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Bratton's Idea - Manly Wade Wellman · Arms and The Man

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  Speaker 1: Section one of Broughton's Idea by Manly Wade Wellman. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Read by Ben Tucker. Broughton's Idea by
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  Speaker 1: Manly Wade Wellman, Part one. Old Broughton, janitor at the
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  Speaker 1: studios of Station x c V in Hollywood, was as
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  Speaker 1: gaunt as Carloff, as saturnine as Rathbone, as enigmatic as Legosy.
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  Speaker 1: He was unique among Californians and professing absolutely no motion
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  Speaker 1: picture ambitions. Once it is true a director had stopped
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  Speaker 1: him on the street and offered to test him for
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  Speaker 1: a featured role, but Old Broughton had refused with loud
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  Speaker 1: indignation when he heard that the role would be that
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  Speaker 1: of a mad scientist. Old Broughton was touchy about mad
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  Speaker 1: scientists because he was one. For a time he had
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  Speaker 1: been studio electrician, competent, though touchy, But then it developed
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  Speaker 1: that he had lied about his age. He was really
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  Speaker 1: eighty years old, and he had been fooling with electricity
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  Speaker 1: ever since. Edison put apparatus of various sorts within the
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  Speaker 1: reach of everyone. Studio rules imposed pretty strict age limits
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  Speaker 1: on the various jobs, and so he was demoted to
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  Speaker 1: a janitorship. He accepted, grumbling, because he needed money for
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  Speaker 1: the pursuit he had dreamed of when a boy, and
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  Speaker 1: maintained from his youth onward. In his little two room apartment,
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  Speaker 1: he had gathered a great jumble of equipment coils, transformers, cathodes, lenses, terminals,
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  Speaker 1: some of it bought new, some salvage from studio junk,
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  Speaker 1: and a great deal curiously made and not to be
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  Speaker 1: duplicated elsewhere, save in the eccentric mind of its maker.
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  Speaker 1: For old Broughton, with the aid of electricity, thought to
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  Speaker 1: create life. Electricity is life, he would murmur, quoting doctor C. W. Roback,
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  Speaker 1: who had been venerable when old Broughton was young. And again,
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  Speaker 1: all these idiots think that Frankenstein is a romance, and
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  Speaker 1: r You are a flight of fancy. But all robot
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  Speaker 1: stories are full of truth. I'll show them. But he
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  Speaker 1: hadn't shown them yet, and he was eighty two. His
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  Speaker 1: mechanical arrangements were wonderful and crammed with power. They could
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  Speaker 1: make dead frogs kick, dead birds flutter. They could make
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  Speaker 1: the metal figures he constructed, whether large or small, stir
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  Speaker 1: and seam about to wake, but only while the current
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  Speaker 1: animated them. The fault isn't with the machine, he would say, again,
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  Speaker 1: speaking aloud, but taking care none overheard. Perfect. I've seen
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  Speaker 1: to that. No, it's in the figures. They're too clumsy
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  Speaker 1: and creaky. All the parts are good, but the connections
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  Speaker 1: are wrong. Somehow Wisha knew anatomy better. And the dead body,
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  Speaker 1: even a fresh one, has begun dissolution. I must try
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  Speaker 1: and get haranguing himself. Thus, one evening after the broadcast,
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  Speaker 1: he pushed his mop down a corridor to the open
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  Speaker 1: door of a little rehearsal hall, then stopped and drew
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  Speaker 1: into a shadowy corner, for he had almost blundered upon
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  Speaker 1: Ben Gasconn in the act of proposing marriage. Ben Gascon,
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  Speaker 1: it will be remembered, was at the time one of
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  Speaker 1: radio's highest paid performers, and well worthy of his hire
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  Speaker 1: for the fun he made. Earlier in life, he had
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  Speaker 1: been a competent vaudeville artist. When, through no fault of
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  Speaker 1: his vaudeville died, Gascon went into sound pictures. In radio,
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  Speaker 1: he was a ventriloquist, adroit and seasoned by years of performance,
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  Speaker 1: and a man of intelligence and showmanship as well. Coming
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  Speaker 1: to the stage from medical school, he had constructed with
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  Speaker 1: his own skillful hands the small figure of wood, metal, rubber,
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  Speaker 1: and cloth that had become known to Myriads as Tom Tom,
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  Speaker 1: Tom Tom, the impish, the witty, the leering cynic, the
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  Speaker 1: gusty little clown, the ironical jokester who sat on the
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  Speaker 1: kneve Ben Gascon, and by a seeming misdirection of voice,
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  Speaker 1: roused the world to laughter by his sneers and sallies.
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  Speaker 1: Tom Tom was so droll, so dynamic, so uproariously wicked
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  Speaker 1: in thought and deed, that listeners were prone to forget
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  Speaker 1: the seemingly quiet grave Ben Gascon, who held him and
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  Speaker 1: fed him solemn lines on which to explode firecracker jokes,
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  Speaker 1: Ben Gascon, who really did the thinking and the talking.
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  Speaker 1: That Tom Tom the Dummy might be a headliner in
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  Speaker 1: the entertainment world not really a new thing. The combination
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  Speaker 1: of comedian and stooge may or may not have begun
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  Speaker 1: with Aristophanes in ancient Greece, but ben Gascon was offered
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  Speaker 1: both qualities in his own person and in surpassing excellence.
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  Speaker 1: Press agents and commentators wrote fascinating conjectures about his dual personality.
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  Speaker 1: In any case, Tom Tom was the making of him.
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  Speaker 1: It was frequently said that Gascon would be as lost
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  Speaker 1: without Tom Tom as Tom Tom without Gascon. But tonight,
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  Speaker 1: Ben Gascon and Tom Tom were putting on a show
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  Speaker 1: for an audience of one. Shannon Cole was the prima
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  Speaker 1: donna and co star of the program. She was tall,
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  Speaker 1: almost as tall as Gascon, and her skin was delectably creamy,
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  Speaker 1: and her dark hair wound into a glossy coronet of braids. Usually,
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  Speaker 1: she seemed stately and mournful to match the songs of
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  Speaker 1: love and longing she sang in a rich contralto. But
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  Speaker 1: now she almost groaned with laughter as she leaned above
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  Speaker 1: the imputent Tom Tom, who sat on the black broadcloth
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  Speaker 1: knee of Ben Gascon and cocked his leering, wooden face
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  Speaker 1: up her above Gascon's tuxedo. His slender, wide lined face
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  Speaker 1: was a dusky red. His lips seemed tight even while
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  Speaker 1: they stealthily formed words for Tom Tom. How Shanny, it
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  Speaker 1: seemed that Tom Tom was crooning in that ingratiating drawl
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  Speaker 1: that convulsed listeners from coast to coasts. Don't you think
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  Speaker 1: that Jew and I might just slip away alone somewhere?
