CHAPTER III
_Hell's Laboratory_
The huge room was absolutely free of all sounds from anywhere savewithin itself. The walls, the floors, the doors were of chrome steel.The cages were iron-ribbed and ponderous.
The long table which ran down the strange room's center was coveredwith retorts, test tubes, Bunsen burners--all of the stock-in-trade ofthe scientist who spends most of his time at research work. The manwho bent over the table was well past middle age. His hair wassnow-white, but his cheeks were like rosy red apples. He literallyseemed to glow with health. He was like a strange flame. His handswere slender, the fingers long and extraordinarily supple. His lipswere redder even than his cheeks, and made one, strangely enough,think of vampires. His eyes were coal-black, fathomless, piercing.
On the bronze wall directly across the table from the swiftly laboringman was a porcelain tablet set into the bronze, and in the midst ofthe table were a score of little push-buttons. Above each was a redlight; and below, a green one.
Several inches below each green light was a little slot whichresembled a tiny keyhole, something like the keyhole in the averagehandbag. There was a key in each hole, and from each key hung a lengthof gleaming chain which shone like gold and might have been gold, orat least, some gold-plated metal. On the dangling end of each chainwas another key which might have been the twin of the key in the holeabove.
In the space between the keyholes and the green lights there were theletters and figures: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 ... and so on up to T-20.
Plainly it was the beginning of a complicated classification systemwith any number of combinations possible.
- - -
Behind the working man the row of cages partially hid the broodinghorror of the place. There were twenty cages--and in each one was asulking, red-eyed anthropoid ape. Plainly the fact that the number ofapes coincided with the number of push-buttons, and with the number ofkeys, to say nothing of the red lights and the green lights, was noaccident. The apes were sullenly silent, proof that they feared theman at the table so much that they were afraid to move.
At last the white-haired man stopped and breathed a sigh ofsatisfaction. Carefully he placed in the middle of the table theinstrument which he had been examining. It looked like a slightlyconcave aluminum plate or tympanum, save that on the apex appeared atiny ball of the same metal. Except for the color and the fact thatthe thing was almost flat, it looked like a small Manchu hat.
"Naka Machi!" said the man suddenly in a conversational tone ofvoice.
The chrome steel door swung open swiftly and silently and another manentered. He was about the same height as the first man, but he wasyounger and his eyes were blacker. His hair was as black as the wingsof a crow. He was a Japanese dressed in Occidental garb.
"Naka Machi," said the white-haired one again, "I have examined everybit of the infinitesimal mechanism in the ball on this tympanum. It isperfect. You are a genius, Naka Machi. There is only one geniusgreater--Professor Caleb Barter!"
Naka Machi bowed low, and as he spoke his breath hissed inwardly throughhis teeth after the Japanese manner of admitting humility--"that myhumble breath may not blow upon you"--which never needed really tobe sincere.
"I am merely a genius with my fingers, Professor Barter," said NakaMachi in a musical voice. "The smaller the medium in which I work thehappier I am, Professor; and in that I am a genius. But the plan forthis so marvelous little radio-control, as you call it, came entirelyfrom your head, my master. I did exactly as the plans bade me. Will itwork?"
- - -
Caleb Barter's red face went redder still. His eyes shot flames ofanger. His lips pouched. Almost he seemed on the point of strikingdown his Japanese assistant.
"Will it work?" he repeated. "Have you not just told me that youfollowed my plans exactly? Have I not just now checked your every bitof work and pronounced it perfect? Then how can it fail to work? Haveyou another one ready?"
"Yes, my master. Now that I have perfected two, the work will becomemonotonous. If the master wishes, I can create still anotherradio-control, inside the head of a pin, which I should first renderhollow with that skill which only Naka Machi possesses?"
Caleb Barter almost smiled.
"It will not be necessary. But it will be necessary for you to makeeighteen additional radio-controls of the same size as this one, orsay make twenty-four so that we shall have some extra ones in case ofaccident. These two will be put into action at once. Naka Machi, bringme Lecky, completely uniformed as a smart chauffeur! Have you laid ina store of clothing, as I bade you, to fit every conceivable need ofLecky, Stanley, Morton and Cleve?"
"Yes, my master."
"Then bring in Lecky accoutered as a chauffeur."
Ten minutes later a young man entered behind Naka Machi. He wasslender and his chauffeur's uniform fitted him like a glove. He lookedlike a soldier in it. Indeed his bearing, his whole stance, spoke ofmany years as a soldier--and a proud one. The fellow was brimful ofhealth. His cheeks were rosy with vitality. He looked like a man withhealth so abundant he never found means to tire himself to the pointwhere he could sleep dreamlessly.
