Crowley interrupted ominously. "You know, Doc, that's where this
particular common man has it all over you eggheads. You spend so much
time reading, you don't take in the action shows on TV. Now what you're
thinking is that even if we were going to twist your arm a little, you'd
stick to your guns. But suppose, like, it was Pat we was working on,
while you had to sit and watch."
The elderly man's brave front collapsed and his thin shoulders slumped.
Crowley barked a laugh.
Patricia by now, was bent over the unconscious Ross crying even as she
tried to help him.
Crowley said to the silent, all but disinterested Larry, "Have these
three put in separate rooms in that section they used for the violent
wing when the place was a nuthouse. Have a good guard and see they don't
talk back and forth."
"You're the boss," Larry said languidly.
* * * * *
Crowley was thorough. For that they had to give him credit. They were
kept divided, each in a different room-cell and with at least two burly,
efficient guards on constant watch. They were fed on army-type trays and
their utensils checked carefully. There was no communication
allowed--even with the guard.
The second day, Crowley took measures to see their disappearance raised
no alarm at either their place of employment or at their residences.
This raised few problems since all were single and all had already
taken off both from the job and from their homes in order to carry out
their experiment. Crowley forced them to write further notes and letters
finding excuses for extending their supposed vacations. He also had
Larry return to the hotel suite, pay their bill, pack their things and
bring them to the Catskill estate which had become their prison.
He had them make up lists of materials and equipment they would need for
further manufacture of the serum upon which they had stumbled, and sent
off men to acquire the things.
And on three occasions during the following weeks he had them brought
from their cells and spent an hour or so with them at lunch or dinner.
Crowley evidently needed an audience beyond that of his henchmen. The
release of his basic character, formerly repressed, was progressing
geometrically and there seemed to be an urgency to crow, to brag, to
boast.
[Illustration]
On the third of these occasions he was already seated at the table when
they were ushered into the dining room. Crowley dismissed the guards
with a wave of his hand as though they were liveried servants.
All had eaten but there were liqueurs and coffee, cigars and cigarettes
on the broad table.
Ross sank into a chair and growled, "Well, what hath the great man
wrought by now?"
Crowley grinned at him, poured coffee and then a dollop of Napoleon
brandy into it. He gestured with a hand. "Help yourselves, folks. How
you feeling? You been getting all the books you wanted? You look kind of
peaked, Pat."
"Miss O'Gara to you, you ape with delusions of grandeur," she snapped.
"When are you going to let us out of those prison cells?"
Crowley wasn't provoked. The strong can afford to laugh at the
malcontented weak. "That's one of the things you never know," he said
easily. "You sure you want out? Something the Doc said the other day had
a lotta fact in it. The fewer people know about this secret of mine, the
better off I'll be and the better off I am, the better off the whole
country is going to be and I gotta think about that. I got
responsibilities."
"A combination of Engine Charley and Louis XIV, eh?" Ross muttered,
running his beefy hand back over his crew cut. It was a relief to get
out of his room and talk with the others, but he didn't want Crowley to
see that.
"What's that?" the other was impatient of conversation that went above
his head.
Dr. Braun explained gently. "One said, _I am the State_, and the other,
_anything that's good for my corporation is good for the United
States_--or something quite similar."
Crowley sipped at his coffee royal. "Well, anyway, Pat, the day you're
ready to leave that cell, you'd better start worrying cause that'll mean
I don't need you any more."
Ross growled, "You didn't answer my question. Robbed any banks lately,
great man?"
The other eyed him coldly. "Take it easy, Buster. Maybe in the early
stages of the Common Man Movement we hafta take some strong-arm
measures, but that stage's about finished."
Patricia O'Gara was interested in spite of herself. She said. "You mean
you already have all the money you need?"
He was expansive. Obviously there was nothing to lose with these three
and he liked a sounding board. In spite of his alleged contempt for
eggheads there was an element in Crowley which wished to impress them,
to grant him equal status in their own estimations.
"There's a devil of a lot to know about big finance. You need a starter,
but once you get it, the stuff just rolls in automatic." He grinned
suddenly, almost boyishly. "Especially when you got a certain little
advantage, like me."