"I ought to flay you, Oog!" he scolded angrily. Then his spirits rose. "Anyway, we got out of that hole. Now we'll wait till things quiet down and slip back and steal the Comet. They can't find us in this marsh."

  Hands grabbed Otho in the darkness, cold, webbed hands that held him despite his furious struggles. Manlike shapes had risen around him in the night. They were strange men with greenish-white, seal-like bodies, short, powerful arms and legs ending in webbed hands and feet, and hairless, bulbous heads.

  "Marsh men!" Otho gasped. "I'm worse off than before, but I'll give 'em a fight."

  It was not necessary to struggle, he found. The marsh men who had so fiercely seized him had suddenly fallen back with low cries of fear. They were staring at Oog. The little meteor-mimic, scared by the attackers, had instantly changed himself into an imitation fungus.

  "This is no man!" gabbled one of the marsh men. "It is a demon, a master of magic. He will destroy us all!"

  Otho understood, for all indigenous races of Venus spoke the same language. Otho at once saw an opportunity. He figured these marsh men must have been spying on the base, and guessed that they must hate the machine men as they hated all intruders.

  "I am a demon, but a good demon," Otho declared loftily. "I have come to help you against the evil metal ones yonder. You wish to be rid of them, do you not?"

  "Yes, lord!" exclaimed a marsh man eagerly. "They came scores of days ago and built their floating place. We tried to drive them away, but they had weapons that blasted us and forced us to flee. Can you with your magic disperse them?"

  "I can," Otho assured them, "but I will need the help of all your fighting men. Lead me to your village."

  The marsh men excitedly started forward through the morass. They did not walk as ordinary men would do, but in a queer stooped fashion on all fours, half-running and half-swimming in the swamp. By thus avoiding the upper tangle of vines and brush, they could make extraordinarily rapid progress. Otho, lithe as he was, had to work hard to keep up with them as they traveled through the nighted morass.

  Oog clung to his neck, shivering when he heard distant roars of marsh tigers.

  The marsh men led Otho to the shore of a black lake. Domes of plastered mud rose from its surface. The marsh men dived down into the water and vanished. They had entered the domed huts of their amphibious people. Presently hundreds of heads popped up from the water.

  The whole population of the village had been summoned and was coming ashore.

  OTHO eagerly explained his plan to the primitive, fierce marsh men, after he had reduced them to awe by another of Oog's transformations.

  "If all of you will follow me to attack the evil metal ones, we can destroy them all," he promised.

  The marsh men hesitated. "Lord, we know you are a very powerful demon, but the metal ones are powerful also," the chief said. "They have weapons that blast fire and destroy us before we can get near them."

  "They won't this time," Otho declared. "You will all follow me to their base. Most of you will approach one side of the base and make a fake attack The metal ones will rush to that side to meet you. You'll retreat at once. Meanwhile I and the rest of you will be entering the base from the other side. They'll not be expecting that. I will be able to seize my ship there. It has weapons with which I can blast all the metal ones before they realize what is happening."

  The marsh men clustered their seallike heads together for a few minutes, whispering.

  Then their leader spoke.

  "The plan is good. We will do what you ask."

  "Come on, then!" Otho said eagerly. And as the whole party started through the marsh, he muttered: "Oog, you redeemed yourself."

  There were two hundred marsh men, the whole fighting strength of their village. Yet they made little sound in traversing the vast, choked swamp. They knew every path and dim trail, and advanced on a wide front in the steamy darkness, each marsh man carrying a spear and stabbing-knife. Otho was enjoying this. The reckless android loved such adventures, and the fact that there was desperate battle ahead added zest.

  "Lord, there is a small party of beings close ahead!" a marsh scout came back to report. "They are not men like us."

  "Then they must be machine men searching for me," Otho decided swiftly. "Surround them and then jump them!"

  Even more silently than before the amphibious fighting men spread out in a big circle.

  Then they closed upon the small party they could clearly hear floundering through the black swamp.

  "Now!" Otho cried when the machine men were surrounded. "Close in and kill them all!"

