They were dragged into the enclosure.
“For... the love of...” The Inspector choked. One of the soldiers had an easy hold on the Inspector’s necktie. The old gentleman slowly grew purple.
A cool small voice kept saying to Ellery, This is ridiculous, it’s something you’re reading in a book, as his fist kept cracking against flesh and faces stared into his and blue sky and blue sea and white sand and green palms whirled and pain jolted him from every direction and finally exploded in his middle and he found himself prone on the sand with his nose grinding into some shale and a crushing weight on his back.
And then he was lifted clear and smashed to his feet and things came back a little. His father stood nearby, deathly pale, brushing himself off with blind puny strokes. The door of the concrete building was closed again. Dr. Storm, looking like a portly old penguin in his black suit and white shirt, was talking cheerfully to Colonel Spring.
They were ringed with armed soldiers.
Nobody looked menacing.
Nobody even scowled.
Part of the job. All in the day’s work... Ellery found himself doubled up, clutching his groin.
Colonel Spring was smoking another brown cigarette, head lowered, listening with a frown to Dr. Storm.
“My rules aren’t made to be broken, Doctor.”
Dr. Storm kept talking cheerfully.
The men holding him up kept holding. Ellery felt grateful. His father was still brushing himself futilely. A Bendigo plane streaked by deep in the sky.
“All right,” Colonel Spring shrugged.
He said something to the officer, turned on his heel, and walked over to the building. The door opened instantly. He stepped inside. The door crashed.
“You may leave now, gentlemen.”
Ellery looked up. It was Dr. Storm, smiling.
“May...!” He heard a strangled voice, sounding nothing like his own.
“I know, I know,” said the Surgeon-General of Bendigo Island. “Your male ego is offended—”
“Offended!” gurgled Ellery. He kept digging his fists into his groin. “I want an explanation. I want an apology. I want this man alone in a room with me. I want something!”
“You won’t get it,” said Dr. Storm. “You’re lucky I happened to be here. And if you’ll take my advice, Mr. Queen, you’ll never come here again.” And the fat little doctor waved, went through the gate, climbed into the empty car, backed around, and drove into the hole in the cliff.
A moment later there was no hole, just cliff.
“Outside,” said the officer’s thumb. His oyster eyes had not changed expression.
Ellery felt swollen fists at the ends of his arms.
“Come on, son,” said his father urgently. “Do you think you can make it back to our car?”
Ellery did not start the car. The pain was going away from his groin, but his nose burned where the shale had cut it and his body ached in a dozen places.
The Inspector sat limply, hands in his lap, staring at the peaceful sea.
They sat there, without a word, for a long time.
Then his father said, “Who was it you spotted in that building?”
“Dr. Akst.” His tongue tasted bitter.
“Akst? The big blond young physicist?”
“Yes.”
“Can that be Akst’s hush-hush lab? Where he fiddles around with his atoms? That would explain the electrified fence, the guards—”
“It’s too small a building for physical research. Anyway, Akst had his hands up to the bars. They were manacled.”
“Manacled!”
“He’s a prisoner.” Ellery stared at his overstuffed hands. “I wondered why we hadn’t seen him around. He’s been tapped for out.”
“Oh, come on,” said the Inspector vehemently. “That’s a bit thick even for this hellhole. After all—”
“After all what? That enclosure is Bendigo Island’s version of Dachau. Who’s to tell His Mightiness the King what he can or can’t do? He’s squatting on this island in the ocean, absolute monarch of it and everyone on it.”
“But Akst — a man like Akst—”
“Disappears. Or false reports are cleverly broadcast. That wouldn’t be a problem, Dad.”
“But why?”
“Lèse-majesté. Treason to the Crown. Or he’s found that what he’s been working on sticks in even his scientific craw. Who knows why? Probably Akst’s loyalty came under suspicion. He was investigated, or he’s in the process of being investigated. Or he’s refused to go on, and this is a little persuasive treatment. Meanwhile, he’s in chains in the King’s private concentration camp... Are there courts on Bendigo Island, I wonder?”
The Inspector patched up Ellery’s wounds, gave him a hot bath, and made him lie down. Ellery did not sleep. It was impossible to sleep.
Inspector Queen paced and paced. They had a nameless need to remain together. Had his father gone into the next room, Ellery would have followed.
At last he jumped out of bed and dressed in fresh clothes.
“How about lunch, son?”
“No.”
“Where you going?”
But Ellery was already limping up the corridor. The Inspector hurried after him.
When they got to the Home Office, Ellery marched up to the desk with the air of a man who is prepared to slash and broadaxe a path to his objective.
“Open that elevator door. I want to see this King of yours!”
The central of the three security men said, “Yes, sir.”
Thirty seconds later, the muscular receptionist was holding the door of the big office open.
“Interrupting me seems your only strong point, Queen,” said the powerful voice at the other end of the room. “Well, come in.”
The receptionist closed the door behind them softly.
King Bendigo was seated behind his desk. In a chair by his side sat Immanuel Peabody, immersed in some papers. A man they had never seen — a large stout man with flabby cheeks — stood facing them. The large stout man was standing between two armed soldiers.
Bendigo seemed calm and relaxed, one hand on the desk. As Ellery and his father approached, the handsome man lazily moved a finger and the soldiers stepped to one side, yanking the stout man with them.
“Mr. Bendigo—” began Ellery.
“Is this what you came for?” said the King, smiling.
His other hand appeared. In it was Ellery’s pair of binoculars.
Ellery stared at him across the ebony desk. The black eyes were sparkling. Bendigo clearly had been expecting him. He wanted some entertainment, and what would entertain him best, Ellery saw suddenly, was the outraged fury of a helpless man.
The only defense was a feeble one. Having no choice, Ellery used it. He reached across the desk, took his binoculars from the arrogant fingers, and turned on his heel with a matching arrogance.
“Just a moment, Queen.”
He felt calm. He would never lose his temper with this man again.
“When you were given carte blanche we thought you, as a man of intelligence, would understand that it was only relative. This is the original tight little isle; we like to keep our secrets. You’re a guest here. We don’t expect our guests to go snooping in our closets.”
“Especially,” said Ellery, “those with the skeletons in them?”
“Put it that way if you like. By the way, do you have a camera — any photographic equipment?”
“No.”
“Do you, Inspector Queen?”
“No.”
“Well, just in case. Cameras are not permitted on Bendigo Island. They are confiscated and smashed, and the film burned, whenever and wherever found. There are also certain... forfeits involved. That’s all, gentlemen.”