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  Speaker 1: And the wooden head writhed around toward gascon Get away,
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  Speaker 1: gas pipe. Don't you see I'm in confidence with a
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  Speaker 1: very lovely lady. Can't you learn when you're not wanted?
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  Speaker 1: Shannon Cole leaned back in her own chair, sighing because
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  Speaker 1: she had not enough breath to laugh anymore. I didn't
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  Speaker 1: never get enough of Tom Tom, she vowed between gasps.
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  Speaker 1: We've been broadcasting together for two years now, and he's
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  Speaker 1: still number one in my heart? Ben, how do you
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  Speaker 1: ever manage? Shanny drawled the voice that was Tom Tom's.
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  Speaker 1: This idiot, Ben gas Gone has something to say. He
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  Speaker 1: wants me to front for him. But why do I
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  Speaker 1: always have to do the talking while he gets the prophet?
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  Speaker 1: Speak up? Gas pipe? Who's got your tongue? This time?
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  Speaker 1: The cat? Or the cat? Shenon? Cole looked at the
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  Speaker 1: bin triloquist and suddenly stopped laughing. Her face was pale
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  Speaker 1: as his had gone red. She folded her slender hands
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  Speaker 1: and her lap and her eyes were all four gas gone,
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  Speaker 1: though it was as if Tom Tom still spoke, I'll
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  Speaker 1: be John Alden bowed Tom Tom with shrill decision. I'll
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  Speaker 1: talk up for this big yokel I always do, don't
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  Speaker 1: I Shenny, as gas Pipe's personal representative, engaged at enormous expense,
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  Speaker 1: I want to put before you a proposition, one in
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  Speaker 1: which I'm interested. After all, I should have a say
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  Speaker 1: as to who will be my well, my step mother.
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  Speaker 1: It won't work, came the sudden, savage voice of Ben Gascon. Rising,
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  Speaker 1: he abruptly tossed Tom Tom upon a divan Shenon Cole
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  Speaker 1: too was upon her feet. Ben, she quavered, Why Ben,
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  Speaker 1: I've done the most foolish thing of ventriloquist could do.
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  Speaker 1: He flung out. Well, if you were really serious, you
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  Speaker 1: didn't need to clown you think it was fair to me?
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  Speaker 1: He shook his head. Tom Tom's done so much of
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  Speaker 1: my saucy talking for me these past years that I
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  Speaker 1: thought i'd use him to get out what I was
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  Speaker 1: afraid to tell you myself, he confessed wretchedly. Then you
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  Speaker 1: were afraid of me, Shannon accused, she too was finding
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  Speaker 1: it hard to talk. Gascon had made a helpless gesture.
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  Speaker 1: Well it didn't work, he groaned, I'm sorry. You're right.
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  Speaker 1: If you think I've been an idiot, just pretend it
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  Speaker 1: never happened. Why Ben, She began once more and broke off.
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  Speaker 1: We've just finished our last program for the year, said
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  Speaker 1: Ben Gascon. Next year I won't be around. I think
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  Speaker 1: I'll stop throwing my voice for a while and live
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  Speaker 1: like a human being. Once I study to be a doctor,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps once more I can. He walked out. The rush
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  Speaker 1: of words seemed to have left him spiritually limp and wretched.
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  Speaker 1: Shannon Cole watched him go. Then she bent above the
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  Speaker 1: discarded figure of Little Tom Tom, who lay on his
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  Speaker 1: back and goggled woodenly up at her. She put out
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  Speaker 1: a hand toward him, and her full raspberry tinted lips trembled.
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  Speaker 1: Then she too left. An old Broughton stole from his
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  Speaker 1: hiding to where lay the dummy. Lifting it, he realized
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  Speaker 1: that here was what he wanted Again, he spoke aloud.
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  Speaker 1: He never held with the belief that talking to oneself
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  Speaker 1: is the second or third stage of insanity. Clever one
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  Speaker 1: that Gascon. This thing's anatomically perfect, even to the jointed fingers.
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  Speaker 1: Thrusting his arm through the slit in the back He
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  Speaker 1: explored the hollow body and head space for organ Yes,
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  Speaker 1: every movement and reaction provided for, and a personality. He
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  Speaker 1: straightened up the figure in his arms. That's it, That's
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  Speaker 1: why I failed. My figures were dead before they began,
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  Speaker 1: But this one has life, he was muttering breathlessly. It's
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  Speaker 1: like a worn shoe, or an inhabited house or a
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  Speaker 1: favorite chair. I don't have to add the life force.
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  Speaker 1: I need only to stimulate what's here. Ben Gascon, at
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  Speaker 1: the stage door, had telephoned for a taxi. He turned
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  Speaker 1: at the sound of approaching footsteps and faced Ole Bratton,
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  Speaker 1: who carried Tom Tom. Mister Gascon, this dummy. I'm through
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  Speaker 1: with him, said Gascon shortly. Then can I have him?
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  Speaker 1: Tom Tom seemed to stare at Gascon. Was it a
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  Speaker 1: mockery or pleading in those bulging eyes? Take him and welcome,
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  Speaker 1: said Gascon, and strode out to wait for his taxi.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: When Old Braughton finished his cleaning that night, he carried
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  Speaker 1: away a bulky bundle wrapped in newspapers. He returned to
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  Speaker 1: his lodgings, but not to eat or sleep. First, he
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  Speaker 1: filled the emptiness of Tom Tom's head and body with
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  Speaker 1: the best items culled from unsuccessful robots. A cunning brain device,
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  Speaker 1: all intricate wiring and radiating tubes set in a mass
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  Speaker 1: of synthetic plasm, a complex system of wheels, switches and tubes,
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  Speaker 1: and the biggest hollow where a heart, lungs, and stomach
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  Speaker 1: should be. Special wires of his own alloy connecting to
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  Speaker 1: the ingenious muscles of rubbarette that Ben Gascon had devised
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  Speaker 1: for Tom Tom's arms, legs, and fingers. A jointed spinal
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  Speaker 1: column of aluminium, an artificial voice box just inside the
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  Speaker 1: movable jaws, and wondrous little marble shaped camera developments for
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  Speaker 1: eyes in place of the movable mockeries in Tom Tom's sockets.
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  Speaker 1: It was almost dawned before Old Broughton stick up the
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  Speaker 1: slit in the back of Tom Tom's little checked shirt
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  Speaker 1: and laid the completed creation upon the bed like slab
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  Speaker 1: that was midmost of his great fabric of machinery in
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  Speaker 1: the rear room. To Tom Tom's wrists, ankles, and throat.
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  Speaker 1: He clamped the leads of powerful terminals with a gingerly
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  Speaker 1: care like that of a surgeon at a delicate operation.
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  Speaker 1: He advanced the switch so as to throw the right
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  Speaker 1: amount of current into play. The whole process of wheeled
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  Speaker 1: machinery whispered into motion, its voice rising to a clear hum.
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  Speaker 1: A spark sprang from a knob at the top, extended
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  Speaker 1: its blinding length to another knob, and danced and struggled there,
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  Speaker 1: like a radiant snake caught between the beaks of two eagles.
