"You speak, Professor," said Bentley softly, "as though you could see right into police headquarters." "I can, Bentley! I can!" said Barter impatiently, as though he were rebuking a schoolboy for saying the obvious. "You're close by, then?" "No. I'm a long way--several miles--from you. But I can see everything you do. And you needn't look at Tyler in such surprise!" - - - Bentley started. He had looked at Tyler in a surprised way and, clever though he was, he didn't think that Barter could have _guessed_ so accurately to the second the gesture he had made. Barter chuckled. "It's a good jest, isn't it? But listen to me, Bentley, I've a great scheme in hand for the amelioration of mankind. I need your help, mostly because you were such an excellent subject in my greatest successful experiment." "Will it be the same sort of experiment as the other?" Bentley's heart was in his mouth as he asked the question. "Yes, the same ... but there are improvements I have succeeded in perfecting since the creation of Manape. My one mistake when Manape was created was in that I allowed myself to lose control of him--of you! That will not happen again. Oh, if you'll help me, Bentley, that operation will not be performed on you until you yourself request it because I shall have proved to you that it is better for you. You shall be my assistant and obey my orders, nothing more." Lee Bentley drew a deep breath. "If I prefer not to work with you again, Professor?" A chuckle was Barter's answer. The chuckle broke off shortly. "You should not refuse, Bentley," said the scientist at last. "For then I should find it necessary to remove you. You might stand in my way, and though you would be but a puny obstacle, you still would be an obstacle. For example, consider Ellen Estabrook, your fiancee. I can find no use for her ... and she knows as much about me as you do. Therefore, at my convenience, I shall remove her." - - - "Caleb Barter," Bentley's voice was hoarse with anger as he dropped his soothing mode of address toward the man he knew was insane, "if anything happens to Miss Estabrook through you I shall find you no matter how well you are guarded ... and I shall destroy you bit by bit, as a small boy destroys a fly. For every least evil thing that happens to Miss Estabrook, a hundred times that will happen to you at my hands." "Good!" snapped Barter, no longer chuckling. "I am happy to know how much she means to you. It shows me how easily I may control you through her. It means war then, between us? I'm sorry, Bentley, for I like you. In a way, you know, you are my creation. But in a war between us, Bentley, you haven't a chance to win." Bentley clicked up the receiver. "Could you trace the call, Tyler?" he snapped. Tyler shook his head ruefully. "We couldn't locate the right telephone, but we could tell which exchange it came through, and the lines of that exchange cover a huge section of the city."