“Thoth!” Thaddeus exclaimed. “I’ve heard of him!”
“You’re not afraid?”
“Shucks no. Not with you, Mr. Robbins,” declared Thaddeus courageously. “That’s why my face is gone, my real face? You fixed me up so Thoth won’t know me.”
“EXACTLY, Thaddeus. Now I’m going to leave you in the back end of this truck. I’ll shut the door. There’s an unconscious man on the floor in here with you. He won’t bother you. As soon as I’ve reached the place we’re going to, I’ll come and get you out.” And “X” left the rear compartment of the truck to crawl beneath its steering wheel.
Turning the car around, he headed for the East River front. A blind gum peddler and an unconscious millionaire. Agent “X” laughed grimly. Strange allies with which to battle the most brutal criminal of the century. But the plan that had evolved from the Agent’s brain was a clever one—one that Thoth would never suspect. In doing the unsuspected at exactly the right moment lay the secret of the success of Agent “X.”
The clock lacked but a few minutes of two A.M. when “X” rolled the truck to the front of a little shack hardly visible in the shadow of a great river front warehouse. Neither the shack nor the Fostmore Warehouse showed any sign of occupancy and “X” was at first afraid that Donna Magyar had again deceived him. However, he got out and went over to the door. He tapped lightly upon it.
Almost at once, it opened a crack. A soft voice whispered, “Who’s there?”
“Voinoff,” replied Agent “X,” elevating his voice until it closely resembled the voice of the man he was impersonating.
“You have succeeded?” inquired the invisible one on the other side of the door.
“Yeah, finally. But next time you give me one of the slaves, be sure he’s not blind.”
“You were given Number 9,” the voice went on. “There was nothing the matter with his eyes.”
“Then he was given too much of that damned green ray before we started out. He can’t see his own hand in front of him. I had to carry old man Kaxton around myself!”
A soft laugh. “As long as you have brought Kaxton, it does not matter. Bring him in.”
“X” returned to the truck. Opening the rear compartment, he whispered to Thaddeus Penny. “Steady now. I’m going to lift the unconscious man out. I will carry him on my shoulders. You will hold one of the unconscious man’s hands and I will guide you. Keep as close to me as possible so that no one will catch on to our deception.”
A low chuckle was Thaddeus’ only reply.
Searching the inside of the compartment with his light, “X” got hold of the unconscious Kaxton and hoisted him to his shoulders. Thaddeus Penny had groped his way to the opening and was seated on the rear of the truck, his feet dangling only a few inches from the ground. His groping hands found the Agent’s back and traveled up until he encountered Kaxton’s hand. He pushed himself from the truck and stood ready to follow “X.” Then slowly the odd trio approached the shanty.
THIS time, the door was opened wide. “X” crossed the sill and Thaddeus Penny stumbled in behind him. A dim light was burning in the single room of the house and “X” could see the tall figure of a man wearing a mask that completely covered his face. At one side of the room stood an electric arc device similar to the one that had been previously used to blind the Agent when he had adopted the disguise of one of the Thoth slaves.
“Put Kaxton down on the floor, Voinoff,” the masked man ordered. “He will be attended to later. You will be taken at once to headquarters.” The masked man crossed to where Thaddeus Penny was standing just inside the door. For a moment, he studied the blind man’s face—a face hideously distorted by the make-up which “X” had applied.
“We can’t be certain that he is blind,” declared the masked man. He snapped his fingers and in another moment two weasel-faced men, obviously denizens of the underworld, entered.
“These two—” and the masked man indicated “X” and the blind man—“are going to headquarters. We will blind the slave first.”
The two mobsters seized Thaddeus’ arms and led him to the ray machine. “X” closed his eyes against the blue-green glare of the electric arc and opened them again only after the machine had been turned off. He saw that the masked man had fastened a strong cord about Penny’s waist preparatory to leading him into Thoth’s headquarters.
Then it was the Agent’s turn. He faced the blinding ray with a bold front. Actually, he was fearful lest his deception be detected. Not that he was afraid for himself, but for the two innocent men he was dragging into the hell-hole with him. “X” knew that he was gambling with lives as he never had before; but the stakes, he felt were worth the chances he was taking.
