_A Woman of Courage_
Caleb Barter smiled warmly at the woman who had come to him almost as
though in answer to a prayer. He admired her flashing eyes and the
lifted chin which spoke of pride and courage.
"I had thought of improving the feminine strain of the race also," he
told her, but almost as though he spoke to himself, "but I realized
that it mattered little the stature of the mothers of the race as long
as the fathers were made virile. But if all women were like yourself,
Miss Estabrook, the race would not require the improvement it is now
my duty to bestow upon it."
Ellen stared directly into the eyes of the white-haired old man. As
she looked at him she found it hard to believe that one so gentle from
outward appearances had such a vast, grim power for evil. In repose
his face was kindly, though there was something out of character in
the fact that it was so apple rosy. And his lips were far too red.
"Where," she said quietly, fearlessly, "is Lee Bentley?"
Barter raised his eyebrows as he stared back at her. So far she had
not looked around at this great room into which he had had her
conducted; she had seemed interested only in her mission, whatever
that might be.
"You mean that delightfully rude young man?" he asked sardonically.
"You know well enough whom I mean! Where is he?"
"Then he is not to be found in his usual haunts?"
"He has disappeared."
"And you come out seeking Professor Barter because Bentley his
disappeared! It is almost as though you had previously arranged with
him to come seeking me if, at a certain time he failed to return from
some mysterious rendezvous...."
- - -
Barter's face was now a mask of uncanny shrewdness. In a few words he
had pierced through Ellen's secret of why she had deliberately placed
herself in the way of Barter's minions in order to be taken, and now
he had used the words of her own questions to form a weapon against
her. Ellen gasped in terror.
Had she made a hideous mistake? Had she, by failing to wait for word
from Bentley, ruined all his well laid plans?
Barter now stood before her, his eyes almost shooting fire.
"Tell me quickly," he began, and for a second she thought he would put
his hands on her, "what sort of plan is he making to betray me into
the hands of my enemies, who are the enemies of super-civilization
because they are my enemies?"
"I know of nothing," said Ellen stoutly, hoping that she had not,
after all, betrayed the fact that she knew Bentley had started to work
out an unusual scheme. The details she didn't know, for Lee hadn't
told her. "But I do know, what all the world knows, that he was
helping the police against you. Naturally, then, when he vanished I
thought of you. Besides you had already warned him that you would
remove him in your own good time. He caused you the loss of two of
your puppets and I thought, naturally enough, that you would try to
remove him to some place where he could not operate so successfully
against you."
"That's all?" queried Barter eagerly. "You don't know of some special
scheme that has been worked out to trap me?"
"I know of no scheme. Now that I am in your hands, Professor, what do
you intend doing with me?"
Barter stared at Ellen for several minutes.
"I haven't captured Bentley ... yet," he said at last, slowly, "but I
shall--no doubt about that. It is inevitable--as inevitable as Caleb
Barter. I can use him in my labors for humanity. How I treat him after
he is taken depends somewhat on you. You may therefore consider
yourself a sort of hostage. I have much medical work to perform. Have
you ever been a nurse?"
- - -
Ellen recoiled in horror. "You don't mean you would ask me to help you
perform those horrible--" She stopped abruptly before her sudden
tendency to hysterics should make her say things to anger Barter too
far.
"So," he said quickly, "you think my brain operations are horrible,
eh? Well, you shall see that they are not horrible; that Professor
Barter, the greatest scientist the world has ever produced, is really
preparing to prevent civilization from utterly decaying."
"And afterward?" asked Ellen. "I know that eventually you will be
taken and that the people will destroy you, tear you limb from limb.
But you will never believe that. Tell me, then, what you plan to do
with me."
For a brief time he considered the matter.
"I am an old man," he said at last, musingly, "but I am young in
spirit and in body. It would be amusing to have a mate--but no, no,
that would not do! The destiny of Caleb Barter is not linked with a
woman. You would simply hold me back. However, I have often been
interested in miscegenation and its effect on the race if properly
guided. My assistant Naka Machi, is one of the finest specimens of his
race. Perhaps I shall arrange for you to mate with him, under
conditions which I shall dictate, in order to experiment with your
offspring...."
Ellen swayed, her face going dead white. She hadn't yet met Naka
Machi, but his name told her enough. The thought of a Japanese,
however, was far less repellent than the cold, calm way in which
Barter spoke of using the offspring of such a union.
"I'll kill myself at the first opportunity," said Ellen suddenly.
- - -
Barter put his forefinger under Ellen's chin in a paternal fashion.
His eyes looked deeply into hers. She thought of what his fingers had
done in the past ... those long slender fingers. His touch made her
shudder.
But his eyes held her. They seemed like deep wells. Then they were
like black coals advancing upon her out of the darkness, growing
bigger and bigger as they came, with little flames in their centers
also growing as they approached.
