CHAPTER XI
_In the Dead of Night_
Bentley knew that if Ellen were in the hands of Caleb Barter the madprofessor would probably do her no harm, but use her as a club againstBentley, and through Bentley, the Manhattan police. He did not believethat the Mind Master would consider performing the brain operation onEllen. Caleb Barter's scheme seemed to consider only men, and men ofsubstance.
No, Ellen would not be harmed, he felt, but that made him feel noeasier, knowing that she might be in the hands of Barter.
How could he know of Naka Machi, and the refined vengeance of the MindMaster?
The last visitors had left the park and comparative quiet settled overthe zoo. Save for the sounds of animals feeding and the occasionalcursing voices of attendants there were no sounds. Not since Bentleyhad taken his place in the cage had anyone spoken to him. He hadnever felt so lonely and uncertain in his life.
Now there was utter darkness and silence.
And then before his cage appeared a tiny spot of light. If Barter'sminions expected to deal with a powerful ape they would come preparedto subdue him by whatever means seemed necessary. Bentley had no wishto be injured, and yet he must make some show of resistance in orderto allay any possible suspicion that he _wished_ to be stolen.
There was a faint gnawing sound at the wire outside the cage. Micemight have made that sound, sharpening their teeth on the wire.Bentley decided to feign sleep. Had Barter come personally tosupervise his capture? That didn't seem reasonable as Barter mustrealize that all his effectiveness depended upon his ability to retaincontrol of whatever organization he might have built up--and hiscentral control must be his hideout.
Then he would be sending some of his puppets to get Bentley.
Would they be apes with man's brains? Impossible. Apes could nottravel from place to place without attracting attention, especially ifthey traveled unguarded and went casually to a given destination asmen would go. So, if his puppets were not men in the normal meaning,then they were "apemen."
- - -
The wire came softly down. Bentley hoped that no attendant might comeblundering around now to spoil everything. His heart pounded withexcitement.
At last he was going to see Caleb Barter again at close quarters.
"I shall destroy him," he told himself.
The shadowy outlines of two men came through the severed wires.Bentley still pretended to be asleep. He wondered if Barter'stelevisory equipment included any arrangements permitting him to seein the dark, and knew instantly that it did. How else could these twopuppets have come so unerringly to the proper cage in Bronx Park?
No, Bentley did not dare allow himself to be taken easily in the hopethat his actions would pass unnoticed.
But he waited until the ropes began to fall about him, testing thestrength of his adversaries by mental measurement. By their uncertain,hesitating actions he knew that he dealt only with the _forms_ ofmen--forms which were ruled by brains which had not in themselvesintelligence enough to perform the acts they were now performing. Apebrains in the skull-pans of men. The brains in themselves were onlyimportant because they were living matter which was being used as asensory sounding board by which Caleb Barter, the Mind Master,transmitted his commands to the arms and legs and bodies of hispuppets.
Bentley sprang into action. He growled and snarled at the two men whowere trying to take him. Only two men? Surely Barter would have sentmore than two men to take a great ape! He knows I'm not a true ape,thought Bentley. He's giving me a challenge. He knows I wish to get tohis hideout and he is making sure that I get there.
But Bentley was only guessing. Calmness descended upon him as herealized that he was soon to face a crucial test.
- - -
Just now, however, he struck out at the two men who were striving tobind him. They were husky chaps, and one of them packed the wallop ofa real fighter. Neither man said a word to him, and when his own handsclawed at them--how would he dare strike out with his fists?--the menmade queer animal sounds in their throats. Bentley could wellremember how helpless, hopeless and lost he had felt when his brainhad been in the skull-pan of Manape.
The brain of an ape could not be a terribly intelligent instrument inthe first place. What thoughts, if apes had thoughts at all, coursedthrough an ape brain which found itself inside a human skull?
The answer to that was simple: only such thoughts as Barter originatedand transmitted through the mental sounding board. After all, thematerial of the human brain and the ape brain were perhaps very muchalike, and Barter was working on a sound scientific principle inmaking a sounding board of an ape's brain.
