rter stood in front of Bentley
and stared at him for a moment. Bentley felt the strength flow out of
him under the gaze of this man--a gaze he could not avoid. Barter
smiled slightly.

"You will eventually join me of your own free will, Lee," he said
softly.

"I would rather die a thousand deaths!" screamed Bentley, but the
sound of his scream echoed and reechoed through his soul without
coming out so that Barter could hear it.

- - -

Barter's confidence in his ability to convert Bentley was assuredly a
mark of his twisted mind, for he must surely have realized that
Bentley would be the most injured by his schemes. But he seemed to
associate him with the days of Manape, when Barter had proved to
himself, to Bentley and Ellen Estabrook, that the operation he now
planned in wholesale proportions was possible. Bentley could
understand why Barter regarded him as a friend and colleague, and his
animosity temporary--because as a subject of his first great
experiment Bentley was a symbol of Barter's success.

Strange how easy it was to find logic in the reasoning of madmen, and
to understand that logic!

Barter sprang back to his task.

"Naka Machi," he said, "take heed that you serve me well. Do you like
this woman?"

"Yes, my master."

"If you continue in your loyalty to me, I shall give her to you."

Bentley's mind recoiled with horror. The shock of this cold statement
was like another blow on the head. He wanted to leap forward and set
strangling fingers about the neck of Naka Machi. Ordinarily Naka Machi
could handle him with ease, but now that Bentley had heard the plan of
Barter, he could have handled the Japanese with superhuman strength.
But he could not move. He strained against the bodily lethargy which
held him prisoner. If only he could move forward and grasp the
incineration tube, he would turn it on Naka Machi and Barter....

But he could not move, could not fight off the lethargy which was like
invincible prison walls around him.

He could move the tips of his fingers, he discovered ... but no more
than that. The shock of Barter's calm statement had cast off that much
of his semi-hypnotic lethargy. A minute before he hadn't been able
even to move his fingers.

- - -

Give him time, he told himself, while inwardly he bled as he struggled
desperately to throw off the grim hypnosis, and he would yet manage to
save the lives of at least some of the eighteen, see that E