- - -

Tyler leaned out of the window and shouted to the men across the
street.

"Shoot as soon as the ape reaches the sidewalk!" he cried. "Be careful
you don't hit Balisle."

And from Balisle himself, muffled and frightened, came a sudden cry.

"Shoot now! I'd rather fall and have it over with!"

There was a moment of silence. Bentley almost gave the order to fire
when the ape was at the twelfth story, but he held his tongue by a
supreme effort of will.

Balisle looked down. It must have been a terrifying experience to
swing above such a horrible abyss by one leg, and for a moment Balisle
lost his head. He screamed and started to grapple with his grim
captor.

"Don't, Balisle!" shouted Tyler. "You'll make him lose his balance.
Hang on as you are and we'll get him when he reaches the street."

"What good will it do?" screamed Balisle, his voice taking on a high
keening note as the ape dropped again, this time from the twelfth to
the eleventh floor. "He slipped it over a hundred men to get me this
far. He'll find a way to beat you when he reaches the street, too."

Bentley had a sinking feeling that Balisle spoke the truth; but even
so, he could not see how anybody, even Barter, could walk through the
trap which was being tightened around the descending anthropoid.

It made Bentley dizzy to watch the slow methodical descent of the
anthropoid. He could fancy himself in Balisle's position and it made
him sick and faint. He understood the desperation which caused Balisle
to make yet another attempt to battle with the ape.

Then the ape did a grim thing.

He paused on the eleventh floor, and crouching on a window sill,
deliberately snapped Balisle's head against the wall of the Clinton
Building! In his time Bentley had slain rabbits exactly like that.
Balisle hung now as limp as a rag and blood dripped from his mouth and
nose. But Bentley knew, as his face went white at the sound of that
sharp, thudding blow that Balisle had not been killed by it.

- - -

Savage oaths burst from the lips of policemen who saw the action of
the ape.

"He acts like a human being! An ape wouldn't have thought of that!"

The words came hysterically from the lips of a woman who, frightened
though she was, could not tear herself from the window to the right of
where Bentley and Tyler leaned out to stare down.

Bentley smiled grimly. What would she think if he told her gravely
that the creature crawli