Naturally he could not eat the food given usually to apes and of
course he could not be seen calmly eating bacon and eggs with knife
and fork. And because he couldn't eat he was assailed by a dreadful
hunger, which, however, he managed to fight down partially. He smiled
inwardly as he looked ahead and understood that despite the warnings
not to feed the animals, children of all ages, from four years to
sixty, would surreptitiously toss peanuts and walnuts into his cage.
He felt a little hopeful about it. They would at least allay his
hunger.
But no, he could not do that, either. Nobody had thought to ask Doctor
Jackson how a Colombian ape manipulated his food. Even a certain
clumsiness in that respect might start questions which would cause the
public to doubt the authenticity of Jackson's find.
Bentley decided to sulk. The ape he was supposed to be could
reasonably be expected to resent captivity and would probably go on a
hunger strike. He would do likewise and be in character if he
starved.
He crouched in a far corner as the first comers began to arrive. They
were fathers and mothers with their children, and the older people
carried, usually, newspapers under their arms. Bentley wished with all
his soul that he could see one of the papers close enough to read the
headlines.
However, when the crowd was not too thick, Bentley waddled nearer to
the wire mesh which separated him from the curious crowd and through
lids which were half closed as though he slept, he managed to glimpse
a few excerpts from the paper:
"Police department redoubling their precautions to prevent Mind Master
from capturing eighteen intended victims."
"Hideout of Mind Master still undiscovered. When will the public be
delivered from the stupidity of the police?"
"Doctor Jackson returns from Colombia, bringing a living specimen of
an ape hitherto unknown to civilized man, but more like him than any
ape hitherto known. Visitors may see the creature to-day in the Bronx
Zoo."
- - -
That was the story which had brought out the visitors who were
forming, moment by moment, a bigger crowd before Bentley's cage.
Bentley managed a glimpse of a woman's wrist-watch after what seemed
an age of trying to do so without his intention becoming plain to the
too bright children who crowded as close to the cage as attendants
would permit. It was ten o'clock. It would be at least twelve more
hours before Bentley could reasonably expect any action on the part of
Barter. Barter would now be concentrating on his plans to kidnap the
eighteen men he had first named.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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