Captain Future 16 - Magic Moon (Winter 1944) Read Free Page B

producer.
    “Would I pick him if I didn’t think I could mold him into the part?” Lewis demanded. “You leave the casting to me, Lura.”
    Curt Newton, the picture of nervous timidity, heard Valdane mildly support the actress’ protest. But Jeff Lewis firmly overrode it.
    “Take Carson over to the make-up department and fix him up,” the producer told Jim Willard. “Then bring him back here.”
    “Come on,” the assistant director told Newton half-contemptuously. “We’ll soon have you looking like a real planeteer.”
    In the make-up department, Captain Future was tense as the experts worked on him. Curt Newton had, by means of the infinite secrets of disguise known to Otho, so altered the shade of his hair by dyes, and the color of his eyes by pupil-stain, and the shape of his nose by injected waxite, that no ordinary make-up would discover or change his disguise.
    Nevertheless, he breathed much easier when the make-up artists had finished their work. He looked into the mirror and felt like bursting into laughter. They had changed his hair, eyes and nose back to normal, never dreaming that this was his true appearance. “Well, you do make a dead ringer for Captain Future when you have the make-up on,” Jim Willard admitted reluctantly. “Here, put on the suit.”
    It was a gray zipper-suit such as Captain Future habitually wore. There was a slim atom-pistol in the holster at its belt.
    Willard grinned. “You don’t look like a dry-goods clerk now. Come on, and we’ll show Jeff."
    As they emerged from the make-up room, they came face to face with a handsome, sleepy-eyed young Venusian. Curt Newton recognized Su Thuar! That Su Thuar recognized him as swiftly was evidenced by the sudden distortion of the criminal’s handsome face. His eyes blazed.
    “Captain Future!” hissed the Venusian. His hand darted to an atom-pistol inside his jacket. “I’ve waited four years for this chance.”
    Curt Newton’s mind raced with lightning speed. He could beat Su Thuar to the draw. But if he did so, he would betray his real identity and his plan to join Valdane’s expedition would be wrecked.
    Newton gambled desperately. Instead of drawing his pistol, he recoiled with a pretended cry of terror from the Venusian’s drawn gun.
    Su Thuar was so startled by the unexpected sight of Captain Future afraid, that he hesitated. Then Jim Willard got between them.
    “Are you crazy?” Willard stormed at the Venusian. “This isn’t Captain Future — it’s Chan Carson, the actor who’s to play Future’s part.”
    Su Thuar’s face stiffened, and then the fierce blaze died out of his eyes. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t have time to think. I have an old score against Future, and I thought this man was that fellow.”
    “If this really was Future, you’d have been dead a second after you drew that gun on him,” snapped Jim Willard.
    He turned to Newton, who was pretending to tremble with terror. “Come on, Carson.”
    “Who-who was that?” Newton stammered fearfully as he followed the assistant director back across the noisy studio.
    “Valdane’s chief bodyguard,” answered Willard. He added a dry comment. “Our esteemed financial boss is taking along a prize lot of strong-arm men to make sure nothing happens to his precious skin on this trip.”
    Jeff Lewis looked Newton over with keen, probing eyes when they reached him. The dour producer did not seem displeased.
    “You’ll do, for looks, Carson,” he grunted. “But remember, you not only have to look like Captain Future but act like him. Let’s see you draw your gun.”
    “It won’t go off, will it?” Newton asked timidly.
    He was deliberately presenting himself to them all as a timid, scary clerk, so that no one would dream of connecting him with his real self. For he was aware that Su Thuar was still staring at him.
    A burst of derisive laughter came from the whole group at his frightened question. It assured him that his masquerade was