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diff --git a/29416.txt b/29416.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e6aa3d --- /dev/null +++ b/29416.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4222 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mind Master, by Arthur J. Burks + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mind Master + +Author: Arthur J. Burks + +Release Date: July 15, 2009 [EBook #29416] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MIND MASTER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Dan Horwood and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from "Astounding Stories" January and + February, 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + The original "What has gone before" recap section from the + second part (February edition) has been removed from this + combined version. + + Author's archaic and variable spelling is preserved. + Author's punctuation style is preserved. + Passages in italics indicated by _underscores_. + Passages in bold indicated by =equal signs=. + + Typographical problems have been changed and are listed at the + end of the text. +] + + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: Front cover of "Amazing Stories"] + + + + +The Mind Master + +_Beginning a Two-Part Novel_ + +By Arthur J. Burks + +[Illustration: _A sequel to "Manape the Mighty"_] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The Tuft of Hair_ + + +"Let's hope the horrible nightmare is over, dearest," whispered Ellen +Estabrook to Lee Bentley as their liner came crawling up through the +Narrows and the Statue of Liberty greeted the two with uplifted torch +beyond Staten Island. New York's skyline was beautiful through the +mist and smoke which always seemed to mask it. It was good to be home +again. + +[Sidenote: Once more Lee Bentley is caught up in the marvelous +machinations of the mad genius Barter.] + +Certainly it was a far cry from the African jungles where, for the +space of a ghastly nightmare, Ellen had been a captive of the apes +and Bentley himself had had a horrible adventure. Caleb Barter, a mad +scientist, had drugged him and exchanged his brain with that of an +ape, and for hours Bentley had roamed the jungles hidden in the great +hairy body, the only part of him remaining "Bentley" being the Bentley +brain which Barter had placed in the ape's skull-pan. Bentley would +never forget the horror of that grim awakening, in which he had found +himself walking on bent knuckles, his voice the fighting bellow of a +giant anthropoid. + +[Illustration: _A bullet ploughed through the top of the ape's +head._] + +Yes, it was a far cry from the African jungles to populous Manhattan. + +As soon as Ellen and Lee considered themselves recovered from the +shock of the experience they would be married. They had already spent +two months of absolute rest in England after their escape from Africa, +but they found it had not been enough. Their story had been told in +the press of the world and they had been constantly besieged by the +curious, which of course had not helped them to forget. + + - - - + +"Lee," whispered Ellen, "I'll never feel sure that Caleb Barter is +dead. We should have gone out that morning when he forgot to take his +whip and we thought the vengeful apes had slain him. We should have +proved it to our own satisfaction. It would be an ironic jest, +characteristic of Barter, to allow us to think him dead." + +"He's dead all right, dear," replied Bentley, his nostrils quivering +with pleasure as he looked ahead at New York, while the breeze along +the Hudson pushed his hair back from his forehead. "He had abused the +great anthropoids for too many years. They seized their opportunity, +don't mistake that." + +"Still, he was a genius in his way, a mad, frightful genius. It hardly +seems possible to me that he would allow himself to be so easily +trapped. It's a reflection on his great mentality, twisted though it +was." + +"Forget it, dear," replied Bentley, putting his arm around her +shoulders. "We'll both try to forget. After our nerves have returned +to normal we'll be married. Then nothing can trouble us." + +The vessel docked and later Lee and Ellen entered a taxicab near the +pier. + +"I'll take you to your home, Ellen," said Bentley. "Then I'll look +after my own affairs for the next couple of days, which includes +making peace with my father, then we'll go on from here." + +They looked through the windows of the cab as they rolled into lower +Fifth Avenue and headed uptown. Newsies were screaming an extra from +the sidewalks. + +"Excitement!" said Bentley enthusiastically. "It's certainly good to +be home and hear a newsboy's unintelligible screaming of an extra, +isn't it?" + +On an impulse he ordered the cabbie to draw up to the curb and +purchased a newspaper. + +"Do you mind if I glance through the headlines?" Bentley asked Ellen. +"I haven't looked at an American paper for ever so long." + + - - - + +The cab started again and Bentley folded the paper, falling easily +into the habit of New Yorkers who are accustomed to reading on +subways where there isn't room for elbows, to say nothing of broad +newspapers. + +His eyes caught a headline. He started, frowning, but was instantly +mindful of Ellen. He mustn't show any signs that would excite her, +especially when he didn't yet understand what had caused his own +instant perturbation. + +Had Ellen looked at him she might have seen merely the calm face of a +man mildly interested in the news of the day, but she was looking out +at the Fifth Avenue shops. + +Bentley was staring again at the newspaper story: + + "An evil genius signing his 'manifestoes' with the strange + cognomen of 'Mind Master' gives the authorities of New + York City twelve hours in which to take precautions. To + prove that he is able to make good his mad threats he + states that at noon exactly, to-day, he will cause the + death of the chief executive of a great insurance company + whose offices are in the Flatiron Building. After that, at + regular stated periods, warnings to be issued in each case + ten hours in advance, he will steal the brains of the + twenty men whose names are hereto appended:" (There + followed then a list of names, all of which were known to + Bentley.) + +He understood why the story had startled him, too. "Mind Master!" +Anything that had to do with the human brain interested him mightily +now, for he knew to what grim uses it could be put at the hands of a +master scientist. Around his own head, safely covered by his hair +unless someone looked closely, and even then they must needs know what +they sought, was a thin white line. It marked the line of Caleb +Barter's operation on him that terrible night in the African jungles, +when his brain had been transferred to the skull-pan of an ape, and +the ape's brain to his own cranium. Any mention of the brain, +therefore, recalled to him a very harrowing experience. + +It was little wonder that he shuddered. + +Ellen noticed his agitation. + +"What is it, dearest?" she asked softly, placing her hand in the crook +of his arm. + + - - - + +He was about to answer her, desperately trying to think of something +to say that would not alarm her, when their taxicab, with a sudden +application of the brakes, came to a sharp stop. Bentley noticed that +they were at the intersection of Twenty-second Street and Fifth +Avenue. The lights were still green, but nevertheless all traffic was +halted. + +And for a strange reason. + +From the west door of the Flatiron Building emerged a grim apparition +of a man. His body was scored by countless bleeding wounds which +looked as though they had been made by the fingernails of a giant. The +man wore no article of clothing except his shoes. Apparently, his +clothing had been ripped from his body by the same instrument which +had turned his body into a raw, dripping horror. + +The man staggered, half-running, at times all but falling, toward the +traffic officer at the intersection. + +As he ran he screamed, horrible, babbling screams. His lips worked +crazily, his eyes rolled. He was frightened beyond the comprehension +of ordinary mortals. His screams began and ended on the high shrill +notes of utter dementia, and as he ran he pawed the air with his +bleeding hands as though he fought out on all sides against invisible +demons seeking to drag him down. + +"Oh, my God!" said Ellen. "Even here!" + +What had caused her to speak the last two words? Did she also have a +premonition of grim disaster? Did she also feel, deep down inside her, +as Bentley did, that the nightmare through which they had passed was +not yet ended? + +Bentley now sat unmoving, his eyes unblinking, as he saw the naked man +stagger over to the traffic officer. The color drained from his face. + +He looked at his watch. It was exactly noon. + +Even without further consideration Bentley knew that this gruesome +apparition had some direct connection with the newspaper story he had +just read. + + - - - + +Unobtrusively, trying to make it seem a preoccupied action, he folded +the newspaper again and thrust it down at the end of the seat cushion. +But Ellen was watching him, a haunting fear gradually coming into her +eyes. + +She quickly reached past him and snatched the paper before he realized +her intent. The item he had read came instantly under her eyes because +of the way he had automatically folded the paper. She read it with +staring eyes. + +"So, Lee," she said, "you think there's a connection with--with--well, +with _us_?" + +"Absurd!" he said heartily, too heartily. "Caleb Barter is dead." + +"But I have never been sure," insisted Ellen. "Oh, Lee, let's get away +from here! Let's take the first boat for Bermuda--anywhere to escape +this terrible fear." + +"No!" he retorted harshly. "If our suspicions are correct, and I think +we're unwarrantedly keyed up because of our recent experiences, the +officials of New York may need my help." + +"Your help? Why?" + +"I know more about Caleb Barter than any other living man, perhaps." + +"Then you _do_ have doubts that he is dead!" + +Bentley shrugged his shoulders. + +"Ellen," he said, "drive on home without me. I'm going to drop off and +find out all I can. If we're in for it in any way it's just as well to +know it at once." + +"You'll come right along?" + +"Just as soon as I can make it. And I hope I'll be able to report our +fears groundless." + +Bentley stepped from the cab. He ordered the chauffeur to turn right +into Twenty-second Street and to proceed until Ellen gave him further +directions. + +Then Bentley hurried through the congestion of automobiles toward the +traffic officer who was fighting with the naked man, trying to subdue +him. Other men were running to the officer's assistance, for it could +be seen that he alone was no match for the lunatic. Bentley, however, +was first to arrive. + +"Give me a hand!" gasped the officer. "I can't handle 'im without +usin' my club and I don't wanna do that. The poor fella don't know +what he's a-doin'." + + - - - + +Bentley quickly sprang to the patrolman's assistance. Between them +they soon reduced the stranger to a squirming bundle and dragged him +to the sidewalk; another officer was phoning for an ambulance. The +stricken man was now mumbling, babbling insanely. Blood trickled from +the corners of his lips. The sight of one eye had been destroyed. + +Bentley watched him, sprawled now on the sidewalk, surrounded by a +group of men. The man was dying, no question about that. The talons, +which had scored him, had bitten deeply and he was destined to bleed +to death soon even if the wounds were not otherwise mortal. + +Bentley noticed something clutched tightly in the man's right +hand--something that sent a chill through his body despite the heat of +a mid-July noon. The officer, apparently, had not noticed it. + +Soon a clanging bell announced the arrival of an ambulance, and as the +crowd stepped aside to clear the way, Bentley bent over the dying man. +The man's lips were parted and he was trying with a mighty effort of +will to speak. + +Bentley put his ear close to the bleeding lips through which words +strove to bubble. He heard parts of two words: + +"...ind ...aster...." + +Bentley suddenly knew what the man was trying to say. The half-uttered +words could mean only--"Mind Master." + +Bentley suppressed a shudder and extended his hands to the closed +right hand of the dying man. Carefully he removed from between the +fingers three tufts of thick brown hair, coarse and crude of texture. +There was a rattle in the naked man's throat. + +Five minutes later the ambulance intern hastily scribbled in his +record the entry, "Dead on Arrival." + +Bentley, more frightened than he had ever been before, entered a +taxicab as soon as the body had been removed and the streets cleared. +He stared closely at the tufts of hair in his hand. Maybe he had been +wrong in taking them before detectives arrived on the scene, but he +had to know, and he felt that these hairs proved his mad suspicions. + +Caleb Barter was alive! + +The hairs came from the shaggy coat of a giant anthropoid ape or a +gorilla. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_Ultimatum_ + + +How terribly far-fetched it seemed! It was unbelievable enough that +Bentley had once reposed in the body of an ape. That had been in the +African wilds. But the idiocy of the thing now rested in Bentley's +belief that here, immediately upon landing, he was again facing +something just as horrible. + +But the coincidences were too clear. The palaver about "brains," and +"Mind Master"--and those ape hairs in Bentley's hands. He wished he +knew all that had led up to that story he had read in the paper just +prior to the appearance of the naked man from the west door of the +Flatiron Building. However, the killing would get front page position +now, due to the importance of the dead man--Bentley never doubted it +was the man whom, in the paper, the "Mind Master" had promised to +slay. + +Great apes in the heart of New York City! It sounded silly, +preposterous. Yet, before he had gone through that dread experience +with the mad Barter, Bentley would have sworn that brain transplantation +was impossible. Even now he was not sure that it hadn't all been a +terrible dream. + +Should Bentley go at once to the police to give them the benefit of +whatever knowledge he might have of Caleb Barter? He wasn't sure. Then +he decided that sooner or later he must come out into the open. So he +caught a cab and went to police headquarters. + +"I wish," he said, "to talk to someone about the Mind Master!" + +If he had said, "I have just come from Mars," he could scarcely have +caused a greater sensation. + + - - - + +But his calm statement got him an instant audience with a slender man +of thirty-five or so, whose hair was prematurely gray at the temples, +and whose eyes were shrewd and far-seeing. + +"My name's Thomas Tyler," said the detective. He certainly didn't look +the conventional detective, but Bentley knew instantly that he +_wasn't_ the conventional detective. "I work on the unusual cases. If +you hadn't sent in your name I wouldn't have seen you, which means +that as soon as you leave here you are to forget my name and how I +look." + +He motioned Bentley to a seat. Bentley sat back. Suddenly Thomas Tyler +was around his desk and had pushed back the hair from Bentley's +temples. He drew in his breath with a sharp hiss when he saw the white +line which circled Bentley's skull. + +"It's not exactly proof," he said, as though he and Bentley had been +in the midst of a discussion of that awful operation Barter had +performed on Bentley, "but I'd take your word for it." + +"The story, in the main, was true," said Bentley. + +"I thought so. What made you come here?" + +"I saw that naked man run across Fifth Avenue from the door of the +Flatiron Building. I saw the officer subdue him, helped him do it in +fact, and saw the man die. Since there was no detective there, I took +the liberty of removing these from the fingers of the dead man." + +Bentley gave Tyler the coarse hair, stained with blood. Tyler looked +at it grimly for a moment or two. + +"Not human hair," he said, as though talking to himself. "Not like any +I know of. But ... ah, you know what sort of hair, eh? That's what +sent you here!" + +"It's the hair of an ape or a gorilla." + +"How do you know, for sure?" + +"Once," said Bentley grimly, "for several horrible hours ... I was a +giant anthropoid ape." + + - - - + +Tyler's chair legs crashed solidly to the floor. + +"I see," he said. "You think this thing has some connection with your +own experiences. How long ago was that?" + +"Slightly over two months." + +"You think the same man...?" + +"I don't know. But who could want, as a newspaper story I just read +says, to steal the brains of men? What for? It sounds like Barter. +I've never heard of anybody else with such an obsession. I'm putting +two and two together--and fervently hoping they'll add up to seven +instead of four. For if ever in my life I wanted to be wrong it's +now." + +Tyler pursed his lips. Bentley saw that his eyes were glinting with +excitement. + +"But there's a possibility you're right. Do you know what the Mind +Master's first manifesto said? It was published by a tabloid newspaper +as a sort of gag--a strange crank letter. Here it is." + +Tyler tossed Bentley a newspaper clipping a week old. Bentley read +quickly: + + "The white race is deteriorating physically at a dangerous + rate. In fifty years, if nothing is done to prevent it, + the world will be filled with men whose bodies are so soft + as to be almost worthless. But I shall take steps to + prevent that, as soon as I am ready. I need a week. Then I + shall begin my crusade to make the white race a race of + supermen, whom I alone shall rule. They shall keep the + brains they have, which shall be transferred to bodies + which I shall furnish. + + (Signed) The Mind Master." + + - - - + +Tyler squinted at Bentley again. + +"You see? Brains are all right, he says, but the white race needs new +bodies. If he isn't suggesting brain substitution, what is he +suggesting? Though I confess I never thought of your story until your +name was sent in to me a while ago. For the world thinks of Barter as +having been killed by the great apes." + +"Yes, I told newspaper reporters that. I thought it was true. But this +Mind Master must be Barter. There couldn't be two persons in the world +with mental quirks so much alike." + +"Tell me what Barter looks like. Oh, there are plenty of pictures +extant of the famous Professor Caleb Barter who disappeared from the +world some years ago, but he'll know that, of course, and he won't +look like the pictures. + +"Alteration of his own features should be easy for a man who juggles +brains." + +"He may have changed his features since I saw him, too," said Bentley. +"But I'm sure I'd know him." + +Tyler's telephone rang stridently. + +He took down the receiver. His mouth fell slackly open as his eyes +lifted to Bentley's face. But he recovered himself and slapped his +hand over the transmitter. + +"Anybody know you came here?" asked Tyler. + +Bentley shook his head. + +"Well," went on Tyler, "I don't know how it happens, but this +telephone message is for you!" + +Bentley's heart seemed to jump into his throat. One of those hunches +which sometimes were so valuable to him had struck him, as though it +were a blow between the eyes. His lips tightened. His face was pale, +but there was a grim light in his eyes. + +He hesitated for a second, the receiver in his hand, his mouth against +the transmitter. + +"Well, Professor Barter?" he said conversationally. + + - - - + +There came a gasp from Thomas Tyler. He jumped to the door and +motioned to someone. A man in uniform came to his side. Bentley +distinctly heard Tyler tell the man to have this telephone call +traced. + +From the receiver came a well-remembered chuckle. + +"So you were expecting me, eh, Bentley? You never really believed that +one of my genius would fall such easy prey to the great apes did +you?" + +"Of course not, Professor," said Bentley soothingly. "It would be an +insult to your vivid mentality." + +"_Vivid_ mentality! _Vivid_ mentality! Why, Bentley, there isn't +another brain in the world to compare with mine. And you of all people +should know it. The whole world will know it before I'm finished, for +I have made tremendous strides since you helped me to perform that +crowning achievement in Africa. By the way, tell your friend Tyler, +who just called the