hen Manape
was created was in that I allowed myself to lose control of him--of
you! That will not happen again. Oh, if you'll help me, Bentley, that
operation will not be performed on you until you yourself request it
because I shall have proved to you that it is better for you. You
shall be my assistant and obey my orders, nothing more."

Lee Bentley drew a deep breath.

"If I prefer not to work with you again, Professor?"

A chuckle was Barter's answer. The chuckle broke off shortly.

"You should not refuse, Bentley," said the scientist at last. "For
then I should find it necessary to remove you. You might stand in my
way, and though you would be but a puny obstacle, you still would be
an obstacle. For example, consider Ellen Estabrook, your fiancee. I
can find no use for her ... and she knows as much about me as you do.
Therefore, at my convenience, I shall remove her."

- - -

"Caleb Barter," Bentley's voice was hoarse with anger as he dropped
his soothing mode of address toward the man he knew was insane, "if
anything happens to Miss Estabrook through you I shall find you no
matter how well you are guarded ... and I shall destroy you bit by
bit, as a small boy destroys a fly. For every least evil thing that
happens to Miss Estabrook, a hundred times that will happen to you at
my hands."

"Good!" snapped Barter, no longer chuckling. "I am happy to know how
much she means to you. It shows me how easily I may control you
through her. It means war then, between us? I'm sorry, Bentley, for I
like you. In a way, you know, you are my creation. But in a war
between us, Bentley, you haven't a chance to win."

Bentley clicked up the receiver.

"Could you trace the call, Tyler?" he snapped.

Tyler shook his head ruefully.

"We couldn't locate the right telephone, but we could tell which
exchange it came through, and the lines of that exchange cover a huge
section of the city."

"Can you find out exactly the section and the address of each phone on
every line?"

"Yes. The exchange is Stuyvesant."

"That gives me some help. I used to live in Greenwich Village and I
had a Stuyvesant number. I'm going after Barter. Say, Tyler, how do
you suppose Barter knew exactly what was going on in this room?"

Tyler's face slowly whitened as his eyes looked fearfully into the
eyes of Lee Bentley. He shook his head slowly.

Bentley squared his shoulders and spoke quietly and determinedly.

"Mr. Tyler," he s