There was a dim bulb down here, similar to the ones used in the corridors of the Skull’s headquarters. Slowly the car began to turn. “X” realized that they were on a turntable. The car stopped turning and “X” looked ahead to see that they were facing a long, dark tunnel. Out of this tunnel came the slouching figure of Binks; Binks, the halfwit, with his hideously scarred and mutilated face.
“X” stirred in his seat, and Gilly, beside him, poked him savagely with the gun. “Hold still, you!” he snarled, “if you know what’s good for you!”
“X” said nothing, but subsided, watching keenly. Binks came up to the car, peered in, and cackled. “I see you got’m, fellers. That makes number ten. The Skull will be tickled. Everything goin’ off like clockwork.”
Frisch said, “We had a tough time. Had to slug a dick an’ kill a cop.”
“Tell that to the Skull,” Binks cackled. “Hurry up, now. The boss is waitin’. He wants to see this guy that you got here! Put a blindfold on ’im and let’s go!”
Gilly produced a hood from next to him on the seat, and placed it over “X’s” head. The Secret Agent offered no resistance. With the hood on his head, he could see nothing, of course, but he felt the car proceeding slowly ahead. After a short while Frisch turned the car, backed it up, then drove ahead some ten feet, and stopped. “X” heard the click of the ignition being turned off, heard the motor die. He waited silently, expecting to be taken from the car. Instead he heard Binks’ voice.
“All right, boys, you can all put the hoods on now. From now on you got to follow me blind. You got to trust Binksy!”
“X” heard the men donning their hoods, grumbling as they did so. Frisch said, “It’s a wonder the Skull picks a nitwit like you to take us through them passages. Suppose you forgot the way?”
Binks’ shrill laughter answered him. “That’d be too damn bad fer you boys. You’d starve to death in them passages, ’cause you’d never get out!”
“I know a guy that got out,” Frisch taunted. “This place ain’t fool-proof.”
THERE was silence for a moment, then Binks said, “I’ll tell the Skull what you think about the place, Nate. I bet the Skull’ll like to hear that.”
“Nix, nix!” Nate pleaded. “I didn’t mean nothin’, Binks. You wouldn’t squeal on a guy, would you?”
“Not if he had a coin to toss in the air that I could catch. I like coins. I save ’em.”
“Sure,” Frisch cried eagerly. “Here you are. It’s a half a buck.”
Binks laughed gleefully. “See how I caught it? That’s great, Nate. You’re a nice feller. If the Skull ever gets tired of you, or mad at you, and puts you in the electric chair, I’ll tell you what I’ll do for you — I’ll put you out of your misery quick, with a knife, afterwards. It’ll save you a lot of pain. Would you like me to do that for you?”
“Aw, shut up!” Frisch growled.
Binks laughed shrilly. “X” noted that they were moving again, but the motor was not running! They were on some sort of moving platform. There was a continuous sound of clanking from just behind them; otherwise there was silence. None of the men in the car spoke.
After about fifteen minutes they came to rest slowly. “X” heard Binks open the door of the car and say, “All right, boys, come on out one at a time, and hold hands. Use the cuffs on Hilary.”
Gilly snapped a pair of cuffs on “X’s” hand, then snapped the other on his own. Frisch did the same with “X’s” other hand. The Agent was now in the middle of the living link that was moving toward the lair of the Skull. Binks went first, holding Frisch’s hand, and the other two men followed after Gilly.
After negotiating a dozen winding passages, they finally came to a halt. Binks said, “You can take them hoods off, boys, but leave Hilary’s on. Cuff his hands behind him.”
Gilly and Frisch, after removing their hoods, snapped the handcuffs off their own wrists, and joined the two empty circlets of steel behind “X’s” back. He was now handcuffed with two pair of cuffs, with his hands behind him.
He heard a door open in front of him, and was led through it, with Gilly and Frisch still on either side of him.
Binks said, “I’ll take the other two boys back to the main room. Gilly and Frisch, you stay here with him till the boss comes.”
Frisch growled a sullen “Okay.” When the door closed behind Binks, he grumbled to Gilly, “One o’ these days I’ll take that damn half wit an’ break his neck for him — Skull or no Skull.”
Gilly snickered. “You’re just talkin’ big, Nate. You know you’re dead afraid of the Skull.”
“Who wouldn’t be?” Frisch demanded. “But Binks, he’s different. We could do without him fine.”
Suddenly “X” felt Frisch stiffen beside him. Gilly stirred uneasily. A mocking voice spoke from above them. “Well, well. So we are honored by the company of Mr. — ah — Hilary! Take off the hood, Nate. Let me see his face!”
“X” recognized those hateful tones. The Skull was in the room.
Chapter XVII
NATE FRISCH’S fingers fumbled with the knot, and in a moment he removed the hood.
Once more Secret Agent “X” faced the Skull across the desk in that room with the four-foot strip of charged flooring. To him it felt as if he had hardly been out of the room; the same leering, fleshless death’s-head sat behind the desk. The weak illumination cast a weird shadow upon the vermilion-hooded face of the Skull. Only the dead rat was missing; it had been removed.
Under the influence of the familiar surroundings, he almost reverted, unconsciously, to the role of Fannon, whom he had impersonated here that morning. Almost, he felt as if Betty Dale were still a prisoner, under threat of a hideous fate, and that he must still exert himself to the utmost to snatch her out of the clutches of this master of deviltry.
But the Skull spoke once more, and the words snapped him out of it. “Mr. Hilary, you have been highly honored; you have been chosen by me as one of the first ten men to be kidnaped under my new plan of operations. I am now going to ask you some questions, the answers to which I need; and I counsel you to reply quickly and accurately. You have seen the things that happen to those who arouse my anger. You were acquainted with Ainsworth Clegg, were you not?”
“X” felt the deep, heavy breathing of Frisch, the wheezy breath of Gilly, one on either side of him. He took a step forward, felt his arms seized on either side by Gilly and Frisch. He said, imitating Hilary’s voice, “You must be crazy, whoever you are. You gained nothing by what you did to Clegg. Now, you kidnap me and the others, and expect to get millions in ransom. I can tell you now that you won’t get it. None of us can raise that much cash. It’s impossible!” He wanted to draw out the Skull, to make him talk. He had observed previously that this master of devilish plans had a slight trace of vanity, and he was now playing on it.
The Skull said, “Frisch! Gilly! Let him go. In this room I do not need your protection.” He waited a moment until they dropped their grips on “X’s” arms, then he said to “X,” “My actions, Mr. Hilary, may seem insane to you, but believe me they are not As the old saying goes, ‘There is method in my madness.’ You think I gained nothing by breaking Ainsworth Clegg, destroying his mind and his body. You are wrong.”
The Skull stopped, raised his hand and pointed at “X” to emphasize his words. “Clegg was an investment in horror; an object lesson in advance — a sort of sales talk to stimulate the eagerness of the public to raise large sums to ransom those whom I may kidnap in the future. And it is immaterial to me whether I get ransom for you and those others in the cells, or not; for if I send the ten of you out into the streets, broken hulks of men, I will be able to collect twice as much on the next batch.”