Captain Future 06 - Star Trail to Glory (Spring 1941) Read Free

Yalu gripped his arm and pointed sunward.
    "There's a ship! We'll use our impellers to flash a signal."
    Frantically they blasted bright flame from their impellers, to catch the attention of the black speck they could see against the Sun. The speck grew larger. The ship had turned and was coming straight toward them. It was a new Garson Sixteen.
    When it paused beside them, and they were pulled inside, they found that the craft was piloted by Losor, the tall Neptunian Rocketeer.
    "Figured you'd be somewhere in this sector," he declared. "Ka Kardak sent me out to look for you when you didn't return. Where's your ship?"
    Jan Walker shrugged gloomily. "It was hijacked from us."
    "Same way as all the other hijackings, Losor," said Yalu. "Everything suddenly blurred. Then we found ourselves floating in space."
    "This mystery is getting too much for me!" Losor swore. "Three ships gone in two days! No wonder Ka Kardak is burning."
    Ka Kardak in fact seemed boiling with suppressed emotion when he came striding out to meet them as they landed at Suicide Station.
    "Of all the space-struck idiots!" he roared. "Letting your ship be taken like that — you two must have fallen asleep!"
    "No, we didn't," defended Yalu earnestly. "Some queer force hit us."
    "Bah, I ought to wash you both up for this! Three of the space ship magnates are here right now, riding me about these vanished ships. And old Gurney, the Planet Patrol ace, is here with them. Come along, you two imbeciles!"
    With sinking heart, Jan Walker followed the Jovian and Yalu into the Station offices. A middle-aged Uranian, fat, yellow-skinned and beady-eyed, came forward to meet them. It was Ak Kalber, head of the big Kalber Space Ship Company.
    "That new Twenty of yours is gone," rumbled Ka Kardak. "Taken off these two men of mine, the same as all the others."
    "This is too much!" hissed Ak Kalber. "Nineteen of my ships have been lost this way, new ships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Something's got to be done about this, and done quickly!"
    Lan Tark, the tall, solemn-eyed red Martian tycoon of the famous Tark factories, nodded emphatic agreement.
    "Kalber's right. We need action. We can't stand this heavy loss of brand-new ships."
    The third space ship magnate was Gray Garson, an Earthman with deep lines of worry in his homely, rugged face.
    "I've lost only six new ships, but that's a tremendous loss for a small company like mine," he said ruefully.
    Ak Kalber turned toward the fourth man in the office, a grizzled old Earthman in the dark uniform of the Planet Police. He was chewing rial leaf, his faded blue eyes watching everything.
    "Marshal Gurney, something must be done to stop these thefts before we're bankrupted!" the Uranian declared.
     
    JAN WALKER felt his pulse jump as he looked at the bleak-eyed old Police marshal. This was the famous Ezra Gurney, veteran of the Patrol, a companion in arms of the legendary Captain Future himself!
    "You still got no idea who's stealin' these ships, and why, and how it's bein' done?" asked Ezra Gurney thoughtfully.
    "I have an idea, yes!" declared Ak Kalber. He looked vindictively at Jan Walker and Yalu. "I believe these Rocketeers are deliberately turning over our new ships to someone, and then coming back with this fantastic story!"
    Jan Walker and Yalu bristled at the accusation. Before they could defend themselves, Ka Kardak stepped in.
    "No one can call my Rocketeers crooked! They're a bunch of soft-heads. They have to have me riding them every minute to keep them working, but they're not crooks. I'll beat the head off anyone who says they are!"
    "Easy, there," drawled Ezra Gurney to the enraged Jovian. "Gettin' mad's not goin' to help things any. These space ship manufacturers have a right to be worked up, they've lost so many valuable new ships. And we Planet Police haven't been able to track down a single one of those hijacked ships, worse luck. If these thefts keep up, they'll disorganize the whole space ship