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unless--unless--I wonder if he does care. I wonder if I care whether or not he

cares. Oh, dear, I wish I knew," and as she soliloquized she wandered past the

little clearing and into the jungle that lay behind the campong.

As von Horn and Professor Maxon talked together in the laboratory before the

upsetting of vat Number Thirteen, a grotesque and horrible creature had slunk

from the low shed at the opposite side of the campong until it had crouched at

the flimsy door of the building in which the two men conversed. For a while it

listened intently, but when von Horn urged the necessity for dispatching certain

terrible, soulless creatures" an expression of intermingled fear and hatred

convulsed the hideous features, and like a great grizzly it turned and lumbered

awkwardly across the campong toward the easterly, or back wall of the enclosure.

Here it leaped futilely a half dozen times for the top of the palisade, and then

trembling and chattering in rage it ran back and forth along the base of the

obstacle, just as a wild beast in captivity paces angrily before the bars of its cage.

Finally it paused to look once more at the senseless wood that barred its escape,

as though measuring the distance to the top. Then the eyes roamed about the

campong to rest at last upon the slanting roof of the thatched shed which was its

shelter. Presently a slow idea was born in the poor, malformed brain.

The creature approached the shed. He could just reach the saplings that formed

the frame work of the roof. Like a huge sloth he drew himself to the roof of the

structure. From here he could see beyond the palisade, and the wild freedom of

the jungle called to him. He did not know what it was but in its leafy wall he

perceived many breaks and openings that offered concealment from the creatures

who were plotting to take his life.

Yet the wall was not fully six feet from him, and the top of it at least five feet

above the top of the shed--those who had designed the campong had been careful

to set this structure sufficiently far from the palisade to prevent its forming too

easy an avenue of escape.

The creature glanced fearfully toward the workshop. He remembered the cruel

bull whip that always followed each new experiment on his part that did not

coincide with the desires of his master, and as he thought of von Horn a nasty

gleam shot his mismated eyes.

He tried to reach across the distance between the roof and the palisade, and in

the attempt lost his balance and nearly precipitated himself to the ground below.

Cautiously he drew back, still looking about for some means to cross the chasm.

One of the saplings of the roof, protruding beyond the palm leaf thatch, caught

his attention. With a single wrench he tore it from its fastenings. Extending it

The Monster Men