Bentley shuddered through the fur that covered him. Knowing the sortof creatures with which he had to deal--men in all things save theirintelligence--made him tremble with nausea. Such grim, ghastlyhybrids. But he stopped shuddering when he recalled that he stilldealt with men after all--at least with one man, Caleb Barter. When hethought of these two "apemen" as separate entities of a human being ofmany personalities--Caleb Barter--he was able to plan some method bywhich to deal with them.
So now he fought, seemingly with the utmost savagery, to keep themfrom binding him with ropes. Even as he fought, however, he fancied hecould hear the grim chuckling of Caleb Barter. What did Barter know?
Bentley knew that eventually he would discover the truth.
- - -
In struggling against the two "men" his hands encountered the knobs ontheir heads--the tiny metal balls protruding from the top of the skullat the point where, in babies, the head remains soft during babyhood.He could have broken connection with Barter for these two by jerkingthe controls free. And then what? He would never get through to Barterand would release in Bronx Park two men whose strange type ofmadness, when they were discovered, would startle the countryside. Twomen with the savagery of anthropoid apes! He shuddered as he carefullyrefrained from disturbing those balls.
At last Bentley was quite securely bound, only his lower limbsremaining free so that he could walk, though the length of his stepswas strictly limited. His hands were entirely and securely bound, andthe significance of this fact did not escape him. Barter knew that hedid not need his hands to aid him in walking! Of course the newspaperstory released by Doctor Jackson had reported the Colombian ape asbeing able to walk exactly like a man.
But that didn't prevent Bentley from nursing the suspicion that Barteralready _knew_. Even if he did, it could in no wise alter thedetermination of Bentley. His task was to penetrate the hideout ofBarter--and he was on the way there now.
- - -
With little attempt at concealment the two men led Bentley to a longblack closed car outside the park. They met no one. The two menavoided discovery with uncanny ease. Bentley thrilled with excitement.He felt he knew approximately where Barter's hideout was.
It was useless, to speculate, however; time would show it to him.
Bentley was tossed into the tonneau of the car. His two captors,moving with the precision of men in a trance, took their places in thefront seat. Bentley struggled for a time against his bonds. He wantedto sit up and peer out, to see what way they took so that he wouldknow where he was when he reached Barter's hideout. But of course,even if he shook his bonds free he did not dare rise to a sittingposition, for to control the intricate handling of his two puppets,Barter's attention must have been pretty carefully fixed upon thiscar.
So Bentley contented himself with waiting.
Lying on his back on the floor of the car he tried to see what hecould through the car windows. He knew when he was carried under anelevated system by the crashing roar of trains over his head. He knewhe was being carried downtown, but he wasn't sure that this was theSixth Avenue elevated.
How could he find out the road they were traveling without sitting upand looking at street signs?
- - -
He felt he didn't dare do that. He'd be as careful as possible on theoff-chan
ce that Barter really believed him a Colombian ape, when thebenefit of surprise would be with Bentley.
The car progressed downtown at a normal speed. It stopped for redlights and obeyed all other traffic regulations. Barter was taking nochance on losing more of his puppets.
Bentley suddenly gasped with horror as he remembered something.Eighteen important men of Manhattan had been kidnaped that day byCaleb Barter. Would Bentley be forced to watch the mad professorperform the eighteen inevitable operations?
Perspiration poured from every pore as he visualized the horror hemight be compelled to witness when he was finally taken into Barter'shideout. The ape skin clung to him as though it were actually his own.There were even moments when Bentley feared that it might grow tohim.
But he put the feeling of horror from him with the thought that ifEllen were in Barter's power, Barter might even be forcing her toanesthetize for him while he performed his grisly slaughter.
Bentley's courage returned and now it seemed to him that the journeywould never end, so eager was he to discover whether or not Ellen hadeluded the hands of the Mind Master.