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  Speaker 1: Old Bratton gave the mechanism more power, faster and more
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  Speaker 1: complicated action. His bright eyes clung greedily to the little
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  Speaker 1: body lying on the slab. He moves, he moves, Old
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  Speaker 1: Bratton cackled excitedly. His wheels are going round all right now,
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  Speaker 1: if only abruptly he shut off the current. The machinery
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  Speaker 1: fell dead, silent. Sit up. Tom Tom commanded Old Broughton harshly,
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  Speaker 1: and Tom Tom sat up, his fingers tugging at the
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  Speaker 1: clamps that imprisoned him. End of Part one, Section two
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  Speaker 1: of Broughton's Idea by Manly Wade Wellman. The LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: in the public Domain read by Ben Tucker, Part two.
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  Speaker 1: The Los Angeles papers made little enough fuss over the
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  Speaker 1: death of Old Broughton. True, he was murdered. They found
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  Speaker 1: him stabbed, lying face down, across the threshold of his
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  Speaker 1: rear room that was jammed full of strange mechanical junk.
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  Speaker 1: But the murder of a janitor is not really big
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  Speaker 1: crime news in a city of Los Angeles. The police
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  Speaker 1: were baffled, more so because none of them could guess
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  Speaker 1: what the great mass of machinery could be, if indeed
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  Speaker 1: it were anything. But they forgot their concern the following
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  Speaker 1: week when they had a more important murder to consider,
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  Speaker 1: that of one Diggs Dilson. Digs Dilson was high in
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  Speaker 1: the scale of local gang authority. He had long occupied
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  Speaker 1: a gaudy apartment in that expensive Los Angeles hotel which
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  Speaker 1: is prospered by catering to wealthy criminals. He was prudent
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  Speaker 1: enough to have a bedroom with no fire escape. He
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  Speaker 1: feared climbing assassins from without more than flames from within.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: In front of his locked room slept two bodyguards on cots,
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  Speaker 1: and his own bedside window was tightly wedged in such
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  Speaker 1: a fashion that no more than five inches of opening
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  Speaker 1: showed between sill and sash. The electric power line that
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  Speaker 1: was clamped along the brickwork just outside could hardly have
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  Speaker 1: supported a greater way than thirty or forty pounds. Yet
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  Speaker 1: Diggs Dilson had been killed at close range by a
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  Speaker 1: stab with an ordinary kitchen knife. As he slept, the
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  Speaker 1: knife still remained in the wound, as if defying investigators
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  Speaker 1: to trace finger prints that weren't there, and the bodyguards
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  Speaker 1: had not been wakened in the door had remained locked
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  Speaker 1: on the inside. The blade of the knife, had anyone
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  Speaker 1: troubled to compare wounds, could have been demonstrated to be
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  Speaker 1: the exact size and shape as the one that had
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  Speaker 1: killed Old Broughton. His landlord, might have been able to
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  Speaker 1: testify that it came from Old Broughton's little store of
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  Speaker 1: kitchen utensils. But nobody at police headquarters bothered to connect
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  Speaker 1: the murders of a friendless janitor and a grand duke
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  Speaker 1: of gangdom. After considerable discussion and publicity, the investigators called
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  Speaker 1: the case one of suicide. How else could Diggs Dilson
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  Speaker 1: have received a knife in his body. Hope was expressed
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  Speaker 1: that the Dilson mob, formerly active and successful in meddling
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  Speaker 1: with film extras organizations and the seafood racket, would now dissolve,
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  Speaker 1: but the hope was short lived. A spruce lieutenant of
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  Speaker 1: the dead chief, a man by the name of Juny Saltz,
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  Speaker 1: was reputed to have taken command. He appeared briefly at
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  Speaker 1: the auction of old Broughton's effects, buying all the mysterious
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  Speaker 1: machinery at junk prices and carting it away. After that,
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  Speaker 1: the organization, now called the Salters, blossomed out into the
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  Speaker 1: grim but well paid professions of kidnapping, alien running, and counterfeiting.
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  Speaker 1: The first important kidnapping they achieved, that of a very
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  Speaker 1: frightened film director, gained them a ransom of ninety thousand
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  Speaker 1: dollars and the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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  Speaker 1: The victim, once released, told of imprisonment in a dank cellar,
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  Speaker 1: blindfolded and shackled. Once fleetingly, he saw a captor who
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  Speaker 1: looked like the rogue's gallery photographs of June Salts. But
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  Speaker 1: that person was plainly not the one in authority. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: he seemed to listen with supple respect to a high
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  Speaker 1: but masterful voice that gave orders. And the owner of
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  Speaker 1: that high voice once came close to the chair where
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  Speaker 1: the prisoner sat bound. The point from which the voice
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  Speaker 1: seemed to issue was very very close to the cellar floor,
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  Speaker 1: as though the speaker was no more than two feet high.
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  Speaker 1: An individual short and shrill did a child rule that
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  Speaker 1: desperate band. The sages of the law were more apt
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  Speaker 1: to consider this a clever simulation, with the order giver
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  Speaker 1: crouching low and squeaking high lest he be identified. A
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  Speaker 1: judicious dragnetting of several unsavory drinking places brought in one
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: of the old Dilson crowd, who was skillfully, if roughly,
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  Speaker 1: induced to talk. He admitted a part in the kidnapping
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  Speaker 1: and ransom collection. He described the cellar hide out as
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: being located in a shabby suburb. He implicated several of
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  Speaker 1: his comrades by name, including Junie's Salts, but he shut
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  Speaker 1: up with a snap when his interrogators touched on the
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: subject of the psalter's real chief. No, it wasn't Junie Salts.
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  Speaker 1: Juny was only a front no nobody on the police records.
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  Speaker 1: But he insisted pallidly he wouldn't say any more. Let
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  Speaker 1: them kill him if they wanted to. He was through talking.
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather die in the chair this minute than get
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  Speaker 1: my turn with the boss, he vowed, hysterically. Don't tell
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  Speaker 1: me you'll take care of me either. These things can
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: get between bars, through key holes, even into the deepest
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: hole you got, and you can smack me around all
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: week before I'll pipe up with another word. His captors
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: shut him in an inside cell generally reserved for psychopathic cases,
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  Speaker 1: a solid plaited cubicle with no window grating or other
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: opening save a narrow ventilator in the ceiling that gave
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: upon a tenant shaft leading to the roof. Then the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: gathered reinforcements and weapons and descended on the house with
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  Speaker 1: the cellar where the kidnapped director had been held for ransom.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Stealthily surrounding that house, they shouted the customary invitation to surrender.
