Captain Future

aptain Future is escaping across the sun-scorched landscape of Mars with his steadfast companions Otho the android, Grag the robot and Joan Randall the beautiful Planet Patrol agent. They must cross a rickety rope bridge before their arch enemy Dr. Ul Thorn, the Magician of Mars, arrives with the pre-historic monsters he has fiendishly raised in his vast subterranean farm. But the bridge has been blasted by proton guns. Now it can support just two people at a time, and only the genius Simon Wright, Captain Future's old mentor whose brain has been transplanted into a metal box, can use his extra-sensitive artificial eyes to determine which slats are safe.

      “We have to carry him back and forth – two go over, someone has to bring him back. Then the next two go over with the box.”
     “Simon, are you sure we can do this?”
      “Aye, lad. I’ll guide you every step,” rasps Simon through his speaker. But the four do not travel at the same speed. Captain Future, a champion athlete, can cross the bridge in a minute. Joan Randall can cross in two. The android Otho needs five and the robot Grag, built for strength not speed, requires ten. They have just seventeen minutes to make three trips over and two trips back.
       "What is your plan?" cries Joan hurriedly as she toasts another creature with her atom zapper.

Need a Hint?

The covers for all the Captain Future novels were by the great Earle K. Bergey, whose intrepid space women never seemed to need as much of a space suit as the men. At Standard Magazines, he did covers for science fiction pulps from 1935 to 1951, including Strange Stories, Weird Tales and Thrilling Wonder Stories.