hands grew icy as I swung myselfthrough that trap door and felt for a footing on the swinging ladder.Suppose Fraser turned the ray back on us as we climbed down? Supposehe cut the ladder? But instantly my good sense told me he would doneither. If he had meant to kill us he could have done it easier thanthis. No, somewhere in his mad head, he had a reason for sending usdown to this swinging cabin.
Five minutes later Foulet and I stared at each other in the crampedconfines of our prison. The tiny door in the roof, through which wehad dropped, was closed. The steel ladder had been pulled up. We werealone. Alone? Were there no eyes that watched us still, or ears thatlistened to what we might say? Foulet evidently shared my sense ofespionage, for, without even a glance at me, he lay down on the hardfloor of our bare little cabin and, to all intents and purposes, fellasleep.
For a few minutes I stood staring at him, then followed his example.As I relaxed I realized I was tremendously weary. The cumulativeexhaustion of the past thirty-six hours seemed to crowd upon me with asmothering sense of physical oppression. I looked at my watch andwound it. Five o'clock. Through the narrow slits near the roof of ourswinging cell I could see the changing light of dawn, melting in withthe rosy glow from the magnetic rays. My eyelids drooped heavily....
When I awoke Foulet was standing near me, his arms folded across hischest, scowling thoughtfully. He nodded as he saw my open eyes, butwhen I started to speak he shook his head sharply. With his gesturethere flooded back to me the feeling that we were watched--eventhrough the walls of our aerial prison and the floor of the platformabove us.
* * * * *
I sat up and, clasping my knees with my hands, leaned against thewall. There must be a way out of this for us! All my life I had workedon the theory that if you thought hard enough there was a way out ofany difficulty. But this seemed so hopeless! No matter how hard wethought the mad mind of Fraser would always be one jump ahead of us!And maybe we didn't dare even think! If Fraser were able to readminds--as I was nearly sure he was--then hadn't we better keep ourminds blank even down here? But an instant's thought showed me theflaw in my logic. Fraser could, without much doubt, read minds--whenthose minds were close to him. If he could read minds at a distancethen he wouldn't need to ask us for information.
But why had he put us here? I burrowed around for the answer. Had heguessed we had outwitted Doctor Semple and not taken the mad serumafter all, and was this punishment? No, if Fraser had guessed that hewould simply have given us more serum, as he had Brice. Brice! Wherewas poor Brice now? Was he an idiot, with blank face and shiny,soulless eyes? My mind shuddered away from the thought, taking refugein my first question: Why were we here? What was Fraser going to dowith us?
We lost all track of time. In spite of my winding it my watch stoppedand the hours slipped by uncounted. Night came, and another dawn andanother night. Twice our roof was lifted and our tiny swinging cellfilled with the orange light of the nourishment ray. But we saw no onenor did anyone speak to us. The third day passed in the same isolatedsilence. Occasionally Foulet or I would utter a monosyllable; thesound of our voices was comforting and the single words would conveylittle to a listener.
But as the hours of the third night slowly passed the atmosphere inour tiny swinging cell grew tense. Something was going to happen. Icould feel it and I knew by Foulet's eyes that he felt it too. The airwas tight, electrical. Standing on tiptoe, I glued my eyes to thenarrow slit which was our only ventilation. But I could see nothing.The brilliant rosy glow blinded me. I couldn't even see the hugeplatform floating above our heads.
Then, suddenly, our roof slid back. The magnetic ray was deflected.Above us, in the opening of the trap-door, leered the bright, mad eyesof Fraser.
"Good evening," he said mockingly. "How do you feel?" We smiledhesitantly. Something in his voice made me feel he was addressing usas sane men and not idiots. But why? Weren't we supposed to be idiotswhen he put us down there?
"You ought to feel all right," Fraser went on critically. "The firstdose of that serum lasts only three days. It's cumulative," he addedwith his professional air. "In the beginning an injection every threedays. Then once a week and so on. There's a man who has been with mefor three years who needs treatment only once every three months.Well, are you ready to talk?"
