_Dr. Ku Shows His Claws_
The scientist brushed back his thinning white hair with a trembling
hand. He knew that voice. He walked over and put his hands on his
friend's shoulders.
"Carse!" he exclaimed. "Thank God, you're alive!"
"And you," said the Hawk.
Ku Sui interrupted.
"I am most glad, honored Master Scientist," he said in the flowery
Oriental fashion that he affected in his irony, "to welcome you here.
For me it is a memorable occasion. Your presence graces my home, and,
however unworthily, distinguishes me, rewarding as it does aspirations
which I have long held. I am humbly confident that great achievements
will result from your visit----"
Quickly Eliot Leithgow turned and looked squarely at him. There was no
bending of spirit in the frail old man. "Yes," he said, "my visit. Your
sickening verbal genuflections beautifully evade the details--the house
of my friend raided at night; he, himself, unarmed, shot down in cold
blood; his house gutted! You are admirably consistent, Dr. Ku. A
brilliant stroke, typical of your best!"
Five faint lines appeared across the Eurasian's high, narrow brow.
"What?" he exclaimed. "Is this true? My servitors must be reprimanded
severely; and meanwhile I beg you not to hold their impetuousness
against me."
* * * * *
Carse could stand it no longer. This suave mockery and the pathetic
figure of his friend; the mention of raid and murder----
"It's all my fault," he blurted out. "I told him where you were. I
thought----"
"Oh, no!" Dr. Ku broke in, pleasantly protesting. "Captain Carse is
gallant, but the responsibility's not his. I have a little machine--a
trifle, but most ingenious at extracting secrets which persons attempt
to hold from me. The Captain couldn't help himself, you see----"
"It was not necessary to tell me that," said Leithgow.
"Of course," the Eurasian agreed and for the first time seriously; "but
let me suggest that the end justifies the means. And that brings me to
my point. Master Scientist, now you may know that I have for some time
been working toward a mighty end. This end is now in sight, with you
here, the final achievement can be attained. An achievement----" He
paused, and the ecstasy of the inspired fanatic came to his eyes. Never
before had the three men standing there so seen him. "I will explain."
His eyes changed, and imperiously he gave an order to his assistants. "A
chair for Master Leithgow, and one for Carse. Place them there." Then,
"Be seated," he invited them with a return of his usual seeming
courtesy. "I'm sure you must be tired."
Slowly Eliot Leithgow lowered himself into the metal seat. Friday,
ignored, shifted his weight from one foot to the other. The Hawk did not
sit down until with old habit he had sized up the whole layout of
laboratory, assistants and chances. The two chairs faced toward ward the
high screen; to each side stood the five coolie-guards; mechanically
alert as always; the four Caucasian assistants made a group of strange
statues to the right.
Ku Sui took position, standing before the screen. Seldom did the cold,
hard iron of the man show through the velvet of his manner as now.
"Yes," he said, "I will talk to you for a while; give you broad outline
of my purpose. And when I have finished you will know why I have wanted
you here so badly, Master Leithgow."
* * * * *
He began, and, as never before, he hid nothing of his monstrous
ambition, his extraordinary preparations. With mounting fear his
captives listened to his well-modulated voice as it proceeded logically
from point to point. He had fine feeling for the dramatic, knew well the
value of climax and pause; but his use of them was here unconscious, for
he spoke straight from his dark and feline heart.
For the first time in the Affair of the Brains, the tiger was showing
his claws.
"For a long time," Ku Sui said, "we four gathered here have fought each
other. All over space our conflict has ranged, from Earth to beyond
Saturn. I suppose there never have been more bitter enemies; I know
there has never been a greater issue. I said we four, but I should have
said we _two_, Master Leithgow. Captain Carse has commanded a certain
respect from me, the respect one must show for courage, fine physical
coordination and a remarkable instinct and capacity for
self-preservation--but, after all, he is primarily only like the black
here, Friday, and a much less splendid animal. It is a _brain_ that
receives my respect! A brain! Genius! I do not fear Carse: he is only an
adventurer; but your brain, Master Leithgow, I respect.
"For, naturally, brains will determine the future of these planets
around us. The man with the most profound and extensive scientific
knowledge united to the greatest audacity--remember, audacity!--can rule
them every one!"
He paused and looked into the eyes of the Master Scientist. Pointedly he
said:
"You, Master Leithgow, have the brains but not the audacity. I have the
audacity _and_ the brains--now that you are here."
* * * * *
Cold prickles of fear chased down Carse's and the scientist's spine at
this obscure threat. Some of their reaction must have shown in their
faces, for the Eurasian permitted himself a brief, triumphant smile and
added:
"You shall know just what I mean in but a few minutes. Right now, in
this very laboratory, the fate of the planets is being decided!"