  Chapter 6: Rocket Clue Sunward

  CAPTAIN FUTURE'S proton pistol had leaped into his hand as he heard the ominous, swishing sounds in the dark marsh all around them. Grag, Ezra and Joan had halted with him, and the Brain was floating beside him. "Marsh men are surrounding us!" Curt said in a sharp whisper. "Stand ready, all of you. They mean to attack."

  "Good," grunted Grag, clenching his great metal fists. "I'd rather fight than wallow on in this muck."

  "Maybe I can talk them out of it," Captain Future cautioned. "If I can convince them we're friendly —"

  His words were interrupted by a hissing cry from the darkness.

  "Now, close in and kill them all!" it ordered.

  "Otho!" Curt exclaimed.

  "Here they come!" Ezra Gurney yelled.

  With fierce, throaty yells, grotesque figures were charging them from every side.

  Greenish-white, seal-like figures whose webbed hands held wooden spears and daggers aloft rushed in on Captain Future's little group. Grag seized one of the fierce marsh men in his giant arms. The spear the native stabbed at Grag's breast slid harmlessly off the metal. The giant robot tossed the astounded marsh man bodily into the faces of his charging comrades.

  Ezra and Joan had their atom pistols out, leveled to fire.

  "Wait, don't shoot!" Captain Future shouted urgently to them. "Otho, call off these maniacs!"

  "Imps of the Sun, it's the chief!" rang Otho's cry of amazement. "These are my friends. They are good demons, too. Do not attack them!"

  The marsh men recoiled, but Curt Newton could see them still surrounding his party, their spears and daggers raised for action. The amphibious natives were like dark, menacing shadows in the weird jungle-swamp. Otho came splashing through the muck, little Oog clinging to his shoulder.

  "Devils of space, I'm glad to see you!" swore Otho. "Chief, I didn't know it was you. I thought it was some of the machine men."

  "Machine men?" Curt repeated. "What are you talking about?"

  A marsh man was glaring at Grag.

  "Look, lord, it is one of the evil metal ones. Shall we kill him?"

  "Kill me?" exploded Grag. "Why, you miserable fishy imitations of humanity, I'll —"

  "No, these are all friends," Otho interrupted. "The metal one there is not evil. He's just dumb."

  "Come on, Otho, what do you have to tell?" Curt demanded.

  There was a pause in the dark as Otho hastily narrated his experiences to the others. They listened incredulously.

  "Then it's those machine men who've been stealin' the space ships?" Ezra gasped. "Whoever heard of such critters as that?"

  "It seems to me," the Brain interjected coolly, "that I remember something about a scientist in the past who constructed such semi-intelligent machines as you describe. I wish I could remember."

  "They don't seem to have much individuality," Otho declared. "They seem to be just intelligent enough to carry out orders."

  "Whose orders?" Curt Newton muttered. "Who is using these metal things to steal space ships, and why? And what's this mysterious weapon they use, that can penetrate even the ray-proof walls of the Comet?" Captain Future straightened sharply. "But we're wasting time here. We've got to attack this base of the machine men without delay, to get the Comet back."

  THEY went hastily on through the dark marsh, struggling through choking jungle and oozy muck to keep up with the marsh men. Soon their amphibious allies signaled that they were approaching the base. They could descry the flaring krypton lights of the base through the jungle.

  "Otho, you and the marsh men attack from this side," Captain Future ordered in a whisper. "Grag and I will enter the base from the other side in the confusion and grab the Comet. Then —"

  "Look!" yelled Ezra Gurney. "They are leavin'!"

  With a roar of rocket-tubes, a big Cruh-Cholo Twenty-four was taking off from the floating base ahead. It roared up into the fog and was followed by Zamors and Tarks and a Kalber.

  "They're going on to their main base from here!" Otho cried. "They'll take the Comet with them!"

  "We can't let them get away with the Comet!" Curt Newton shouted.

  His proton pistol leaped from its holster of black Plutonian leather as he plunged recklessly forward. Grag, Otho and the marsh men were at his heels. There was no chance of surprise now, for the machine men were taking away the ships they had captured. Were the Futuremen too late to prevent final loss of the Comet?

