that's all over and
done with now. I tell the boys, what's the use of
beating our brains out against these bars, when all
it'll get us is six months' solitary when we reach
Cerberus."
Curt Newton finished his close inspection of the
cells. When they had gone back of the cell-deck,
and its massive door was again locked and under
guard, Ezra Gurney challenged him.
"Didn't find anythin', did you?"
"No, not a thing," Curt admitted. "There's no
tool or weapon of any kind hidden in those cells,
that's sure."
"We Patrol men ain't as sleepy as you seem to
think," the old marshal told him. "Those birds are
safe till we reach Cerberus, never fear."
His apprehension somewhat dispelled, Curt had
felt less worried about Joan's safety during the long
days of the voyage that followed. At each world
where they stopped, the new prisoners brought,
aboard were thoroughly scanned. But no attempt to
smuggle tools or weapons was detected.
Now they were drawing near to Neptune. The
eighth planet was still more than a billion miles
ahead, but that was only a few days of travel at the
great speed with which the Vulcan was flying
through space.
At dinner in the officers' mess that "evening"
before the night watch, Ezra commented upon their
approaching stop at the Water World.
"Remember last time you Futuremen an' Joan an'