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  Speaker 1: Silence for a few seconds. Then a faint hearted member
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  Speaker 1: of the psalters appeared at the front door with his
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  Speaker 1: hands up. He took a step into the open and
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  Speaker 1: dropped dead to the accompaniment of a pistol report from inside,
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  Speaker 1: and the besiegers heard the shrill voice about which they
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: had been wondering. Come in and take us. This place
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  Speaker 1: is as full of death as a drug store. Followed
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  Speaker 1: a loud and scientific bombardment with machine guns, gas bombs,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and riot guns. The mobster, who had been placed on
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: guard at the back door, showed too much of himself
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and was picked off. A contingent of officers made a
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: quick planned rush, more fighting inside, with three more psalters
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: dying in hot blood in the parlor and kitchen. What
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: seemed to be the sole survi fled to the cellar
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  Speaker 1: and locked himself in a rear compartment. The walls were
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: of concrete, the one door of massive plinking. The chief
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  Speaker 1: of the attacking force stood in front of this door
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  Speaker 1: and raised his voice. Hello in there, your juny salts,
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  Speaker 1: aren't you gruff? Was the reply? What if I am?
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  Speaker 1: Don't try to crack in here? I'll get the first
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  Speaker 1: kappa shows me his puss, and the second and the third.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: You can't get us all, judy, and we've got more
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  Speaker 1: men out here than you've got bullets in there, Come
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  Speaker 1: out with your hands up while you still have the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: chance to stand a fair trial. Not me, growled juniye
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: salts from within, Come in and catch me before you
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: talk about what kind of trial I'll get. There was
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: a key hole only partially blocked by the turnkey. One
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of the g men bent and thrust in the point
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: of something that looked like a fountain pen. Carefully, he
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: pressed stud The little tube spurted a cloud of tear
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: gas through the keyhole into Junie Saltz's fortress. The besiegers
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: grinned at each other and all relaxed to wait. The
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: waiting was not long. As it developed, Juny Salts spoke
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: up within his voice of blubber. Hey, I'm I'm smotherin,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: but I'm not drawled the same high voice that was
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: becoming familiar. Sit back, Juny, and put your head between
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: your knees. You'll stand it better that way. I'm done for,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: wailed Juniy Salts. If they're crackin, I can't see the shoot.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I can see the shoot. The shrill voice had become deadly.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: And Ye'll be the first thing I shoot at if
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you don't do what I tell yo. A strangled howl
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: burst from Juniye Salts, I'd rather be shot then, And
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the next moment he was scrabbling at the door. I surrender,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I'll let you bulls in. He turned the key in
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the lock, just as the shot that killed him rang out.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: A rush of police foiled an attempt from within to
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: fasten the door again. Sneezing and gurgling. Two of the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: raiders burst into the final stronghold, stumbling over the subsiding
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: lump of flesh that had been Junie's Salts. Blinded by
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: tears from their own gas, they could not be sure
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: afterward of what the scurrying little thing was that they
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: saw and fired at. Those outside knew that nothing could
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: have won past them, and the den itself had no
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: window that was not bricked up when the gas had
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: been somewhat blown out. An investigator gave the place a
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: thorough searching. Yes, there was one opening, a stovepipe hole
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: through which a cat might have slipped. That was all,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and the place was empty but for the body of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: Junie Salts. Janie was shot in the back, announced another operative,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: bending to examine the wound. I think I see what happened.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Squeaky Voice was at that stovepipe hole and plugged him
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: from there as he tried to let us in. Then
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Junie tried to lock up again, just as we pushed
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the door open. Upstairs, they went and investigated further. The
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: hole had joined a narrow chimney with no way out
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to except the upper end, a rectangle eight inches by ten,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: even with six corpses to show. The agents returned to
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: their headquarters with a feeling of failure, and the morning
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: they promised one another, we'll give that one psalter. We're
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: holding another little question be But in the morning the
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: jailer with breakfast found that prisoner dead. He had been
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: caught with a noose of thin, strong cord tightened around
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: his throat from behind. Suicide. But the cord had been
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: drawn into the little ventilator hole and tied to a
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: projecting rivet far inside and above. On the same day, police,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: federal agents, newspapers, and the public generally were exercised by
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the information that Shannon Cole, popular contralto star of Stage,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Green and Radio, had been kidnapped from her Beverly Hills bedroom.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: No clues, and so the investigation turned to her acquaintances,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: among whom was Ben Gascon, recently retired from stage, screen
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and radio. In Part two, Section three of Bratton's Idea
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Part three, Benjamin Franklin
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Gascon left the office of the Los Angeles Chief of Detectives,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: where he had spent a most trying forenoon convincing his
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: interrogators that he had no idea why he should be
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: brought into the case. He knew nothing of the underworld. True,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: he knew Miss Cole professionally, but and his face was rueful,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: had no reason to count himself a really close friend
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: of hers. He had not seen her since the termination
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of their latest radio assignment. His personal affairs, meanwhile, were
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: quite open to investigation. He had grown weary of ventriloquism
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: and had retired to live on the income from his investments.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Later he might resume his earlier profession, medicine. He was
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: attending lectures now at the University of California in Los Angeles,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and once again he had no idea of how he
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: was being brought into this case, or of who could
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: have kidnapped Miss Cole. But even as he departed, he
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: suddenly got that idea Tom. Tom. It took moments to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: string together the bits of logic which brought that thought
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: into his mind. Things had happened to people, mostly gangsters,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: at the hands of a malevolent creature, that is, if
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the creature had hands. But it must have hands if
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: it could wield a gun. A slip cord a knife.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: It must also be notably small and nimble if it
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: really traveled up chimneys, down ventilator shafts, along power lines,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and through stovepipe holes. Gascon's imagination as good as any one's,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: toyed with the conception of a wise and wicked monkey,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: or of a child possessed by evil, like the children
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of Old Salem, or a dwarf. But the point at
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: which he coupled on his theory was the point at
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: which the police had paused, or rather begun. Diggs. Dilson
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: had been killed with a knife, so had Old Broughton
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: he been. Gascon had given Old Breton a dummy that
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: people called Tom Tom, and Old Broughton was forthwith murdered.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Gascon had meant to go to the funeral, but something
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: had turned up to interfere. What else concerned the janitor? What,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: for instance, had the younger electricians and engineers teased him
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: about so often electricity is life? That was Old Broughton's
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: constant claim, and he was said to have whole clutters
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: of strange machinery at his shabby rooms. Broughton had taken
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom. Thereafter, Broughton and others had been killed. In
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: the background of their various tragedies, had lurked and plotted
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: something small, evil, active, and strange enough to frighten the
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: most hardened of criminals. Electricity is life, and Broughton had
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: toiled over some kind of electrical apparatus that might or
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: might not be new and powerful in ways unknown to
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: ordinary electricians. Gasconn left the rationalization half completed in the
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: back of his mind and sought out the shabby street
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: where the janitor had lodged. The landlord could not give
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: him much help. To be sure, Old Braughton had made
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: a nuisance of himself with his machines, mumbling that they
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: would startle the world some day. But after his death,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: someone had bought those machines, loaded them upon a truck,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and carted them off. The landlord had seen the purchase
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and later identified the purchaser from newspaper photographs as the
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: late Juny Salts. And Juny Salts, pondered, Gascon had been
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: killed by something with a shrill voice that could crawl
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: through a stovepipe hole. You saw the sale of the goods,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: He prompted the landlord. Was there a dummy, a thing
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: like a big doll such as ventriloquists use. The landlord
