CHAPTER IX
_The Furry Mime_
"Listen, boys," said Dr. Tyler, after he had removed the skin of theape, and for a few brief seconds had examined the brain, to shake hishead in astonishment. "I've an idea that may help you. It would beimpossible for you, Bentley, to play the ape well enough to fool thismad Mind Master. But a hitherto unknown type of ape has just beendiscovered in Colombia. I read the story of it in a scientific journalto-day. The ape is more manlike than any other known to science. Youshall be that ape, brought in during the night by a famous returnedexplorer. There will be great interest in you now that the story ofSaret Balisle's kidnaping has broken. With the attention of New Yorkupon you, certainly your presence will interest Caleb Barter."
Tyler senior rummaged in a pile of papers on his desk and broughtforth the story he referred to, which also carried a picture of theColombian ape.
"It would be impossible for me to change your shape and add to yoursize sufficiently to make you a real giant anthropoid. You'd have tobe twice as deep through the chest; you'd have to have bowed legs asbig as small tree trunks; you'd have to have a sloping forehead. No,it's impossible, for I'd have to equip you by padding to an impossibledegree, and a scientist would only need to touch you to know you as animitation ape. But if you are made up as the Colombian ape--"
Bentley quickly interrupted.
"The idea is excellent. I was dubious before about my chances ofsuccess, but as an ape of a new species I have a far better chance,and my inevitable human behavior won't be so noticeable."
- - -
Dr. Tyler measured Bentley as carefully as a tailor, proud of hisskill, measures a particular, wealthy customer.
"You will almost suffocate," he said, keeping up a running monologueas his inspired hands worked with forceps and scalpels, "but I canmake plenty of air vents in the ape skin which will allow the pores ofyour skin to breathe. If they are hidden under the hair they willscarcely be noticed, unless of course Barter sees what we are doinghere and suspects from the beginning."
"I can stand the discomfort for as long as may prove necessary," saidBentley grimly, conquering a feeling of terror as he already sawhimself in the role of an ape, a role previously played in which hehad suffered the torments of the damned, "and anything is preferableto the wholesale carnage which Barter is doing. In seventy-two hourshe has wrecked the morale of Manhattan. I shall try to get it back.Tyler, will you make every effort to guard the other eighteen mennamed on the Mind Master's original list?"
"Of course," but Tyler said it dubiously. Barter had proved it almostimpossible to outwit him. In their hearts both Bentley and Tyler knewthat Barter would make good his boast to take the eighteen men he hadnamed. It seemed a grim price Manhattan must pay to be finally rid ofBarter's satanic machinations.
When Bentley, stripped naked, quietly announced his readiness to takehis place on the operating table, Tyler senior took a deep breath,like a diver preparing to plunge into icy water, and lookedquestioningly at Bentley.
"I'm ready, sir," said Bentley quietly. "Let's get on with the task."
Dr. Tyler set to work with amazing, uncanny speed. He had never beenmore skilful in closing sutures of the flesh in any of his myriad ofoperations. He was a man inspired as he labored on the task ofchanging Lee Bentley from a normal human being to a Colombian ape.
- - -
While the surgeon worked his son telephoned to the Colombian explorerwhose return from Latin-America had been mentioned in the day's news.He couldn't explain anything over the telephone, he said, but wouldDoctor Jackson come at once to the private offices of James Tyler,surgeon?
Doctor Jackson grumbled, but the urgency in the voice of Tylerconvinced him that the thing was important. He promised to be on handwithin an hour. It then lacked a few minutes of three o'clock in themorning.
Next at Bentley's suggestion--and he talked quickly and eagerly tokeep his mind off the ordeal he knew he was facing--Tyler got thecurator of the Bronx Zoo out of bed and asked him to wait upon DoctorTyler immediately.
At four o'clock Doctor Jackson and the curator entered the room whereSurgeon Tyler had performed a miracle.
Doctor Jackson stepped back in amazement when he noted the manlike apewhich leaned with arms folded against one wall of the operating room.His eyes were big with amazement.
He studied Bentley for several minutes, while no one spoke a word.
It was the curator who broke the strained silence.
"So this is your Colombian ape," he said. "I read the news story, butI understood that the ape you had found had been killed in the attemptto capture it."
Surgeon Tyler spoke easily.
"That news story," he said, "was to prevent Doctor Jackson from beingannoyed by visitors eager to see his find. As a matter of sober factDoctor Jackson captured the Colombian ape alive and is now about toturn it over to the zoo. Understand me, Doctor Jackson?"
- - -
Still the explorer said nothing. For a moment longer he stared atBentley; then he walked over to him.
"The hair is different," he said as though talking to himself. "TheColombian ape's hair is of a slightly finer texture. But thatcould be explained away as I allowed only the merest bit ofinformation to the reporters to-day. I can add a supplementarystory in the next newspaper which will explain that the coarse furof the Colombian ape is the only thing about it which makes itresemble a giant anthropoid."
Jackson had walked to Bentley without fear and ran his fingers throughthe hair as he spoke.
"I know it's a man, and some surgeon has performed a miracle," hesaid. "Just what is it you wish me to do?"
"You've read the stories relating to the Mind Master, Doctor?" askedBentley suddenly. How strangely his voice came from the body of anape!
"I've read some of them," answered Jackson. "Is this a scheme wherebyyou hope to trap the Mind Master?"
"Yes."
"Then depend upon me for any assistance I can render. As a scientist Iunderstand fully the power for evil of a mad genius of our class. ThisMind Master should be ruthlessly destroyed."
"Thank you," said Bentley, stepping forward. "You know, perhaps, howthe Colombian ape behaves, enough that you can coach me how to walk,how to gesture?"
