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

Curt Newton could not smile. He held her, loath
to let her go.
"Joan, won't you listen --"
"Of course I'll listen -- when I get back from
Cerberus!" the girl cried gaily, slipping out of his
detaining grasp and running after Ezra toward the
ship. "See you then, Curt!" She and the white-
haired old marshal reached the gangway. A final
wave of her hand, and she disappeared into the
black vessel. "Why didn't you let me hold her back,
4
THE FACE OF THE DEEP
Chief?" demanded Grag. "You've got to treat
women rough."
"Listen to Grag -- now he's setting up to give
advice to the lovelorn!" exclaimed Otho
witheringly.
Curt Newton paid no attention to the argument
that instantly developed. Grag and Otho were
always arguing, usually about which of them was
the most nearly human. He didn't even hear them,
now.
His eyes were upon the Vulcan. The last officers
were going aboard. The bridge-room up at the nose
of the long hull had sprung into light. Dock-hands
were hastily knocking out the holding-pins.
The vessel, with it freight of scores of dangerous
criminals, was about to take off on its long voyage.
It would zigzag out through the Solar System for
weeks, stopping at each planet to pick up more
sentenced men. It would be a long time before it
returned from the somber voyage.
There was nothing to worry about, Captain
Future told himself earnestly. The ship had made
this voyage to Cerberus many times before, and
nothing had ever gone wrong. Surely nothing
would go wrong now.
But Curt couldn't expel foreboding from his
mind. The Vulcan this time was carrying the largest
and most desperate cargo of convicts it had ever
taken. There were men aboard it who would kill
merely for pleasure, let alone to prevent their being
taken out to the grim living death of Interplanetary
Prison. And Joan Randall was one of the guards of
those human tigers!
URT NEWTON reached decision, swiftly
as he always did. He wouldn't let Joan take
such chances. If she insisted on going, then --
C
"I'm going, too!" Captain Future said suddenly.