ope," he said to himself, in an effort to drive away thoughts of
food, "that Tyler will take every precaution to prevent Ellen from
doing something foolish."

Knowing that he could no longer communicate with her, could no longer
be absolutely sure that she was still out of Barter's clutches, he
suffered agonies of fear for her safety.

"If Barter places a hand on her I'll tear his skin from his carcass,
bit by bit!" he said, unconsciously clenching his fists.

"Oh, look, mama, he's shuttin' his fists as though he wanted to fight
somebody! I'll bet he could whip Dempsey, couldn't he, mama?"

"Perhaps he could, son. Hush now, and watch him. There's a good boy!"

It brought Bentley sharply back to his surroundings and proved to him
that he must not allow his mind to go wool-gathering if he did not
wish to give himself away. What if, in an access of anger, he happened
to speak his thoughts aloud? He could imagine the amazement of the
crowd.

- - -

The day wore on.

At noon a strange horror seemed to travel over the Bronx Zoo, and
within a short time every last visitor had precipitately departed.
Bentley could now safely approach the wire mesh and look out and
around over a wider radius.

Right under the wire mesh was a newspaper someone had thrown away.

By pressing tightly against the mesh Bentley could see the headlines.

"Mind Master successful on all counts!"

So that's what had turned the crowd to stony silence with very fear?
They had all fled, wondering who would be next. Bentley had heard the
shouting of the extra on the distant streets, but it had been so far
away he hadn't heard the words. One solitary newspaper had appeared
among the Bronx crowd and the story it carried under startling
scareheads had passed from brain to brain as though by magic ... and
the crowd had fled.

Bentley stared down at the newspaper in horror, a horror that was in
no way mitigated by his having fully expected Barter to succeed.
Mutually, with no words having been spoken to express the thought,
Tyler and Bentley had conceded to Barter the eighteen victims he had
named.

Nothing could be done to stop him. His brains were greater than the
combined wisdom of the city of New York.

What else was in that paper?

Bentley stared at it for an hour, and finally a vagrant breeze, for
which he had hoped and prayed during that hour, whipped across the
park and stirred the paper. He read more headlines.

"Lee Ben