body
which perhaps was provided with a man's appetites, and the brain of a
beast which knew nothing of honor and took what it wished if it were
strong enough?

There was one ray of hope in that Barter had hinted he would protect
Ellen from the apeman. That meant physically, with all that might
indicate; but who could compensate her for the horror she must be
experiencing with that speechless imbecile she thought was Bentley? If
this thing were to continue indefinitely, and Ellen were kept in
ignorance, she would eventually grow to hate the "thing"--and if ever,
as he had hinted, Barter were to transfer back the entities of the man
and the ape, Ellen would always shudder with horrible memories when
she looked at the man she had just now admitted she loved.

Bentley was becoming calmer now. He knew exactly what he faced, and
there was no way out until Barter should be satisfied with his mad
experiment. Bentley must go through with whatever was in store for
him. So must the ape who possessed his body--and in the very nature
of things unless Bentley could train himself to a self-saving
docility, both bodies would repeatedly know the fiery stinging of that
lash of Barter's. Bentley could control himself after a fashion. The
ape might be cowed, but long before that time arrived, Bentley's body
would be made to suffer marks they would bear forever to remind him of
this horror.

"I must somehow manage to continue to care for Ellen," he told
himself. "But how?"

* * * * *

He scarcely realized that his great hands were wandering over his
body, scratching, scratching. But when he did realize he felt sick,
without being able to understand how or where he felt sick. If he felt
sick at the stomach he thought of it as his own stomach. When he
thought of moving the hairy hands he thought of his hands. He grinned
to himself--never realizing the horrible grimace which crossed his
face, though there was none to see it--when he recalled how men of his
acquaintance during the Great War, had complained of aching toes at
the end of legs that had been amputated!

He was learning one thing--that the brain is everything that matters.
The seat of pain and pleasure, of joy and of sorrow, of hunger and of
thirst even.

Bentley waddled to the door of the cage. He studied the lock which
held him prisoner, and noted how close he must hold his face to see at
all. All apes might be near-sighted as far as he kne