Captain Future 23 - The Harpers of Titan (September 1950) by Edmond Hamilton Page A

had been born.
    There his three guardians — Simon Wright, the Brain, Otho, the android, and Grag, the robot — had reared him and given him a training in scientific wizardry and in physical and mental skill which no other tutors could have given.
    The growing youth had chafed to leave the Moon, to see the rest of the great System that pioneering Earthmen had explored and colonized. But not until now had the Brain deemed him ready.
     
    PLANET TO PLANET
    Now, for months, they had been making their way from planet to planet in their small space-ship. Young Curt Newton had learned the secrets of Martian deserts, the depths of Jovian jungles, the great plains of Saturn and the sky-storming mountains of Uranus, all at first hand.
    They had been for weeks here on Pluto. They had been dwelling with the Plutonian natives, in their strange ice-city of Qulun, north of the Avernus Sea. Curt had already evinced his unique knack of making friends with non-terrestrial planetary peoples.
    He had become a comrade of the simple, primitive Plutonians — sailing the stormy ocean with them, hunting the korlats and other great fur-bearing beasts, and now he came with them to trade their furs with the Earthmen.
    The little party reached the double-doored entrance of the small domed trading-town and entered. The interior was warm and light. Great atomic generators that throbbed in a guarded building poured forth a flood of power to heat and illuminate this domed enclosure.
    Oraq, the Plutonian tribesman, grunted in discomfort. “It is too hot in here. Let us trade the furs and leave before we grow sick.”
    But young Curt Newton had thrown back the felt helmet from his red head and was breathing in the warm air with relief.
    “There is where we trade the furs,” Oraq said, pointing to the biggest of the metalloy buildings crowded inside the dome.
     
    THE TRADING POST
    The building had a cavernous interior, piled with great bundles of valuable Plutonian furs and with cases of cheap trade-goods. There were a few other Plutonians hanging about, and a crowd of rough Earthman hunters and trappers who stared at Curt as he entered with the Plutonians.
    “First time I ever saw an Earth youngster trail with the Hairies,” remarked a burly Earthman. “Look, he can even talk their lingo.”
    Curt Newton felt uncomfortable. He didn’t know much about Earthmen. He’d had small contact with them during his eighteen years.
    The two proprietors of the trading post had come forward — a gross-faced, stocky man of middle age and a thin-lipped older man. They looked appraisingly at the bundles of furs Oraq’s men had hauled in.
    “We trade,” Oraq mumbled, speaking his few words of the Earth language with difficulty. “We want knives, spearheads.”
    The older man nodded and brought out six cheap steel knives and as many spearheads, which he laid down.
    Oraq’s face fell. “Not enough,” the Plutonian articulated.
    “It’s all you’ll get,” retorted the thin-lipped trader calmly.
    Curt Newton burst forth. He had been watching indignantly. “Why, that’s robbery!” he declared. “Those furs are worth a thousand times what you’re offering. Take them someplace else, Oraq.”
     
    LORDS OF POWER
    The men in the room burst into a guffaw. And the thin-lipped older trader told Curt sourly, “You must be new to Pluto, boy. There are no other traders on this planet. Wilson and Kincaid — that’s me and my partner — have the only trading post here. For we have the only atomic power plant here, to keep a post going with heat and light.”
    “That’s right, sonny,” smirked Kincaid, his gross-faced partner. “That’s why these Hairies call us the Lords of Power.”
    Curt looked incredulous. “But the Planet Patrol of the System Government —”
    Kincaid chuckled. “Sonny, the Patrol’s got enough to handle these days in the inner planets without coming away out here. The only law out here is the law of the Lords of Power, and don’t