"You will submit your will to mine," said the soft voice of Caleb
Barter.
His right hand was making swift snakelike movements back of Ellen's
head. His voice droned on, but already it seemed to Ellen to come from
a vast distance.
"Your mind will be concerned only with the welfare of Caleb Barter,"
droned on the voice. "You will think only of Caleb Barter; your
greatest desire will be to serve him. There is nothing you would not
do for him. Let your objective mind sleep until Caleb Barter wakens
it; give your subjective mind into my keeping."
Beads of perspiration broke out on the cheeks of Caleb Barter as he
worked quickly to place the girl entirely under his skilled hypnosis.
At last she stood like a statue, her wide-open eyes staring into
space, straight ahead. She did not move. She scarcely seemed to
breathe.
"You will know that my home is your home, Ellen," said Barter softly.
"You will feel that you are welcome here and that you love this place.
It needs the attention of a loving woman; you will give it that
attention. But you will be subservient always to my will. You will
enter upon your duties."
Ellen Estabrook sighed softly as though with relief. Her hands went up
to remove her hat, which she placed on a chair in a corner of the
hellish laboratory. She removed her light coat and arranged her hair
with skilled fingers. But even as she moved around the room of the
long table her eyes stared vacantly into space. She was as much a
puppet of Caleb Barter as were Stanley, Morton and Cleve. But,
mercifully, she did not know it.
- - -
Barter studied her for several moments; his eyes squinted. He was
making sure that she was not duping him with pretense. Satisfied at
last be turned his eyes away from her. He stepped to the porcelain
slab set in the bronze wall of his laboratory and looked at the
push-buttons marked "C-3" and "E-5". The red lights were on,
indicating that the two puppets controlled by these two keys were
returning toward their master. The lights had been green when Barter
had begun his conversation with Ellen Estabrook, indicating that the
two puppets were still going away. With a tremendous effort of will he
had given them sufficient mental stimulus to keep them traveling
without his direct will for the few minutes he would require for
Ellen.
Now, however, he quickly donned the metal cap and the little ball, and
inserted into the orifice in his cap the swinging key which connected
by chain with the key which fitted into the slot under the button
marked "C-3".
He had returned to his puppets just in time. "C-3" was Cleve, who was
driving the car sent out to bring in the Colombian ape. As Barter got
in touch with the car it narrowly averted a crash with a police car
... and the perspiration broke forth afresh on the body of Barter as
he resumed control of his puppets.
The second creature, in the front seat of the car, was Morton, and it
didn't matter particularly about him as he was not driving. But Morton
was now becoming all ape. Barter did not wish to use any more of his
mental energy than was necessary. He contented himself by sending his
will into Cleve, who began at once to drive like a master. Whenever
Morton, beside him, showed an inclination to jump out of the car or
otherwise interfere with Cleve in his work, Barter had but to express
the thought, and Cleve either pulled him back to his place beside him,
or gave him a walnut from his pocket.
- - -
Barter could as easily have had them change places, since he assumed
control of either at will, or could have controlled a score
simultaneously. But that would have required additional thought
stimulus, and he wished to conserve his mental energies for the work
which yet faced him.
Once he switched his attention from the heliotube which controlled
Cleve--and through which, concurrently, he saw everything that
transpired near Cleve, because his televisory apparatus and his radio
control were co-workers on almost identical vibratory waves--to the
area of Manhattan immediately surrounding his own neighborhood.
"Hmm," he said to himself, "the police are getting too close. As soon
as I have completed my labors to-night I shall destroy some of them as
a warning to others to keep their distance."
Morton and Cleve drew up to the curb while Barter watched carefully on
all sides, through the heliotube, to make sure that their arrival was
unmarked by the police.
They climbed out quickly and raced across the sidewalk to the green
gate which gave on a gloomy old court, inside which they were
swallowed by the shadows from all eyes save those of Caleb Barter.
Five minutes after the strange trio had entered the "place," the great
chrome-steel door of Barter's laboratory swung open.
"Morton and Cleve, my master," announced Naka Machi, bowing low and
sucking in his breath with a hissing sound.
Barter's own puppets entered with the ape between them.
Barter walked fearlessly forward. He had slipped the key from the
orifice atop his head. Morton and Cleve now stood listlessly, dumbly,
looking with dead eyes at their master. Barter tossed them several
walnuts each.
Then he turned his attention to the ape, rubbing his hands together
with pleasure.
But the ape was behaving strangely. His eyes were staring past Barter.
His hands sought to lift as though he would hold them out to someone;
but the ropes prevented him. Barter turned to look. Ellen Estabrook
stood beyond him, white of face, motionless as a statue. The ape was
straining toward her.
Caleb Barter chuckled with understanding.
"Good evening, Lee," he said gently. "I've been expecting you!"