officer to the door, that it's useless to try to +trace this call!" + +Bentley jumped as though he had been stung. How had Barter known what +Tyler was doing? How had he guessed what Tyler had told the man in +uniform? How had Barter known Bentley was visiting Tyler? How had he +discovered even that Bentley was back in the United States? Why, +besides, was he so friendly with Bentley now? + +"You speak, Professor," said Bentley softly, "as though you could see +right into police headquarters." + +"I can, Bentley! I can!" said Barter impatiently, as though he were +rebuking a schoolboy for saying the obvious. + +"You're close by, then?" + +"No. I'm a long way--several miles--from you. But I can see everything +you do. And you needn't look at Tyler in such surprise!" + + - - - + +Bentley started. He had looked at Tyler in a surprised way and, clever +though he was, he didn't think that Barter could have _guessed_ so +accurately to the second the gesture he had made. Barter chuckled. + +"It's a good jest, isn't it? But listen to me, Bentley, I've a great +scheme in hand for the amelioration of mankind. I need your help, +mostly because you were such an excellent subject in my greatest +successful experiment." + +"Will it be the same sort of experiment as the other?" Bentley's heart +was in his mouth as he asked the question. + +"Yes, the same ... but there are improvements I have succeeded in +perfecting since the creation of Manape. My one mistake when Manape +was created was in that I allowed myself to lose control of him--of +you! That will not happen again. Oh, if you'll help me, Bentley, that +operation will not be performed on you until you yourself request it +because I shall have proved to you that it is better for you. You +shall be my assistant and obey my orders, nothing more." + +Lee Bentley drew a deep breath. + +"If I prefer not to work with you again, Professor?" + +A chuckle was Barter's answer. The chuckle broke off shortly. + +"You should not refuse, Bentley," said the scientist at last. "For +then I should find it necessary to remove you. You might stand in my +way, and though you would be but a puny obstacle, you still would be +an obstacle. For example, consider Ellen Estabrook, your fiancee. I +can find no use for her ... and she knows as much about me as you do. +Therefore, at my convenience, I shall remove her." + + - - - + +"Caleb Barter," Bentley's voice was hoarse with anger as he dropped +his soothing mode of address toward the man he knew was insane, "if +anything happens to Miss Estabrook through you I shall find you no +matter how well you are guarded ... and I shall destroy you bit by +bit, as a small boy destroys a fly. For every least evil thing that +happens to Miss Estabrook, a hundred times that will happen to you at +my hands." + +"Good!" snapped Barter, no longer chuckling. "I am happy to know how +much she means to you. It shows me how easily I may control you +through her. It means war then, between us? I'm sorry, Bentley, for I +like you. In a way, you know, you are my creation. But in a war +between us, Bentley, you haven't a chance to win." + +Bentley clicked up the receiver. + +"Could you trace the call, Tyler?" he snapped. + +Tyler shook his head ruefully. + +"We couldn't locate the right telephone, but we could tell which +exchange it came through, and the lines of that exchange cover a huge +section of the city." + +"Can you find out exactly the section and the address of each phone on +every line?" + +"Yes. The exchange is Stuyvesant." + +"That gives me some help. I used to live in Greenwich Village and I +had a Stuyvesant number. I'm going after Barter. Say, Tyler, how do +you suppose Barter knew exactly what was going on in this room?" + +Tyler's face slowly whitened as his eyes looked fearfully into the +eyes of Lee Bentley. He shook his head slowly. + +Bentley squared his shoulders and spoke quietly and determinedly. + +"Mr. Tyler," he said, "I am in a great hurry. May I be conducted in a +police car? Might as well. I'll be working with you hand and glove +until Barter is captured." + +Bentley rode behind a shrieking siren to the home of the Estabrooks +... while from a distance of two miles Caleb Barter watched every +move and chuckled grimly to himself. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Hell's Laboratory_ + + +The huge room was absolutely free of all sounds from anywhere save +within itself. The walls, the floors, the doors were of chrome steel. +The cages were iron-ribbed and ponderous. + +The long table which ran down the strange room's center was covered +with retorts, test tubes, Bunsen burners--all of the stock-in-trade of +the scientist who spends most of his time at research work. The man +who bent over the table was well past middle age. His hair was +snow-white, but his cheeks were like rosy red apples. He literally +seemed to glow with health. He was like a strange flame. His hands +were slender, the fingers long and extraordinarily supple. His lips +were redder even than his cheeks, and made one, strangely enough, +think of vampires. His eyes were coal-black, fathomless, piercing. + +On the bronze wall directly across the table from the swiftly laboring +man was a porcelain tablet set into the bronze, and in the midst of +the table were a score of little push-buttons. Above each was a red +light; and below, a green one. + +Several inches below each green light was a little slot which +resembled a tiny keyhole, something like the keyhole in the average +handbag. There was a key in each hole, and from each key hung a length +of gleaming chain which shone like gold and might have been gold, or +at least, some gold-plated metal. On the dangling end of each chain +was another key which might have been the twin of the key in the hole +above. + +In the space between the keyholes and the green lights there were the +letters and figures: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 ... and so on up to T-20. + +Plainly it was the beginning of a complicated classification system +with any number of combinations possible. + + - - - + +Behind the working man the row of cages partially hid the brooding +horror of the place. There were twenty cages--and in each one was a +sulking, red-eyed anthropoid ape. Plainly the fact that the number of +apes coincided with the number of push-buttons, and with the number of +keys, to say nothing of the red lights and the green lights, was no +accident. The apes were sullenly silent, proof that they feared the +man at the table so much that they were afraid to move. + +At last the white-haired man stopped and breathed a sigh of +satisfaction. Carefully he placed in the middle of the table the +instrument which he had been examining. It looked like a slightly +concave aluminum plate or tympanum, save that on the apex appeared a +tiny ball of the same metal. Except for the color and the fact that +the thing was almost flat, it looked like a small Manchu hat. + +"Naka Machi!" said the man suddenly in a conversational tone of +voice. + +The chrome steel door swung open swiftly and silently and another man +entered. He was about the same height as the first man, but he was +younger and his eyes were blacker. His hair was as black as the wings +of a crow. He was a Japanese dressed in Occidental garb. + +"Naka Machi," said the white-haired one again, "I have examined every +bit of the infinitesimal mechanism in the ball on this tympanum. It is +perfect. You are a genius, Naka Machi. There is only one genius +greater--Professor Caleb Barter!" + +Naka Machi bowed low, and as he spoke his breath hissed inwardly through +his teeth after the Japanese manner of admitting humility--"that my +humble breath may not blow upon you"--which never needed really to +be sincere. + +"I am merely a genius with my fingers, Professor Barter," said Naka +Machi in a musical voice. "The smaller the medium in which I work the +happier I am, Professor; and in that I am a genius. But the plan for +this so marvelous little radio-control, as you call it, came entirely +from your head, my master. I did exactly as the plans bade me. Will it +work?" + + - - - + +Caleb Barter's red face went redder still. His eyes shot flames of +anger. His lips pouched. Almost he seemed on the point of striking +down his Japanese assistant. + +"Will it work?" he repeated. "Have you not just told me that you +followed my plans exactly? Have I not just now checked your every bit +of work and pronounced it perfect? Then how can it fail to work? Have +you another one ready?" + +"Yes, my master. Now that I have perfected two, the work will become +monotonous. If the master wishes, I can create still another +radio-control, inside the head of a pin, which I should first render +hollow with that skill which only Naka Machi possesses?" + +Caleb Barter almost smiled. + +"It will not be necessary. But it will be necessary for you to make +eighteen additional radio-controls of the same size as this one, or +say make twenty-four so that we shall have some extra ones in case of +accident. These two will be put into action at once. Naka Machi, bring +me Lecky, completely uniformed as a smart chauffeur! Have you laid in +a store of clothing, as I bade you, to fit every conceivable need of +Lecky, Stanley, Morton and Cleve?" + +"Yes, my master." + +"Then bring in Lecky accoutered as a chauffeur." + +Ten minutes later a young man entered behind Naka Machi. He was +slender and his chauffeur's uniform fitted him like a glove. He looked +like a soldier in it. Indeed his bearing, his whole stance, spoke of +many years as a soldier--and a proud one. The fellow was brimful of +health. His cheeks were rosy with vitality. He looked like a man with +health so abundant he never found means to tire himself to the point +where he could sleep dreamlessly. + +But, nevertheless his arms hung listlessly at his sides. His eyes +seemed empty of hope, dull and lifeless, and one looked into those +eyes and shuddered. One tried to gaze deeply into them and found +oneself baffled. There was no soul behind them. + +"Come here, Lecky," said Barter coldly. + + - - - + +Lecky glided effortlessly forward to stand before Barter. + +"You've no brains, Lecky," said Barter emotionlessly; "no brains of +your own. You have a splendid body which moves only at the will of +Caleb Barter. I need that body for my purposes. But a man with brains +is dangerous. That's why you haven't any." + +Barter now took the silvery tympanum with the ball atop it and set it +on the head of Lecky. On top of it he placed the chauffeur's cap, +bringing it down tightly to keep the tympanum in place. + +"If I had it to do again I'd insert the tympanum under the skull as +part of the operation, Naka Machi," said Barter as he worked. "We'll +do that hereafter. And we begin work immediately. I'm going to send +Lecky out now to get the first subject." + +"The first subject, sir?" + +"Yes. Manhattan's richest man. A man must have brains to become +Manhattan's richest man, and I need men with brains. His name is +Harold Hervey. He will be leaving his office in the Empire State +Building in about half an hour. I want Lecky to be on hand to meet +him." + +On his own head Barter placed a second tympanum which Naka Machi had +brought him. Over it he pulled a rubber cap, like a bathing cap with a +hole cut in the top. + +"Now, we'll try it out, Naka Machi," said Barter. "Which one of these +lights is Lecky's?" + +"B-2, my master." + +Barter sat down under the light marked "B-2" and lifted the key which +dangled from the end of the golden chain. This key he inserted in a +tiny orifice in the ball atop his head. Then he turned in his chair to +look at Lecky. Barter's face was a mask of concentration as he gazed +intently at the young man. + + - - - + +Lecky stiffened to attention. His right hand shot to his cap visor in +salute. His lips twisted into a travesty of a smile. For a few seconds +he went through a strange series of posturings. He stood in the +attitude of a boxer preparing to attack. He danced smartly on his +toes. He bent double and touched the floor with the palms of his +hands. He jumped up and down with his legs stiff. He stopped suddenly +with his right hand at rigid salute. But his eyes were still vacant +through every posture. + +Barter's face showed a glow of satisfaction. + +"He did exactly what I willed him to do! I am his master. He is my +slave--even more abjectly than you are my slave, Naka Machi!" + +"But that would be impossible, my master," said Naka Machi, hissing +again through his teeth as he sucked in his breath. "None could be +more abjectly your slave than I." + +"Do not say anything is impossible," said Barter peevishly, "when I +say otherwise. Anything is possible to me! Now, we'll send Lecky +forth. I'll watch him through the heliotubes and control his every +move. While I am directing Lecky you will prepare the table behind me +for the first of our world-revolutionizing operations." + +"Yes, my master," said the Japanese humbly. + +"But first, it's just as well that Lecky is in a good humor, even +though he is my slave. Where are the walnuts, Naka Machi?" + +The Japanese tendered a large walnut to Barter. Barter rose and +approached Lecky who still stood at salute. He stopped a couple of +paces in front of the soldierly man and held up the walnut as a man +sometimes holds up food to a dog, bidding him "speak" before he may be +fed. + + - - - + +Then Lecky did a strange thing. + +He began to jump up and down like a pleased child. His jumping caused +him to lose his balance, but he recaptured it by pressing the backs of +his hands against the floor. His hitherto expressionless eyes lost +their dullness. Saliva dribbled at the corners of his mouth. Barter +tossed him the walnut. Lecky held it under his right forefinger, +against the _heel_ of his thumb, instead of between thumb and +forefinger, as he lifted it to his mouth. + +Barter chuckled. + +"Even the human casement cannot wholly hide the ape, eh, Naka Machi?" +said Barter. + +Naka Machi hissed. + +Barter returned to the porcelain slab banked with the lights and the +keys. He readjusted the keys and his face became thoughtful again. + +Lecky turned smartly, still nibbling at his walnut, strode to the +bronze door and let himself out. + +Through the heliotube directly above the key marked "B-2," Caleb +Barter watched him go, and kept watching him as he made his way to the +street. Barter looked ahead of his puppet, noting the cars which were +parked at the curb. He saw a stately limousine. He grinned. The +chauffeur was not in sight. Barter looked for him and found him at a +table in a nearby restaurant, his back to the window. + +Barter looked back at his puppet and his face became serious with +concentration. + +Lecky walked blithely along the street and turned right when he was +opposite the limousine. Without a moment's hesitation, he stepped into +the limousine, pressed the starter, shifted gears, turned in the +middle of the block and started swiftly uptown. + +After Lecky had shifted gears he drove with his left hand alone. His +right was still busy with the walnut. + +Barter now looked like a man in a trance, so deeply did he concentrate +on his task of guiding his soulless, ape-brained puppet, Lecky, +through the heavy traffic of Manhattan. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_The Opening Gun_ + + +"That list, Tyler," said Bentley, after he had somewhat calmed the +fears of Ellen Estabrook and had returned to the task of tracing +Barter, "is headed by Harold Hervey, the multi-millionaire. I know +Barter well enough to know that he'll go down the list methodically, +taking each person in turn. We'd best take immediate precautions to +guard the old man's home. For Barter, if not entirely ready to take +drastic steps, must be almost ready, else he couldn't issue his +manifestoes and take a chance of some slip-up before he could get +really started." + +"Why do you suppose he named Hervey on the list?" asked Tyler. + +"Because Hervey is a financial genius. Barter wishes not only to carry +out his plan of creating a race of supermen, but wishes at the same +time to maintain personal control of them. And to control Manhattan, +from which he logically hopes to extend his control to the whole +United States, then to the whole world, Barter must also control the +money marts. Hervey is the shrewdest financier in the world." + +"But won't we frighten Hervey's family if we take steps now?" + +"Better to frighten them now than to be too late entirely. However, we +can place his house under surveillance without the knowledge of the +family for the time being. And you'd better send a couple of men to +his office in the Empire State Building to see that nothing happens +to him on the way home this evening. I talked to him by telephone and +he pooh-poohed the whole thing. Hard-headed business executives have +no imagination." + +Bentley and Tyler rode uptown in the back seat of a speeding police +car driven by one of the best chauffeurs Bentley had ever ridden +behind. He edged through holes in the traffic where Bentley could +scarcely see any holes at all. He estimated the speed of cars which +might have collided with the police vehicle and slipped through with +inches to spare. In his way the man was a genius. But Bentley was yet +to see the driving of a master genius.... + + - - - + +Far out in the residential district the police car came to a +stop. Other police cars arrived at intervals to disgorge men in +plain clothes who immediately entered upon their guard duties as +unobtrusively as possible. If Hervey's family noticed at all they +would scarcely attach any importance to the arrival of cars and the +discharging of passengers who seemed to have nothing to do except +dawdle on the sidewalks. + +But all the way uptown a hunch had ridden Bentley. He had the feeling +that no matter how fast the police car traveled, no matter how +skilfully the chauffeur inched his way through the press, they would +be too late to save Hervey. The feeling became an obsession. Many +times he called through the speaking tube. + +"Faster, driver, for God's sake, faster!" + +Now near the home of Harold Hervey, Bentley found himself unable to +walk slowly, with the air of nonchalance, which the other police +officers wore like a cloak. + +"Something's happened," said Bentley, "I'm sure of it. I feel that +Barter is so close to me that I could touch him if I knew in which +direction to extend my fingers." + +Suddenly a speeding car, with horn bellowing, came crashing up the +street toward the Hervey residence. It was traveling at great speed, +careening from side to side like a ship in a storm at sea. + +"There comes Hervey's car," said Tyler. "And something has happened to +make him travel like that. Old man Hervey doesn't allow his chauffeur +to go faster than twenty miles an hour." + + - - - + +Tyler and Bentley were near by when the car squealed to a stop before +the Hervey residence and a hatless, disheveled man leaped out almost +before the car stopped rolling. + +"That's not Hervey," said Tyler. "That's his private secretary. +Something's up. It's time we took a hand in things." + +Tyler and Bentley grasped the young man by the elbow. + +"What's up?" demanded Tyler. + +"It's Mr. Hervey, sir," panted the secretary. "It just happened. He's +been kidnaped!" + +The secretary was a slight man, but fear had given him strength. He +almost dragged Tyler and Bentley off their feet as he strode on up the +walk leading to the home of Hervey. + +"You'll scare his family half to death!" said Tyler. + +"It'll have to come sometime, Tyler," said Bentley. "It might as well +be now. They'll have to know. We'll have to sit inactively from this +moment on. Tyler, there's nothing that can be done for Hervey. Barter +has scored. We couldn't catch him now to save ourselves from +perdition. But his next step will involve the Hervey menage. We'll +have to wait there for his next move." + +Tyler and Bentley entered the vast gloomy structure of the +old-fashioned Hervey domicile on the heels of the frightened +secretary. Mrs. Hervey, a faded woman of sixty or so, met them at the +door. Her head was held high, her lips grimly drawn into a straight +line. + +"So," she said evenly, "they've got Mr. Hervey. I begged him to take +those threats seriously. He's been either killed or kidnaped." + +"Kidnaped," said Bentley, continuing brutally because of the courage +he saw in the old woman's face. "And that means he'll be dead within +the hour, if he isn't dead already. We've got to stay here for a few +hours, to await the