Captain Future 16 - Magic Moon (Winter 1944) by Edmond Hamilton Page B

through the dusky polyp-forest, startling shoals of fish, tramping around huge empty shells deserted by “tenant-clams.” The sea-folk with him turned back now, as though afraid.
    But Curt Newton hardly noticed these things, for his mind was on the dangerous task ahead. He must get back into the Perseus unobserved so that he and Simon Newton could overpower Jon Valdane and try the brain-scanner on him. And he didn’t have much time!
    Curt Newton suddenly recoiled as a giant, disk-shaped white mass rose unexpectedly out of the polyp-groves ahead of him. It was incredibly huge, with staring, saucer-like eyes that glared as it rushed toward him.
    With a throb of horror, he recognized it as that most awful of Neptunian terrors, a “swallower.” There was no chance to flee. And he had only his puny stage-property atomic pistol with which to fight it!
     

     
Chapter 9: Undersea Trap
     
    WITH quick comprehension, Joan Randall immediately understood when “Chan Carson” terrifiedly reported himself lost in the submarine forest.
    Captain Future had told her that he would use some such pretext to slip back to the Perseus, where he and Simon Wright would subject Jon Valdane to the inquisition of their brain-scanner. “You stay with Lewis and the rest, Joan,” he had earnestly warned her. “Grag will be there, too, and you’ll be safe from Su Thuar.” But the girl was rebellious. If there was one thing she hated, it was being left out of things because Newton felt anxious about her safety. And she had secretly resolved to follow him back to the ship and share in his precarious attempt there, whether he liked it or not.
    Standing in her sea-suit with the others at the edge of the dense submarine forest, she heard the voice of Jeff Lewis angrily calling to “Chary Carson.”
    “Carson, don’t wander around in there,” the producer was yelling. “Jim and a couple of the men are coming in to find you.”
    No answer came back on the short-range telaudio, although Jeff Lewis repeated the order. The producer swore. “He’s wandered out of range of our telaudios. That Carson would lose his head and give way to panic the moment he found himself alone.” Jim Willard and Lo Quior were beating through the polyp forest, into which Curt Newton had disappeared. They tramped back out of the submarine groves a few minutes later, trudging through the ooze.
    “Can’t find him, Jeff,” Willard reported. “He’s probably wandering around in circles.”
    “And these sea-people seem so scared of that part of the forest that they won’t search him out for us,” muttered Lewis. “Well, he’s in no immediate danger, for his suit has enough oxygen for many hours. You and your men can keep hunting for him, Jim. The rest of us will go on with the other scenes until you bring him back here.” And the producer gave directions for the filming of scenes inside the grotesque black submarine city of the swarming sea-folk.
    “Take the cameras right inside the city, Lo. I want a scene showing Ron and Lura arriving. They’ve picked up a signal Captain Future sent out from the sunken space-ship he found, and have come to help.”
    The krypton spotlights and big cameras were moved into the edge of the city. The friendly sea-folk, highly intrigued and mystified by all that was going on, darted in swarms around and through the brilliant beams of the spotlights.
    Grag was placed in the center of the scene, and Lo Quior touched his “control-buttons.” Grag immediately responded in automaton-like fashion by waving his arms stiffly in greeting as Ron King and Lura Lind came tramping into the scene.
    While this was going on, Joan Randall had followed Jim Willard and his two men back to the edge of the submarine forest.
    “I’ll help you hunt for Carson,” she offered. “I know a little about these submarine forests.”
    “And I’ll help too,” said a smooth voice on the telaudio.
    Joan Randall turned, sharply. It was Su Thuar’s voice.