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: shook his head. Nothing like that I have noticed. If
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: there was so, Tom Tom, who had gone home with
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: old Broughton, had vanished. Gascon left the lodgings and made
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a call at a newspaper office, where he inserted a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: personal notice among the classified advertisements, t T I have
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: you figured out clever? But your old partner can add
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: two and two and get four. Better. Let sc go,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: b f G. The notice ran for three days, then
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a reply in the same column, So what t T.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: It was bleak, brief defiance, but Gascon felt a sudden
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: blaze of triumph. Somehow he had made a right guess
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: on a most fantastic proposition. Tom Tom had come to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: life as a lawless menace. All that he Gascon need
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: do was act accordingly. He made plans, then inserted another message,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: t T. I made you and I can break you.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: This is between us. Get in touch with me or
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: I'll come looking for you. You won't like that, b
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: f G. Next day his telephone rang, A hoarse voice
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: called him by name. Look, Gascon, you'd better lay off
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: or for you know what's good for you? Ah replied
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Gascon gently Tom. Tom seems to have taken up conventional
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: gangster methods. It means that he's afraid, which I'm not
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: tell him. I'm not laying off. I'm laying on. That night,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: he took dinner at a restaurant on a side street.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: As he left it, two men sauntered out of a
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: doorway and came up on either side of him. One
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: was as squat and bulky as a wrestler, with a
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: truculent square face. The other, taller but scrawnie, had a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: broad brow and a narrow chin, presenting the facial triangle,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: which phrenologists claimed notes shrewdness. Both had their hands inside
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: their coats, where bulges betrayed the presence of holstered guns.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: This is a stick up, said triangle face. Don't make
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a move or a peep or well cut down on ye.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: They walked him along the street. I'm not moving or peeping.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Gascon assured them blandly, but where are you taking me?
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: And this car, replied the triangle faced one, and opened
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the rear door of a part sedan. Gascon got in
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: with the powerful gunmen beside him. The other got into
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the front seat and took the wheel. No funny business,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: he cautioned, as he trod on the starter. The boss
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: wants to talk to you. The car drew away from
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the curb, heading across town. Gascon produced his cigarette case
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: Shannon Cole had given it to him on his last birthday,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: opened it and offered it to the man beside him,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Smiling urbanely at the cirk growl of refusal. He then
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: selected a cigarette and lighted it. Understand one thing, he
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: bade his captors through a cloud of smoke. I've expected this,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: I've worked for it, and I have written very fully
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: about all angles of this particular case. If anything happens
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: to me, the police will get my report. It was
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: patently a bluff, and in an effort to show that
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: it did not work, both men laughed scornfully. We're hotter
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: than a couple of wolves in a prairie fire right now,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the triangle faced one assured him. Anyway, no dumb cop
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: would believe the truth about the boss. That convinced Gascon
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: that he was on his way to Tom Tom too.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: The remark about a couple of wolves showed that the
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: driver thought of only two members of the gang. Tom
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Tom's following must have been reduced to these. Gascon sat
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: back with an air of enjoying the ride, growling again.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: His big companion leaned over and slapped him around the body.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: There was no hard lump to betray a knife or pistol,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and the bulky fellow grunted to show that he was satisfied.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Gascon was satisfied as well. His pockets were not probed into,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and he was carrying a weapon that, if unorthodox, was
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: nevertheless efficient. He foresaw the need and the chance to
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: use it. Is miss Cole, all right, Hush she is,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: replied square face. Pipe down, you snapped his companion from
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the driver's seat. Let the boss do the talk into
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: this egg. Your boss likes to do the talking, I
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: judge put in Gascon, still casually, do you like to listen? Or?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And his voice took on a mocking tone. Does he
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: give you the creeps? Never mind? Square Face muttered he's
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: doing okay, but not his followers suggested Gascon. Quite a
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: few of them have been killed, eh, and aren't you
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: too the only survivors of the old Dilson crowd. How
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: long will your luck hold out? I wonder longer than yours?
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Replied the man at the wheel sharply, if you talk
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: any more, we'll put the slug on you. The remainder
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of the ride was passed in silence, and the car
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: drew up at length before a quiet suburban cottage on
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the edge of town, almost directly opposite the scene of
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the recent fight between police and assalters. The three entered
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a dingy parlor full of respectable looking furniture. Keep him here,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Triangle Face bade, Square Face, I'll go help the boss.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Get ready to talk to him. He was gone. His
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: words suggested that there would be some moments alone with
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Square Face, and Gascon meant to make use of them.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: The big fellow sat down. Take a cheer, he bade,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: but Gascon shook his head and lighted another cigarette. He
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: narrowed his eyes in his best diagnostician manner to study
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: his guard. You look as if there was something wrong
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: with your glands, he said, crisply. Ain't nothing wrong with me?
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Was the harsh response. Are you sure? How do you
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: feel good enough to pull a leg off o you?
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: If you don't shut that big mouth, Gascon shrugged and
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: turned to a rear wall. A picture hung there a
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: very unsightly oil painting. He put his hand up as
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: if to straighten it on its hook. Then he glanced
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: toward a window, letting his eyes dilate. Ah, he said softly.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Up jumped the gangster, a gun flashing into view. What
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: did you say, he demanded. I just said, ah, replied Gascon,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: his eyes fixed on the window. If anybody's followed you here, eh.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: The giant broke off and tramped toward the window to
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: look out. Like a flash, Gascon leaped after him. With him,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: he carried the picture lifted from where it hung. He
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: swept it through the air, using the edge of the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: frame like a hatchet and aiming at the back of
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the thick neck. The blow was powerful and well placed.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Knocked clean out, the gangster fell on his face. Gascon stooped,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: hooked his hands under the armpits, and made shift to
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: drag the slack weight back to its chair. It took
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: all his strength to set his victim back there. Then
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: he drew from his side pocket the thing he had
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: been carrying for days, a wad of cotton, which he
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: soaked in chloroform. Holding it to the broad nose, he
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: waited until the last tenseness went out of the great limbs.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Then he crossed one leg over the other knee, poised
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the head against the chair back, an elbow on a
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: cushioned arm. Clamping the nerveless right hand about the pistol butt,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: he arranged it in the man's lap. Now the attitude
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: was one of a sure relaxation. Gascon hung the picture
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: back in place, and himself sat down. He still puffed
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: on the cigarette that had not left his lips. He
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: had more than a minute to wait before the leaner
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: mobster returned. Ready for you now, he said to Gascon,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: beckoning him through a rear door. He gave no more
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: than a glance to his quiet, easy singing comrade. They
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: went down some stairs into a basement. Plainly, basements were
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: an enthusiasm of the commander of this enterprise. And along
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: a corridor at the end was a door pulled almost shut,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: with light showing through the crack. Go in ordered triangle
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: face and turned as if to mount the stairs again.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: But it was not Gascon's wish that he find his
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: companion senseless. In fact, Gascon had no intention of leaving
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: anyone in the way of the retreat he hoped to
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: make later. With his hand on the doorknob. He spoke
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: one thing, my friend, triangle face paused and turned, I'm
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: no friend of yours. What do you want? Gascon extended
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: his other hand. Wish me luck. The only look I
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: wish you was bad. Don't try to grab hold of me.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: The gangster's hand slid into the front of his coat,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: toward that bulge that denoted an armpit holster. Gascon sprang
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: upon him, catching him by the sleeve near the elbow,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: so that he could not whip free with the weapon.