next move of the madman calling himself the Mind +Master, in the hope that we can trace him when he makes his next +move." + +Mrs. Hervey lifted her head still higher. + +"We'll place no obstacles in your path, gentlemen," she said, "if you +are from the police. The family will confine itself to the upper +floors of the house." + + - - - + +Tyler and Bentley took possession of the living room. Outside a dozen +plain-clothes men were to patrol the grounds during the hours of +darkness. + +Other men were at every adjacent street corner. A rat could not have +got through unobserved. + +Tyler and Bentley took seats at a table facing the door. The police +car in which they had arrived stood at the curb, with the chauffeur at +the wheel, the motor humming softly. + +"Timkins," said Bentley, addressing the private secretary who stood in +the most distant corner of the room, his eyes fearfully fixed on the +street door, "how was Mr. Hervey captured?" + +"I was accompanying him to his car, sir," replied the young man, "when +a dapper fellow in a chauffeur's uniform confronted us on the +sidewalk. He stood as stiff and straight as a soldier. He didn't say a +word. He just looked at Mr. Hervey. Mr. Hervey stopped because the man +was blocking the sidewalk. I looked into the chauffeur's eyes. They +seemed utterly dead. I shivered. I'd have sworn the man had no soul, +now that I look back at it. Suddenly he lashed out with his fist, +striking Mr. Hervey on the jaw. Mr. Hervey started to fall. The man +caught him under the arms and tossed him into the tonneau of a +limousine at the curb. The car was away before I could summon the +police." + +Bentley nodded. + +"Which way did the car go?" he demanded. + +"Downtown, at top speed," replied Timkins. + +Bentley turned to Tyler. + +"The Stuyvesant exchange is downtown," he said. "Now Timkins says that +the kidnaper's car went downtown. And the naked man was killed in the +Flatiron Building, which is well downtown in its turn. Tyler, fill all +the area covered by the Stuyvesant exchange with plain-clothes men. +Telephone Headquarters to see whether a stolen limousine has been +reported from somewhere in the area. Barter wouldn't have cars of his +own for fear they could be traced. He'll use stolen cars when he uses +cars at all. And he had his puppet pick up the limousine close to his +hideout." + + - - - + +Tyler nodded and quickly spoke into the telephone on the table at his +elbow. + +The telephone reminded Bentley of Ellen Estabrook. + +When Tyler had finished issuing pointed instructions Bentley called +the residence of the Estabrooks in Astoria, Long Island. + +Carl Estabrook answered the telephone. + +"Is Ellen all right?" asked Bentley. "May I speak to her?" + +Carl Estabrook's answering gasp came plainly over the wire. + +"Are you crazy, Lee?" he asked. "Not ten minutes ago you telephoned +Ellen and told her to meet you near the arch in Washington Square. I +asked her if she was sure the voice was yours, and she was...." + +But Bentley, white-faced, had already clicked up the receiver. + +"Tyler," he said, "Ellen Estabrook, my fiancee, is walking into a +trap. It's Barter again. He'd know how to imitate my voice well enough +to fool Ellen. It would be simple enough for a man like him. He +probably had that long conversation with me at headquarters to make +sure he hadn't forgotten the timbre and pitch of my voice ... and to +hear how it sounded over the telephone. Please have plain-clothes men +pick up Ellen in Washington Square. And that, Tyler, if you'll notice, +is also downtown." + +Bentley felt that he would go mad with anxiety as he awaited some news +from the plain-clothes men Tyler had ordered to look for Ellen +Estabrook. + +He had asked Tyler to issue rather unusual instructions to the +plain-clothes men around the Hervey residence. They were to make no +attempt to halt anyone who might approach the house, but were to +permit no one to depart. It was a weak plan, but knowing the supreme +egotism of Barter, Bentley felt that the old scientist would +deliberately accept such a challenge. He wouldn't mind risking the +loss of a minion. + + - - - + +"He controls his puppets from his hideout, Tyler," Bentley explained, +"and won't hesitate to send them into danger since it can't touch him. +And he watches every move they make, too. He's made some television +adaptation of his own. I'll wager, if he so desires, he can see us +sitting here right now, even perhaps hear what we say. I can fancy +hearing him chuckle, and Tyler...?" + +"Yes?" + +"I can see old man Hervey on an operating table with Barter bending +over him, working fiendishly. Behind Barter are cages of apes." + +"But how could he transport apes to his hideout?" + +"He could manage to smuggle anything anywhere. Money paves the way to +any accomplishment, Tyler. We needn't concern ourselves with how he +does it, but with the fact that he must surely have apes in his +hideout." + +There came suddenly an imperious ringing of the doorbell. + +Bentley and Tyler leaped to their feet, their hands streaking for +their automatics which they had placed within easy reach on the table. +Side by side they sprang for the door, and flung it open. + +A chill of horror ran through Bentley. + +"Mother of God!" cried Tyler. + +"Mr. Hervey!" shrieked Timkins. The secretary, noting the figure which +toppled so grimly into the room, fainted. The thud of his body +followed the thud of the old man's body to the floor. + +In that first moment of overwhelming terror, all three men noted that +Hervey's skull-pan was missing. + +"Look after details here, Tyler!" cried Bentley, quickly recovering +himself. "I'm after whoever brought the old man home." + +Bentley was racing down the path for the street, where a man in +chauffeur's uniform was hurling himself into a limousine, while +bullets from half a dozen plain-clothes men, racing to head him off, +sang about his ears. But the stranger gained the driver's seat and +the limousine was away like a shot. The police car was rolling as +Bentley leaped upon the running board, then eased in beside the +driver. + +"Don't stop for anything!" cried Bentley. "Keep that car in sight!" + +The car headed downtown at breakneck speed. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_To Broadway's Horror_ + + +Bentley would never forget that nightmarish ride downtown. It was a +dream as terrifying and ghastly as had been his experience in the +African jungles when he had been Manape. Added to the utter fear of +the ride was his fear for the safety of Ellen Estabrook. Caleb Barter, +so far, was utterly invincible. It seemed he could not be beaten or +outwitted in any way. But Bentley set his lips tightly. + +Caleb Barter must have some weak spot in his insane armor, some way by +which he could be reached and destroyed--and Bentley swore to himself +that it would be he who would find that weak spot. + +The limousine ahead was going at dangerous speed. The police chauffeur +beside Bentley crouched low over the wheel as he drove. His eyes never +left the speeding limousine. People on the sidewalks stared in +astonishment as the two cars flashed downtown. + +The leading car sped on, the driver obviously expecting ways to open +in the last second before threatened collision. He passed cars on the +left and the right. There were times when his wheels were up on the +curb as he went through lanes between cars and sidewalks. He was +determined to go through. + +Only Bentley understood that the driver ahead was an automaton, a man +whose brain did not know the meaning of fear. He knew that from his +hideout Caleb Barter was directing the flight of the escaping car. He +could fancy the old man of the apple-red cheeks, sitting in a chair in +his hideout, his hands in the air as though they gripped the wheel of +a car, sweat breaking forth on his cheeks as he guided his puppet +through the press of cars. + +But by now in that uncanny way that sometimes happens the streets were +being cleared as if by magic before the flight of one whom all +observers must have thought a madman. Only Bentley knew that the +driver ahead was not a madman. + + - - - + +His own car careened from side to side. Bentley wondered what the +chauffeur would think if he knew he was driving a race against one of +Barter's supermen. He would perhaps have realized that no man could +possibly follow with any degree of success. The police driver had +succeeded so far only because, Bentley guessed, he felt that where any +other man could drive, so could he. + +Only Bentley knew that the driver up there was not a "man" in the +normal meaning of the word. He wondered who "he" really was--not that +it mattered greatly, for the entity required to make "him" a normal +man had perhaps been destroyed, or had become part of some giant +anthropoid to be used later in Barter's ghastly experiments. + +"I wonder if Tyler will send out calls for police cars in other parts +of the city to try and cut off the runaway," shouted Bentley above the +shrieking of the motor and the wailing of the siren. "Are any police +cars equipped with radio?" + +"Several," answered the police chauffeur. "And they are able to cut in +on various public radio stations, too. By this time warnings are being +heard on every blaring radio in Manhattan." + +The two cars sped on. For a brief space the car ahead took to the +sidewalk. Suddenly a human body was tossed violently against the side +of a building, and the fleeing car passed on. As the pursuing car +passed the spot Bentley knew by the shape of the bundle that the enemy +had killed a woman. At that speed he must have crushed every bone in +her body. In a matter of seconds the information would be telephoned +to radio studios and people would be warned to take to open doorways +when they saw cars traveling at undue rates of speed. + +"I'm a better driver than he is!" yelled the police chauffeur, out of +the side of his mouth at Bentley. "I haven't killed anyone yet." + +The words had scarcely left his mouth when a blind man, tapping his +way with a cane, came from behind a building at an intersection and +stepped into the gutter. The fool, couldn't he hear the shrieking of +the siren? But perhaps he was deaf, too. + + - - - + +The police chauffeur turned sharply to the left and for a second +Bentley held his breath expecting the careening car to turn over. If +it did it would roll over a dozen times, and destroy anything that +happened to be in its path. But with a superhuman manipulation of the +wheel the police chauffeur righted the car, got it straightened out +again, and was on his way. The old man had not been touched, but there +was no doubt that he had felt the wind of the great car's passing. + +The fleeing car was gaining now. + +It rode madly down Broadway. The great pillared intersection where +Broadway cuts through Sixth Avenue was dead ahead. The fleeing car +continued on, crashing through, while cars evaded it in every +direction, and into Broadway beyond. After it went Bentley, all other +matters forgotten as he prayed to the god of speed to guide them +through. + +Two cars came out of Thirty-first Street. Their drivers saw their +danger at the same time. But they turned different ways, and as +Bentley's car flashed past them the two cars seemed welded solidly +together. They were rolling across the sidewalk toward the huge plate +glass window of a restaurant. Just as the pursuing car lost them as +they swept past, the two cars went through that plate glass window. +Bentley, in his mind's eye, saw the two dead, mutilated drivers, and +the passengers with them, he saw the wreckage of the restaurant, the +mangled diners who sat at the tables nearest the fatal window. + +"More marks against Barter," he muttered to himself. "How long will +the list be before I'll be able to drag him down?" + + - - - + +On and on went the two cars. People packed the sidewalks, but they +kept close against the buildings. The streets were almost deserted +now, for that warning had got ahead. Three other police cars were +careening down the street, too. Bentley saw them with pleasure. Other +cars would be coming in to head off the fleeing limousine. This one +puppet of Barter's, at least, would be pocketed before he could find +time to leap from his car and escape. + +"Barter's sweating blood as he saws with both hands at an imaginary +driver's wheel," thought Bentley. "When will he give up--and what will +his driver do when Barter relinquishes control?" + +For the first time the grim thought came to him. He knew that the +creature there had the brain of an ape. What would an ape do if he +suddenly found himself at the wheel of a car going down Broadway at +eighty miles an hour? He would chatter, and jump up and down. The +plunging car, with accelerator full on, would be out of control. + +"God Almighty, I never thought of that!" yelled Bentley. "As soon as +he sees he can't save his puppet he'll let him get out the best way he +can, himself ... and that car will be traveling, uncontrolled, at +eighty miles an hour." + +As though his very statement had fathered the thought, two police cars +swept into the intersection at Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue. +The fleeing limousine was turning right to go down Fifth Avenue. + +The police cars were brought to a halt to effectively stop the further +progress of the speeding limousine. Three other cars plunged in to +make the box barrage of cars effective. The fleeing car was trapped. +Barter must know that. If he did know, it proved that he could see +everything that transpired. The next few seconds would show. + + - - - + +Bentley gasped as he put his hand on the driver's arm to have him slow +down to prevent a wholesale pile-up in the busy intersection. He +gasped with horror as he did so, for the fleeing car was now going +crazy. It zigzagged from side to side. Now it rode the two right +wheels, now the two left. + +And suddenly the driver swung nimbly out through the left window, his +hands reaching up over the top, and in a moment he was on the roof of +the careening car. + +"I've seen apes swing into trees like that," Bentley thought. + +While the car plunged on, the creature stood up on the doomed +limousine, and in spite of the fact that the wind of the car's +passing must have been terrific, the ghastly hybrid jumped up and +down on the top like a delighted child viewing a new toy or riding a +shoot-the-chutes. + +Suddenly the creature's right leg went through the top's fabric. It +struggled to regain its footing as an ape might struggle to regain +position on a limb in the jungles. + +At that moment the fleeing car crashed mercilessly into the two +nearest police cars ahead. The men inside had expected the driver to +slow down to avoid a collision. How could they know what sort of brain +lurked within the driver's skull? They couldn't ... and three +policemen paid with their lives for their lack of knowledge as their +bodies were hurled beneath a mass of twisted wreckage, crushed out of +human semblance. + + - - - + +The hybrid atop the fatal car was hurled through the air like a +thunderbolt. His body passed over the railing of the subway entrance +before the Flatiron Building and Bentley knew he had crashed to his +death on the steps. + +The police car had already come to a stop, and Bentley was running +toward the subway entrance. + +The shapeless bleeding bundle on the steps no longer even resembled a +man. Fortunately nobody had been struck by the hurtling body; and, +miraculously enough, Barter's pawn was not yet quite dead. + +Moans of animal pain came through his bleeding lips. The eyes scarcely +noticed Bentley, though there was a slight flicker of fear in them. +Then, in the instant of death, even that slight expression passed from +them. Bentley saw the scarline about the skull. + +And now Bentley knew that Barter was missing no slightest move, that +he saw everything.... + +For the ghastly hybrid on the steps raised his right hand in +meticulous salute ... and died. It was an ironic, grotesque gesture. + +Plain-clothes men gathered around. + +"Take his fingerprints," said Bentley quickly. "Then telegraph the +fingerprint section, U. S. Army, at Washington, for this man's +identity." + +An ambulance was taking aboard the three mangled policemen as Bentley +stepped back into his car for the ride down to Washington Square to +see what dread thing had happened to Ellen Estabrook. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_High Jeopardy_ + + +Ellen Estabrook was almost in hysterics when Bentley reached her. She +had been immediately picked up by plain-clothes men and had thought +herself captured by minions of Barter. She had been panic-stricken for +a moment, she told Bentley, and it had taken her some little time to +be persuaded that she was in the hands of police. + +But Bentley's heart was filled to overflowing with gratitude that he +had been able to safeguard Ellen against Barter. He never doubted it +had been Barter who had telephoned her. And even now he fancied he +could hear Barter's chuckle of amusement. Barter was watching, perhaps +even listening. Bentley felt that the madman was just biding his time. +Barter could have taken Ellen in this attempt, but hadn't tried +greatly, knowing himself invincible, knowing that he could take her at +any moment if it was necessary. And he might take her even if it were +not necessary, since he had warned Bentley she must be removed. + +The police car raced back uptown so that Bentley could inform himself +of any new developments in the Hervey case. Ellen snuggled against him +gratefully. "You'll have to stick close to me," said Bentley, "until +something happens, or until the exigencies of service draw me away +from you. Then it will be up to Tom Tyler to look after you." + +"I can look after myself," she retorted spiritedly. "I'm over age and +not without brains...." + +"Yet you went to Washington Square," said Bentley gently. "Didn't it +even seem strange to you that I would have selected such a place as a +rendezvous?" + + - - - + +Ellen turned away from him and her lips trembled. His gentle thrust +had hurt her. + +"But I would have sworn it was your voice, Lee," she said. "And--I +still think it was!" + +"I tell you I didn't phone you to meet me in Washington Square!" + +"But you told me you had talked with Barter for a long time on the +headquarters phone, didn't you? Remember that you are dealing with the +cleverest and maddest brain we know of to-day. What if he had merely +talked with you to get a record of your voice? Suppose a voice were +composed of certain ingredients, certain sounds. Suppose those +ingredients could somehow be captured on a sensitized plate of some +kind! Edison would have been burned as a sorcerer a few centuries +before he invented the wax record. Twenty years ago who would have +thought of talking pictures ... voices permanently recorded on +celluloid?" + +"But the talkie films merely parrot, over and over again, the words of +actual people. When I talked with Barter this morning I certainly said +nothing about meeting you at Washington Square." + +"But the tone, the timber, the frequency of your voice! Lee, suppose +he had gone a step further than the talkies and had found a way to +break the voice apart and put it back together to suit himself...?" + +"Good Lord, Ellen! It sounds crazy ... but if you would have sworn +that voice was mine, then mine it may have been, speaking words with +my voice that I never spoke personally. But wait until we find out for +sure. We're just guessing." + +But the idea stuck in his mind and he believed in it enough to tell +Tyler, upon arriving at the Hervey residence, to warn every man named +on the list of the Mind Master to make no appointments over the +telephone, no matter how sure they were of the voices at the other end +of the wire. + +It sounded wild, but was it? + + - - - + +That night Ellen and Bentley occupied rooms which faced each other +across the hall in a midtown hotel, and plain-clothes men were on duty +to right and left in the hall. There were men on the roof and in the +lobby, in the garage, everywhere skulkers might be expected to look +for coigns of vantage from which to proceed against Ellen Estabrook. +Bentley knew quite well that Barter would not drop his intention +against Ellen, especially since he had failed once already. + +Tyler and Bentley sat in Bentley's room drinking black coffee and +discussing their plans for the next day. The latest paper had +contained another manifesto of the Mind Master! the second man on his +list was to be