Captain Future 10 - Outlaws of the Moon (Spring 1942) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

Strike pilot me back to Earth.”
    Shortly afterward King left for Earth. Grag called after him.
    “Hope you and Strike have a nice crash landing!”
    In the following hours, Albert Wissler kept the planetary miners hard at work clearing the fissure. More krypton lights had been set up, and flat metal trucks had been brought down to remove the masses of fallen rock as the boring machines ate their way through.
    Grag lay in his chains, morosely watching all this activity. But the robot was not as helpless as he seemed. His mind was busily searching for a way of escape. His arms were tightly bound against his metal body by the chains, his metal wrists being pressed together.
    A plan came into Grag’s mind. He began a series of furtive attempts to move his wrists inside the chains. He could make only imperceptible movements at first, so tightly was he trussed up. But gradually, as time passed, he had so moved his forearms inside the binding chains that his left hand touched his right wrist.
    The steely fingers of Grag’s left hand began work upon his other wrist. They began to unlock the cunning hidden bolts that held his metal hand. For Grag’s hands, like all his limbs, were detachable, so that they could be repaired easily when necessary.
    Gradually, Grag completely unfastened his right hand from the wrist. He made certain he was not observed. Wissler was earnestly directing the mining crews, who had now bored nearly through the mass of obstructing rock. No one was watching Grag. Quietly the robot drew his handless right arm from under the binding chains.
    It took Grag some minutes to get his dismembered right hand free also. Then, using the fingers of his still-bound left hand, he refastened his right hand to the wrist. He now had one arm and hand completely free of the chains.
    “They’ll learn that it’s not so simple to tie me up!” Grag told himself grimly.
    With the free hand, he soon untied his chains. Quickly he rearranged the chains around his body so that although he was now really free of them, they looked as though they still bound him.
    “Now I’ll wait till they get the passage open,” Grag decided coolly. “I might as well let them do all that hard work for me.”
    He lay, apparently tightly chained, watching the planetary miners bore on into the fallen mass of rock. Before long, the powerful machines had penetrated completely through. The fissure was now open again.
    At once, the miners drew back into the cavern. Grag saw their Saturnian spokesman anxiously report to Albert Wissler.
    Wissler nodded his head emphatically.
    “All right. You men can go back up to the dome till the Patrol company gets here.”
    “Better haul that robot up with you. We’ll keep him up there till we can turn him over to the Patrol men.”
    Grag, in the last few minutes, had evolved an improvement of his original scheme. He saw now a way, not only to escape, but to help Captain Future.
    “Wissler, I’ve something to propose to you before you turn me over to the Patrol,” Grag said in a low, urgent voice to the scientist.
    Wissler looked down at him doubtfully.
    “What is it?”
    “You’ve been trying to find the Moon laboratory,” Grag said earnestly. “I’d tell you where it is, if you gave me a chance to escape.”
    Wissler rose immediately to the bait.
    “Wait a minute,” he said in a low voice.
    The planetary miners were approaching to haul Grag to the surface. Albert Wissler gestured impatiently.
    “I’ve changed my mind. We can leave the robot safely down here, since he’s chained,” Wissler told the men. “You can go on up.”
    The motley crew needed no urging. They were eager to leave the gloomy lunar cavern that had so strongly aroused their superstitious fears. They poured into the tunnel leading to the surface.
    Wissler came back to Grag. The scientist’s blinking eyes were lit with avid excitement as he approached the prostrate robot.
    “Now we’re alone. You can tell me where the Moon