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Gascon's other hand dived into his own pocket again, clutching
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: the big wat of chloroform soaked cotton. He whipped the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: wat at and upon the triangular face. The man tried
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: to writhe away, but Gascon, and harder muscled than he,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: shoved him against the wall where the back of his
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: head could be clamped and held struggling. The fellow breathed
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: deeply again again, his frantic flounderings suddenly went feeble. Gascon
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: judged the dose sufficient and let go his holds. The
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: man subsided limply, and Gascon, still holding to his sleeve,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: dragged the right hand out of the coat. Dropping his
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: wad of cotton. He took up the big pistol. I'm afraid,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: gas Pipe, said a shrill, wise voice. He should know
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: better than anyone in the world that the gun won't
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: really help you, and Nichol's worth. Gascon spun around. A
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: moment ago he had put his hand on the doorknob
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: when he had turned to leap at the triangle faced man,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: he had pulled the door open. Now he could see
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: inside a bear office like room, a big sturdy desk,
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and a figure just beyond, a figure calm and assured,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: but so tiny, so grotesque. Come in, gasp, Pipe commanded
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom, the dummy end of Part three, Section four
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: of Broughton's Idea by Manly Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recordings
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: in the public domain, read by Ben Tucker. Part four.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom did not look as Gascon had remembered him.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: The checked jacket was filthy and frayed, and in the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: breast of it was a round black hole the size
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: of a finger tip. The paint had been flaked away
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: from the comical face. One broad ear was half broken off,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: the wig was tousled and matted, and the eyes goggled
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: no more in the clownish fashion that had been made
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: so famous in publicity photographs. They crouched deep and Tom
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: Tom's wooden face and glowed greenly like the eyes of
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: a meat eating animal. You're the only man I ever
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: expected to figure me out, gas Pipe, said Tom Tom.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And even you can't do much about it. Can you
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: put away the gun? I've been shot at and shot at,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: and it does nothing but make little holes like this?
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: He tapped the black rent in his jacket front with
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: a jointed forefinger. As a matter of fact, I was
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: glad to see you notice in the agony column. I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: think I'd have hunted you up anyway. You see, we
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: make a fine team, gas Pipe. There are things we
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: can still do for each other, but you must be reasonable.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: I'm not here to let you make fun of me,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: said Gascon. You're just a little freak brought to life
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: by the chance power evolved by a cracked old intelligence.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Once I puzzled it out, I knew that I needn't
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: be afraid. You can't do anything to me now, said
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom, with what seemed to chuckle. Let me show
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: you something, gas Pipe. His wooden hand moved across the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: desktop and touched a button. A section of the wall
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: slid back like a stage curtain, revealing an opening the
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: size of a closet door. The opening was fenced in
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: with a metal grating. Behind it stood Shennon Coal, her
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: long black hair awry, her face pale, her cloth of
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: gold pajamas rumpled. Ben, she said, in a voice that choked.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Did he get you two? Gascon exclaimed, and turned as
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: if to spring toward the grating, but at the same instant,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: with a swiftness that was more than a cat's, Tom
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: Tom also moved. He seemed to fly across his desk
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: as though flung by a catapult. His hard head struck
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Gascon's stomach, doubling him up, and then Tom Tom's arms
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: whipped around Gascon's ankles, dragging them sidewise down. Fellow the
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: ventriloquist heavily and clumsily. The gun flew from his hand,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: bouncing on the floor like a ball. Tom Tom caught
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: it mid bounce and lifted it with both hands. I
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: won't kill you a gas pipe, he announced, but I'll
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: most emphatically shoot off your kneecap if you try anything
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: sudden again. Sit up, put you back against that wall,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: and listen. Do what he says. Ben, he means business.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Shannon cole urged tremulously from behind your bars. Gascon obeyed,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: trying to think of a way to grapple that imp
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of wood and fabric. Tom Tom chuckled again, turned back
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: to his desk and scrambled lightly upon it. As before.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: He touched the button, and Shannon was instantly shut from sight.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: Good thing I kidnapped her, he observed. Not only is
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: she a thousands to her managers, but she brought you
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to me. Now we'll have a dandy conference, just like
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: old times, isn't it, gas Pipe. Gascon sat still eyeing
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: the gun. He might have risked its menace, but for
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: the thought of Shannon behind those bars. Tom Tom, so
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: weirdly strong, might fight him off, even if disarmed, then
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: turn on his captive. The dummy that was no longer
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: a dummy, seemed to read his mind. No violence, gas Pipe.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: I tell you it's been tried before. When the Dilson
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: mobsters were through laughing at the idea of my taking over,
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: one or two thought that Diggs Dlson should be avenged,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: but their guns didn't even make me blink. I killed
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: a couple and impressed the others. I put into them
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: the fear of Tom Tom again the chuckle. I'm almost
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: as hard to hurt as I am the fool gas Pipe,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: and that's very, very hard. Indeed, what do you want
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: of me? Blurted Gascon, scowling. Now that's a question, nodded
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom. It might be extended a little. What do
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: I want of life? Gas Pipe? Life is here with me,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: but I never asked for it. It was thrusting to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: me and upon me. My first feeling was of crazy
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: rage toward the life giver. And so you killed him,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: interrupted Gascon. I did, and the killing gave me the answer.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: The only thing worthwhile in life is taking life. Tom
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: Tom spread his wooden hands as though he felt that
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: he had made a neat point. Gascon made a quick
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: gesture of protest, then subsided as Tom Tom picked up
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the gun again. You're wrong, Tom Tom, he said earnestly.
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Ham I you're going to give me a moral lecture,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: are you? But men invented moral so as to protect
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: their souls. I don't have a soul, gas pipe, I
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: don't have to worry about protecting it. I'm not human.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I'm a thing. Sitting on the desk. He crossed his
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: legs and fiddled with the gun. You've lived longer than I.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: What else besides killing is worthwhile in life? Why enjoyment?
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: The marred head waggled. Enjoyment of what food? I can't eat? Companionship?
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: I doubt it where a freak like me is consained possessions?
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: But I can't use clothes or houses or money or
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: anything like that. They're for men, not dummies. What else?
