Keller clicked off the b.u.t.ton and looked over at Bentley. He alone remained of Barter"s frightful experiment. He alone remained and it seemed that he was trying to tell Bentley something ... asking him to now take the tube and turn it full on the body which housed his human brain.
While Bentley hesitated, the manape bent down and placed the tube on the floor of the cage, the muzzle pointing inward. With a clumsy motion of a long hairy arm he reached out and snicked on the b.u.t.ton, then placed himself within its deadly range. Keller vanished and the ray bit into the wall back of the cage; began to eat through.
Bentley leaped to his feet and tore across the floor. He plunged his trembling hand through the bars of the cage, switched off the b.u.t.ton and lifted the tube.
There were the remaining normal apes. They could have been saved for transportation to the zoo, but horror was on Bentley and he used the tube again, and yet again....
And there were the keys. He pulled them from their slots in the porcelain slab, in case there should be other "Stanley-Morton-Cleves"
abroad of whom he knew nothing....
He turned the tube against the red lights and the green lights.
Then he turned the tube upward and held it steadily. He watched the charred hole grow bigger and deeper in the high ceiling....
When at last he heard the approaching clang of the fire engine bells and the screaming triumph of police sirens, he carefully snicked off the b.u.t.ton of the tube and returned to lift the form of Ellen in arms that were strong to hold her.
(_The end._)