Hawk Carse licked his dry lips.
"Big words!" he said.
"Easily proved, Captain Carse, as you'll see. What can restrain the man
who can instantly command Earth's master-minds of scientific knowledge,
the man who has both a considerable brain of his own to call on and the
mightiest brains in existence, all coordinated for perfect, instant
effectiveness. Why, with these brains working for him, he can become
omnipotent; there can be but feeble resistance to his steps toward
universal power! Only chance, unpredictable chance, always at work,
always powerful, can defeat him--and my audacity allows me to disregard
what I cannot anticipate."
"You talk riddles," answered Leithgow. "You do not explain your intended
means. What you imply you can do with brains is utterly impossible."
"Impossible? Ever a foolish word, Master. You know that the brain has
always been my special study. As much as ten years ago, I was
universally recognized as the greatest expert in my specialty. But I
tell you that my knowledge of the subject was as nothing then to what it
is now. I have been very busy these last ten years. Look!"
With a graceful sweep of a hand he indicated the four coolie-guards and
his four white-smocked assistants.
"These men of mine," he continued, "do they appear normal, would you
say? Or, rather, mechanicalized; lacking in certain things and thereby
gaining enormously in the values which can make them perfect servitors?
I have removed from their minds certain superficial qualities of
thought. The four men in white were, a few years ago, highly skilled
surgeons, three of them brain specialists and noted for exceptional
intellects and bold, pioneering thinking. I needed them and took them,
diverting them from their natural state, in which they would have
resisted me and refused my commands. Certain complicated adjustments on
their brains--and now their brains are mine, all their separate skill at
my command alone!"
* * * * *
Leithgow sat back suddenly, astonishment and horror on his face. His
lips parted as if to speak, then closed tightly together again. At last
he uttered one word.
"Murderer!"
Dr. Ku smiled. "In a sense, yes. But let me go on.
"The reshaping of these mentalities and of the mentalities of all my
coolies, were achievements, and valuable ones; but I wanted more. I
wanted much more. I wanted the great, important part of all Earth's
scientific knowledge at my fingertips, under my control. I wanted the
exceptional brains of Earth, the brains of rare genius, the brains that
lived like lonely stars, infinitely removed from the common herd. And
more than that, I wanted them _always_; I wanted them _ageless_. For I
had to seal my power!"
The Eurasian's words were coming more rapidly now, though the man's
thoughts and tone were still under control; and Carse, sitting there
silently, felt that the climax was being reached; that soon something
unthinkable, something of dread, would be revealed. The voice went on:
"These brains I wanted were not many--only six in all. Most of them you
knew, Master Leithgow, these men who constituted the cream of Earth's
scientific ability. Professor Estapp, the good-looking young American;
Dr. Swanson, the Swede; Master Scientist Cram--the great English genius
Cram, already legendary, the only other of that rank beside yourself;
Professor Geinst, the hunchbacked, mysterious German; and Dr.
Norman--Dr. Sir Charles Esme Norman, to give him his English title. I
wanted these men, and I got them! All except you, the sixth!"
* * * * *
Again Dr. Ku Sui smiled in triumph. To Eliot Leithgow his smile was
unspeakable.
"Yes," the elderly scientist cried out, "you got them, you murderer!"
"Oh, no, no, Master Leithgow, you are mistaken. I did not kill them. Why
should I be stupid as to do that? To these men I wanted so badly? No,
no. Because these five scientists disappeared from Earth suddenly,
without trace, without hint of the manner of their going, the stupid
Earthlings believe they were killed! Stupid Earthlings! Abducted, of
course; but why assume they were killed? And why, of all people, decide
that Master Scientist Eliot Leithgow had something to do with their
disappearance? I confess to having planted that evidence pointing to
you, but if they had the sense of a turnip they would know that you were
incapable of squashing a flea, let alone destroying five eminent
brothers in science! You, jealous, guilty of five _crimes passionel!
Pour le science!_ Credulous Earthlings! Incredible Earthlings! And here
are you, a hunted man with a price on your head!
"So for ten years you have thought I murdered those five men? No, no.
They were very much alive for eight years and very troublesome
prisoners. It took me eight years to solve the problem I had set myself.
"You will meet them in a minute--the better part of them. You'll see for
yourself that they are very usefully alive. For I succeeded completely
with them. _I have sealed my power!_"
His silk pajamalike clothing rustled loud in the strained silence as he
turned to the screen behind him. For some obscure reason the perfume
about him, flowers of tsin-tsin, seemed to grow in their nostrils.
"Observe!" he said, and lifted it aside. An assistant threw a switch on
a nearby panel. The unnatural quiet in the laboratory was resumed.
"The ultimate concentration of scientific knowledge and genius! The
gateway to all power!"