llen won
free, and destroy this hell-hole under Millegan Place.

Now incredibly slender instruments were busy near the heads of the two
on the operating table--the ape and Keller, the doomed man. As the
knives and scalpels leaped to their work with startling dexterity and
amazing speed, Bentley strained again against his horrid invisible
prison. If only he could save this man Keller from this horror ... but
it was useless.

The fingers of Barter worked swiftly over the skull of the ape, first.
Naka Machi stood on one side of the long table, Ellen on the other,
near Barter. Bentley studied her face as the skull of the ape fell
open under the hands of Barter, and he knew she was unaware of what
she was doing. Bentley had expected a crimson horror, but nothing of
the kind developed. Could Barter read his thoughts?

"I am an adept at bloodless surgery, Bentley," he said, while his
fingers never ceased their swift manipulations.

Now Naka Machi held the skull-pan of the ape, from which he had
removed the reddish substance which was the ape's brain. This Naka
Machi had tossed into the aperture where the ape skin had been
destroyed.

The empty skull-pan of the ape awaited the brain of Keller.

Bentley could feel the sweat burst forth on him in every pore as he
tried to throw off his awful inertia, to go to the aid of Keller. If
Barter should see the perspiration on his cheeks....

Bentley thought of Samson in the midst of his enemies, blind and
beaten, of how he had prayed to be given strength to pull down the
pillars of the temple....

"Oh God," said Bentley to himself, "only this once give me strength to
throw off these chains. Grant that I do something to save the man from
this horror."

- - -

But he could still move only the tips of his fingers when Barter had
finally closed the sutures in the skull-pan of the ape, renewing again
the ape's skull, with the brain of Keller inside. Keller was finished.
He had not moved on the table. Even his chest stood still, stark and
lifeless. Barter had not troubled to restore Keller's skull-pan. What
was the need?

Naka Machi gathered up the carcass of Keller and bore it swiftly to
the boxlike hole in the wall of the ghastly room....

He thrust it in. He stepped back and caught up the incineration tube
of concentrated fire ... and Bentley saw the body of the murdered man
shrivel up so quickly it seemed as though it had dissolved before his
eyes. Down from t