taken at ten o'clock the next day. The man was +president of a great construction company. His name was Saret Balisle; +he was under thirty, slim as a professional dancer, and dark as a +gypsy. + +"But what does Barter want with all these big shots?" asked Thomas +Tyler. "Just what is the point of his stealing their brains and +putting them into the skull-pans of apes, if that's what you think he +has in mind?" + +"The Barter touch," said Bentley grimly. "At first he probably +intended to kill just any men and make the transfer, and then use his +manapes to send against the men he wished to capture, and through whom +he intended to gain control of Manhattan. Then he decided, since he +had learned to control his manapes, by radio I suppose, that it would +be an ironic touch to make virtual slaves of the "key" men he had +chosen for his crusade." + +"But why the transplantation at all, even if the man is mad? He +reasons logically. Only his premises are unthinkable ... and he builds +successful ghastly experiments on top of them...." + + - - - + +"He claims he wishes to build a race of supermen," Bentley answered. +"His reason for the brain transference is therefore plain. An +anthropoid ape has a body which is several times as hardy, durable and +mighty as that of even the strongest man, but the ape has not the +brain of a civilized man. A specialized man, one with a highly +developed brain, generally has a very weak body. He's constantly put +to the necessity of taking exercise to keep from growing sick. +Therefore the ape's body and the man's brain would seem, to Barter, an +ideal combination. That nature didn't plan it so troubles him not at +all. He will make a fool of nature!" + +"I wonder if we'll get him. Nobody knows how many lives have been lost +already." + +"We'll get him, Tyler. I'll bet anything you want to name that your +men have walked back and forth across his hideout. I'll bet that +decent, respectable people live within mere yards of him and do +not know it. We'll get to him the second he makes a mistake of any +kind. Maybe he'll make his first one when he tries to get Saret +Balisle--Good Lord, I forgot something. Tyler, phone again and ask +Headquarters if the coroner found anything strange about the head of +the men I chased down Fifth Avenue." + +Tyler phoned. + +"Yes," he said, clicking up the receiver, "he had bits of metal which +looked like aluminum in his scalp; but the autopsy shows that it came +from outside somewhere." + +"It's part of Barter's radio control," muttered Bentley, "it _must_ +be! It has to be ... and I didn't think of looking for it at the +time." + + - - - + +Long before sunrise Bentley and Tyler repaired to the office of Saret +Balisle, letting themselves in with keys which had been furnished them +last night. It had been decided that Balisle would not try to run away +from the threat of the Mind Master, but would be in his office as +usual. If he ran, and got out of touch with the police, Barter would +get him anyway and nobody would be the wiser. + +Balisle had grinned and shrugged his shoulders, but the wanness in his +cheeks showed that he didn't take the threats lightly, considering +what it was thought had happened to Harold Hervey. + +"I wonder," said Tyler as they walked through the cool of the morning +to the Clinton Building on lower Fifth Avenue, where Balisle had his +offices, "how Barter keeps his apes with men's brains from trying to +break away from him when he has to divert his mental control to other +channels?" + +Bentley hesitated, seeking a logical answer. It seemed simple enough +when the answer came to his mind. + +"Suppose, Tyler," he said, "that you wakened from a nightmare and +looked into a mirror to discover that you were an anthropoid ape? That +you were incapable of speaking, of using your hands save in the +clumsiest fashion? When it came home to you what had happened to you, +would you rush right out into the street, hoping that the people on +the sidewalks would understand that you were a man in ape's +clothing?" + +"Good Lord! I never thought of that!" + +"You would if you'd ever been an ape. I know the feeling." + +"Then Barter's manapes are more surely prisoners than if they were +sentenced to serve their entire lives in the deepest solitary cells in +Sing Sing! How horrible--but still, they yet would have a way of +escape." + +"Yes, simply break out and start running, knowing that the crowd would +soon take and destroy them. Right enough--but even when one knows +oneself an ape it isn't easy to destroy oneself." + + - - - + +They entered the offices of Saret Balisle and looked about them. It +was just an ordinary office. They looked in clothes closets and in +shadowy corners. They took every possible precaution in their survey +of the situation. They looked for hidden instruments of destruction. +They looked for hidden dictaphones. They were extremely thorough in +their preliminary preparations for the defense of Saret Balisle. + +At five minutes of ten o'clock Balisle was at his desk, pale of face, +but grinning confidently. + +There were men in uniform in the hallways, on the roof, in the windows +of rooms across the avenue. Bentley and Tyler should have felt sure +that not even a mouse could have broken through the cordon to reach +Saret Balisle. But Bentley was doubtful. + +He went to the window nearest Balisle and looked out. Sixteen stories +down was Fifth Avenue, patrolled in this block by a dozen blue-coats +and as many more plain-clothes men. Saret Balisle seemed to be +impregnable. + +But at ten o'clock exactly, a blood-curdling scream came from the room +adjoining Balisle's, where some insurance company had offices. The +scream was followed by other screams--all the screams of women.... + +For just a moment Bentley and Tyler whirled to stare at the door +giving onto the hall, their hands tightly gripping their automatics. + +"God Almighty!" It came in a choked scream from the lips of Saret +Balisle, simultaneous with the falling of a shower of glass in the +room. + + - - - + +Tyler and Bentley whirled back. + +A giant anthropoid ape stood on the window sill, and the brute's left +hand held tightly clasped the ankle of Balisle, holding him as a child +holds a rag doll. + +The ape swung Balisle out over the abyss. + +Tyler flung up his automatic. + +"Don't!" shouted Bentley. "If you shoot he'll drop Balisle!" + +Bentley felt sick and the bottom seemed to drop out of his stomach as +the anthropoid, still holding Balisle as lightly as though he didn't +know he held extra weight at all, dropped from sight. + +Tyler and Bentley leaped to the window, looked down. The ape had +dropped safely to the ledge of the window just below. He held on +easily with his right hand while Bentley and Tyler swayed dizzily. The +anthropoid still held Balisle by the ankle. + +A head looked out of the window to the right. A frightened woman. + +"God!" she choked. "That beast came out of the clothes closet. We've +been wondering why we couldn't open it. He must have been inside, +holding it." + +A hundred men, all crack shots, stood helpless on roofs, in windows +across the street, in the street below, while the anthropoid ape +dropped slowly down the face of the Clinton Building toward the +street. + +How would Barter lead his minion free of this tangle when, as was +inevitable, the brute reached ground level? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Strange Interview_ + + +Bentley and Tyler were to learn in the next few minutes how great was +the executive ability of Caleb Barter. He had created a mighty puzzle, +each and every bit of which must fit together exactly. Time was +important in making the puzzle complete--and the puzzle changed with +each passing second. As the anthropoid went slowly down the face of +the Clinton Building, Bentley was sure that Barter controlled every +move and saw every slightest thing that transpired. He knew very well +that of all the great organization which had been set to prevent the +taking of Saret Balisle, not a man would now shoot at the ape for fear +of jeopardizing the life of Balisle. + +And yet Balisle was being spirited away to pass through an experience +which would be far worse than a merciful bullet through the brain or +the heart. Bentley knew he would be justified in the eyes of humanity +if he ordered his men to fire upon the anthropoid, even if he were +sure that Balisle would die. But as long as there was life there was +hope, too, and he couldn't bring himself to give the order. + +The ape dropped down the face of the building as easily as he would +have dropped from limb to limb of a jungle tree. The sixteen +stories under him did not disconcert him at all. Bentley had a +suspicion about this particular ape, but he wouldn't know for a +time yet whether his suspicion had a basis in fact. He couldn't think +of a man--especially an old man like Harold Hervey--making that +hair-raising descent. Yet ... if he were controlled, mind and soul, +by Caleb Barter the Mind Master...? + +"Tyler," said Bentley tersely. "The instant the ape reaches the street +I'm going to order your men to fire. You will shout out to them now, +designating which ones shall fire. Be sure they are crack marksmen who +will drill the ape without hitting Balisle--and, by all means, have +them wait so that the ape's fall won't send Balisle crashing to +death." + +"Maybe I'd better tell them to rush him?" + +"Maybe that's better, but remember they're dealing with a giant +anthropoid, in strength at least, and that somebody is likely to be +fatally injured. In addition the ape may tear Balisle apart as soon as +men start to close in on him. Barter will have thought of that, and +all he'll have to do to make his puppet perform is to will him to do +it. No, they'll have to shoot--and tell them to aim at his head and +heart." + + - - - + +Tyler leaned out of the window and shouted to the men across the +street. + +"Shoot as soon as the ape reaches the sidewalk!" he cried. "Be careful +you don't hit Balisle." + +And from Balisle himself, muffled and frightened, came a sudden cry. + +"Shoot now! I'd rather fall and have it over with!" + +There was a moment of silence. Bentley almost gave the order to fire +when the ape was at the twelfth story, but he held his tongue by a +supreme effort of will. + +Balisle looked down. It must have been a terrifying experience to +swing above such a horrible abyss by one leg, and for a moment Balisle +lost his head. He screamed and started to grapple with his grim +captor. + +"Don't, Balisle!" shouted Tyler. "You'll make him lose his balance. +Hang on as you are and we'll get him when he reaches the street." + +"What good will it do?" screamed Balisle, his voice taking on a high +keening note as the ape dropped again, this time from the twelfth to +the eleventh floor. "He slipped it over a hundred men to get me this +far. He'll find a way to beat you when he reaches the street, too." + +Bentley had a sinking feeling that Balisle spoke the truth; but even +so, he could not see how anybody, even Barter, could walk through the +trap which was being tightened around the descending anthropoid. + +It made Bentley dizzy to watch the slow methodical descent of the +anthropoid. He could fancy himself in Balisle's position and it made +him sick and faint. He understood the desperation which caused Balisle +to make yet another attempt to battle with the ape. + +Then the ape did a grim thing. + +He paused on the eleventh floor, and crouching on a window sill, +deliberately snapped Balisle's head against the wall of the Clinton +Building! In his time Bentley had slain rabbits exactly like that. +Balisle hung now as limp as a rag and blood dripped from his mouth and +nose. But Bentley knew, as his face went white at the sound of that +sharp, thudding blow that Balisle had not been killed by it. + + - - - + +Savage oaths burst from the lips of policemen who saw the action of +the ape. + +"He acts like a human being! An ape wouldn't have thought of that!" + +The words came hysterically from the lips of a woman who, frightened +though she was, could not tear herself from the window to the right of +where Bentley and Tyler leaned out to stare down. + +Bentley smiled grimly. What would she think if he told her gravely +that the creature crawling down the face of the building was not quite +an ape? + +So far the public didn't know what the Mind Master schemed. He'd +spoken of stealing brains, but that had meant nothing to the general +public. Just the maunderings of a madman, perhaps. + +At the third floor the anthropoid hesitated. He seemed to be gazing +all around, noting the preparations which were being made to trap him +at the street level. + +"An ape wouldn't do that," muttered Bentley. "A man would. The man in +that manape is showing through--but he won't be able to force himself +free of Barter's domination. If he could he'd probably throw Balisle +down now to keep him from being ... well, treated as Barter intends to +treat him." + +The ape dropped to the second floor. Silence seemed to hang over Fifth +Avenue. Ugly gun muzzles protruded from every window across the +street. Scores of rifles were aimed down from windows in the Clinton +Building, to drill the ape through from above. + +At that instant a limousine whirled into Fifth Avenue, traveling fast, +and ground to a stop under the ape. + +"What's this?" cried Bentley. + +"That's Saret Balisle's car," said Tyler. "There's nobody in it but +his chauffeur. The fool! Does he think he can take his master away +from the ape singlehanded?" + +"That looks like foolhardy loyalty, but I'm not so sure that it's +Balisle's chauffeur at the wheel. Tyler, send somebody down to +wherever it is that Balisle parks his car." + + - - - + +But before Tyler could move to obey, the anthropoid ape made his +surprise move, and did a thing which no ape would have thought of +doing. He hurled Balisle toward the limousine. The somersaulting body +struck the roof of the car, crashed through the fabric, and dropped +into the tonneau. + +At the same instant the limousine leaped to full speed ahead. + +A shower of bullets smashed windows and scored deeply and menacingly +the brick walls all around the giant anthropoid which for a second +still crouched on the second-story ledge. The ape whirled and crashed +through the window at his back. + +"Tyler, send half a dozen cars after that limousine. They simply have +to catch it. But they mustn't fire for fear of killing Balisle. Have +the car followed right to Barter's hideout. The men in this building +will scatter at once through the building. We must trap that ape!" + +The whole police organization was in a turmoil. + +Sirens screamed as police cars flashed after the fleeing limousine +which carried Saret Balisle away. Doors slammed and windows crashed as +two score policemen scattered through the building, armed with riot +guns and pistols, seeking the ape. + +Tyler, after barking the staccato orders which set his men in motion, +turned to Balisle's secretary. + +"Quickly, the number Balisle calls when he wants his automobile sent +around." + +The girl gave it, and Tyler called the number. + +"Are Mr. Balisle's car and chauffeur there?" he asked. + +He swore explosively and hung up the receiver. + +"Another killing," he said. "Balisle's car is gone and the garage +people have just found his chauffeur, almost ripped to pieces, in +another car left at the garage for storage. + +"That means this ape is armed with metal fingernails, just like the +one that killed the insurance man in the Flatiron Building. That means +he'll be doubly dangerous when caught. The murdered chauffeur will +have to wait for a few moments while we capture the ape." + + - - - + +Shouts and shots rang through the Clinton Building. The ape was going +wild, crashing through doors and windows as if they weren't there. His +mad bellowing sounded terrifying in the extreme, so deep and rumbling +that the air seemed to tremble with its menace. + +But in the end there came a chorus of triumphant shouts which told +that the giant ape had been surrounded. + +Bentley and Tyler raced in the direction of the sounds. From all +directions came the sounds of footfalls as other plain-clothes men +raced to be in at the death. Bentley held his automatic tightly +gripped in his right hand. He knew exactly where he was going to aim +if the ape were not dead when he reached him. + +The creature had been cornered in the areaway between two banks of +elevators and had climbed up the cage as high as he could go. He was +just out of reach of human hands, even had there been any men there +with the courage to try to take him alive. A white foam dripped from +the chattering lips of the anthropoid. His red-rimmed eyes flashed +fire. Bentley noted the little metal ball on top of the creature's +head. + +Deliberately he stopped, raised his automatic, and held it steady +while he pressed the trigger with the extreme care which a +sharp-shooter knows to be necessary ... and a bullet ploughed through +the top of the ape's head. + +The little ball vanished, and the ape released his grip suddenly. His +chattering died away to an uncertain murmur, the fire went out of his +eyes, and he fell to the floor. No bullet had yet actually struck him, +for he had whirled into the window from the second-story ledge +simultaneously with the barking of the policemen's rifles and pistols. +He had escaped there--but here he was not to escape. + +Bentley and Tyler both lifted their voices to shout warnings to the +policemen, but their voices were drowned in the savage explosions of a +dozen weapons, in the hands of men who probably thought the creature +was in the act of charging ... and the ape sprawled on the floor, his +legs and arms quivering. + + - - - + +Half a dozen men rushed forward, weapons extended. + +"Keep back!" yelled Bentley, rushing in. + +He stood over the ape, staring intently at his glazing eyes. + +"Tyler," snapped Bentley, "have everybody fall back beyond earshot." + +Tyler issued the orders. Bentley shouted, "Quickly, quickly!" knowing +he had little time. + +Then, with Tyler beside him, he knelt beside the ape. + +"I know you can't talk, but you can answer me by nodding or shaking +your head. You are Harold Hervey, aren't you?" + +The eyes of the ape were hopeless. Tyler gasped, staring at Bentley as +though for a moment he thought him crazy. But in the next instant he +doubted his own sanity, for the ape, slowly and ponderously, nodded +his head. + +"I'm going to name a number of places where I think you might have +been taken," went on Bentley. "In each case nod or shake your head. Is +it near Sixth Avenue?" + +Slowly the great head moved, more slowly even than before; but it +nodded. + +"Where? Below Twenty-third Street?" + +Again the ponderous, agonizing nod. + +Bentley went on. + +"Below Fourteenth Street?" + +Again the nod, barely perceptible this time. + +"Below Christopher Street?" asked Bentley. + +This time the head shook from side to side, ever so slightly. + +"Two blocks above Christopher?" + +But this question was never destined to be answered. The giant +anthropoid in whose skull-pan was the brain of Harold Hervey, entirely +controlled by Caleb Barter, until Bentley had shot the little metal +ball from his head, had died. + +Bentley rose and looked down at the anthropoid for several seconds. + +"Barter will hate to lose this creature," he said. "He probably has +just the number of apes he needs--and Tyler, here's a hunch: he'll +need an ape to take the place of this one! Get me the best surgeon to +be found in Manhattan, and get him as fast as you can!" + +"Good God!" ejaculated Tyler. "What do you want a surgeon for? What +are you going to do?" + +"Barter needs an ape to take the place of this one. I shall be that +ape!" + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +The Mind Master + +By Arthur J. Burks + +_Conclusion_ + +[Illustration: _"Now, Bentley," said Barter, "I'll explain +what I intend doing."_] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_The Mute Plungers_ + + +It would be difficult to comprehend the nervous strain under which +Manhattan had been laboring during the past thirty-six hours. The +story of the kidnaping of Harold Hervey had not been given to the +newspapers, for an excellent reason. If Hervey's financial enemies +knew of his kidnaping and death they would hammer away at his stocks +until they fell to nothing and his family, accustomed to fabulous +wealth, would have been reduced to beggary. + +The Mind Master himself, up to a late hour, had given no word to the +newspapers in his "manifestoes." The Hervey family held its breath +fearing that he would--for the newspapers would have played the story +for all the sensationalism it would carry. Bentley, when this matter +was called to his attention, wondered. Barter had kept his own counsel +for a purpose, but what was it? There was no way of asking him. + +The story of the mad race down Broadway in pursuit of the limousine +which had returned the lifeless body of Hervey to his residence had +been a sensational one, and the tabloids had given it their best +treatment. The chauffeur who had crawled out like a monkey atop his +careening car, to lose his life when catapulted into the entrance to +the Twenty-third Street subway station: the three policemen whose +lives had been lost because the chauffeur hadn't stopped as they had +expected him to, the kidnaping of Saret Balisle by a great ape hadn't +yet broken as a story, nor the murder of Balisle's chauffeur. + +But everybody knew something of the story of the naked man of the day +before. Many were the speculations as to what had ripped and torn his +flesh from his body, along with his clothes. What manner of claws had +it been which had sliced him in scores of places as though with many +razors? + +Men and women walked the streets apprehensively, and many of them +turned at intervals to look behind them. No telling what they would do +when the story of Balisle's kidnaping by an anthropoid ape and a +queer mute chauffeur got abroad. To top it all the police pursuers +lost the Balisle limousine and Saret Balisle had taken his place among +the lost. + + - - - + +Bentley knew as soon as the disgruntled and rather frightened police +officers returned to the Clinton Building with the news that Balisle +had got away from them in the stolen Balisle car, that already the +ill-fated young man was probably under the anesthetic which Caleb +Barter used on his victims. + +"Tyler, do you know a surgeon who can do any surgical job short of +brain transplantation?" + +"Yeah. There's a chap has offices in the Fifth Avenue Building. He's +probably the very best in the racket. Maybe it's because of his name. +It's Tyler." + +"Some relative of yours?" + +"Not much. He's just my dad--and one of the world's finest and +cleverest." + +"Will he listen to reason? Can he perform delicate operations?" + +"He's my dad, Bentley, and he'd do almost anything I asked him so long +as it was honest ... and he could switch the noses of a mosquito and a +humming bird so skillfully that the humming bird would go looking for +a sleeping cop and the mosquito would start building a nest in a +tree." + +"Get him here. No--has he an operating room where all sound can be +shut out? I've got a hunch I'd like somehow to try and drop a screen +around us as we work. Maybe your dad would know what to do. You see, +I'm positive that Barter sees everything we do and if he sees me +turning into an ape he would just chuckle and pass up the trap." + +"He's got a lead armored room where he keeps a bit of radium." + +"That's it. Talk to him. No, not on the phone. You'll have to +figure out some way to do it so that you can be sure Barter isn't +listening." + +"I'll manage. I'll send him a note." + +"Your messenger will be killed on the way to him." + +"Then I'll go myself." + +"And Barter will watch everybody that goes into his office or comes +out, and mark down each person as possibly being connected with the +police. However, you figure it out." + + - - - + +When Tyler had gone and the dead "ape" had been stretched out in one +corner of Balisle's office, and covered with something to cloak its +hideousness, Bentley telephoned Ellen Estabrook. + +"Have I been making any appointments with you this morning?" he asked +her cheerily. + +"Please don't jest when things are so terrible. Have you seen the +latest papers?" + +"No. What do they say?" + +"There's a lot of the story I'm thinking about. You'd better read it +right away. It's an extra, anyhow. The newsies ought to be calling it +around you somewhere--and where are you, anyway?" + +Bentley informed her, and told her, too, that he would be with her as +soon as he possibly could. Taking the usual masculine advantage he +decided to tell her now what he wouldn't have had the heart to tell +her to her face, that he was planning a rather desperate stunt to +reach Barter, and would consequently be away from her for an +indefinite period. + +"But I'll see you first?" she said after a long hesitation. Bentley +could hear her voice tremble, though he knew she was fighting +desperately to keep him from noting the catch in her voice. + +"Yes, nothing will happen until--well, not until I've seen you +again." + +Just as Bentley hung up the receiver the extra was being cried. Some +two hours had now elapsed since Balisle had been taken away, and now +the newsboys were shouting the headlines. + +"Extra! Extra! All about the big Wall Street crash! Hervey fortune +entirely swept away!" + + - - - + +Bentley sent an office boy out for the paper and spread it out on the +desk to digest it as quickly as possible. + +"One million shares of Hervey Incorporated," read the black words in a +box on the first page--a story in mourning, "were dumped on the market +at eleven o'clock this morning. Four men seem to have been behind the +queer coup. One of them had a power of attorney from Harold Hervey +himself, and he had the shares to sell. So many shares were dumped +that the bottom fell out of the stock. Others holding the Hervey +shares, fearful that they would get nothing at all, also began to +dump, and every share thus dumped was bought up quickly by three other +men about whom nobody knew anything, except that they paid with cash. +The strangest thing about it all was that the three men who bought +Hervey Incorporated, seemed to be dumb-mutes, for they didn't say +anything. They acted through a broker, and indicated their purchases +with their fingers in the conventional manner and tendered cards as +identification! They were Harry Stanley, Clarence Morton, and Willard +Cleve--addresses unknown, history unknown. + +"Nothing, in fact, is known about any of the three or the little +white-haired, apple-cheeked man who sold so heavily in Hervey +Incorporated. That the three mutes did not buy the shares sold by the +little white-haired man would seem to indicate that all four of them +worked together ... but it is only a supposition as they were not seen +together and apparently did not know one another. But the three mutes +constantly ate walnuts. All four men, who among them knocked the +bottom out of Wall Street, and wiped away the Hervey fortune, slipped +out in the excitement inspired by their rapid buying and selling, and +seemed to vanish into thin air." + +Bentley didn't know much about the stock market, but it seemed to him +that Barter had managed a theft of mighty proportions. With a power of +attorney, which he had wrung from Hervey after his capture, he had +managed to possess himself of Hervey's shares. In themselves they were +worth millions. Even at a fraction of their price Barter would realize +heavily on them. Selling quickly he would force the price far down. +Then his puppets--and Bentley had no doubt that Stanley, Morton and +Cleve were his puppets--bought all other shares offered by panicky +investors in Hervey Incorporated at a tiny fraction of their value. +Far less, naturally, than Barter had made by selling his loot. + +The purchased shares Barter could hold for an increase. Hervey +Incorporated was good and its price would go up again, and Barter +would sell and gain millions. + + - - - + +That is how Bentley saw it, and his lips drew into a firmer, +straighter line as, half an hour later, he explained it all to Ellen. + +"It's desperate, dear," he whispered in her ear. "Manhattan's +financial structure has been shaken to its foundations. But that isn't +all by any means. Barter has performed his horrible operation on two +of New York's most brilliant men. It was a Barter gesture to send +'Harold Hervey' to capture Balisle, and the horror of it staggered +me." + +"Lee," said Ellen, "understand this: that if I have no word from you +within seventy-two, no, forty-eight hours after you get started on +this scheme you have in mind, I'm going to get through to Barter +somehow. If I put an ad in the paper and tell him where I'm to be +found he'll surely make another attempt to take me in. If he's +captured you, or uncovered the trap you're laying, then I'll at least +be with you. If he kills you he kills me. If we can't live together we +can die together." + +Bentley kissed her fervently, trying not to think what it would mean +to him now if she were in the hands of Caleb Barter. Secretly he +intended having Tyler keep her so closely guarded that she couldn't +possibly do anything as foolish as she had suggested. + +The late evening papers carried another manifesto of the Mind Master +to the effect that the remaining eighteen men named on the original +list were to be taken before noon of the next day. + +Oddly enough eighteen kidnapings were reported from various places in +Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. + +"So," thought Bentley, "he's afraid to send out normal apes to capture +his eighteen key men. Maybe his control over them is not perfect. +That's it. I suppose--he needs human brains before he can exercise +perfect control. I suppose Stanley, Morton and Cleve did the +kidnapings." + + - - - + +Late that night Bentley kissed Ellen good-by, told her to keep up her +courage, and repaired to the rendezvous arranged for by Thomas Tyler +and his surgeon father. In the operating room was the cold body of the +anthropoid that had successfully abducted Saret Balisle. + +"Young man," said Dr. Tyler, "just what is it you want me to do? I'm +not asking for your reasons. Tommy tells me you know what you're +doing. I must say though, I don't believe that story of brain +transplantation. No doctor would believe it for a minute." + +Bentley looked at the dead ape. + +"You'll take Tommy's word for it that that ape kidnaped Saret Balisle +to-day and took him down the face of a building, sixteen stories to +the ground?" + +"Of course. Tommy wouldn't string his father." + +"Well, part of your surgical work to-night will make it necessary for +you to look at that creature's brain. You'll recognize a human brain +in that ape's skull. After you've made that discovery, here's what I +want you to do: I'll strip to the skin; then I want you to place the +skin of that ape on me, so that from top to toes I am an ape. You'll +have to do the job so perfectly that I'll _be_ an ape--as soon as, +under your watchful eye and Tom's, I have mastered all the ape +mannerisms the three of us can remember. Can you do it?" + +Tyler senior shrugged. + +He motioned his son and Bentley to help him lift the huge ape body to +the operating table, and under the glaring light above he set to work +with instruments which gleamed like molten silver, then became a +sullen red.... + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_The Furry Mime_ + + +"Listen, boys," said Dr. Tyler, after he had removed the skin of the +ape, and for a few brief seconds had examined the brain, to shake his +head in astonishment. "I've an idea that may help you. It would be +impossible for you, Bentley, to play the ape well enough to fool this +mad Mind Master. But a hitherto unknown type of ape has just been +discovered in Colombia. I read the story of it in a scientific journal +to-day. The ape is more manlike than any other known to science. You +shall be that ape, brought in during the night by a famous returned +explorer. There will be great interest in you now that the story of +Saret Balisle's kidnaping has broken. With the attention of New York +upon you, certainly your presence will interest Caleb Barter." + +Tyler senior rummaged in a pile of papers on his desk and brought +forth the story he referred to, which also carried a picture of the +Colombian ape. + +"It would be impossible for me to change your shape and add to your +size sufficiently to make you a real giant anthropoid. You'd have to +be twice as deep through the chest; you'd have to have bowed legs as +big as small tree trunks; you'd have to have a sloping forehead. No, +it's impossible, for I'd have to equip you by padding to an impossible +degree, and a scientist would only need to touch you to know you as an +imitation ape. But if you are made up as the Colombian ape--" + +Bentley quickly interrupted. + +"The idea is excellent. I was dubious before about my chances of +success, but as an ape of a new species I have a far better chance, +and my inevitable human behavior won't be so noticeable." + + - - - + +Dr. Tyler measured Bentley as carefully as a tailor, proud of his +skill, measures a particular, wealthy customer. + +"You will almost suffocate," he said, keeping up a running monologue +as his inspired hands worked with forceps and scalpels, "but I can +make plenty of air vents in the ape skin which will allow the pores of +your skin to breathe. If they are hidden under the hair they will +scarcely be noticed, unless of course Barter sees what we are doing +here and suspects from the beginning." + +"I can stand the discomfort for as long as may prove necessary," said +Bentley grimly, conquering a feeling of terror as he already saw +himself in the role of an ape, a role previously played in which he +had suffered the torments of the damned, "and anything is preferable +to the wholesale carnage which Barter is doing. In seventy-two hours +he has wrecked the morale of Manhattan. I shall try to get it back. +Tyler, will you make every effort to guard the other eighteen men +named on the Mind Master's original list?" + +"Of course," but Tyler said it dubiously. Barter had proved it almost +impossible to outwit him. In their hearts both Bentley and Tyler knew +that Barter would make good his boast to take the eighteen men he had +named. It seemed a grim price Manhattan must pay to be finally rid of +Barter's satanic machinations. + +When Bentley, stripped naked, quietly announced his readiness to take +his place on the operating table, Tyler senior took a deep breath, +like a diver preparing to plunge into icy water, and looked +questioningly at Bentley. + +"I'm ready, sir," said Bentley quietly. "Let's get on with the task." + +Dr. Tyler set to work with amazing, uncanny speed. He had never been +more skilful in closing sutures of the flesh in any of his myriad of +operations. He was a man inspired as he labored on the task of +changing Lee Bentley from a normal human being to a Colombian ape. + + - - - + +While the surgeon worked his son telephoned to the Colombian explorer +whose return from Latin-America had been mentioned in the day's news. +He couldn't explain anything over the telephone, he said, but would +Doctor Jackson come at once to the private offices of James Tyler, +surgeon? + +Doctor Jackson grumbled, but the urgency in the voice of Tyler +convinced him that the thing was important. He promised to be on hand +within an hour. It then lacked a few minutes of three o'clock in the +morning. + +Next at Bentley's suggestion--and he talked quickly and eagerly to +keep his mind off the ordeal he knew he was facing--Tyler got the +curator of the Bronx Zoo out of bed and asked him to wait upon Doctor +Tyler immediately. + +At four o'clock Doctor Jackson and the curator entered the room where +Surgeon Tyler had performed a miracle. + +Doctor Jackson stepped back in amazement when he noted the manlike ape +which leaned with arms folded against one wall of the operating room. +His eyes were big with amazement. + +He studied Bentley for several minutes, while no one spoke a word. + +It was the curator who broke the strained silence. + +"So this is your Colombian ape," he said. "I read the news story, but +I understood that the ape you had found had been killed in the attempt +to capture it." + +Surgeon Tyler spoke easily. + +"That news story," he said, "was to prevent Doctor Jackson from being +annoyed by visitors eager to see his find. As a matter of sober fact +Doctor Jackson captured the Colombian ape alive and is now about to +turn it over to the zoo. Understand me, Doctor Jackson?" + + - - - + +Still the explorer said nothing. For a moment longer he stared at +Bentley; then he walked over to him. + +"The hair is different," he said as though talking to himself. "The +Colombian ape's hair is of a slightly finer texture. But that +could be explained away as I allowed only the merest bit of +information to the reporters to-day. I can add a supplementary +story in the next newspaper which will explain that the coarse fur +of the Colombian ape is the only thing about it which makes it +resemble a giant anthropoid." + +Jackson had walked to Bentley without fear and ran his fingers through +the hair as he spoke. + +"I know it's a man, and some surgeon has performed a miracle," he +said. "Just what is it you wish me to do?" + +"You've read the stories relating to the Mind Master, Doctor?" asked +Bentley suddenly. How strangely his voice came from the body of an +ape! + +"I've read some of them," answered Jackson. "Is this a scheme whereby +you hope to trap the Mind Master?" + +"Yes." + +"Then depend upon me for any assistance I can render. As a scientist I +understand fully the power for evil of a mad genius of our class. This +Mind Master should be ruthlessly destroyed." + +"Thank you," said Bentley, stepping forward. "You know, perhaps, how +the Colombian ape behaves, enough that you can coach me how to walk, +how to gesture?" + +"Certainly. It will take perhaps an hour to prepare you to fill your +role creditably." + + - - - + +Jackson's face flushed with enthusiasm. He was launched on a task +which fired his interest. He was an authority on apes and anything +relating to them inspired him. + +"Seat yourself on a chair," said Jackson. "The Colombian ape sits +upright like a man." + +Bentley seated himself as Jackson had bidden him. + +"Now spread your legs apart awkwardly, with the knees straight. The +Colombian ape doesn't exactly sit on a chair or a rock or a tree, he +leans against it in a _half_ sitting position." + +Bentley quickly assumed the awkward strained position suggested by +Jackson. + +Jackson stepped up to him and placed Bentley's arms, unbent, so that +his fists hung down outside his wide-apart knees, and cupped his +fingers so that they seemed perpetually in the act of closing on +something. + +"You can't possibly take the proper position with your toes," went on +Jackson, "for it's beyond a man's ability to curve his toes as he does +his hands. The Colombian ape's toes are prehensile." + +"Can't you say in your next news story, Doctor," suggested Bentley, +"that the Colombian ape, the nearest animal relative of man, seems to +be in an advanced stage of evolution. Can you not say that the +Colombian ape is by way of losing the use of his toes?" + +"Many scientists know that to be untrue," said Jackson, "but perhaps +we can help you through your scheme before they begin denying details +in the newspapers. Too bad we can't send secret suggestions to all +anthropologists that they remain discreetly silent until the mantle of +horror is lifted from Manhattan. But of course we can't, since we'd +betray ourselves. Our only hope, then, is to work at top speed." + +"I am as eager as anyone to finish a particularly horrible task," said +Bentley. + + - - - + +Under Jackson's instructions Bentley walked up and down the +room. His shaggy shadow on the several walls as he turned, marched +and countermarched at Jackson's commands, filled Bentley with +self-loathing. He found himself repulsive. His body perspired +freely impregnating the ape skin with a harsh odor that was +biting and terrible in his nostrils. It was sickening. He tried to +close his mind to the repulsiveness of what he was doing. + +He walked with a swaying, side-to-side gait, something like a sailor's +rolling walk, while his arms swung free at his sides as though they +merely hung from his body. The Colombian ape walked like that, Jackson +said. + +"How about the intelligence of the Colombian ape?" asked Bentley. + +"We shot the only specimen so far seen by man before we could discover +any facts bearing on his intelligence," said Jackson. + +"Then you can safely say that he possesses intelligence far beyond +that of known apes," said Bentley quickly, "somewhere, let us say, +between that of the lowest order of mankind and civilized man." + +Jackson nodded his held dubiously. + +"It seems," he said