_Where the Bodies Went_
Bentley had been bound carelessly. Who could expect ape brains to
devise clever bonds, even when controlled by Caleb Barter? And now it
seemed that Caleb Barter had known all along; he said he had been
expecting Bentley. No, that wasn't it. Barter had seen him yearning
toward Ellen Estabrook, statuesque and wide-eyed on the other side of
the room. If it hadn't been for the presence of Ellen he might have
been accepted as an ape. Now it made little difference.
But his bonds were not tightly drawn. He found himself fighting them
fiercely, trying to get his hands on Caleb Barter. He could see the
scrawny Adam's apple of the mad scientist, and his fingers itched to
press 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 it
had been intended to render him utterly unconscious. But Naka Machi
hadn't taken into consideration that his skull was protected by the
hide of an ape. He remembered, as he stumbled and fell forward, that
the Japanese were wizards with their hands. That's why Naka Machi
could knock him down, render him helpless, yet leave his brain as
clearly active as before. Perhaps clearer, even, for now his brain did
not act on his legs and arms, which were helpless.
Bentley felt as he imagined a patient on the operating table might
feel when not given sufficient anesthetic, yet given enough to make
him incapable of speech or movement. Such a patient would hear the
soft 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 an
injury. Remain powerless, Lee Bentley, but retain your knowledge."
Barter, then, was familiar with the strange hypnosis which the blow of
Naka Machi's hand had put upon Bentley. Barter had taken advantage of
it to add to it a sort of mental paralysis, so that the condition
would continue.
"You are in my hands, Lee," he said in paternal fashion, "but you can
do me no harm. Since you were associated with me in the first of my
great experiments you know much about me. I have never ceased to hope
that you would one day understand and appreciate what I am doing for
humanity and be brought to aid me. Perhaps if I force you to watch my
efforts you will understand them and sympathize with my ambitions."
Bentley could say nothing. Barter's eyes seemed to leap at him growing
large and glaring, just as the eyes of caricatured animals leap at the
camera in trick motion pictures. Physically he was powerless. Only his
brain was active.
"Remove this covering from him, Naka Machi," went on Barter. "Remove
his bonds. You are about his size. Garb him in some of your own
clothing."
Bentley had the odd feeling that he didn't need to turn his head to
see things around him. His head felt huge, almost to bursting, and his
eyes felt huge, too, so that he could see in all directions, as though
his eyeballs had been fish-eye lenses.
- - -
He studied Naka Machi. A nasty opponent in a fight, he decided. He
hadn't figured on any opponent other than Barter. This man was almost
as great. The skill of his fingers as he quickly removed the ape skin
from Bentley, using scalpels taken from Barter's table, amazed Bentley
with their miraculous dexterity. He cleaned Bentley's body with some
solution in a sponge and clothed him in some of his own clothing which
fitted 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 to
move. His feet, too, seemed anchored to the floor. His knees were
stiff and straight. He might as well have been a wooden image for all
his ability to get about.
Now Barter spoke.
"Come here, Lee," he said.
Bentley was amazed at the kindliness in Barter's attitude. He dealt
with Bentley as though he had been his son. He felt that Barter
genuinely liked him. It was rather amazing. Barter liked him but would
remove him without compunction if he thought it necessary.
Bentley found he could move his feet, or rather they seemed to move of
their 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 on
Barter, "and I am now entirely safe from the police. I've issued
another manifesto telling the public that for each attempt made
against 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, but
with the ear-hooks common to ordinary spectacles. He set them over
Bentley'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 deserted
highway, on which red and green lights blinked off and on in the usual
routine, signaling to drivers who were non-existent. There were vistas
of deserted streets and avenues. There were some few living
things--policemen in uniform, standing in pairs and larger groups, all
concentrated in an area covering no more than twenty acres, which
twenty acres included the hideout of Caleb Barter. Bentley knew that
the 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 none
was apparent. Then a circular stairway leading down into darkness to
the room which Barter had gouged out of the earth and turned into a
laboratory of hell.
"See the police?" asked Barter. "They know now where I am, but they
are helpless because of my hostages. I shall now begin the operations
I believe to be necessary. Then I shall issue another manifesto,
telling the public that I am safeguarded by great apes whose ability
will prove the correctness of my theory about the possibility of
creating a race of supermen. My manifesto shall say that my apes must
not be slain. It shall say that for every ape slain by the police one
of my eighteen hostages will die."
Bentley would have gasped with horror, but he could not. Now he saw
Thomas Tyler, his face a white mask of despair, in the midst of his
helpless men.
"I'll give you a hand, somehow, Tommy," Bentley whispered deep down
inside 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 follow
us."
- - -
Barter removed the strange glasses from Bentley's eyes, blotting out
the deserted streets and avenues of Manhattan. Naka Machi followed
behind Bentley, carrying the ape skin in which Bentley had penetrated
the stronghold of Caleb Barter.
The chrome-steel door swung silently back and the three entered
another room filled with blaring light. Without being able to look
back Bentley knew that Ellen, white of face and staring, followed at
their heels.
There was a long white operating table in this room, and a smaller
chrome-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 the
drawers. He brought out a white tube, closed at one end, about an
inch 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 to
accommodate two or three grown men, lying side by side at full length.
It seemed to be indirectly lighted. The ape skin dropped on the floor
of this compartment. Barter took the "incineration tube" and directed
it 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 the
compartment, like rain from the roof of the ghastly little space.
"Now you understand that I have solved the problem of disposing of the
cumbersome useless bodies of my hostages, Lee," said Baxter, rubbing
his hands together as though he washed them.
Bentley's heart leaped as Naka Machi placed the incineration tube on
the operating table. It was close enough that Bentley could have
reached it, had he not been utterly powerless to move.
"Naka Machi," said Barter. "Bring me ape D-4 and Frank Keller, the
diplomat. Ellen, clear the operating table. Quickly, now! Bentley,
stand against the wall and do not move--but miss nothing I do."