The Mind Master
Page 10
CHAPTER X
_Grim Anticipation_
A numbing fear began to grow upon Lee Bentley as the ordeal of waitingbegan.
Naturally he could not eat the food given usually to apes and ofcourse he could not be seen calmly eating bacon and eggs with knifeand fork. And because he couldn't eat he was assailed by a dreadfulhunger, which, however, he managed to fight down partially. He smiledinwardly as he looked ahead and understood that despite the warningsnot to feed the animals, children of all ages, from four years tosixty, would surreptitiously toss peanuts and walnuts into his cage.
He felt a little hopeful about it. They would at least allay hishunger.
But no, he could not do that, either. Nobody had thought to ask DoctorJackson how a Colombian ape manipulated his food. Even a certainclumsiness in that respect might start questions which would cause thepublic to doubt the authenticity of Jackson's find.
Bentley decided to sulk. The ape he was supposed to be couldreasonably be expected to resent captivity and would probably go on ahunger strike. He would do likewise and be in character if hestarved.
He crouched in a far corner as the first comers began to arrive. Theywere fathers and mothers with their children, and the older peoplecarried, usually, newspapers under their arms. Bentley wished with allhis soul that he could see one of the papers close enough to read theheadlines.
However, when the crowd was not too thick, Bentley waddled nearer tothe wire mesh which separated him from the curious crowd and throughlids which were half closed as though he slept, he managed to glimpsea few excerpts from the paper:
"Police department redoubling their precautions to prevent Mind Masterfrom capturing eighteen intended victims."
"Hideout of Mind Master still undiscovered. When will the public bedelivered from the stupidity of the police?"
"Doctor Jackson returns from Colombia, bringing a living specimen ofan ape hitherto unknown to civilized man, but more like him than anyape hitherto known. Visitors may see the creature to-day in the BronxZoo."
- - -
That was the story which had brought out the visitors who wereforming, moment by moment, a bigger crowd before Bentley's cage.Bentley managed a glimpse of a woman's wrist-watch after what seemedan age of trying to do so without his intention becoming plain to thetoo bright children who crowded as close to the cage as attendantswould permit. It was ten o'clock. It would be at least twelve morehours before Bentley could reasonably expect any action on the part ofBarter. Barter would now be concentrating on his plans to kidnap theeighteen men he had first named.
Bentley tried to make the time pass faster by imagining what Barterwould be doing. By now his labors must be titanic. He must haveseparate controls for each of his minions, and there were many timeswhen he must control several at one time, thus making his task akin tothat of a man trying to look two ways at once, while he rolled acigarette 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 itsmaster because he was its creator, and Bentley hadn't the slightestdoubt that, until someone actually penetrated Barter's stronghold, hewould not be stopped.
Bentley knew that at the very first opportunity he would destroy CalebBarter as he would have destroyed a mad dog or stamped to death adeadly snake. The life of one man would rest lightly upon hisconscience, if that man were Caleb Barter.
Perhaps, though, he could learn many of Barter's secrets before hedestroyed him. Properly used they might prove boons to mankind. It wasonly the use Barter was putting them to that threatened to fill theworld with horror and bloodshed.
- - -
"Mama, why don't he eat?"
"Hush," said a woman, as though afraid the Colombian ape would hearand become angry; "don't annoy the creature. He looks fully capable ofcoming right out at us."
But the child who had been admonished began to juggle a bag of peanutswhich he managed to throw into the cage. Bentley stooped forward,sniffing suspiciously at the sack, while a wave of hunger made himfeel weak and giddy for a moment. He just realized that he hadn'teaten for almost twenty-four hours. His time had been so filled withaction and excitement that there hadn't been opportunity.
"I hope," he said to himself, in an effort to drive away thoughts offood, "that Tyler will take every precaution to prevent Ellen fromdoing something foolish."
Knowing that he could no longer communicate with her, could no longerbe absolutely sure that she was still out of Barter's clutches, hesuffered 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 fightsomebody! 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 himthat he must not allow his mind to go wool-gathering if he did notwish to give himself away. What if, in an access of anger, he happenedto speak his thoughts aloud? He could imagine the amazement of thecrowd.
- - -
The day wore on.
At noon a strange horror seemed to travel over the Bronx Zoo, andwithin a short time every last visitor had precipitately departed.Bentley could now safely approach the wire mesh and look out andaround 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 theshouting of the extra on the distant streets, but it had been so faraway he hadn't heard the words. One solitary newspaper had appearedamong the Bronx crowd and the story it carried under startlingscareheads had passed from brain to brain as though by magic ... andthe crowd had fled.
Bentley stared down at the newspaper in horror, a horror that was inno 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 hadnamed.
Nothing could be done to stop him. His brains were greater than thecombined 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, forwhich he had hoped and prayed during that hour, whipped across thepark 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 thepress. Following on the heels of the Colombian ape story, Barter wouldalmost surely put two and two together to arrive at the proper total.
- - -
Bentley read on:
"Ellen Estabrook, fiancee of Lee Bentley, disappears mysteriously fromher hotel room. Guarded by a score of police, not one has yet beenfound who knows anything of her disappearance or saw her leave. Nobodyseems to have seen anyone go to her room or leave it. Our policedepartment must have fallen on evil days indeed when twenty crackplain-clothes men cannot keep one woman under surveillance."
Something was radically wrong, but Bentley could not piece the wholestory together, simply because he had been out of touch for so manyhours that the thread of it had slipped from his fingers.
Suddenly Bentley noticed that a solitary man was watching himcuriously, a dawning amazement in his face. Bentley roused himself andsaw that he was standing against the mesh, fingers hooked into itabove his head, his weight on his left leg, his right foot crossedover his left, his head thoughtfully bowed.
To the amazed man yonder the "Colombian ape" must have lookedremarkably 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 theloose easy manner an ape would have used.
He forced himself to sit thus until evening, when the last curious onevanished from the park and darkness began to fall.
Then excitement at the approach of a hoped for denouement began torise in his heart like a rushing tide.
Would Barter fall for the ruse? Or did he already know that theColombian ape was Lee Bentley?
In either case, Bentley thought, the Mind Master would take actionduring the first hours of darkness. Bentley was gambling desperatelyon what he knew to be characteristic of Caleb Barter.