CHAPTER XIII
_Where the Bodies Went_
Bentley had been bound carelessly. Who could expect ape brains todevise clever bonds, even when controlled by Caleb Barter? And now itseemed that Caleb Barter had known all along; he said he had beenexpecting Bentley. No, that wasn't it. Barter had seen him yearningtoward Ellen Estabrook, statuesque and wide-eyed on the other side ofthe room. If it hadn't been for the presence of Ellen he might havebeen accepted as an ape. Now it made little difference.
But his bonds were not tightly drawn. He found himself fighting themfiercely, trying to get his hands on Caleb Barter. He could see thescrawny Adam's apple of the mad scientist, and his fingers itched topress 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 ithad been intended to render him utterly unconscious. But Naka Machihadn't taken into consideration that his skull was protected by thehide of an ape. He remembered, as he stumbled and fell forward, thatthe Japanese were wizards with their hands. That's why Naka Machicould knock him down, render him helpless, yet leave his brain asclearly active as before. Perhaps clearer, even, for now his brain didnot act on his legs and arms, which were helpless.
Bentley felt as he imagined a patient on the operating table mightfeel when not given sufficient anesthetic, yet given enough to makehim incapable of speech or movement. Such a patient would hear thesoft 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 aninjury. Remain powerless, Lee Bentley, but retain your knowledge."
Barter, then, was familiar with the strange hypnosis which the blow ofNaka Machi's hand had put upon Bentley. Barter had taken advantage ofit to add to it a sort of mental paralysis, so that the conditionwould continue.
"You are in my hands, Lee," he said in paternal fashion, "but you cando me no harm. Since you were associated with me in the first of mygreat experiments you know much about me. I have never ceased to hopethat you would one day understand and appreciate what I am doing forhumanity and be brought to aid me. Perhaps if I force you to watch myefforts you will understand them and sympathize with my ambitions."
Bentley could say nothing. Barter's eyes seemed to leap at him growinglarge and glaring, just as the eyes of caricatured animals leap at thecamera in trick motion pictures. Physically he was powerless. Only hisbrain was active.
"Remove this covering from him, Naka Machi," went on Barter. "Removehis bonds. You are about his size. Garb him in some of your ownclothing."
Bentley had the odd feeling that he didn't need to turn his head tosee things around him. His head felt huge, almost to bursting, and hiseyes felt huge, too, so that he could see in all directions, as thoughhis eyeballs had been fish-eye lenses.
- - -
He studied Naka Machi. A nasty opponent in a fight, he decided. Hehadn't figured on any opponent other than Barter. This man was almostas great. The skill of his fingers as he quickly removed the ape skinfrom Bentley, using scalpels taken from Barter's table, amazed Bentleywith their miraculous dexterity. He cleaned Bentley's body with somesolution in a sponge and clothed him in some of his own clothing whichfitted 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 tomove. His feet, too, seemed anchored to the floor. His knees werestiff and straight. He might as well have been a wooden image for allhis ability to get about.
Now Barter spoke.
"Come here, Lee," he said.
Bentley was amazed at the kindliness in Barter's attitude. He dealtwith Bentley as though he had been his son. He felt that Bartergenuinely liked him. It was rather amazing. Barter liked him but wouldremove him without compunction if he thought it necessary.
Bentley found he could move his feet, or rather they seemed to move oftheir 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 onBarter, "and I am now entirely safe from the police. I've issuedanother manifesto telling the public that for each attempt madeagainst 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, butwith the ear-hooks common to ordinary spectacles. He set them overBentley'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 desertedhighway, on which red and green lights blinked off and on in the usualroutine, signaling to drivers who were non-existent. There were vistasof deserted streets and avenues. There were some few livingthings--policemen in uniform, standing in pairs and larger groups, allconcentrated in an area covering no more than twenty acres, whichtwenty acres included the hideout of Caleb Barter. Bentley knew thatthe 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 nonewas apparent. Then a circular stairway leading down into darkness tothe room which Barter had gouged out of the earth and turned into alaboratory of hell.
"See the police?" asked Barter. "They know now where I am, but theyare helpless because of my hostages. I shall now begin the operationsI believe to be necessary. Then I shall issue another manifesto,telling the public that I am safeguarded by great apes whose abilitywill prove the correctness of my theory about the possibility ofcreating a race of supermen. My manifesto shall say that my apes mustnot be slain. It shall say that for every ape slain by the police oneof my eighteen hostages will die."
Bentley would have gasped with horror, but he could not. Now he sawThomas Tyler, his face a white mask of despair, in the midst of hishelpless men.
"I'll give you a hand, somehow, Tommy," Bentley whispered deep downinside 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 followus."
