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The Hawk opened the door and strode down the long corridor beyond. His footsteps were swiftly gone: and then the sound of another door opening and closing. In the laboratory there was a murmur from the old man. "A coolie! A scientist's brain in that ugly yellow head! When consciousness returns, what a cruel shock!" Four Bodies Hawk Carse had gone into Leithgow's ship hangar.
Within half an hour the general evacuation was finished and the ship loaded. The Sandra, Leithgow's ship, bearing his daughter's name, was a sturdy vessel designed more for comfort and utility than speed, and so her appointments, including offensive and defensive weapons, though modern were limited.
"Lordy, suh," the Negro whispered, "Dr. Ku could hear all you said! He'll know where Master Leithgow's laboratory is!" The Hawk smiled briefly. "No matter, Eclipse. I'm quite sure the information will avail him nothing. For this ride to the laboratory will be his last ride but one." He turned. "We're starting at once. Ban, you've bound him well?"
For he had known that, whatever Eliot Leithgow's method of forcing him to perform the operations might be, and no matter how efficacious, the coordinated brains simply could not be put in the heads of his four assistants because the assistants were themselves needed for the operations! "Then it's hopeless!" said the Master Scientist bitterly. "All this for nothing!
He brought the lever part-way back. Then, into the microphone encased inside the helmet, he called: "Leithgow! Leithgow! Can you hear me? Friday!" The radio broadcast his words. Soon welcome answers came in Eliot Leithgow's tired voice and the negro's emphatic bass. "Maneuver together," Carse instructed them. "We must lock arms and stay close."
Below, in the valley, all the myriad life of the jungle seemed to have frozen, and only occasionally was the pause of life and sound disturbed by the faint, muffled cry of a bird. What had wrought the hush? Nothing showed to the naked eye. From the summit of the ridge, Hawk Carse lifted Leithgow's glasses to his eyes. And the valley was suddenly changed, and the hush explained.
So it was arranged. All the assistants, both Ku Sui's and Leithgow's, were portioned off into shifts of four hours' sleep and eight hours' work: Carse, Ban Wilson and Friday, too, for now every one of them was needed. Nine days for the work of a month and work as delicate and vital as could possibly be!
Obviously this machine was being used to force from his mind the knowledge of Eliot Leithgow's whereabouts, and therefore he attempted to seal his mind. He fastened it on something definite on Iapetus, satellite of Saturn, and his ranch there and barred every other thought from his head. Mechanically he repeated to himself: "Iapetus, Iapetus my ranch on Iapetus Iapetus, Iapetus."
It is the keystone of my gateway to all power." Eliot Leithgow's face was deathly white, but, as one in the grip of some devilish hypnotic fascination, he could not tear his eyes away from the revolting, amazing achievement of his brilliant enemy. The Eurasian with the cruelty of a cat picked that awful moment to add: "This master brain is all that was best of Master Scientist Cram."
Friday, see that Leithgow's ship is ready for instant departure. Quick!" Alarmed, but without questions, the two parted on their separate errands. Carse went to the room where Eliot Leithgow lay asleep.
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