Thank God hehad called Foulet first. Foulet had dabbled in the psychology ofinsanity. Foulet would know how to act, and I would ape him. Coldly,mechanically Doctor Semple ran him through a few tests. I watched withbated breath. The doctor nodded. Foulet had passed!
It was my turn. I did exactly as Foulet had done--and succeeded! Ihad to turn away swiftly so that the doctor wouldn't see the gleam oftriumph in my supposedly mad eyes.
He motioned to Brice. But just as Brice stepped forward the dooropened and Fraser came into the room. For an instant everythingreeled. We were gone! But even in that terrible instant of despair Iremembered to keep my eyes blank. No trace of expression must appearor we were lost. I stretched my lips in that travesty of a smile I hadseen the others use. Fraser stared at us, one after the other. Henodded.
"It is well," he said slowly and distinctly as if he were talking tosmall children. "Your names will still be as they were." We stared athim blankly and again he nodded. "You have forgotten your names--ah!Yours," he pointed to me, "was Ainslee, and it still is. And you areMonsieur Foulet. But Brice--" he paused. My heart hung in my breast,suspended there with terror. What was the matter with Brice? What didFraser suspect--or know? He turned to the doctor. "You will giveInspector Brice another injection," he said. "The Inspector has astrong mind, and a clever one. A normal injection would not beenough."
It seemed to me that my blood froze. In that terrible instant it ran,like tingling ice, through my veins. Brice! The brainiest man inScotland Yard! For Fraser was right. Brice had more brains than Fouletand I together. And in another half hour Brice would be no better thanan idiot! For I didn't fool myself. Even Brice couldn't outwit DoctorSemple twice.
"You will follow me," said Fraser, turning to Foulet and me. "I willput you under the nourishment ray while Doctor Semple attends toBrice." Obediently, with slightly shuffling, gait and vacant eyes wefollowed him into an adjoining room, leaving Brice behind. I didn'teven trust myself to glance at him as we left. But my heart was in myboots. When would we see him again? And what would he be?
* * * * *
The room we entered was dark, but instantly Fraser switched on amellow, orange-colored light, that flooded the room with a deep, warmglow.
"Strip yourselves and sit down," he said, pointing to deep loungingchairs that filled the room. "You will do nothing. Relax and allow thelight to bathe you. In half an hour I will come back withinstructions."
We obeyed, I imitating blindly every vague, mechanical movement ofFoulet's. We settled ourselves in the comfortable chairs and Fraserleft us. He had told us to relax--but to do anything else would havebeen impossible. The light soothed us, eased us; gave us, somehow, apenetrating sensation of peace and complete comfort. It flowed aroundus, warming us, lulling us to a delicious dreamy state that wasneither waking nor sleeping. It wiped out danger; it wiped out Time;nothing existed but this warm and relaxing sense of utter satisfactionand peace.
Through this mist of contentment came Fraser's voice, "That is all!"The light faded gradually, and as gradually we came to ourselves. "Youwill dress," directed Fraser in the same clear, clipped manner, "andyou will come to me in my laboratory."
Fifteen minutes later we stood before him, vacant-eyed and solemn.Fraser fastened his black, polished eyes upon us. "You will tell me,"he said distinctly, "all you know."
We were silent. How could we tell him all we knew when we weresupposed to have forgotten everything? Was this a trap? Or did ourinside secret service information come under the general head ofScience? But before these questions had actually formed in my mind Iremembered that several times Fraser had answered my questions beforethey were asked. Might he be a mind reader? Best to take no chances! Imade my conscious mind as blank as possible and gazed back at him. Atmy side Foulet made a vague and uncertain noise in his throat.
"Your countries are afraid of me?" Fraser leaned forward, that smug,vain smile curling his lips. "Your countries know there is a powerabroad stronger than they? They feel that between the twin horns ofeconomic pressure and the red menace they will be tossed todestruction?
"Destruction?" repeated Foulet with all the vacant inflection ofidiocy.
"Tossed?" I asked imitating Foulet. But instantly I wondered if wewere taking the right tack for Fraser's eyes grew red with fury.