- - -
Barter removed the strange glasses from Bentley's eyes, blotting outthe deserted streets and avenues of Manhattan. Naka Machi followedbehind Bentley, carrying the ape skin in which Bentley had penetratedthe stronghold of Caleb Barter.
The chrome-steel door swung silently back and the three enteredanother room filled with blaring light. Without being able to lookback Bentley knew that Ellen, white of face and staring, followed attheir heels.
There was a long white operating table in this room, and a smallerchrome-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 thedrawers. He brought out a white tube, closed at one end, about aninch 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 toaccommodate two or three grown men, lying side by side at full length.It seemed to be indirectly lighted. The ape skin dropped on the floorof this compartment. Barter took the "incineration tube" and directedit 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 thecompartment, like rain from the roof of the ghastly little space.
"Now you understand that I have solved the problem of disposing of thecumbersome useless bodies of my hostages, Lee," said Baxter, rubbinghis hands together as though he washed them.
Bentley's heart leaped as Naka Machi
placed the incineration tube onthe operating table. It was close enough that Bentley could havereached it, had he not been utterly powerless to move.
"Naka Machi," said Barter. "Bring me ape D-4 and Frank Keller, thediplomat. 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 anightmare Bentley was never to forget, even as he prayed within himthat no slightest memory of it would remain in the brain of EllenEstabrook.
Naka Machi went back to the room which Bentley had first entered andreturned almost at once with a tall thin man, immaculately garbed ingray, wearing a spade beard. His eyes were flashing fires of anger andof pride.
He stared at Barter.
"What is all this quackery?" he demanded. "Who is responsible for thisunspeakable rigmarole?"
"Your words are harsh, Mr. Keller," said Barter suavely, "and youshall learn in good time what I intend. Had you followed mymanifestoes in the news columns you would have known what I intend. Ishall create a race of super--"
"You will at once release myself and the others with me," interruptedKeller.
But at that moment Naka Machi returned, leading a great ape whichseemed as docile as though it had been drugged. Naka Machi raised hisright hand quickly, so quickly Bentley could scarce follow themovement, and with the edge of his palm struck the tall gray man inback of the head. Keller's knees buckled. As he started to fall NakaMachi stepped close to him, gathered him in his arms and bore him tothe table.
At Barter's swift instructions Ellen Estabrook, all unknowing, placeda cone indicated by Barter over the mouth and nose of Keller. NakaMachi struck the ape as he had struck the man, but he waited until hehad persuaded the brute to take his place on the table near Keller'shead.
- - -
The ape sprawled. Naka Machi quickly twisted both Keller and the apearound so that their heads were toward each other, their feet pointingin 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 himharmless in case I have misjudged him."
Naka Machi turned baleful eyes on Bentley. The latter could see thehatred 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 isenough of the anesthetic, Miss Estabrook. Naka Machi, my instruments,quickly."
Before he proceeded with his labors Barter stood in front of Bentleyand stared at him for a moment. Bentley felt the strength flow out ofhim under the gaze of this man--a gaze he could not avoid. Bartersmiled slightly.
"You will eventually join me of your own free will, Lee," he saidsoftly.
"I would rather die a thousand deaths!" screamed Bentley, but thesound of his scream echoed and reechoed through his soul withoutcoming out so that Barter could hear it.
- - -
Barter's confidence in his ability to convert Bentley was assuredly amark of his twisted mind, for he must surely have realized thatBentley would be the most injured by his schemes. But he seemed toassociate him with the days of Manape, when Barter had proved tohimself, to Bentley and Ellen Estabrook, that the operation he nowplanned in wholesale proportions was possible. Bentley couldunderstand why Barter regarded him as a friend and colleague, and hisanimosity temporary--because as a subject of his first greatexperiment Bentley was a symbol of Barter's success.
Strange how easy it was to find logic in the reasoning of madmen, andto understand that logic!
Barter sprang back to his task.
"Naka Machi," he said, "take heed that you serve me well. Do you likethis 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 statementwas like another blow on the head. He wanted to leap forward and setstrangling fingers about the neck of Naka Machi. Ordinarily Naka Machicould handle him with ease, but now that Bentley had heard the plan ofBarter, he could have handled the Japanese with superhuman strength.But he could not move. He strained against the bodily lethargy whichheld him prisoner. If only he could move forward and grasp theincineration tube, he would turn it on Naka Machi and Barter....
But he could not move, could not fight off the lethargy which was likeinvincible prison walls around him.
He could move the tips of his fingers, he discovered ... but no morethan that. The shock of Barter's calm statement had cast off that muchof his semi-hypnotic lethargy. A minute before he hadn't been ableeven to move his fingers.