  "There they go in the Comet!" Curt yelled as he and his horde burst out to the edge of the base. "Stop them!"

  Out on the floating metal base, the last of the stolen ships was rising with roaring rocket-tubes into the mist. Apparently the machine men had given up hope of recapturing Otho, and were deserting the Venus base before Otho could bring forces to attack it. The Comet was the last ship to rise, probably because the machine men were less familiar with the unique controls of the famous ship. But it was already swinging up into the clouds, its under-jets roaring flame as it rose on an even keel.

  "They got away with the ship, curse them!" Grag bellowed furiously!

  "Not yet, they haven't!" Otho denied.

  The android bunched himself and with incredible agility leaped upward at the receding ship. The Comet was thirty feet above them. No other being in the System could have reached it — none but Otho, greatest acrobat in nine worlds! He thrust his atom-pistol at one of the heavy tubes and fired it.

  The blast from his pistol, penetrating through the tube to the cyclotrons, had the effect of a reverse blast. It exploded one of the Comet's cyclotrons. The dull roar inside the ship was clearly audible. The teardrop craft shuddered in mid-air, then tumbled downward and crashed onto the metal base. Otho had flung himself to one side before the impact, rolling over and over as he struck. But when he jumped up, his rubbery body was unharmed.

  "I wrecked one of the ship's cyclotrons, but I stopped them, Chief!" he panted.

  "Into the ship and get them before they can put up a fight!" Curt ordered.

  They tore open the space-door of the Comet and burst inside, Curt and Joan in the lead. Two machine men lay sprawled on the floor near the controls, killed by the explosion of the cyclotrons. A third suddenly appeared from nowhere, grabbed up Joan in its mighty girder-arms. The girl screamed and went limp.

  "Stand back!" Captain Future shouted to the others in the doorway. "Don't let it pass!"

  Realizing he was trapped, the machine man rushed toward Curt. But Future had anticipated a move like that from the semi-intelligent creature. He seized a hand-hold on the wall and sprang out of the way, at the same instant firing his atom gun at the machine man's cubical head. A neat hole appeared in the metal skull. With a groan the mechanical man dropped Joan and began to fall.

  Curt leaped from the wall, struck the machine man's shoulder just in time to prevent hundreds of pounds of solid metal from toppling on Joan and crushing her. The machine man slumped harmlessly to the floor, its strange life gone.

  WHEN Joan had been revived, they were able to look around the interior of the Comet. Everything had been damaged by the bursting of a mighty cyclotron. The damage could be repaired, but it would take hours to construct another cyclotron from spare parts.

  "You sure made a lot of work for us. Otho," Grag grumbled.

  "You saved the ship for us, and that's what counts most," Curt told the android. "But the other machine men got away with their booty. They probably aren't aware that these machine men aren't following with the Comet. We can't pursue them until the ship is repaired, and that will be hours of work."

  Swarming over the deserted base, the marsh men were uttering wild cries of victory. Ezra and Joan had arrived with them. The Brain had already glided into the Comet and was inspecting the "dead" machine men. The blasted bodies of the three beings were too fragmentary to yield any new information. Curt searched the whole base for some clue of the machine men's mystery weapon, but found nothing.

  "They would take their weapons with them when they abandoned this base, of course," Curt muttered. "Well, all we can do is repair the ship and get after them as soon as possible."

  Hours went by while Captain Future, Grag and Otho worked at the task of repairing the Comet. They had set up a portable atomic foundry, and Grag labored over it to forge new metal plates. Otho welded them into plate, while Curt and the Brain checked the ship's instruments and repaired or replaced those which had been damaged by the blast. Finally all four Futuremen combined to assemble a new cyclotron and bolt it into place.

  The Planet Police cruiser in which they had traveled to Venus had come on from its hiding place in the swamp to the floating base. It would destroy the base to prevent its being used again. This fact elated the marsh men.

  "Thanks, good demon!" they cried to Otho. "You did this for us."