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Gas pipe? Why? Why? This time? Gasconn fell silent? Love?
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: You are going to say? The chuckle was louder, and
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the glowing yellow eyes flickered aside toward the place behind
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the wall where Shannon was pinned up. You being stupid,
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: gas pipe, because you know what love is? You think
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: others do. Gas Pipe. I'll never know what love is.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not made for it. I see you aren't. Gascon
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: nodded solemnly. All right, tom Tom, You can find life
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: worth living if you try for supremacy in some line. Leadership,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: That said, Tom Tom, is where killing comes in, and
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: where you come in too. He laid down the gun
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: and put the tips of his jointed fingers together and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: opposed grotesquely, like that of a mild lecturer. I've given
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: my case, a lot of time and thought. You see,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: I realize that I don't fit in humanity hasn't never
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: considered making a place for me. I don't have needs
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: or reactions or wishes to fit those of humanity. Is
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: that why you turn to criminals? Because they don't fit
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: into normal human ethics either? Exactly? Exactly Tom tom nodded
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: above his poised hands. And criminals understand me, and I
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: understand them better than you think. But and he sounded
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: a little wary. They're no good either. You see, gas Pipe.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: They scare too easily, they die too easily. Just now
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: you overpowered one. They're not fit to associate with me
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: on the terms I dictate. If I'm going to have power,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: it will turn what passes for my stomach. If I
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: have only people, people of meat and bone under me.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: He made a spinning sound such as gascon is often
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: faked for him in the days when the two were performing.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: As I say this, this is where you come in
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: in Heaven's name, What do you mean you're a smart
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: gas pipe? You made me the one thing that's been
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: given artificial life. Well, you'll make other things to be animated.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: More robots demanded Gascon, you want a science factory. I
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: am the apex of science come true. Oh it's practical
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: A couple at first, then ten, then one hundred, then
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: perhaps to grab a piece of the world and rule it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Don't bug out your eyes, gas Pipe. My followers brought
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: up the life making machinery and others for me. I
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: have lots of money from that ransom, and I can
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: get more. Gascon was finding the idea not so surprising
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: as at first, but he shook his head over it.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: I won't, yes, you will. We'll be partners again, understand,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: and if I refuse. Tom Tom made no audible answer.
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: He only turned and gazed meaningly at the place where
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Shannon was shut up. Gascon sighed and rose, show me
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: this machinery of yours. Step this way, numble. Tom Tom
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: hopped to the floor. He had taken up the gun
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: again and gestured with it for Gascon to walk beside him.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Together they crossed the office to a rear corner where
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom touched what looked like a projecting nail head.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: As with the door to Shannon's cell, a panel slid back.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: They passed into a corridor and the panel closed behind them.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Straight ahead, came the voice of Tom Tom in the darkness,
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: being mechanical. I have a head for mechanics. I devised
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: all these secret panels. Neat dramatic, replied Gascon, who could
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: be ironical himself. Now, Tom Tom, if I do what
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: you want, what happens to me and too, Miss Cole,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: you both stay with me. You won't let them ransom
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: her a chuckle, en, I'll take the ransom money. But
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: she seemed too much to go free. Maybe I'll make
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the two of you a nice suite of rooms for
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: housekeeping bard In. Of course, didn't you use to carry
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: me around in a little case, gas Pipe, I'll take
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: just as good care of you if you do what
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: I want. The little monster did something or other to
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: open a second door, and beyond showed the light of
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: a strong electric lamp. They passed into a big windowless
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: room with rough wooden walls, probably a deep cellar. It
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: held a complicated arrangement of electrical machinery. Hopping lightly to
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: a bench the height of Gascon's shoulder, Tom Tom seized
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: a switch and closed it. There were emissions of sparks,
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: a stir of wheels and belts, and the hum of
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: machinery being set in motion. This gas pipe is what
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: brought me to life. And look, the jointed wooden hand
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: flourished toward a corner. There's the kind of thing that
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: was tried and failed. It looked like a caricature of
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: an armored knight, a tall, jointed, gleaming thing half again
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: as big as a man, but with a head shaped
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: like a bucket. There were no features except two vacant
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: eyes of quartz staring through the blank metal, as through
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: a mask. Gascon walked around it, his doctor mind and
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: build her hands immediately interested. The body was but loosely
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: pinned together, and he drew aside a plate, peering into
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: the works. The principle's wrong, he announced at once. The
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: fellow didn't understand anatomical balance. I knew it, I knew it,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: cried Tom, Tom, you can add the right touch gas pipe.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: That's the specimen that came closest to success before me.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: I'll help. After all, my brain was made by the
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: old boy who did all these things through it. I
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: know what he knew. Why didn't you save him to help, you,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: demanded Gascon. He picked up a pair of taper and
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: pincers and a small wrench and began to tinker. I
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: told you about that. Once I was angry, My first
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: impulse was a killing rage. The death of my life
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: giver was my first pleasure in triumph had dreamed up
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: the plan I've been describing. Anger was Tom Tom's first emotion.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Not so different from human beings as the creature imagined,
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: mused Gascon. What had the lecturer at medical school once
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: quoted from a manual count with the outcry that is
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: heard from a child just born was not the note
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: of lamentation, but of indignation, an aroused wrath. Of course,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: a newborn baby has not the strength to visit its
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: rage on mother or nurse or doctor. But a creature
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: as organized and powerful in body and mind as Tom
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: Tom were as huge and overwhelming as this metal giant
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: he fiddled with. Gascon decided to think such thoughts with
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: the greatest stealth. If Tom Tom could divine them, something
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: terrible was due to happen. Stripping off his coat, he
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: went to work on the robot with deadly earnestness and
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: of Part four, Section five of Broughton's Idea by Manly
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: Wade Wellman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: read by Ben Tucker. Part five, Morning had probably come
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: to the outside world. Gascon wan and weary, stepped back
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: and mopped his brow with a shirt sleeve. Tom Tom
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: spoke from where he sat cross legged on the bench
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: beside the controls. Is he pretty much in shape, gas Pipe,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: as much as you ever were, Tom Tom? If you
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: are right and this machine gave you life, it will
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: give him life. Two. I can't wait for my man, Friday.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Get him over and lay him on the slab. The
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: metal man was too heavy to lift, but Gascon's hours
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of work had provided his joints with beautiful balance. An
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: arm around the tank like waist was enough to support
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: and guide. The weight shifted from one big shovel foot
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: to the other, and the massive bulk actually walked to
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: the table like slab in the midst of the wheels
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: and tubes, and Gascon eased it down at full length. Now,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom approached, bringing a spongy looking object on a
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: metal tray, an amorphous roundness that sprouted copper wires in
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: all directions. He slid it into the open top of
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the robot's bucket like head. That's a brain for Friday.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Explained Tom Tom, not as complex as mine, but made
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: the same way. He'll have simple reactions and impulses, a
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: model servant, simple reactions, and Tom Tom had sprung up
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: from his berth couch to kill the man who brought
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: him to life. Gascon's hands trembled ever so slightly as
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: he connected the brain wires to terminals that did duty
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: as nerves. Tom Tom himself laid a plate over the
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: orifice and stuck it down with a soldering iron. My
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: own brain's armored inside this wooden skull, he commented. No
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: bullet or axe could reach it. And nobody can hurt
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: the brain of Friday here unless they get at him
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: from above. He's pretty tall to get at from above.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: A gas pipe, that's right, nodded Gascon, and in his
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: mind rose a picture of the big metal thing bending down,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: exposing that vulnerable saldered patch Tom Tom, and he clamped
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: the leads to wrists, ankles and neck. Get back to
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: the wall, gas Pipe commanded Tom Tom bleakly, and Gascon obeyed.