Blind and utterly helpless, “X” felt the pull of the lead cord that had been fastened to his waist. With uncertain steps he followed. He heard the door of the shanty squeak. Then he was led across an uneven yard. Across rough bricks and down worn steps he walked. Then a metallic squeaking of hinges and the smell of damp, unwholesome air crowding into his lungs. A door closed with a sepulchral boom behind him. He shuffled on, hands outstretched until his fingers touched the fur-clad back of Thaddeus Penny.
It seemed to the Agent that the circuitous path through which he was led was unending. He had become dizzy trying to remember the direction which they were taking.
Then suddenly, “X” realized that he could see—a feeble glow of light that faintly illuminated the stooped form of Thaddeus Penny directly ahead of him. Evidently, “X” had not been exposed to the blinding ray for the usual period. He saw, too, that he was in a tunnel the walls of which were of brick and rough stone. Directly ahead was a solid steel door which opened as they approached. Then “X” found himself in another tunnel-like hall which twisted and turned and branched. But obviously this section of the criminal headquarters was of more recent construction than the rough passage they had just left.
Opening another door, the masked man led them into the room which had been designated as the council chamber upon the Agent’s first visit to the catacomb. There, the masked leader ordered them to stop.
“In a few moments, Voinoff, you will be able to see. You will find yourself in the presence of Thoth.” And the masked man who seemed to be Thoth’s lieutenant, left “X” and Thaddeus alone in the room.
Chapter X
PALACE OF PAIN
“MR. ROBBINS,” Thaddeus began in a high-pitched whisper.
“Hush,” the Agent cautioned. “Don’t say a word at any time.” “X” glanced around the barren room at the evil-eyed barbaric gods in bas-relief about the walls. A door behind the stone block opened. Through the opening came a group of six Neanderthals shuffling along in single file. Behind them, and towering above their stooped forms, “X” could see the bizarre ibis-beaked mask and the ornate headdress of Thoth. Behind Thoth were two bodyguards—depraved underworld characters armed with heavy automatics.
“You have done your work well, Voinoff,” said Thoth as he took his place behind the stone block. “In as much as I have some important business to attend to, I will not need you at the moment.” With an imperious gesture, he waved “X” toward the door. “And take that helpless slave back to his cell. I will examine him later. Unless there has been some unforgivable error, there is no reason why he should be blind.”
“X” crossed to where the disguised Thaddeus stood, took his arm roughly, and led him across the room and into the hall. Outside the door a sullen-faced man nodded at “X.” The man was wearing a dirty tweed cap and held an automatic pistol in his hand. Evidently he had been stationed there to guard the door. “X” recognized him as Bill Ziek, a local gunman.
“Hello, Ziek,” said “X.” “Thoth wants me to take this bird back to his cell. Something’s wrong with his eyes.”
“That so?” The gunman replied without much indication of interest. He lighted a cigarette. “X” seeing that the man was not in a talkative mood, turned to the right and started up the pa
ssage.
“Hey, what’s eatin’ you?” demanded the guard of the council chamber. “You’re goin’ the wrong way.”
“X” turned. He hadn’t the slightest idea where he would find the cells of the Neanderthals. “That’s right,” he agreed. “I always get a little mixed up after I’ve been out of this place for a little while. I go to the left, don’t I?”
The man nodded his head. “To the left and keep to the left. If you ever got sidetracked, chances are you’d never be found.”
“X” led Thaddeus up the left-hand passage which began to branch out a dozen feet from the door of the council room. “X” took the left fork of the passage, his eyes staring through the gloom at a pale light directly ahead. He hurried the silent and obedient Thaddeus forward.
The light came from a dim electric globe set in the wall and illuminating the barred doors of a dozen or more cells—mere holes in the earth, they were crudely supported by wooden timbers and blocks of stone. In each of these cells crouched the malformed slaves who were the unfortunate victims of Thoth. One door at the end of the row was open and the cell was empty. “X” led Thaddeus into this cell and closed the door. There was a simple catch that was operated from the outside, but “X” did not turn it. Then he hurried back up the passage to where the guard was seated.