unsmilingly, "that I arrived in the United States +at exactly the right time! You would have failed signally to convince +the Mind Master in the role of an African great ape." + +Bentley managed a short laugh. How horribly it came from the lips of +an ape! + +"I'm not overly superstitious," he said, "but I regard this as a good +omen. I feel we're sure to succeed in what we are planning. I think +Barter will surely wish to experiment with me if he thinks I am in +reality a great ape from Colombia. He'll welcome the chance to examine +any ape which so nearly resembles man. I'm an important link in his +plan to create a race of supermen. At least that's how we must hope +that Barter will estimate the situation when my story is told in +to-morrow's papers." + + - - - + +An hour before dawn Doctor Jackson, weary from his arduous instruction +of the equally exhausted Bentley, pronounced Lee a satisfactory +"ape." + +"Now here's where you come in," said Bentley tiredly to the curator. +"I'm to be taken now to a cage in the Bronx. During the rest of to-day +you will quietly instruct your attendants that their guard to-night at +the zoo must not be too strict. I must be in position to be stolen by +the minions of the Mind Master." + +Now the full significance of the desperate expedition upon which +Bentley was embarking came home to them all. Their faces were white. +Bentley shuddered under his ape robe. His mind went catapulting back +into the past to the time when he had been Manape. This was much like +it, save that all of him was now encased in the accouterments of an +ape and he did not suffer the mental hazards which had almost driven +him insane when he had been Manape, with the perpetual necessity of +keeping close watch over his own human body which had held the brain +of an ape. + +He stiffened. "I'm ready," he said. + +Immediately upon arrival the curator had been asked to have a closed +car, quickly walled with a mixture of lead and zinc--which Bentley and +Tyler hoped would thwart the spying of Caleb Barter--brought to +Tyler's door. + +Three or four zoo attendants entered with a cage when Bentley +pronounced himself ready. They stared agape at Bentley and their faces +went white when he strode toward them upright, like a man. + +Bentley would have spoken to reassure them, but Tyler signaled him to +keep silent. The zoo attendants might talk and entirely spoil their +scheme. + + - - - + +Two hours later, long before the first crowds began to arrive at the +Bronx Zoo, Lee Bentley was driven from his small cage in the car, into +a huge cage at the zoo. From a dark corner, in which he crouched as +though overcome with fear, he gazed affrightedly out across what he +could see of Bronx Park. + +"When I used to feed the animals here," he said to himself, "I never +expected that the time would come when I myself would be caged--and +one of them." + +The curator had ridden out with the cage. But, save for making sure of +the fastening on the big cage, he paid no heed to Bentley. He treated +him, of necessity, as though he were actually the Colombian ape he +pretended to be. From now on until he succeeded or failed, Lee Bentley +was an ape from the jungles of Latin-America. + +Just before the crowds could reasonably be expected to begin arriving, +curious to see this strange thing Doctor Jackson had brought from +Colombia, an attendant arrived with a freshly painted sign. + +"Colombian Great Ape," it read, "Presented to Bronx Zoo by Doctor +Claude Jackson." + +It seemed to close entirely behind Lee Bentley the vast door which +separated the apes from civilization. Miserably he crouched in his +corner and awaited the coming of the curious. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_Grim Anticipation_ + + +A numbing fear began to grow upon Lee Bentley as the ordeal of waiting +began. + +Naturally he could not eat the food given usually to apes and of +course he could not be seen calmly eating bacon and eggs with knife +and fork. And because he couldn't eat he was assailed by a dreadful +hunger, which, however, he managed to fight down partially. He smiled +inwardly as he looked ahead and understood that despite the warnings +not to feed the animals, children of all ages, from four years to +sixty, would surreptitiously toss peanuts and walnuts into his cage. + +He felt a little hopeful about it. They would at least allay his +hunger. + +But no, he could not do that, either. Nobody had thought to ask Doctor +Jackson how a Colombian ape manipulated his food. Even a certain +clumsiness in that respect might start questions which would cause the +public to doubt the authenticity of Jackson's find. + +Bentley decided to sulk. The ape he was supposed to be could +reasonably be expected to resent captivity and would probably go on a +hunger strike. He would do likewise and be in character if he +starved. + +He crouched in a far corner as the first comers began to arrive. They +were fathers and mothers with their children, and the older people +carried, usually, newspapers under their arms. Bentley wished with all +his soul that he could see one of the papers close enough to read the +headlines. + +However, when the crowd was not too thick, Bentley waddled nearer to +the wire mesh which separated him from the curious crowd and through +lids which were half closed as though he slept, he managed to glimpse +a few excerpts from the paper: + +"Police department redoubling their precautions to prevent Mind Master +from capturing eighteen intended victims." + +"Hideout of Mind Master still undiscovered. When will the public be +delivered from the stupidity of the police?" + +"Doctor Jackson returns from Colombia, bringing a living specimen of +an ape hitherto unknown to civilized man, but more like him than any +ape hitherto known. Visitors may see the creature to-day in the Bronx +Zoo." + + - - - + +That was the story which had brought out the visitors who were +forming, moment by moment, a bigger crowd before Bentley's cage. +Bentley managed a glimpse of a woman's wrist-watch after what seemed +an age of trying to do so without his intention becoming plain to the +too bright children who crowded as close to the cage as attendants +would permit. It was ten o'clock. It would be at least twelve more +hours before Bentley could reasonably expect any action on the part of +Barter. Barter would now be concentrating on his plans to kidnap the +eighteen men he had first named. + +Bentley tried to make the time pass faster by imagining what Barter +would be doing. By now his labors must be titanic. He must have +separate controls for each of his minions, and there were many times +when he must control several at one time, thus making his task akin to +that of a man trying to look two ways at once, while he rolled a +cigarette with one hand and shined his shoes with the other. +Certainly the concentration required was enormous. + +Yet, no matter how complicated became his puzzle, Barter was its +master because he was its creator, and Bentley hadn't the slightest +doubt that, until someone actually penetrated Barter's stronghold, he +would not be stopped. + +Bentley knew that at the very first opportunity he would destroy Caleb +Barter as he would have destroyed a mad dog or stamped to death a +deadly snake. The life of one man would rest lightly upon his +conscience, if that man were Caleb Barter. + +Perhaps, though, he could learn many of Barter's secrets before he +destroyed him. Properly used they might prove boons to mankind. It was +only the use Barter was putting them to that threatened to fill the +world with horror and bloodshed. + + - - - + +"Mama, why don't he eat?" + +"Hush," said a woman, as though afraid the Colombian ape would hear +and become angry; "don't annoy the creature. He looks fully capable of +coming right out at us." + +But the child who had been admonished began to juggle a bag of peanuts +which he managed to throw into the cage. Bentley stooped forward, +sniffing suspiciously at the sack, while a wave of hunger made him +feel weak and giddy for a moment. He just realized that he hadn't +eaten for almost twenty-four hours. His time had been so filled with +action and excitement that there hadn't been opportunity. + +"I hope," he said to himself, in an effort to drive away thoughts of +food, "that Tyler will take every precaution to prevent Ellen from +doing something foolish." + +Knowing that he could no longer communicate with her, could no longer +be absolutely sure that she was still out of Barter's clutches, he +suffered agonies of fear for her safety. + +"If Barter places a hand on her I'll tear his skin from his carcass, +bit by bit!" he said, unconsciously clenching his fists. + +"Oh, look, mama, he's shuttin' his fists as though he wanted to fight +somebody! I'll bet he could whip Dempsey, couldn't he, mama?" + +"Perhaps he could, son. Hush now, and watch him. There's a good boy!" + +It brought Bentley sharply back to his surroundings and proved to him +that he must not allow his mind to go wool-gathering if he did not +wish to give himself away. What if, in an access of anger, he happened +to speak his thoughts aloud? He could imagine the amazement of the +crowd. + + - - - + +The day wore on. + +At noon a strange horror seemed to travel over the Bronx Zoo, and +within a short time every last visitor had precipitately departed. +Bentley could now safely approach the wire mesh and look out and +around over a wider radius. + +Right under the wire mesh was a newspaper someone had thrown away. + +By pressing tightly against the mesh Bentley could see the headlines. + +"Mind Master successful on all counts!" + +So that's what had turned the crowd to stony silence with very fear? +They had all fled, wondering who would be next. Bentley had heard the +shouting of the extra on the distant streets, but it had been so far +away he hadn't heard the words. One solitary newspaper had appeared +among the Bronx crowd and the story it carried under startling +scareheads had passed from brain to brain as though by magic ... and +the crowd had fled. + +Bentley stared down at the newspaper in horror, a horror that was in +no way mitigated by his having fully expected Barter to succeed. +Mutually, with no words having been spoken to express the thought, +Tyler and Bentley had conceded to Barter the eighteen victims he had +named. + +Nothing could be done to stop him. His brains were greater than the +combined wisdom of the city of New York. + +What else was in that paper? + +Bentley stared at it for an hour, and finally a vagrant breeze, for +which he had hoped and prayed during that hour, whipped across the +park and stirred the paper. He read more headlines. + +"Lee Bentley disappears! Believed kidnaped or slain by Mind Master!" + +How had that story got out? Surely Tyler would have kept that from the +press. Following on the heels of the Colombian ape story, Barter would +almost surely put two and two together to arrive at the proper total. + + - - - + +Bentley read on: + +"Ellen Estabrook, fiancee of Lee Bentley, disappears mysteriously from +her hotel room. Guarded by a score of police, not one has yet been +found who knows anything of her disappearance or saw her leave. Nobody +seems to have seen anyone go to her room or leave it. Our police +department must have fallen on evil days indeed when twenty crack +plain-clothes men cannot keep one woman under surveillance." + +Something was radically wrong, but Bentley could not piece the whole +story together, simply because he had been out of touch for so many +hours that the thread of it had slipped from his fingers. + +Suddenly Bentley noticed that a solitary man was watching him +curiously, a dawning amazement in his face. Bentley roused himself and +saw that he was standing against the mesh, fingers hooked into it +above his head, his weight on his left leg, his right foot crossed +over his left, his head thoughtfully bowed. + +To the amazed man yonder the "Colombian ape" must have looked +remarkably like a condemned man clutching the bars of his cell, +awaiting the coming of the executioner. + +Bentley recovered himself and sat down on the floor of the cage in the +loose easy manner an ape would have used. + +He forced himself to sit thus until evening, when the last curious one +vanished from the park and darkness began to fall. + +Then excitement at the approach of a hoped for denouement began to +rise in his heart like a rushing tide. + +Would Barter fall for the ruse? Or did he already know that the +Colombian ape was Lee Bentley? + +In either case, Bentley thought, the Mind Master would take action +during the first hours of darkness. Bentley was gambling desperately +on what he knew to be characteristic of Caleb Barter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_In the Dead of Night_ + + +Bentley knew that if Ellen were in the hands of Caleb Barter the mad +professor would probably do her no harm, but use her as a club against +Bentley, and through Bentley, the Manhattan police. He did not believe +that the Mind Master would consider performing the brain operation on +Ellen. Caleb Barter's scheme seemed to consider only men, and men of +substance. + +No, Ellen would not be harmed, he felt, but that made him feel no +easier, knowing that she might be in the hands of Barter. + +How could he know of Naka Machi, and the refined vengeance of the Mind +Master? + +The last visitors had left the park and comparative quiet settled over +the zoo. Save for the sounds of animals feeding and the occasional +cursing voices of attendants there were no sounds. Not since Bentley +had taken his place in the cage had anyone spoken to him. He had +never felt so lonely and uncertain in his life. + +Now there was utter darkness and silence. + +And then before his cage appeared a tiny spot of light. If Barter's +minions expected to deal with a powerful ape they would come prepared +to subdue him by whatever means seemed necessary. Bentley had no wish +to be injured, and yet he must make some show of resistance in order +to allay any possible suspicion that he _wished_ to be stolen. + +There was a faint gnawing sound at the wire outside the cage. Mice +might have made that sound, sharpening their teeth on the wire. +Bentley decided to feign sleep. Had Barter come personally to +supervise his capture? That didn't seem reasonable as Barter must +realize that all his effectiveness depended upon his ability to retain +control of whatever organization he might have built up--and his +central control must be his hideout. + +Then he would be sending some of his puppets to get Bentley. + +Would they be apes with man's brains? Impossible. Apes could not +travel from place to place without attracting attention, especially if +they traveled unguarded and went casually to a given destination as +men would go. So, if his puppets were not men in the normal meaning, +then they were "apemen." + + - - - + +The wire came softly down. Bentley hoped that no attendant might come +blundering around now to spoil everything. His heart pounded with +excitement. + +At last he was going to see Caleb Barter again at close quarters. + +"I shall destroy him," he told himself. + +The shadowy outlines of two men came through the severed wires. +Bentley still pretended to be asleep. He wondered if Barter's +televisory equipment included any arrangements permitting him to see +in the dark, and knew instantly that it did. How else could these two +puppets have come so unerringly to the proper cage in Bronx Park? + +No, Bentley did not dare allow himself to be taken easily in the hope +that his actions would pass unnoticed. + +But he waited until the ropes began to fall about him, testing the +strength of his adversaries by mental measurement. By their uncertain, +hesitating actions he knew that he dealt only with the _forms_ of +men--forms which were ruled by brains which had not in themselves +intelligence enough to perform the acts they were now performing. Ape +brains in the skull-pans of men. The brains in themselves were only +important because they were living matter which was being used as a +sensory sounding board by which Caleb Barter, the Mind Master, +transmitted his commands to the arms and legs and bodies of his +puppets. + +Bentley sprang into action. He growled and snarled at the two men who +were trying to take him. Only two men? Surely Barter would have sent +more than two men to take a great ape! He knows I'm not a true ape, +thought Bentley. He's giving me a challenge. He knows I wish to get to +his hideout and he is making sure that I get there. + +But Bentley was only guessing. Calmness descended upon him as he +realized that he was soon to face a crucial test. + + - - - + +Just now, however, he struck out at the two men who were striving to +bind him. They were husky chaps, and one of them packed the wallop of +a real fighter. Neither man said a word to him, and when his own hands +clawed at them--how would he dare strike out with his fists?--the men +made queer animal sounds in their throats. Bentley could well +remember how helpless, hopeless and lost he had felt when his brain +had been in the skull-pan of Manape. + +The brain of an ape could not be a terribly intelligent instrument in +the first place. What thoughts, if apes had thoughts at all, coursed +through an ape brain which found itself inside a human skull? + +The answer to that was simple: only such thoughts as Barter originated +and transmitted through the mental sounding board. After all, the +material of the human brain and the ape brain were perhaps very much +alike, and Barter was working on a sound scientific principle in +making a sounding board of an ape's brain. + +Bentley shuddered through the fur that covered him. Knowing the sort +of creatures with which he had to deal--men in all things save their +intelligence--made him tremble with nausea. Such grim, ghastly +hybrids. But he stopped shuddering when he recalled that he still +dealt with men after all--at least with one man, Caleb Barter. When he +thought of these two "apemen" as separate entities of a human being of +many personalities--Caleb Barter--he was able to plan some method by +which to deal with them. + +So now he fought, seemingly with the utmost savagery, to keep them +from binding him with ropes. Even as he fought, however, he fancied he +could hear the grim chuckling of Caleb Barter. What did Barter know? + +Bentley knew that eventually he would discover the truth. + + - - - + +In struggling against the two "men" his hands encountered the knobs on +their heads--the tiny metal balls protruding from the top of the skull +at the point where, in babies, the head remains soft during babyhood. +He could have broken connection with Barter for these two by jerking +the controls free. And then what? He would never get through to Barter +and would release in Bronx Park two men whose strange type of +madness, when they were discovered, would startle the countryside. Two +men with the savagery of anthropoid apes! He shuddered as he carefully +refrained from disturbing those balls. + +At last Bentley was quite securely bound, only his lower limbs +remaining free so that he could walk, though the length of his steps +was strictly limited. His hands were entirely and securely bound, and +the significance of this fact did not escape him. Barter knew that he +did not need his hands to aid him in walking! Of course the newspaper +story released by Doctor Jackson had reported the Colombian ape as +being able to walk exactly like a man. + +But that didn't prevent Bentley from nursing the suspicion that Barter +already _knew_. Even if he did, it could in no wise alter the +determination of Bentley. His task was to penetrate the hideout of +Barter--and he was on the way there now. + + - - - + +With little attempt at concealment the two men led Bentley to a long +black closed car outside the park. They met no one. The two men +avoided discovery with uncanny ease. Bentley thrilled with excitement. +He felt he knew approximately where Barter's hideout was. + +It was useless, to speculate, however; time would show it to him. + +Bentley was tossed into the tonneau of the car. His two captors, +moving with the precision of men in a trance, took their places in the +front seat. Bentley struggled for a time against his bonds. He wanted +to sit up and peer out, to see what way they took so that he would +know where he was when he reached Barter's hideout. But of course, +even if he shook his bonds free he did not dare rise to a sitting +position, for to control the intricate handling of his two puppets, +Barter's attention must have been pretty carefully fixed upon this +car. + +So Bentley contented himself with waiting. + +Lying on his back on the floor of the car he tried to see what he +could through the car windows. He knew when he was carried under an +elevated system by the crashing roar of trains over his head. He knew +he was being carried downtown, but he wasn't sure that this was the +Sixth Avenue elevated. + +How could he find out the road they were traveling without sitting up +and looking at street signs? + + - - - + +He felt he didn't dare do that. He'd be as careful as possible on the +off-chance that Barter really believed him a Colombian ape, when the +benefit of surprise would be with Bentley. + +The car progressed downtown at a normal speed. It stopped for red +lights and obeyed all other traffic regulations. Barter was taking no +chance on losing more of his puppets. + +Bentley suddenly gasped with horror as he remembered something. +Eighteen important men of Manhattan had been kidnaped that day by +Caleb Barter. Would Bentley be forced to watch the mad professor +perform the eighteen inevitable operations? + +Perspiration poured from every pore as he visualized the horror he +might be compelled to witness when he was finally taken into Barter's +hideout. The ape skin clung to him as though it were actually his own. +There were even moments when Bentley feared that it might grow to +him. + +But he put the feeling of horror from him with the thought that if +Ellen were in Barter's power, Barter might even be forcing her to +anesthetize for him while he performed his grisly slaughter. + +Bentley's courage returned and now it seemed to him that the journey +would never end, so eager was he to discover whether or not Ellen had +eluded the hands of the Mind Master. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_A Woman of Courage_ + + +Caleb Barter smiled warmly at the woman who had come to him almost as +though in answer to a prayer. He admired her flashing eyes and the +lifted chin which spoke of pride and courage. + +"I had thought of improving the feminine strain of the race also," he +told her, but almost as though he spoke to himself, "but I realized +that it mattered little the stature of the mothers of the race as long +as the fathers were made virile. But if all women were like yourself, +Miss Estabrook, the race would not require the improvement it is now +my duty to bestow upon it." + +Ellen stared directly into the eyes of the white-haired old man. As +she looked at him she found it hard to believe that one so gentle from +outward appearances had such a vast, grim power for evil. In repose +his face was kindly, though there was something out of character in +the fact that it was so apple rosy. And his lips were far too red. + +"Where," she said quietly, fearlessly, "is Lee Bentley?" + +Barter raised his eyebrows as he stared back at her. So far she had +not looked around at this great room into which he had had her +conducted; she had seemed interested only in her mission, whatever +that might be. + +"You mean that delightfully rude young man?" he asked sardonically. + +"You know well enough whom I mean! Where is he?" + +"Then he is not to be found in his usual haunts?" + +"He has disappeared." + +"And you come out seeking Professor Barter because Bentley his +disappeared! It is almost as though you had previously arranged with +him to come seeking me if, at a certain time he failed to return from +some mysterious rendezvous...." + + - - - + +Barter's face was now a mask of uncanny shrewdness. In a few words he +had pierced through Ellen's secret of why she had deliberately placed +herself in the way of Barter's minions in order to be taken, and now +he had used the words of her own questions to form a weapon against +her. Ellen gasped in terror. + +Had she made a hideous mistake? Had she, by failing to wait for word +from Bentley, ruined all his well laid plans? + +Barter now stood before her, his eyes almost shooting fire. + +"Tell me quickly," he began, and for a second she thought he would put +his hands on her, "what sort of plan is he making to betray me into +the hands of my enemies, who are the enemies of super-civilization +because they are my enemies?" + +"I know of nothing," said Ellen stoutly, hoping that she had not, +after all, betrayed the fact that she knew Bentley had started to work +out an unusual scheme. The details she didn't know, for Lee hadn't +told her. "But I do know, what all the world knows, that he was +helping the police against you. Naturally, then, when he vanished I +thought of you. Besides you had already warned him that you would +remove him in your own good time. He caused you the loss of two of +your puppets and I thought, naturally enough, that you would try to +remove him to some place where he could not operate so successfully +against you." + +"That's all?" queried Barter eagerly. "You don't know of some special +scheme that has been worked out to trap me?" + +"I know of no scheme. Now that I am in your hands, Professor, what do +you intend doing with me?" + +Barter stared at Ellen for several minutes. + +"I haven't captured Bentley ... yet," he said at last, slowly, "but I +shall--no doubt about that. It is inevitable--as inevitable as Caleb +Barter. I can use him in my labors for humanity. How I treat him after +he is taken depends somewhat on you. You may therefore consider +yourself a sort of hostage. I have much medical work to perform. Have +you ever been a nurse?" + + - - - + +Ellen recoiled in horror. "You don't mean you would ask me to help you +perform those horrible--" She stopped abruptly before her sudden +tendency to hysterics should make her say things to anger Barter too +far. + +"So," he said quickly, "you think my brain operations are horrible, +eh? Well, you shall see that they are not horrible; that Professor +Barter, the greatest scientist the world has ever produced, is really +preparing to prevent civilization from utterly decaying." + +"And afterward?" asked Ellen. "I know that eventually you will be +taken and that the people will destroy you, tear you limb from limb. +But you will never believe that. Tell me, then, what you plan to do +with me." + +For a brief time he considered the matter. + +"I am an old man," he said at last, musingly, "but I am young in +spirit and in body. It would be amusing to have a mate--but no, no, +that would not do! The destiny of Caleb Barter is not linked with a +woman. You would simply hold me back. However, I have often been +interested in miscegenation and its effect on the race if properly +guided. My assistant Naka Machi, is one of the finest specimens of his +race. Perhaps I shall arrange for you to mate with him, under +conditions which I shall dictate, in order to experiment with your +offspring...." + +Ellen swayed, her face going dead white. She hadn't yet met Naka +Machi, but his name told her enough. The thought of a Japanese, +however, was far less repellent than the cold, calm way in which +Barter spoke of using the offspring of such a union. + +"I'll kill myself at the first opportunity," said Ellen suddenly. + + - - - + +Barter put his forefinger under Ellen's chin in a paternal fashion. +His eyes looked deeply into hers. She thought of what his fingers had +done in the past ... those long slender fingers. His touch made her +shudder. + +But his eyes held her. They seemed like deep wells. Then they were +like black coals advancing upon her out of the darkness, growing +bigger and bigger as they came, with little flames in their centers +also growing as they approached. + +"You will submit your will to mine," said the soft voice of Caleb +Barter. + +His right hand was making swift snakelike movements back of Ellen's +head. His voice droned on, but already it seemed to Ellen to come from +a vast distance. + +"Your mind will be concerned only with the welfare of Caleb Barter," +droned on the voice. "You will think only of Caleb Barter; your +greatest desire will be to serve him. There is nothing you would not +do for him. Let your objective mind sleep until Caleb Barter wakens +it; give your subjective mind into my keeping." + +Beads of perspiration broke out on the cheeks of Caleb Barter as he +worked quickly to place the girl entirely under his skilled hypnosis. +At last she stood like a statue, her wide-open eyes staring into +space, straight ahead. She did not move. She scarcely seemed to +breathe. + +"You will know that my home is your home, Ellen," said Barter softly. +"You will feel that you are welcome here and that you love this place. +It needs the attention of a loving woman; you will give it that +attention. But you will be subservient always to my will. You will +enter upon your duties." + +Ellen Estabrook sighed softly as though with relief. Her hands went up +to remove her hat, which she placed on a chair in a corner of the +hellish laboratory. She removed her light coat and arranged her hair +with skilled fingers. But even as she moved around the room of the +long table her eyes stared vacantly into space. She was as much a +puppet of Caleb Barter as were Stanley, Morton and Cleve. But, +mercifully, she did not know it. + + - - - + +Barter studied her for several moments; his eyes squinted. He was +making sure that she was not duping him with pretense. Satisfied at +last be turned his eyes away from her. He stepped to the porcelain +slab set in the bronze wall of his laboratory and looked at the +push-buttons marked "C-3" and "E-5". The red lights were on, +indicating that the two puppets controlled by these two keys were +returning toward their master. The lights had been green when Barter +had begun his conversation with Ellen Estabrook, indicating that the +two puppets were still going away. With a tremendous effort of will he +had given them sufficient mental stimulus to keep them traveling +without his direct will for the few minutes he would require for +Ellen. + +Now, however, he quickly donned the metal cap and the little ball, and +inserted into the orifice in his cap the swinging key which connected +by chain with the key which fitted into the slot under the button +marked "C-3". + +He had returned to his puppets just in time. "C-3" was Cleve, who was +driving the car sent out to bring in the Colombian ape. As Barter got +in touch with the car it narrowly averted a crash with a police car +... and the perspiration broke forth afresh on the body of Barter as +he resumed control of his puppets. + +The second creature, in the front seat of the car, was Morton, and it +didn't matter particularly about him as he was not driving. But Morton +was now becoming all ape. Barter did not wish to use any more of his +mental energy than was necessary. He contented himself by sending his +will into Cleve, who began at once to drive like a master. Whenever +Morton, beside him, showed an inclination to jump out of the car or +otherwise interfere with Cleve in his work, Barter had but to express +the thought, and Cleve either pulled him back to his place beside him, +or gave him a walnut from his pocket. + + - - - + +Barter could as easily have had them change places, since he assumed +control of either at will, or could have controlled a score +simultaneously. But that would have required additional thought +stimulus, and he wished to conserve his mental energies for the work +which yet faced him. + +Once he switched his attention from the heliotube which controlled +Cleve--and through which, concurrently, he saw everything that +transpired near Cleve, because his televisory apparatus and his radio +control were co-workers on almost identical vibratory waves--to the +area of Manhattan immediately surrounding his own neighborhood. + +"Hmm," he said to himself, "the police are getting too close. As soon +as I have completed my labors to-night I shall destroy some of them as +a warning to others to keep their distance." + +Morton and Cleve drew up to the curb while Barter watched carefully on +all sides, through the heliotube, to make sure that their arrival was +unmarked by the police. + +They climbed out quickly and raced across the sidewalk to the green +gate which gave on a gloomy old court, inside which they were +swallowed by the shadows from all eyes save those of Caleb Barter. + +Five minutes after the strange trio had entered the "place," the great +chrome-steel door of Barter's laboratory swung open. + +"Morton and Cleve, my master," announced Naka Machi, bowing low and +sucking in his breath with a hissing sound. + +Barter's own puppets entered with the ape between them. + +Barter walked fearlessly forward. He had slipped the key from the +orifice atop his head. Morton and Cleve now stood listlessly, dumbly, +looking with dead eyes at their master. Barter tossed them several +walnuts each. + +Then he turned his attention to the ape, rubbing his hands together +with pleasure. + +But the ape was behaving strangely. His eyes were staring past Barter. +His hands sought to lift as though he would hold them out to someone; +but the ropes prevented him. Barter turned to look. Ellen Estabrook +stood beyond him, white of face, motionless as a statue. The ape was +straining toward her. + +Caleb Barter chuckled with understanding. + +"Good evening, Lee," he said gently. "I've been expecting you!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +_Where the Bodies Went_ + + +Bentley had been bound carelessly. Who could expect ape brains to +devise clever bonds, even when controlled by Caleb Barter? And now it +seemed that Caleb Barter had known all along; he said he had been +expecting Bentley. No, that wasn't it. Barter had seen him yearning +toward Ellen Estabrook, statuesque and wide-eyed on the other side of +the room. If it hadn't been for the presence of Ellen he might have +been accepted as an ape. Now it made little difference. + +But his bonds were not tightly drawn. He found himself fighting them +fiercely, trying to get his hands on Caleb Barter. He could see the +scrawny Adam's apple of the mad scientist, and his fingers itched to +press themselves into the flesh. + +Caleb Barter stood his ground calmly. "Naka Machi," he said softly. + +Suddenly Bentley felt a dull, paralyzing blow on his skull. He knew it +had been intended to render him utterly unconscious. But Naka Machi +hadn't taken into consideration that his skull was protected by the +hide of an ape. He remembered, as he stumbled and fell forward, that +the Japanese were wizards with their hands. That's why Naka Machi +could knock him down, render him helpless, yet leave his brain as +clearly active as before. Perhaps clearer, even, for now his brain did +not act on his legs and arms, which were helpless. + +Bentley felt as he imagined a patient on the operating table might +feel when not given sufficient anesthetic, yet given enough to make +him incapable of speech or movement. Such a patient would hear the +soft discussions of the surgeons, see them prepare their instruments, +yet be unable to tell them that he wasn't entirely unconscious. + + - - - + +Barter stooped over Bentley and rolled back the lids of his eyes. + +"Good. Naka Machi!" he said. "He won't be in any position to do us an +injury. Remain powerless, Lee Bentley, but retain your knowledge." + +Barter, then, was familiar with the strange hypnosis which the blow of +Naka Machi's hand had put upon Bentley. Barter had taken advantage of +it to add to it a sort of mental paralysis, so that the condition +would continue. + +"You are in my hands, Lee," he said in paternal fashion, "but you can +do me no harm. Since you were associated with me in the first of my +great experiments you know much about me. I have never ceased to hope +that you would one day understand and appreciate what I am doing for +humanity and be brought to aid me. Perhaps if I force you to watch my +efforts you will understand them and sympathize with my ambitions." + +Bentley could say nothing. Barter's eyes seemed to leap at him growing +large and glaring, just as the eyes of caricatured animals leap at the +camera in trick motion pictures. Physically he was powerless. Only his +brain was active. + +"Remove this covering from him, Naka Machi," went on Barter. "Remove +his bonds. You are about his size. Garb him in some of your own +clothing." + +Bentley had the odd feeling that he didn't need to turn his head to +see things around him. His head felt huge, almost to bursting, and his +eyes felt huge, too, so that he could see in all directions, as though +his eyeballs had been fish-eye lenses. + + - - - + +He studied Naka Machi. A nasty opponent in a fight, he decided. He +hadn't figured on any opponent other than Barter. This man was almost +as great. The skill of his fingers as he quickly removed the ape skin +from Bentley, using scalpels taken from Barter's table, amazed Bentley +with their miraculous dexterity. He cleaned Bentley's body with some +solution in a sponge and clothed him in some of his own clothing which +fitted fairly well. + +Then he lifted Bentley from the floor and stood him against the wall. + +Bentley was unbound. He tried to lift his hands but they refused to +move. His feet, too, seemed anchored to the floor. His knees were +stiff and straight. He might as well have been a wooden image for all +his ability to get about. + +Now Barter spoke. + +"Come here, Lee," he said. + +Bentley was amazed at the kindliness in Barter's attitude. He dealt +with Bentley as though he had been his son. He felt that Barter +genuinely liked him. It was rather amazing. Barter liked him but would +remove him without compunction if he thought it necessary. + +Bentley found he could move his feet, or rather they seemed to move of +their own volition, as he crossed the room to stand before Barter. + +"I'm rather proud of what I have been able to do, Lee," went on +Barter, "and I am now entirely safe from the police. I've issued +another manifesto telling the public that for each attempt made +against me, one of the eighteen men captured by me to-day will die. +Manhattan is the abode of terror. Here, see for yourself." + +He extended to Bentley what seemed to be a pair of binoculars, but +with the ear-hooks common to ordinary spectacles. He set them over +Bentley's eyes and set them in place. + +"Now you can survey New York as you wish." + + - - - + +Bentley looked for a moment or two. Sixth Avenue was a deserted +highway, on which red and green lights blinked off and on in the usual +routine, signaling to drivers who were non-existent. There were vistas +of deserted streets and avenues. There were some few living +things--policemen in uniform, standing in pairs and larger groups, all +concentrated in an area covering no more than twenty acres, which +twenty acres included the hideout of Caleb Barter. Bentley knew that +the hideout was under Millegan Place. He had recognized it coming in. +A secret panel in a brick wall had opened to show a door where none +was apparent. Then a circular stairway leading down into darkness to +the room which Barter had gouged out of the earth and turned into a +laboratory of hell. + +"See the police?" asked Barter. "They know now where I am, but they +are helpless because of my hostages. I shall now begin the operations +I believe to be necessary. Then I shall issue another manifesto, +telling the public that I am safeguarded by great apes whose ability +will prove the correctness of my theory about the possibility of +creating a race of supermen. My manifesto shall say that my apes must +not be slain. It shall say that for every ape slain by the police one +of my eighteen hostages will die." + +Bentley would have gasped with horror, but he could not. Now he saw +Thomas Tyler, his face a white mask of despair, in the midst of his +helpless men. + +"I'll give you a hand, somehow, Tommy," Bentley whispered deep down +inside him. + +"Now you shall see what I do, Lee," said Caleb Barter. "Naka Machi, +bring the ape skin you took from my friend. Bentley, you will follow +us." + + - - - + +Barter removed the strange glasses from Bentley's eyes, blotting out +the deserted streets and avenues of Manhattan. Naka Machi followed +behind Bentley, carrying the ape skin in which Bentley had penetrated +the stronghold of Caleb Barter. + +The chrome-steel door swung silently back and the three entered +another room filled with blaring light. Without being able to look +back Bentley knew that Ellen, white of face and staring, followed at +their heels. + +There was a long white operating table in this room, and a smaller +chrome-steel door set some four feet above the floor in one wall. + +"Naka Machi, the incineration tube," said Barter brusquely. + +Naka Machi stepped to the operating table and dug into one of the +drawers. He brought out a white tube, closed at one end, about an +inch in diameter, eight inches in length, and snowy white. + +"Concentrated fire, Bentley," said Barter. "Watch!" + +Barter had Naka Machi cast the ape skin through the small steel door, +beyond which Bentley could see a boxlike space large enough to +accommodate two or three grown men, lying side by side at full length. +It seemed to be indirectly lighted. The ape skin dropped on the floor +of this compartment. Barter took the "incineration tube" and directed +it on the skin. Bentley heard the clicking of a button. + +The ape skin charred quickly, folded up, drew into itself, +disappeared--and a fine gray ash settled on the floor of the +compartment, like rain from the roof of the ghastly little space. + +"Now you understand that I have solved the problem of disposing of the +cumbersome useless bodies of my hostages, Lee," said Baxter, rubbing +his hands together as though he washed them. + +Bentley's heart leaped as Naka Machi placed the incineration tube on +the operating table. It was close enough that Bentley could have +reached it, had he not been utterly powerless to move. + +"Naka Machi," said Barter. "Bring me ape D-4 and Frank Keller, the +diplomat. Ellen, clear the operating table. Quickly, now! Bentley, +stand against the wall and do not move--but miss nothing I do." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_The Straining Prison_ + + +Then began a grim series of activities which combined to form a +nightmare Bentley was never to forget, even as he prayed within him +that no slightest memory of it would remain in the brain of Ellen +Estabrook. + +Naka Machi went back to the room which Bentley had first entered and +returned almost at once with a tall thin man, immaculately garbed in +gray, wearing a spade beard. His eyes were flashing fires of anger and +of pride. + +He stared at Barter. + +"What is all this quackery?" he demanded. "Who is responsible for this +unspeakable rigmarole?" + +"Your words are harsh, Mr. Keller," said Barter suavely, "and you +shall learn in good time what I intend. Had you followed my +manifestoes in the news columns you would have known what I intend. I +shall create a race of super--" + +"You will at once release myself and the others with me," interrupted +Keller. + +But at that moment Naka Machi returned, leading a great ape which +seemed as docile as though it had been drugged. Naka Machi raised his +right hand quickly, so quickly Bentley could scarce follow the +movement, and with the edge of his palm struck the tall gray man in +back of the head. Keller's knees buckled. As he started to fall Naka +Machi stepped close to him, gathered him in his arms and bore him to +the table. + +At Barter's swift instructions Ellen Estabrook, all unknowing, placed +a cone indicated by Barter over the mouth and nose of Keller. Naka +Machi struck the ape as he had struck the man, but he waited until he +had persuaded the brute to take his place on the table near Keller's +head. + + - - - + +The ape sprawled. Naka Machi quickly twisted both Keller and the ape +around so that their heads were toward each other, their feet pointing +in opposite directions. + +"Is that close enough my master?" came the soft voice of Naka Machi. + +"Quite," said Barter, whose face was now a mask of concentration. +"Cleve and Stanley and Morton?" + +"They have been locked in their cages, my master," said Naka Machi. +"Are you sure this man who came in the guise of an ape is safe?" + +"I shall make sure. But do you remain close where you can render him +harmless in case I have misjudged him." + +Naka Machi turned baleful eyes on Bentley. The latter could see the +hatred in them and for a moment was at a loss to understand it. + +"I shall destroy him before he can put his hands upon you, my master," +said Naka Machi. + +"I do not wish him destroyed, Naka Machi," replied Barter. "That is +enough of the anesthetic, Miss Estabrook. Naka Machi, my instruments, +quickly." + +Before he proceeded with his labors Barter stood in front of Bentley +and stared at him for a moment. Bentley felt the strength flow out of +him under the gaze of this man--a gaze he could not avoid. Barter +smiled slightly. + +"You will eventually join me of your own free will, Lee," he said +softly. + +"I would rather die a thousand deaths!" screamed Bentley, but the +sound of his scream echoed and reechoed through his soul without +coming out so that Barter could hear it. + + - - - + +Barter's confidence in his ability to convert Bentley was assuredly a +mark of his twisted mind, for he must surely have realized that +Bentley would be the most injured by his schemes. But he seemed to +associate him with the days of Manape, when Barter had proved to +himself, to Bentley and Ellen Estabrook, that the operation he now +planned in wholesale proportions was possible. Bentley could +understand why Barter regarded him as a friend and colleague, and his +animosity temporary--because as a subject of his first great +experiment Bentley was a symbol of Barter's success. + +Strange how easy it was to find logic in the reasoning of madmen, and +to understand that logic! + +Barter sprang back to his task. + +"Naka Machi," he said, "take heed that you serve me well. Do you like +this woman?" + +"Yes, my master." + +"If you continue in your loyalty to me, I shall give her to you." + +Bentley's mind recoiled with horror. The shock of this cold statement +was like another blow on the head. He wanted to leap forward and set +strangling fingers about the neck of Naka Machi. Ordinarily Naka Machi +could handle him with ease, but now that Bentley had heard the plan of +Barter, he could have handled the Japanese with superhuman strength. +But he could not move. He strained against the bodily lethargy which +held him prisoner. If only he could move forward and grasp the +incineration tube, he would turn it on Naka Machi and Barter.... + +But he could not move, could not fight off the lethargy which was like +invincible prison walls around him. + +He could move the tips of his fingers, he discovered ... but no more +than that. The shock of Barter's calm statement had cast off that much +of his semi-hypnotic lethargy. A minute before he hadn't been able +even to move his fingers. + + - - - + +Give him time, he told himself, while inwardly he bled as he struggled +desperately to throw off the grim hypnosis, and he would yet manage to +save the lives of at least some of the eighteen, see that Ellen won +free, and destroy this hell-hole under Millegan Place. + +Now incredibly slender instruments were busy near the heads of the two +on the operating table--the ape and Keller, the doomed man. As the +knives and scalpels leaped to their work with startling dexterity and +amazing speed, Bentley strained again against his horrid invisible +prison. If only he could save this man Keller from this horror ... but +it was useless. + +The fingers of Barter worked swiftly over the skull of the ape, first. +Naka Machi stood on one side of the long table, Ellen on the other, +near Barter. Bentley studied her face as the skull of the ape fell +open under the hands of Barter, and he knew she was unaware of what +she was doing. Bentley had expected a crimson horror, but nothing of +the kind developed. Could Barter read his thoughts? + +"I am an adept at bloodless surgery, Bentley," he said, while his +fingers never ceased their swift manipulations. + +Now Naka Machi held the skull-pan of the ape, from which he had +removed the reddish substance which was the ape's brain. This Naka +Machi had tossed into the aperture where the ape skin had been +destroyed. + +The empty skull-pan of the ape awaited the brain of Keller. + +Bentley could feel the sweat burst forth on him in every pore as he +tried to throw off his awful inertia, to go to the aid of Keller. If +Barter should see the perspiration on his cheeks.... + +Bentley thought of Samson in the midst of his enemies, blind and +beaten, of how he had prayed to be given strength to pull down the +pillars of the temple.... + +"Oh God," said Bentley to himself, "only this once give me strength to +throw off these chains. Grant that I do something to save the man from +this horror." + + - - - + +But he could still move only the tips of his fingers when Barter had +finally closed the sutures in the skull-pan of the ape, renewing again +the ape's skull, with the brain of Keller inside. Keller was finished. +He had not moved on the table. Even his chest stood still, stark and +lifeless. Barter had not troubled to restore Keller's skull-pan. What +was the need? + +Naka Machi gathered up the carcass of Keller and bore it swiftly to +the boxlike hole in the wall of the ghastly room.... + +He thrust it in. He stepped back and caught up the incineration tube +of concentrated fire ... and Bentley saw the body of the murdered man +shrivel up so quickly it seemed as though it had dissolved before his +eyes. Down from the ceiling of the hell-hole dropped the fine gray +ash, all that remained--save the imprisoned brain--of Frank Keller, +the diplomat. + +Now Bentley was cognizant of something else. With Barter's concentrated +work on Keller, something of the power went out of him. Ever so slightly +Bentley could feel that Barter was lacking in strength. Some of his +will, some of the essential essence of his brain, of his soul, had +been expended in the operation--and by so much was Bentley enabled to +move. For now he could move two full fingers on each hand. But how +carefully he kept watch to see that neither Naka Machi nor Barter +noticed that he was bursting from his invisible prison. + +If he could get that incineration tube. He'd do the necessary things +first ... then direct the ray of it against the softer portions of the +hideout of Barter. The flame would eat through. Somewhere it would +finally reach wood; that was inflammable. + +There would be smoke, and fire ... and in the end people would come. +Tyler would be watching for a sign, anyway. Barter had said that the +police knew approximately where he, Barter, was located. + + - - - + +"Now, Bentley," said Barter, "I'll explain what I intend doing while I +rest a moment before the next ordeal. The whole world is against me +now because it regards my experiments as horrible, but if I prove to +the world that I am right, and that the men of my creation are +supermen, in the end the world will be on my side. I can force it to +obey me, in time, but I prefer the world to serve me willingly, +because it realizes that what I do for civilization should really be +done." + +Bentley said nothing, because he could not speak. + +"I'll send Keller to his office under my instructions," said Barter. +"Of course I'll issue a manifesto, first, so that the city will know +that it is not a wild ape that has escaped. When the new Keller, with +the strong brain of Keller and the mighty body of an ape, appears at +his office and proves to his people that he has been vastly improved +by my experiment...." + +Bentley tried to shut his mind to the horrible picture Barter's words +drew before his eyes. Barter broke off short, while Bentley's mind +seemed to rock with the shock of Barter's last statement. He saw a +picture ... a great office filled with many desks occupied by +white-faced men and women ... an ornate desk where a "manape" sat.... +It was ghastly beyond comprehension. It must never come to pass. + +Barter spoke again to Naka Machi. + +"Bring me David Fator and ape S-19." + +"Yes, my master," replied Naka Machi. + + - - - + +Again Bentley went through the horror from beginning to end. He could +now move his toes. If only he could fall forward, grasp that +incineration tube, turn it on Barter! With Barter unable to control +him he would regain his senses in time, he hoped, to stave off the +certain charge of Naka Machi, whose hatred for himself he now +understood too well. + +He hoped, if he were able to accomplish what he planned, that horror +upon awakening would cause Ellen to faint. While she was out he could +destroy the horror with the cleansing flame ... and tell her she +hadn't seen it, after all. + +Bentley could feel the strength pour back into him. Barter was +becoming moment by moment more intent on his labors. He was becoming +careless with Bentley, not because he underestimated him but because +he was intensely absorbed in his work. + +By the time two more men had gone bodily into the incinerator and +mentally into a pair of apes, the first ape, carelessly dumped on the +floor, came out from under the effects of the drug. + +"Stand over there in the corner, Keller," Barter said to the hybrid +carelessly, "and remember that no matter how you may wish to escape +you can only do so if I will. Remain quiet there and consider whether +you will oppose me or obey me. Oppose me and your only escape is +self-destruction. Obey me and possess the world!" + +Bentley could imagine the horror and despair of "Keller," for he +himself had known that horror and despair. + +Now he could swing his wrists slightly. Naka Machi turned once with a +sudden movement and almost caught him at it, and perspiration broke +out on Bentley's face again. Thank God, Ellen realized none of what +she was experiencing. + + - - - + +Two other men gave their lives at Barter's hands ... yet Bentley had +only regained sufficient possession of himself to fall forward on his +face if he tried to walk, but even that was something. + +Five men were gone now. Could he possibly regain muscular control in +time to save the lives of some of the eighteen? As he watched the five +go into the furnace, one by one, he began to despair of saving any of +the eighteen, but with each operation Barter lost mental strength. If +he lost in arithmetical progression as he had during the last five, +Bentley estimated that he, Bentley, would be able to move his arms +enough to grasp the incineration tube by the time Barter had finished +his eighth transplantation. + +So, the horror growing until nausea ate at Bentley's stomach like +voracious maggots, he watched Barter destroy three more men and +create godless monsters in their places. As each manape regained +consciousness Barter told him what he had told Keller--and Naka Machi +took them out, one by one, and placed them in their allotted cages. + +Naka Machi placed the eighth man in the furnace, returned the +incineration tube to the table. + +"Now, oh God the Father!" moaned Bentley. + +He leaned forward, striving with all his will to force his hands to go +truly to their target as he fell. He had little or no control of his +legs or knees. But let him once hold that tube in his hands.... + +He fell soundlessly, his hands clutching for the tube. His fingers +touched it as he crashed to the floor, and it fell near him. His +fingers fumbled for the tube and now gripped it tightly. + +From under the table, writhing and twisting, striving to break his +mental bondage, Bentley saw the legs of Caleb Barter. He snapped the +button on the tube and turned its open end toward those legs. + +"I must not look into his eyes as he falls," thought Bentley, "or all +is lost." + + - - - + +A terrible scream rang through the operating room. Barter was falling, +crumpling as he fell, and as his body slid downward past the table +edge, Bentley held the end of the tube toward it. As the bodies of the +eight had shriveled, so shriveled the body of Caleb Barter. + +Ellen Estabrook screamed horribly, and sprawled on the floor within a +foot or two of Bentley. Nature had mercifully sent her into momentary +oblivion when the will of Barter, holding her in thrall, had snapped +to show her the horror of what she did. + +Naka Machi was screaming. Bentley was Bentley again, crawling forth +from under the table. Naka Machi met him in a rush and dissolved +before the deadly ray as though he had never existed. Its effect must +have been a silent explosion, for a fine gray ash came down from the +ceiling as the residue which falls when a soaring rocket has exploded +and expended its power. The gray ash was Naka Machi, forever rendered +harmless to Ellen. + +Bentley walked over and stood looking at the manapes in their cages. +What could be done with them? There was no hope, no possible way by +which they could resume their normal lives, for of their human bodies +there remained but heaps of fine powdery ashes. + +Suddenly the manape Keller swept his great hairy arm out between the +bars and snatched the tube from Bentley's hand. With a cry of mortal +anguish Bentley recoiled from the cage. God! Now all was lost if the +manape clicked on the deadly ray and swept it over the room. + +Before he could formulate a plan of action, the manape pressed the +fatal button. With a cry Bentley threw himself across the room to +where Ellen lay unconscious, his only thought to somehow protect her +from the tube. + + - - - + +But the manape, Keller, swung the ray upon the other apes with the +human minds, and they dissolved into ashy nothingness with bewildering +rapidity. The keen mind of Keller was doing what he knew must be done +for the good of everyone concerned. + +Numbed with horror, Bentley saw the ray directed on Morton and +Stanley. They fell silently and without protest.... + +Keller clicked off the button and looked over at Bentley. He alone +remained of Barter's frightful experiment. He alone remained and it +seemed that he was trying to tell Bentley something ... asking him to +now take the tube and turn it full on the body which housed his human +brain. + +While Bentley hesitated, the manape bent down and placed the tube on +the floor of the cage, the muzzle pointing inward. With a clumsy +motion of a long hairy arm he reached out and snicked on the button, +then placed himself within its deadly range. Keller vanished and the +ray bit into the wall back of the cage; began to eat through. + +Bentley leaped to his feet and tore across the floor. He plunged his +trembling hand through the bars of the cage, switched off the button +and lifted the tube. + +There were the remaining normal apes. They could have been saved for +transportation to the zoo, but horror was on Bentley and he used the +tube again, and yet again.... + +And there were the keys. He pulled them from their slots in the +porcelain slab, in case there should be other "Stanley-Morton-Cleves" +abroad of whom he knew nothing.... + +He turned the tube against the red lights and the green lights. + +Then he turned the tube upward and held it steadily. He watched the +charred hole grow bigger and deeper in the high ceiling.... + +When at last he heard the approaching clang of the fire engine bells +and the screaming triumph of police sirens, he carefully snicked off +the button of the tube and returned to lift the form of Ellen in arms +that were strong to hold her. + +(_The end._) + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Changes: + + Page 30: Added closing double-quote (Ellen. "I haven't + looked at an American paper for ever so =long."=) + + Page 32: Was 'that' (Bentley suddenly knew =what= the man + was trying to say. The half-uttered) + + Page 32: Was 'interne' (Five minutes later the ambulance + =intern= hastily scribbled in his record the entry, "Dead + on Arrival.") + + Page 41: Added closing double-quote (chauffeur to go faster + than twenty miles an =hour."=) + + Page 44: Was 'scarely' (The words had =scarcely= left his + mouth when a blind man, tapping) + + Page 45: Was 'multilated' (Bentley, in his mind's eye, saw + the two dead, =mutilated= drivers, and the passengers with + them, he saw) + + Page 45: Was 'relinquished' ("When will he give up--and + what will his driver do when Barter =relinquishes= + control?") + + Page 45: Changed ',' to '.' (effective. The fleeing car was + trapped. Barter must know =that.= If he did know, it proved + that he) + + Page 46: Was 'plainclothes' (reached her. She had been + immediately picked up by =plain-clothes= men and had + thought herself captured) + + Page 46: Was 'persuuaded' (she told Bentley, and it had + taken her some little time to be =persuaded= that she was + in the hands) + + Page 242: Was 'monolog' ("You will almost suffocate," he + said, keeping up a running =monologue= as his inspired + hands worked with) + + Page 257: Was 'at loss' (hatred in them and for a moment + was =at a loss= to understand it.) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mind Master, by Arthur J. 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