  "What do you mean, he did it?" Grag jealously growled. "All he did was make a lot of work for us by damaging our ship,"

  The Comet rose from the floating base, zoomed sharply up through the paling dawn over the Great South Marsh, and blasted skyward.

  "These machine men who left here will be taking their stolen ships on to their Main Base, wherever it is," Curt declared. "We'll see if we can't follow them by their rocket-trail."

  Emerging from the cloudy atmosphere of Venus into space, they circled for a time.

  Curt and the Brain worked with the electroscopes.

  "Here it is," the Brain rasped finally. "See, lad? The ionized rocket-trail of all those ships leads toward Mercury."

  "Mercury, eh?" Captain Future muttered. "Then the Main Base of the space ship thieves must be there. That's where the space ship industry is centered, and also where the Rocketeer testing grounds are located."

  "Do you suspect that some of the Rocketeers may be mixed up in these thefts?" Joan Randall asked.

  "Or that somebody in the space ship industry's behind it?" drawled Ezra Gurney.

  "Whoever plans these thefts seems to know just what new ships the Rocketeers are testing," Curt reminded. "Only somebody in the industry, or in the Rocketeers themselves, would know that. Yet where would he get these queer machine men he's using, and what's his motive? We'll follow the rocket-trail to Mercury. I think the answer to all those questions is there."

  Hour after hour the Comet tore Sunward while the Brain constantly checked the rocket-trail they followed. Joan Randall came forward to the control room, where Curt Newton was piloting. Her dark, pretty face was eager as she looked ahead at the small planet close to the Sun.

  "Do you think we can find them on Mercury?" she asked. "I'd like to see how that mysterious new weapon works. It would be a thrill."

  "Haven't you had enough thrills?" Captain Future demanded severely. "I should think that after four years of secret Planet Police work, all you'd want would be a nice, safe home."

  "Is that a proposal?" Joan cried instantly. "If it is, I take you up on it right now."

  Curt was forced to grin. "You know darned well it's not. Go on back to the cabin and don't bother me. I'm trying to think."

  "It's too noisy in the cabin," Joan complained. "Grag and Otho are at it again."

  The hissing voice of the android and the booming tones of Grag could be clearly heard, loudly raised in argument.

  "Blast them, they never get tired of scrapping," Curt swore. Then his gray eyes brightened. "Simon and I figured out a way to stop their arguments! I'm going to try it now. Take over, Joan."

  CAPTAIN FUTURE left the controls in the hands of the experienced girl agent and went back into the main cabin, which was also a crowded laboratory, one of the finest in the System.

  Electro-telescopes and electro-spectroscopes loomed in one corner. A compact folding chemical laboratory occupied another. There was an exhaustive file of spoken records of planetary languages, and a collection of atmosphere samples from every planet, moon and asteroid. A collection of Captain Future's mysterious psycho-scientific instruments was housed in a cabinet beside the one that contained an incredible number of scientific reference books which had been reduced to micro-film.

  Simon Wright was checking one of the electroscopes. The Brain floated on his new magnetic beams as he carried out the work. Ezra Gurney was lounging back in a space-chair, dozing. But Grag and Otho were facing each other, violently arguing about their two pets.

  "I warned you to keep your disgusting meteor-mimic away from Eek," boomed Grag angrily.

  "Keep Oog away?" Otho retorted. "Why, it's Eek that can't be kept away!"

  Curt went to the Brain. Unnoticed by the two disputing Futuremen, he spoke in a low voice.

  "Simon, remember what we were planning in the Moon-laboratory when trouble interrupted — the good-will projector of hypnotic encephaloid vibrations, to take the fight out of Grag and Otho?"

  "Yes, I remember," rasped the Brain. "I wish we'd had time to make it. The arguments of those two keep me from concentrating."

  "Let's put the thing together now," Curt Newton suggested, a gleam in his eyes. "It won't take long."

  He and the Brain set to work, unfolding a table in the corner and bringing forth an array of fine atomic-powered tools and materials. Grag and Otho were so busy quarreling that they paid no attention.

  In less than an hour Curt and Simon had completed a small, watch-shaped instrument with a broad lens in one face.