* * * * *
"Answer me!" he raged. "Tell me that your countries know that soon Ishall be master of the world! Tell me they are afraid of me! Tell methat in the last three years I have slowly gained control of commerce,of gold! Tell me that they know I hold the economic systems of theworld in the hollow of my hand! Tell me that not a government on earthbut knows it is hanging on the brink of disaster! And I--I put itthere! My agents spread the propaganda of ruin! My agents crashed yourWall Street and broke your banks! I! I! I! Mad Algy Fraser!" Hestopped, gasping for breath. His face was scarlet. His eyes glowedlike red coals. Suddenly he burst into a cascade of maniacal laughter,high, insane, terrible.
It took all my control to keep my eyes blank, my face devoid ofexpression. Out of the tail of my eye I saw Foulet smiling, a vague,idiotic smile of sympathy with Fraser's glee. But suddenly the gleedied--as suddenly as if a button had snapped off the current. Heleaned forward, his black eyes devouring our faces.
"They are afraid of me?" It was a whisper, sharply eager. "The worldknows I am Master?"
"Master," repeated Foulet. It wasn't quite a question, yet neither wasit sufficiently definite as an answer to arouse Fraser's suspicions.To my relief it satisfied him. The congested blood drained out of hisface. His eyes lost their glare. He turned and for several minutestramped up and down the laboratory lost in thought. At last he cameback to us.
"I have changed my mind," he muttered. "Come with me."
Without a word we followed him, out through the door and down thepassageway. Out of the building he led us. The air was stirring withthe first breath of dawn and along the horizon glowed a band of puregold where the sun would soon rise. When he had walked some thirtyyards from the laboratory Fraser paused. With his toe he touched aspring in the platform. A trap door instantly yawned at our feet. Isuppressed a start just in time, but through my body shot a thrill offear. My muscles tensed. My heart raced. What now? Where could a trapdoor, two thousand feet above the earth lead? Was he going to shove usinto space because we refused to answer his questions?
"Go down," Fraser ordered.
* * * * *
For the space of a breath we hesitated. To disobey meant certain andinstant death at the hands of this soulless maniac. But to obey--todrop through this trap-door--also meant death. I took a step forward.Could we overpower him? But what if we did? There were others herebeside Fraser. How many others I had no idea, but surely enough tomake things impossible for Foulet and me. Yet we dared not evenhesitate. To hesitate implied thinking--and a man robbed of his braincannot think! There was no way out. Together Foulet and I stepped tothe brink of the yawning hole....
For an instant we were almost blinded by a glare of rosy light thatseemed to burst upon us from the earth so far below. Here was thesource of that strange afterglow! Away beneath us, evidently on thesands of the Arabian desert, glowed four red eyes sending forth therosy rays that converged at the center of the floating platform.Instantly I comprehended Fraser's scheme. The Fleotite he hadinvented, and of which the platform and buildings were made, waslighter than air. It followed, therefore, that if it were not anchoredin some way it would instantly rise. So Fraser had anchored it withfour of his magnetic rays! He had told us that he could regulate thepulling power of the ray, so what he had obviously done was tocalculate to a nicety the lift of the Fleotite against the magnetismof the rays.
But instantaneously with this thought came another. Fraser was urgingus into the glow of the magnetic ray! If once our bodies came entirelywithin the ray we would be yanked from the platform and dashed todeath--sucked to destruction on the sands below.
&nbs
p; In my ear I heard Fraser's fiendish chuckle. "The instinct of fearstill holds, eh? My serum can destroy your conscious mind--but notyour native fear? Cowards! Fools! But I am not going to push you off.Look!" With his foot he pressed another lever which, while it did notshut off any of the light, seemed to deflect the ray. "Fools!" he saidagain scornfully. "Go down!"
* * * * *
Then it was I saw where he was sending us! Thirty feet below theplatform there swung a small cabin, attached by cables and reached bya swinging steel ladder. As I looked a door in the roof slid back."Climb down!" ordered Fraser again. There was nothing to do but obey.Accustomed as I was to flying, inured as I had become to greatheights, my head reeled and my