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Now watch and don't move, or I'll set Friday on
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: you when he wakes up. Gascon sat down on a long,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: low bench next to the open door. Tom Tom noticed
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: his position and lifted the gun he had carried it
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: into the chamber. Don't try to run, he warned, or
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I'll drill you, maybe in the stomach, and you can
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: lie there and die slowly. When you die, there'll be
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: nobody to help. Shanny on the inner little hole in
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the wall. I won't run, promised Gascon, and Tom Tom
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: switched on more power, sparks, a shuddering roar, a quickening
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: of all parts of the machine. The shining hulk on
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: the slab stirred and quivered like a man troubled by dreams.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Tom Tom gave a brief, barking laugh of triumph, brought
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: the mechanism to a howling crescendo of sound and motion,
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: then abruptly shut it down to a murmur. Friday, Friday,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: he called. Slowly. The metal giants sat up in its bonds.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: The bucket head, with its vacant eyes now gleaming as
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: yellow as Tom Tom's, turned in that direction. Then, with
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: unthinkable swiftness, the big metal body heaved itself, erect ripping
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: free of the clamps that had been fastened upon it.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Up rose two monstrous hands, like baseball gloves, of jointed iron.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: There was a clashing, heavy footed charge. Sitting still as death,
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Gascon again recalled to mind what Tom Tom had said,
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: what he had heard at medical school. Tom Tom gave
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: a prolonged yell and threw up the gun to fire.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: The explosions rattled and rolled in the narrow confinement of
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: the room. Bullets spattered the armor plated breast of the
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: oncoming giant. One knocked away a gleaming eye. The towering
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: thing did not falter in its dash. Tom Tom tried
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: to spring down too late. The big hands flashed out
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: and had him. Gascon, now daring to move, dragged the
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: bench across the doorway. From a corner. He caught up
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: a heavy wrought iron socket lever, as long as a
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: walking stick and nearly as thick as his wrist. All
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: the while he watched over his shoulder, a battle that
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: was not all one sided. After his final effort to
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: command the newly animated giant, Tom Tom had not made
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: a sound. He concentrated on freeing himself from the grip
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: that had fastened upon him. Both his wooden hands clutched,
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: a single finger strained against it. Gascon saw, almost as
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: in a ridiculous dream, that immense finger bending backward, backward
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: and tearing from its socket, but the other fingers kept
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: their hold. They laid tom Tom on the floor. A
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: great slab of a foot pinned him there. The two
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: metal hands began to pluck him to pieces and to
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: throw the pieces away. First, an arm in a plaid
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: sleeve flew across the room, an arm ripped from tom
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Tom's little sleeve, an arm that still writhed and wriggled
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: its fingers, opening and closing. It fell among the wheels
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: that still turned, jamming them. Sparks sprang up with a
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: grating rattle, then a flame of blueness. Gascon turned his
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: back toward the doorway that he had blocked with the
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: bench to see the thing out with a wanton fury.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: The victorious ogre of metal had shredded tom Tom's body,
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: hurling the pieces in all directions to one side. The
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: machinery was putting forth more flame and more. The blaze
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: licked up the wall. The giant straightened his body at last,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: holding in one paw the detached head of its victim.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: The jaws of tom Tom snapped and moved, as though
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: he was trying to speak look this way, roared Gascon
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: at the top of his voice. The creature heard him.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: Its head swiveled doorward. It stared with one gleaming eye
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: and one empty black socket. Gascon brandished the socket lever
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: over his head as though in challenge, then turned and
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: sprang over the bench into the dark corridor a jangling
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: din as the thing rushed after him. Hands shot out
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: to clutch its shins struck the bench violently. The feet
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: lost their grip of the floor, and the clumsy structure
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: plunged forward and with a noise, like an automobile striking
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: a stone wall. For a moment, the huge head was
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: just at Gascon's knee. He struck the sold or fastened
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: patch flew away under the impact of his clubbed lever
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: bar like a driven golf ball. The cranium yawned open,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: and he jabbed the bar in. Something squashed and yielded
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: before his prodding, the delicate artificial brain. Then the struggling
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: shape at his feet subsided. From one relaxing hand rolled
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: something round the head of Tom Tom. It still lived
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: for the eyes rolled up to glare at Gascon. The
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: jaws snapped at his toe. He kicked the thing back
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: through the door into the growing flames. The fire was
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: bright enough to show him the way back along the corridor.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: He did not know how Tom Tom had arranged the
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: panel to open and close, nor did he pause to
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: find out. Heavy blows of the bar cleared him away.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: Out in the office, he fairly sprang to the desk,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: located the button on its top, and pressed it. A
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: moment later, Shannon was staring out at him through a
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: grating ben She gasped, are you all right, Tom Tom?
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: He's finished? Gascon told her this whole business is finished.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: With his lever, he managed to rip the grating from
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: its fastenings and then dragged Shannon forth. She clung to
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: him like a child awakened from a nightmare. Come, we're
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: getting out. In the second corridor, he stooped, searched the
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: pockets of the senseless triangle faced one, and secured the
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: keys to the car outside. Then he shook the fellow
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: back to semi consciousness. This house is on fire, Gascon shouted,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: get your poal upstairs on his feet and get out
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: of here, leaving the fellow standing weakly. Gascon and Shannon
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: got into the open and into the car. Driving along
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: the street, they heard the clanging of fire engines heading
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: for the now angry fire. Shannon said one thing, Ben,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: how much can we tell the police. It isn't how
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: much we can tell them, replied Gascon weightily, it's how little.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: When Autumn returned, Ben Gascon was on the air again.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: After all. His sponsors feared that his marriage to Shannon
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: Cole might damage their popularity as co stars, but radio
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: fans showed quite the opposite reaction. Gascon introduced a fresh
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: note in the form of a new dummy, which he
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: named Jack Duffy, a greenhorn character with a husky voice
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: instead of a shrill one and a rural humor instead
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: of cocktail our repartee. Sometimes people asked what had become
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: of Tom Tom, but Gascon always managed to change the subject,
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: and eventually Tom Tom was forgotten. End of Part five.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: End of Bratton's Idea by mainly Wade Wellman.