But, nevertheless his arms hung listlessly at his sides. His eyesseemed empty of hope, dull and lifeless, and one looked into thoseeyes and shuddered. One tried to gaze deeply into them and foundoneself baffled. There was no soul behind them.
"Come here, Lecky," said Barter coldly.
- - -
Lecky glided effortlessly forward to stand before Barter.
"You've no brains, Lecky," said Barter emotionlessly; "no brains ofyour own. You have a splendid body which moves only at the will ofCaleb Barter. I need that body for my purposes. But a man with brainsis dangerous. That's why you haven't any."
Barter now took the silvery tympanum with the ball atop it and set iton the head of Lecky. On top of it he placed the chauffeur's cap,bringing it down tightly to keep the tympanum in place.
"If I had it to do again I'd insert the tympanum under the skull aspart of the operation, Naka Machi," said Barter as he worked. "We'lldo that hereafter. And we begin work immediately. I'm going to sendLecky out now to get the first subject."
"The first subject, sir?"
"Yes. Manhattan's richest man. A man must have brains to becomeManhattan's richest man, and I need men with brains. His name isHarold Hervey. He will be leaving his office in the Empire StateBuilding in about half an hour. I want Lecky to be on hand to meethim."
On his own head Barter placed a second tympanum which Naka Machi hadbrought him. Over it he pulled a rubber cap, like a bathing cap with ahole cut in the top.
"Now, we'll try it out, Naka Machi," said Barter. "Which one of theselights is Lecky's?"
"B-2, my master."
Barter sat down under the light marked "B-2" and lifted the key whichdangled from the end of the golden chain. This key he inserted in atiny orifice in the ball atop his head. Then he turned in his chair tolook at Lecky. Barter's face was a mask of concentration as he gazedintently at the young man.
- - -
Lecky stiffened to attention. His right hand shot to his cap visor insalute. His lips twisted into a travesty of a smile. For a few secondshe went through a strange series of posturings. He stood in theattitude of a boxer preparing to attack. He danced smartly on histoes. He bent double and touched the floor with the palms of hishands. He jumped up and down with his legs stiff. He stopped suddenlywith his right hand at rigid salute. But his eyes were still vacantthrough every posture.
Barter's face showed a glow of satisfaction.
"He did exactly what I willed him to do! I am his master. He is myslave--even more abjectly than you are my slave, Naka Machi!"
"But that would be impossible, my master," said Naka Machi, hissingagain through his teeth as he sucked in his breath. "None could bemore abjectly your slave than I."
"Do not say anything is impossible," said Barter peevishly, "when Isay otherwise. Anythi
ng is possible to me! Now, we'll send Leckyforth. I'll watch him through the heliotubes and control his everymove. While I am directing Lecky you will prepare the table behind mefor the first of our world-revolutionizing operations."
"Yes, my master," said the Japanese humbly.
"But first, it's just as well that Lecky is in a good humor, eventhough he is my slave. Where are the walnuts, Naka Machi?"
The Japanese tendered a large walnut to Barter. Barter rose andapproached Lecky who still stood at salute. He stopped a couple ofpaces in front of the soldierly man and held up the walnut as a mansometimes holds up food to a dog, bidding him "speak" before he may befed.
- - -
Then Lecky did a strange thing.
He began to jump up and down like a pleased child. His jumping causedhim to lose his balance, but he recaptured it by pressing the backs ofhis hands against the floor. His hitherto expressionless eyes losttheir dullness. Saliva dribbled at the corners of his mouth. Bartertossed him the walnut. Lecky held it under his right forefinger,against the _heel_ of his thumb, instead of between thumb andforefinger, as he lifted it to his mouth.
Barter chuckled.
"Even the human casement cannot wholly hide the ape, eh, Naka Machi?"said Barter.
Naka Machi hissed.
Barter returned to the porcelain slab banked with the lights and thekeys. He readjusted the keys and his face became thoughtful again.
Lecky turned smartly, still nibbling at his walnut, strode to thebronze door and let himself out.
Through the heliotube directly above the key marked "B-2," CalebBarter watched him go, and kept watching him as he made his way to thestreet. Barter looked ahead of his puppet, noting the cars which wereparked at the curb. He saw a stately limousine. He grinned. Thechauffeur was not in sight. Barter looked for him and found him at atable in a nearby restaurant, his back to the window.
Barter looked back at his puppet and his face became serious withconcentration.
Lecky walked blithely along the street and turned right when he wasopposite the limousine. Without a moment's hesitation, he stepped intothe limousine, pressed the starter, shifted gears, turned in themiddle of the block and started swiftly uptown.
After Lecky had shifted gears he drove with his left hand alone. Hisright was still busy with the walnut.
Barter now looked like a man in a trance, so deeply did he concentrateon his task of guiding his soulless, ape-brained puppet, Lecky,through the heavy traffic of Manhattan.