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Chapter 1 - THE RIFT

As he dropped the last grisly fragment of the dismembered and mutilated body

into the small vat of nitric acid that was to devour every trace of the horrid

evidence which might easily send him to the gallows, the man sank weakly into a

chair and throwing his body forward upon his great, teak desk buried his face in

his arms, breaking into dry, moaning sobs.

Beads of perspiration followed the seams of his high, wrinkled forehead, replacing

the tears which might have lessened the pressure upon his overwrought nerves.

His slender frame shook, as with ague, and at times was racked by a convulsive

shudder. A sudden step upon the stairway leading to his workshop brought him

trembling and wide eyed to his feet, staring fearfully at the locked and bolted

door.

Although he knew perfectly well whose the advancing footfalls were, he was all

but overcome by the madness of apprehension as they came softly nearer and

nearer to the barred door. At last they halted before it, to be followed by a gentle

knock.

Daddy!" came the sweet tones of a girl's voice.

The man made an effort to take a firm grasp upon himself that no tell-tale

evidence of his emotion might be betrayed in his speech.

Daddy!" called the girl again, a trace of anxiety in her voice this time. "What IS

the matter with you, and what ARE you doing? You've been shut up in that

hateful old room for three days now without a morsel to eat, and in all likelihood

without a wink of sleep. You'll kill yourself with your stuffy old experiments."

The man's face softened.

"Don't worry about me, sweetheart," he replied in a well controlled voice. "I'll

soon be through now--soon be through--and then we'll go away for a long

vacation--for a long vacation."

"I'll give you until noon, Daddy," said the girl in a voice which carried a more

strongly defined tone of authority than her father's soft drawl, "and then I shall

come into that room, if I have to use an axe, and bring you out--do you

understand?"

Professor Maxon smiled wanly. He knew that his daughter was equal to her

threat.

The Monster Men