oke again to Naka Machi.

"Bring me David Fator and ape S-19."

"Yes, my master," replied Naka Machi.

- - -

Again Bentley went through the horror from beginning to end. He could
now move his toes. If only he could fall forward, grasp that
incineration tube, turn it on Barter! With Barter unable to control
him he would regain his senses in time, he hoped, to stave off the
certain charge of Naka Machi, whose hatred for himself he now
understood too well.

He hoped, if he were able to accomplish what he planned, that horror
upon awakening would cause Ellen to faint. While she was out he could
destroy the horror with the cleansing flame ... and tell her she
hadn't seen it, after all.

Bentley could feel the strength pour back into him. Barter was
becoming moment by moment more intent on his labors. He was becoming
careless with Bentley, not because he underestimated him but because
he was intensely absorbed in his work.

By the time two more men had gone bodily into the incinerator and
mentally into a pair of apes, the first ape, carelessly dumped on the
floor, came out from under the effects of the drug.

"Stand over there in the corner, Keller," Barter said to the hybrid
carelessly, "and remember that no matter how you may wish to escape
you can only do so if I will. Remain quiet there and consider whether
you will oppose me or obey me. Oppose me and your only escape is
self-destruction. Obey me and possess the world!"

Bentley could imagine the horror and despair of "Keller," for he
himself had known that horror and despair.

Now he could swing his wrists slightly. Naka Machi turned once with a
sudden movement and almost caught him at it, and perspiration broke
out on Bentley's face again. Thank God, Ellen realized none of what
she was experiencing.

- - -

Two other men gave their lives at Barter's hands ... yet Bentley had
only regained sufficient possession of himself to fall forward on his
face if he tried to walk, but even that was something.

Five men were gone now. Could he possibly regain muscular control in
time to save the lives of some of the eighteen? As he watched the five
go into the furnace, one by one, he began to despair of saving any of
the eighteen, but with each operation Barter lost mental strength. If
he lost in arithmetical progression as he had during the last five,
Bentley estimated that he, Bentley, would be able to move his arms
enough to grasp the