o bullet had yet actually struck him,
for he had whirled into the window from the second-story ledge
simultaneously with the barking of the policemen's rifles and pistols.
He had escaped there--but here he was not to escape.

Bentley and Tyler both lifted their voices to shout warnings to the
policemen, but their voices were drowned in the savage explosions of a
dozen weapons, in the hands of men who probably thought the creature
was in the act of charging ... and the ape sprawled on the floor, his
legs and arms quivering.

- - -

Half a dozen men rushed forward, weapons extended.

"Keep back!" yelled Bentley, rushing in.

He stood over the ape, staring intently at his glazing eyes.

"Tyler," snapped Bentley, "have everybody fall back beyond earshot."

Tyler issued the orders. Bentley shouted, "Quickly, quickly!" knowing
he had little time.

Then, with Tyler beside him, he knelt beside the ape.

"I know you can't talk, but you can answer me by nodding or shaking
your head. You are Harold Hervey, aren't you?"

The eyes of the ape were hopeless. Tyler gasped, staring at Bentley as
though for a moment he thought him crazy. But in the next instant he
doubted his own sanity, for the ape, slowly and ponderously, nodded
his head.

"I'm going to name a number of places where I think you might have
been taken," went on Bentley. "In each case nod or shake your head. Is
it near Sixth Avenue?"

Slowly the great head moved, more slowly even than before; but it
nodded.

"Where? Below Twenty-third Street?"

Again the ponderous, agonizing nod.

Bentley went on.

"Below Fourteenth Street?"

Again the nod, barely perceptible this time.

"Below Christopher Street?" asked Bentley.

This time the head shook from side to side, ever so slightly.

"Two blocks above Christopher?"

But this question was never destined to be answered. The giant
anthropoid in whose skull-pan was the brain of Harold Hervey, entirely
controlled by Caleb Barter, until Bentley had shot the little metal
ball from his head, had died.

Bentley rose and looked down at the anthropoid for several seconds.

"Barter will hate to lose this creature," he said. "He probably has
just the number of apes he needs--and Tyler, here's a hunch: he'll
need an ape to take the place of this one! Get me the best surgeon to
be found in Manhattan, and get him as fast as you can!"

"Good God!" ejaculated Tyler. "What do you want a surgeon for? What