At that moment there came a heavy knock on the apartment door.
"Who"s that?" gasped Manthis, his face turning grey.
"Probably Solinski," replied Jack, feeling his spine crawl as he remembered the moldy Russian. "Fine time he chose for a visit."
"Shall I let him in?"
"Don"t see what else there is to do."
"Good evening," cried their guest as Manthis opened the door. "Ah, Dr.
Manthis, I believe. I have heard so much about your work." His hoa.r.s.e yet ringing voice made the little man start violently and caused June to shake her head in annoyance as the sound interfered with the humming of the vagrant wave. "Sorry I could not come earlier."
Solinski advanced into the laboratory, giving the effect of driving the chemist before him. "Trying to revive one of the sufferers, I see.
May G.o.d aid you in this n.o.ble work."
He spread the tails of his long coat and sat down. As he talked his eyes flashed about the room, taking in every detail and at last fastening on June"s fresh beauty like those of a vampire. "Not," he boomed as he lighted a cigarette, "not that I believe it possible--"
Catching an agonized glance from Jane, Jack interrupted:
"You"ll have to speak softly, sir. This is ticklish work."
"I beg your pardon." The Russian lowered his voice so that it squeaked piercingly like a rusty hinge. He wrung his hands audibly.
"Perhaps we"d better move into the living room," suggested the doctor, hovering in the background. "There we can talk without interrupting."
Their guest unfolded joint by joint like a collapsible rule.
"Of course, if you think I"m spying," he grated.
"Not at all," protested Jack, although he longed to strike the brute across the face. "It"s just that voices of certain pitches interfere.
Surely you have seen radio operators go all to pieces when spoken to."
Ungraciously Solinski allowed himself to be ushered into the outer room. Once there he disposed his lean form on another chair, unctuously refused a highball, and, forgetting his momentary anger, soon was deep in a scientific discussion of the problems involved in revivifying the world.
He mentioned the nearby radio station but declared that he had been unable to locate it despite a careful search. Dismissing this he turned to other topics, displaying a vast knowledge of all departments of scientific achievement and, despite his depressing personality, holding his bearer"s attention so closely they forgot the pa.s.sage of time until the clock struck ten.
"Time for daily injection," said the doctor. "Do you use Andrev"s solution too, sir?"
"Naturally," replied the other, lighting one cigarette from the b.u.t.t of another.
Manthis hurried into the laboratory. A few moments later he reappeared in the doorway and called to Jack in an agitated voice. As the younger man joined him he closed the door and turned a white face to him.
"The drug is almost gone," Manthis said. "Didn"t you obtain a new supply?"
"We--I forgot it," admitted Jack, feeling his own face grow pale. "The shock of running across Solinski at the laboratory upset me."
"Well, that"s all right, then. It gave me a turn, but we have plenty of time." The doctor laughed shakily. "Run down to the nearest drug store. There should be a supply there. Better take a flashlight."
He pushed open the door, then shrank back. Leaning against the jamb was the Russian. His manner had changed subtly. His thin lips spread from ear to ear in a wolfish grin. His fingers clicked like castanets.
"Ah," he purred. "So you have used up the last of your solution?"
"What"s that to you?" The doctor was gripped by cold unreasoning fear.
"Only that you will be unable to obtain more. Since my first meeting with your daughter I have had my men collect all the Cannabis Indica in the city."
"Your men!" Manthis was thunderstruck.
"Certainly, you old fool. Do you think I"m a bungling theorist like yourself? Who do you think is operating that short-wave station? I am.
Who do you think put the world to sleep? I did. Who do you think will wake it? I will."
Solinski"s figure appeared to expand. He took deep drafts from his cigarette. The smoke seemed to impel some terrific force into his gaunt frame.
"So it was your voice I heard!" cried Manthis bitterly. "And those awful tales about you were true. A hashish smoker! A person whose mind is rotting, in control of the world!" He seemed about to leap at the other, and his chubby figure, in that att.i.tude, would have seemed ludicrous if it had not been tragic. "It shall not be!" he shouted.
"Now see here, Doctor"--Solinski a.s.sumed a friendly tone--"you"re making a grave mistake. I have something to offer better than you ever dreamed of."
"What do you mean?"
"Just this. How would you like to be a.s.sistant to the King of the World?"
"Crazy already," sneered the doctor, squinting up at his tormentor.
"Crazy or not, when the world awakes I will be its king."
"Why, d.a.m.n you, I thought you were an anarchist and wanted to do away with kings and governments," sputtered the little man.
Solinski burst into a gale of fiendish laughter.
"An anarchist is merely a capitalist without money or power," he quoted.
"What do you want of us?" demanded Manthis, playing for time.
"Very simple. This: I intend soon to begin awakening those who will serve me, first in New York and then throughout the world. When I have a skeleton government built up, I will withdraw the wave and allow the people to revive. Clever, isn"t it? Especially for such a madman as you think me." He snapped his fingers and leered cunningly at them.
The doctor choked but Jack"s hand on his arm steadied him.
"You have a very beautiful daughter," resumed their diabolical visitant.
"Leave my daughter"s name out of this," cried Manthis, recoiling.
"Not at all. Her charm and ability have greatly impressed me--so impressed me that I have decided to make her my queen."
"You sc.u.m of the gutter. You filthy beast. I"d die before I"d be a party to such a thing!" The doctor was beside himself.