Read Captain Future 11 - The Comet Kings (Summer 1942) for Free Online

speak the language, they would be taken before the rulers of these strange comet folk.
    Curt Newton now realized that this was their sole chance of getting out of their prison. The door was never unlocked. The Futuremen had been stripped of every tool and weapon. Simple as their prison was, it seemed inescapable.
    Otho and Grag and the Brain also picked up a working knowledge of Cometae language from the textbook, though Simon Wright spent much of his time discussing with his fellow-scientist in the next cell the mysteries of this comet world. Crag and Otho, chafing at confinement quarreled endlessly, while Oog slept peacefully and Eek gnawed contentedly on a metal bowl.
    On the third “morning,” when their guard asked his usual question, Captain Future was able to understand it.
    “Are you able to speak our language?” the guard was saying.
    “Yes, I am,” Curt replied haltingly.
    The guard exclaimed in surprise.
    “You learned very swiftly! I will call Zarn, the prison captain.”
    Presently the deep voice of that official came through the door.
    “So you can speak our tongue already?”
    “Yes, and we demand that your people give us an explanation for this enforced captivity,” Captain Future retorted.
    “You will receive your answer from King Thoryx,” replied Zarn. “But I cannot take you to him, for I have not the authority. I will notify Khinkir, captain of the king’s guard.”
    Later that day the door of the Futuremen’s cell was unexpectedly opened. Two officers of the Cometae and a half-dozen soldiers stood outside.
    All of the shining electric men of this guard wore swords at their belts. And three of them carried alertly the gunlike weapons that had copper electrodes instead of barrels. Zarn, the prison captain, was a massive, stocky, rough-looking individual. Khinkir, captain of the king’s guard, looked younger and his silver-cloth garments were more ornate.
    “Let me advise you,” Khinkir immediately warned Captain Future, “that these weapons project a concentrated electric blast that can destroy you in a split second, should you attempt any rash act. Now come with me.”
    The other three Futuremen moved forward with Curt Newton, but Khinkir hastily warned them back.
    “Not you! Only this man is to come.”
    “Why can’t my comrades come with me?” Curt demanded.
    “They are not human,” replied Khinkir, glancing somewhat nervously at the strange trio of robot and android and Brain. “We do not know what powers they may possess, and the king ordered them to be kept here.”
     
    OTHO showed the rage he felt at this contretemps. Otho had secretly been nursing a hare-brained plan of attacking the Cometae ruler and holding him as a hostage, though the android had been careful not to tell Curt. Now the plan was ruined, and Otho boiled with anger.
    “You do well to dread our powers!” he told the captain of the guards menacingly. “If you keep us imprisoned here, you will feel the weight of those powers! Why, my metal comrade here could tear down this place if he so desired!”
    Grag, somewhat amazed at this assertion, nevertheless backed it up with an imposing show of ferocity. He beat clangingly on his metal breast.
    “That’s right,” he growled in his deep, booming voice. “I could tear this place up like it was made of paper.”
    “And the Brain yonder,” Otho went on with his threats, “has scientific powers beyond your dreams — powers greater even than those of the Alius.”
    “Shut up, you idiot!” hissed Curt to Otho. “Let me handle this.”
    Zarn, the prison captain, had shrunk back a little from the Futuremen and so had the Cometae soldiers. But Khinkir now answered angrily.
    “No individual has powers comparable to those of the mighty ones from beyond the veil! You utter a blasphemy against the Alius!”
    He turned to the prison captain.
    “Set guards outside this door from now on, Zarn. These creatures are dangerous!”
    Curt Newton inwardly cursed the