- - -
Give him time, he told himself, while inwardly he bled as he struggleddesperately to throw off the grim hypnosis, and he would yet manage tosave the lives of at least some of the eighteen, see that Ellen wonfree, and destroy this hell-hole under Millegan Place.
Now incredibly slender instruments were busy near the heads of the twoon the operating table--the ape and Keller, the doomed man. As theknives and scalpels leaped to their work with startling dexterity andamazing speed, Bentley strained again against his horrid invisibleprison. If only he could save this man Keller from this horror ... butit 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 fellopen under the hands of Barter, and he knew she was unaware of whatshe was doing. Bentley had expected a crimson horror, but nothing ofthe kind developed. Could Barter read his thoughts?
"I am an adept at bloodless surgery, Bentley," he said, while hisfingers never ceased their swift manipulations.
Now Naka Machi held the skull-pan of the ape, from which he hadremoved the reddish substance which was the ape's brain. This NakaMachi had tossed into the aperture where the ape skin had beendestroyed.
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 hetried to throw off his awful inertia, to go to the aid of Keller. IfBarter should see the perspiration on his cheeks....
Bentley thought of Samson in the midst of his enemies, blind andbeaten, of how he had prayed to be given strength to pull down thepillars of the temple....
"Oh God," said Bentley to himself, "only this once give me strength tothrow off these chains. Grant that I do something to save the man fromthis horror."
- - -
But he could still move only the tips of his fingers when Barter hadfinally closed the sutures in the skull-pan of the ape, renewing againthe 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 andlifeless. Barter had not troubled to restore Keller's skull-pan. Whatwas the need?
Naka Machi gathered up the carcass of Keller and bore it swiftly tothe boxlike hole in the wall of the ghastly room....
He thrust it in. He stepped back and caught up the incineration tubeof concentrated fire ... and Bentley saw the body of the murdered manshrivel up so quickly it seemed as though it had dissolved before hiseyes. Down from the ceiling of the hell-hole dropped the fine grayash, all that remained--save the imprisoned brain--of Frank Keller,the diplomat.
Now Bentley was cognizant of something else. With Barter's concentratedwork on Keller, something of the power went out of him. Ever so slightlyBentley could feel that Barter was lacking in strength. Some of hiswill, some of the essential essence of his brai
n, of his soul, hadbeen expended in the operation--and by so much was Bentley enabled tomove. For now he could move two full fingers on each hand. But howcarefully he kept watch to see that neither Naka Machi nor Barternoticed that he was bursting from his invisible prison.
If he could get that incineration tube. He'd do the necessary thingsfirst ... then direct the ray of it against the softer portions of thehideout of Barter. The flame would eat through. Somewhere it wouldfinally 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 thepolice knew approximately where he, Barter, was located.
- - -
"Now, Bentley," said Barter, "I'll explain what I intend doing while Irest a moment before the next ordeal. The whole world is against menow because it regards my experiments as horrible, but if I prove tothe world that I am right, and that the men of my creation aresupermen, in the end the world will be on my side. I can force it toobey me, in time, but I prefer the world to serve me willingly,because it realizes that what I do for civilization should really bedone."
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 knowthat it is not a wild ape that has escaped. When the new Keller, withthe strong brain of Keller and the mighty body of an ape, appears athis office and proves to his people that he has been vastly improvedby my experiment...."
Bentley tried to shut his mind to the horrible picture Barter's wordsdrew before his eyes. Barter broke off short, while Bentley's mindseemed to rock with the shock of Barter's last statement. He saw apicture ... a great office filled with many desks occupied bywhite-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 couldnow move his toes. If only he could fall forward, grasp thatincineration tube, turn it on Barter! With Barter unable to controlhim he would regain his senses in time, he hoped, to stave off thecertain charge of Naka Machi, whose hatred for himself he nowunderstood too well.
He hoped, if he were able to accomplish what he planned, that horrorupon awakening would cause Ellen to faint. While she was out he coulddestroy the horror with the cleansing flame ... and tell her shehadn't seen it, after all.
Bentley could feel the strength pour back into him. Barter wasbecoming moment by moment more intent on his labors. He was becomingcareless with Bentley, not because he underestimated him but becausehe was intensely absorbed in his work.
By the time two more men had gone bodily into the incinerator andmentally into a pair of apes, the first ape, carelessly dumped on thefloor, came out from under the effects of the drug.
"Stand over there in the corner, Keller," Barter said to the hybridcarelessly, "and remember that no matter how you may wish to escapeyou can only do so if I will. Remain quiet there and consider whetheryou will oppose me or obey me. Oppose me and your only escape isself-destruction. Obey me and possess the world!"