"Certainly. It will take perhaps an hour to prepare you to fill yourrole creditably."
- - -
Jackson's face flushed with enthusiasm. He was launched on a taskwhich fired his interest. He was an authority on apes and anythingrelating to them inspired him.
"Seat yourself on a chair," said Jackson. "The Colombian ape sitsupright like a man."
Bentley seated himself as Jackson had bidden him.
"Now spread your legs apart awkwardly, with the knees straight. TheColombian ape doesn't exactly sit on a chair or a rock or a tree, heleans against it in a _half_ sitting position."
Bentley quickly assumed the awkward strained position suggested byJackson.
Jackson stepped up to him and placed Bentley's arms, unbent, so thathis fists hung down outside his wide-apart knees, and cupped hisfingers so that they seemed perpetually in the act of closing onsomething.
"You can't possibly take the proper position with your toes," went onJackson, "for it's beyond a man's ability to curve his toes as he doeshis hands. The Colombian ape's toes are prehensile."
"Can't you say in your next news story, Doctor," suggested Bentley,"that the Colombian ape, the nearest animal relative of man, seems tobe in an advanced stage of evolution. Can you not say that theColombian ape is by way of losing the use of his toes?"
"Many scientists know that to be untrue," said Jackson, "but perhapswe can help you through your scheme before they begin denying detailsin the newspapers. Too bad we can't send secret suggestions to allanthropologists that they remain discreetly silent until the mantle ofhorror is lifted from Manhattan. But of course we can't, since we'dbetray ourselves. Our only hope, then, is to work at top speed."
&nbs
p; "I am as eager as anyone to finish a particularly horrible task," saidBentley.
- - -
Under Jackson's instructions Bentley walked up and down theroom. His shaggy shadow on the several walls as he turned, marchedand countermarched at Jackson's commands, filled Bentley withself-loathing. He found himself repulsive. His body perspiredfreely impregnating the ape skin with a harsh odor that wasbiting and terrible in his nostrils. It was sickening. He tried toclose his mind to the repulsiveness of what he was doing.
He walked with a swaying, side-to-side gait, something like a sailor'srolling walk, while his arms swung free at his sides as though theymerely hung from his body. The Colombian ape walked like that, Jacksonsaid.
"How about the intelligence of the Colombian ape?" asked Bentley.
"We shot the only specimen so far seen by man before we could discoverany facts bearing on his intelligence," said Jackson.
"Then you can safely say that he possesses intelligence far beyondthat of known apes," said Bentley quickly, "somewhere, let us say,between that of the lowest order of mankind and civilized man."
Jackson nodded his held dubiously.
"It seems," he said unsmilingly, "that I arrived in the United Statesat exactly the right time! You would have failed signally to convincethe Mind Master in the role of an African great ape."
Bentley managed a short laugh. How horribly it came from the lips ofan ape!
"I'm not overly superstitious," he said, "but I regard this as a goodomen. I feel we're sure to succeed in what we are planning. I thinkBarter will surely wish to experiment with me if he thinks I am inreality a great ape from Colombia. He'll welcome the chance to examineany ape which so nearly resembles man. I'm an important link in hisplan to create a race of supermen. At least that's how we must hopethat Barter will estimate the situation when my story is told into-morrow's papers."
- - -
An hour before dawn Doctor Jackson, weary from his arduous instructionof the equally exhausted Bentley, pronounced Lee a satisfactory"ape."
"Now here's where you come in," said Bentley tiredly to the curator."I'm to be taken now to a cage in the Bronx. During the rest of to-dayyou will quietly instruct your attendants that their guard to-night atthe zoo must not be too strict. I must be in position to be stolen bythe minions of the Mind Master."
Now the full significance of the desperate expedition upon whichBentley was embarking came home to them all. Their faces were white.Bentley shuddered under his ape robe. His mind went catapulting backinto the past to the time when he had been Manape. This was much likeit, save that all of him was now encased in the accouterments of anape and he did not suffer the mental hazards which had almost drivenhim insane when he had been Manape, with the perpetual necessity ofkeeping close watch over his own human body which had held the brainof an ape.
He stiffened. "I'm ready," he said.
Immediately upon arrival the curator had been asked to have a closedcar, quickly walled with a mixture of lead and zinc--which Bentley andTyler hoped would thwart the spying of Caleb Barter--brought toTyler's door.
Three or four zoo attendants entered with a cage when Bentleypronounced himself ready. They stared agape at Bentley and their faceswent white when he strode toward them upright, like a man.
Bentley would have spoken to reassure them, but Tyler signaled him tokeep silent. The zoo attendants might talk and entirely spoil theirscheme.
- - -
Two hours later, long before the first crowds began to arrive at theBronx Zoo, Lee Bentley was driven from his small cage in the car, intoa huge cage at the zoo. From a dark corner, in which he crouched asthough overcome with fear, he gazed affrightedly out across what hecould see of Bronx Park.
"When I used to feed the animals here," he said to himself, "I neverexpected that the time would come when I myself would be caged--andone of them."
The curator had ridden out with the cage. But, save for making sure ofthe fastening on the big cage, he paid no heed to Bentley. He treatedhim, of necessity, as though he were actually the Colombian ape hepretended to be. From now on until he succeeded or failed, Lee Bentleywas an ape from the jungles of Latin-America.
Just before the crowds could reasonably be expected to begin arriving,curious to see this strange thing Doctor Jackson had brought fromColombia, an attendant arrived with a freshly painted sign.
"Colombian Great Ape," it read, "Presented to Bronx Zoo by DoctorClaude Jackson."
It seemed to close entirely behind Lee Bentley the vast door whichseparated the apes from civilization. Miserably he crouched in hiscorner and awaited the coming of the curious.