“What’s Thoth up to anyway?” “X” asked the surly gunman before the door.
The man shrugged. “I don’t bother about what he’s doin’. I get paid well. Don’t ask questions.”
“Any women been brought here lately?” asked “X.”
“A pair of Janes. Good lookers, too. Go take a gander at ’em. They’re in the prison block.”
“That’s to the right?” “X” inquired.
“To the right and keep to the right.”
“X” sauntered down the passage, keeping to the right. Ahead of him was a dim light similar to the one he had found among the cells which contained the Thoth slaves. The first two cells he encountered were unoccupied. In the fourth, he found Bertram Kaxton stretched on the floor and apparently in a drugged sleep. From the next cell came the sounds of soft sobbing. “X’s” heart beat faster as he approached the door. Seated on a bench, her fair head buried in her hands and weeping piteously was a young blonde woman. But it was not Betty Dale. The woman raised her head, only to burst into a fresh torrent of tears when she saw Agent “X.”
WITHOUT a word, “X” passed on to the next cell. There, courageously silent, was Betty Dale. Her blue eyes regarded the Agent steadily as he peered through the bars. “X” looked up and down the passage. It was empty as far as he could see. Then facing Betty, he crossed his first two fingers to form the letter “X.” Involuntarily, a cry of surprise and joy burst from Betty’s lips. She sprang up from the bench on which she had been seated and threw herself against the bars of the door.
“Oh, thank heavens you’ve come!” she said fervently. “What does it all mean? Where are we?”
“X” reached his finger through the bars of the door and pressed it on Betty’s warm red lips. “Shsh,” he whispered; then smiled encouragingly. “How did you get here in the headquarters of Thoth?”
Betty shook her head. “It all happened so suddenly, that I hardly know. You told me to go and see Marjorie Heidt and make an effort to learn something about her father. I went there early this evening. I knocked at the door. It was suddenly thrown open by one of those awful deformed creatures that look like Neanderthals. He seized me in his arms. I struggled. But there seemed to be more than one of the brutes. I think I was drugged. I knew nothing more until I awoke and found myself here.
“There was another horrible creature bending over me—a man wearing a mask that was like the head of a bird. There were two others with him—a Titian-haired woman and a tall man who was wearing a black mask. Thoth was saying something about someone bungling again. Then they left me here. I have seen no one but you since. But later, I heard someone coming down the passage. A door opened. I heard a woman screaming.”
“X” nodded. “Thoth has undoubtedly rectified the error. Never mind, Betty. I am going to take you and the other girl out of here along with Bertram Kaxton.”
“Kaxton!” Betty exclaimed. “Have they got him, too?”
“X” nodded. He pressed his finger on his lips. For suddenly he had heard a sound—footsteps shuffling down the corridor. “X” sprang from the door of Betty’s cell, and, shrinking against the rough walls of the passage, hid himself in the shadows.
Four of Thoth’s armed mobsters were coming down the hall. The quartet stopped in front of the cell in which Kaxton was sleeping. As they unlocked the door of the cell, Kaxton seemed to suddenly awaken. He threw himself upon the foremost man, beating at the man’s head with his fists. “Let me out of here!” he shouted. “If this is a kidnaping, I’ll pay no ransom to anybody. You’re wasting your time!”
Two of the men held the struggling Kaxton while the others bound him with ropes.
“Guess you’ll be glad to pay right enough!” one of the criminals chuckled.
“Pay through the nose,” said another, “when you get a glimpse of yourself after Thoth is through with you. You’ll be damned glad to get out and scrape up your own ransom!”
Agent “X’s” heart pounded faster as he saw the mobsters lifting Kaxton from his feet. He realized fully that it was he, Secret Agent “X” who had brought Kaxton into this hell-hole. And Kaxton was to be treated as the others had been treated. He would be converted from a sane, healthy man into a depraved monster. Agent “X” decided upon immediate action. He must attack the entire quartet of mobsters.