* * * * *
So that was it! He had put us down here till the supposed effects ofthat serum had worn off; and now we were to talk; tell him everythinghis agents had been risking their lives to find out! We were to sellout our countries to him; betray all the secrets we had sworn byeternity to keep! If we did as he demanded both France and the UnitedStates would be at his mercy--and he had no mercy! He was not a man;he was a cruel, power-loving, scientific machine. I clamped my teeth.Never would I talk! I had sworn to protect my country's secrets withmy life--and my vow would be kept!
"You will talk?" Fraser asked again, his voice suddenly suave andbeseeching. "For those who talk there are--rewards."
"Let down the ladder," said Foulet, in a quiet, conversational tone."It will be easier to discuss this--"
Fraser's eyes narrowed to gleaming slits. He smiled craftily. "Theladder will be let down--when you talk."
"And if," suggested Foulet, "we don't wish to talk?"
Fraser's lips stretched in a wider grin. His white teeth gleamed. Hisshiny black eyes glittered. In that warm, rosy light he looked like ademon from hell. He held out his hand. In it shone a long, slenderinstrument.
"This knife," he said softly, "Will cut the steel cables that connectyou to this platform--as if they were cheese! You will talk?" Besideme I heard Foulet gasp. Swiftly my imagination conjured up the pictureof our fate. Our determined refusal to divulge the secrets of ourrespective countries; the severing, one by one, of the four cablesholding us to the platform; the listing of our swinging cell; thetipping, the last, terrible plunge two thousand feet. But it would beswift. The power of the magnetic ray would give us no time tothink--to suffer. It would be a merciful end....
"Let us up," bargained Foulet. "We will talk." Fraser laughed.
"None of that," he said slyly. "You talk from there and if yourinformation doesn't dove-tail with what I already know--" heflourished the steel knife suggestively.
* * * * *
We were caught! No amount of bluff would save us now. Fraser demandedthat truth, facts, actual information--and he wouldn't be fooled byanything spurious. Foulet's shoulder touched mine as we peered upthrough the roof of our cell at our mad captor. We spoke together:
"There is nothing to say."
The assured smile left Fraser's lips. His eyes glittered red. Hiswhole mad face was contorted with fury. A volley of oaths pouredthrough his twisted mouth. With a gesture of insane rage he pulled thenearest cable to him and slashed it with the knife!
Our cell tilted. Foulet and I were thrown in a heap on the floor. Wesprang up to face Fraser again through the roof. His mad eyes glareddown at us, soul-chilling, maniacal.
"Talk!" he snarled. "Talk--or I'll slice another!" He drew the secondcable to him, holding it in readiness.
I clenched my teeth. Beside me I could see the muscles of Foulet's jawworking. Talk? Never!
"Talk!" screamed Fraser. "Talk!" Our silence and our white faces werehis only answer. There was a gleam of the knife in the rosy light. Ourcell lurched, quivered, then caught. Would it hold with only twocables? It was hanging on its side. We were standing on what had beenthe wall. Through the opening in the roof we could see nothing butrosy light and distant stars. How strong were the cables? Could theyhold against the pull of the magnetic ray? We could feel the pull now;feel the strain on the cables above us. If Fraser cut the third one--
"Talk!" his voice came, hoarse with fury. "Talk now! You can't seeme," he went on; "but I'm pulling the third cable toward me. I'mraising the knife. Will you talk?"
Standing on that quaking wall Foulet and I stared at each other. Howlong would it be? One second? H
alf a minute? Thank God it would bequick! This was the worst now. This eternity of waiting.... "I'mcutting it!" yelled Fraser--and with his words the cell lurched,swung, whirled like a spinning top. Foulet and I were tossed aroundlike dried peas in a pod.
Suddenly the thing steadied. Two steel hooks were clamped on the edgeof the opening in what had been the roof, and Brice stared at usthrough the aperture!
"Quick!" he gasped. "There's not a second to lose. Don't stare! Quick,I say. I've got the ladder here. It's steel and it'll hold. Climb up."
* * * * *
Dumbly we obeyed. Our heads were whirling, our bodies bruised andmashed by the shaking up. Blindly,