Bentley could imagine the horror and despair of "Keller," for hehimself had known that horror and despair.
Now he could swing his wrists slightly. Naka Machi turned once with asudden movement and almost caught him at it, and perspiration brokeout on Bentley's face again. Thank God, Ellen realized none of whatshe was experiencing.
- - -
Two other men gave their lives at Barter's hands ... yet Bentley hadonly regained sufficient possession of himself to fall forward on hisface if he tried to walk, but even that was something.
Five men were gone now. Could he possibly regain muscular control intime to save the lives of some of the eighteen? As he watched the fivego into the furnace, one by one, he began to despair of saving any ofthe eighteen, but with each operation Barter lost mental strength. Ifhe lost in arithmetical progression as he had during the last five,Bentley estimated that he, Bentley, would be able to move his armsenough to grasp the incineration tube by the time Barter had finishedhis eighth transplantation.
So, the horror growing until nausea ate at Bentley's stomach likevoracious maggots, he watched Barter destroy three more men andcreate godless monsters in their places. As each manape regainedconsciousness Barter told him what he had told Keller--and Naka Machitook them out, one by one, and placed them in their allotted cages.
Naka Machi placed the eighth man in the furnace, returned theincineration tube to the table.
"Now, oh God the Father!" moaned Bentley.
He leaned forward, striving with all his will to force his hands to gotruly to their target as he fell. He had little or no control of hislegs or knees. But let him once hold that tube in his hands....
He fell soundlessly, his hands clutching for the tube. His fingerstouched it as he crashed to the floor, and it fell near him. Hisfingers fumbled for the tube and now gripped it tightly.
From under the table, writhing and twisting, striving to break hismental bondage, Bentley saw the legs of Caleb Barter. He snapped thebutton on the tube and turned its open end toward those legs.
"I must not look into his eyes as he falls," thought Bentley, "or allis lost."
- - -
A terrible scream rang through the operating room. Barter was falling,crumpling as he fell, and as his body slid downward past the tableedge, Bentley held the end of the tube toward it. As the bodies of theeight had shriveled, so shriveled the body of Caleb Barter.
Ellen Estabrook screamed horribly, and sprawled on the floor within afoot or two of Bentley. Nature had mercifully sent her into momentaryoblivion when the will of Barter, holding her in thrall, had snappedto show her the horror of what she did.
Naka Machi was screaming. Bentley was Bentley again, crawling forthfrom under the table. Naka Machi met him in a rush and dissolvedbefore the deadly ray as though he had never existed. Its effect musthave been a silent explosion, for a fine gray ash came down from theceiling as the residue which falls when a soaring rocket has explodedand expended its power. The gray ash was Naka Machi, forever renderedharmless 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 bywhich they could resume their normal lives, for of their human bodiesthere remained but heaps of fine powdery ashes.
Suddenly the manape Keller swept his great hairy arm out between thebars and snatched the tube from Bentley's hand. With a cry of mortalanguish Bentley recoiled from the cage. God! Now all was lost if themanape clicked on the deadly ray and swept it over the room.
Before he could formulate a plan of action, the manape pressed thefatal button. With a cry Bentley threw himself across the room towhere Ellen lay unconscious, his only thought to somehow protect herfrom the tube.
- - -
But the manape, Keller, swung the ray upon the other apes with thehuman minds, and they dissolved into ashy nothingness with bewilderingrapidity. The keen mind of Keller was doing what he knew must be donefor the good of everyone concerned.
Numbed with horror, Bentley saw the ray directed on Morton andStanley. They fell silently and without protest....
Keller clicked off the button and looked over at Bentley. He aloneremained of Barter's frightful experiment. He alone remained and itseemed that he was trying to tell Bentley something ... asking him tonow take the tube and turn it full on the body which housed his humanbrain.
While Bentley hesitated, the manape bent down and placed the tube onthe floor of the cage, the muzzle pointing inward. With a clumsymotion of a long hairy arm he reached out and snicked on the button,then placed himself within its deadly range. Keller vanished and ther
ay bit into the wall back of the cage; began to eat through.
Bentley leaped to his feet and tore across the floor. He plunged histrembling hand through the bars of the cage, switched off the buttonand lifted the tube.
There were the remaining normal apes. They could have been saved fortransportation to the zoo, but horror was on Bentley and he used thetube again, and yet again....
And there were the keys. He pulled them from their slots in theporcelain 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 thecharred hole grow bigger and deeper in the high ceiling....
When at last he heard the approaching clang of the fire engine bellsand the screaming triumph of police sirens, he carefully snicked offthe button of the tube and returned to lift the form of Ellen in armsthat 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.)
The Mind Master Page 13