He thrust his hand into his pocket and gripped his gas pistol. His nerves drew taut. He must succeed. Betty’s safety depended upon him coming through with a whole skin. But as he was about to withdraw his gun, his heart jumped into his throat. A heavy hand was placed upon his shoulder. “X” swung around to stare into the cruel slant-eyes carved in the mask of Thoth. Behind the criminal chief were several armed men. “X’s” grip on his gas pistol relaxed.
A low chuckle from the criminal chief. “You’ve been visiting our fair captives, Voinoff? Perfectly all right with me. But I hope you got no heroic notions into your head about trying to liberate them.”
“X” forced a laugh. “Me, boss? I got no use for skirts.” He glanced beyond Thoth to the body of armed men. All had killed-for-a-penny eyes. They would mow him down if he made the slightest move.
“You have never seen my palace of pain, have you Voinoff?”
THE Agent shook his head. “Not sure that I want to.”
Again Thoth chuckled. “I’ve always found that those of my men who have visited the palace of pain are less apt to be obstreperous. I am about to perform a little operation on Bertram Kaxton which will convert him into something approaching a Neanderthal man. I think, Voinoff, that it would be well for you to look on—just in case you get any notions. As to the young girls—” the ibis-beaked mask turned toward the cells directly opposite where “X” was standing. “I shall experiment with them later on. I have never seen a female Neanderthal!” And from behind the ornate mask, Thoth’s laugh rose to a pinnacle of boisterous, perverted glee.
Thoth’s body guards advanced, took hold of “X’s” arm and turned him around. Not once did they take their suspecting eyes off “X’s” face nor their guns from his side. They were devoted to their chief, probably because they feared him.
Thoth led the way back to the council chamber. From this room, they entered a small hall with steps leading upward. Pointing toward the steps, Thoth said, “The steps lead to my office. But the door directly in front of you leads to the palace of pain.”
Fronting the door, Thoth took a key from his pocket and inserted it in the lock. He opened the door and stood to one side to permit them to enter the room.
The room was perfectly square. Rough brick walls seeped moisture continually. The place was brilliantly lighted by powerful lamps set in the ceiling. At each si
de of the room were great square wooden frames perhaps eight feet in height. The sides of the frames were formed by movable metal screws about two inches in diameter. Pulls, chains, and iron rings were mounted at odd angles in the frames.
As “X” looked from one to another of these frames, an involuntary cry escaped his lips. Two of the frames were in use—the hideous use for which some devil had made them. For those two frames contained men—no creatures who had once been men. Already they had begun to take on the unmistakable shape of Neanderthals. The heavy cross beam that closed the frames at the top had been lowered by means of the screws until they exerted powerful pressure on the shoulders and backs of the victims.
Chains and pulleys tugged down on the poor creatures’ arms and legs, while other chains were fastened to compel Thoth’s victims to maintain an upright position. Agent “X” saw the eyes of one of the victims. Glazed and staring they were. Pain had robbed those eyes of human expression. They were the eyes of a man without a soul.
“X” forced himself to a calm. He turned toward the masked Thoth. “What do you do that for?” he asked.
“To aid their bodies to grow as I want them to,” replied Thoth. “They are mature men; but because I have discovered a way of stimulating the growth-controlling activities of the pituitary gland, their skeletons have once more attained a plastic stage. What I have actually accomplished is to induce artificial ostectis, an ordinarily rare disease of the pituitary body. The use of these drugs has shortened the normal period of the disease.
“Inside of two weeks, I could transform you into a beast-like Neanderthal. If you ever attempt to double-cross me, I shall be compelled to do so. And I would drug you with infusions of Indian hemp, dulling your brain and nerves and subjecting you to my stronger will.
“A few days of solitary confinement in a room lined with mirrors so that you could feast your eyes upon your own ugliness, and you would be as mad as the others. Man has taken hundreds of thousands of years to evolve from the Neanderthal to the civilized man. Yet in a few short days, I can force man back along the road he has taken.”
Secret Agent X - The Complete Series Volume 5 Page 46