It was a mad idea--but I was
mad.
"At about this time Balcom came to Madagascar. He found me and, knowing
my intense hatred of Peter Brent, he cruelly added fuel to the fire.
Already he must have known that Brent was coming to his senses and
planning his great restitution to genius.
"He promised me that if I would come to New York with him he would
secure an electrocuted brain so that I could perfect my steel automaton
and obtain my revenge. I was easily persuaded and I sailed with Balcom,
bringing the iron monster with me."
A strange light gleamed in the old man's eyes as he spoke, not the light
of madness, but of kindliness now.
"Children," he said, at length, "I have, during these lucid moments,
watched you all closely. Call it instinct if you will, but you, Zita,
and you, Quentin, seem to be particularly dear to me now. To-day,
returning from the scene of the explosion, with every faculty not only
clear, but rather sharpened by long disuse, I pieced the years, the
months, even the days together. I searched in an old trunk and I
found--this."
It was a list of those rescued from the steamer _Magnifique_, and with
amazement they read the names among the passengers:
QUENTIN LOCKE
ZITA LOCKE
There was a short note at the bottom of the list, to the effect that no
trace of either the father or the mother of the two children had been
found.
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