"Dresser drawer ... top...."
Herndon found the money, neatly stacked. A second time he shut off the control device, and Mardlin relaxed.
"Okay," Herndon said. "I have the cash and I have the stones. But there must be thousands of stellors that you've previously stolen from us."
"You can have that too! Only don't turn that thing on again, please!"
Shrugging, Herndon said, "There isn't time for me to hunt down the other money you stole from us. But we can ensure against your doing it again."
He fulfilled the final part of Benjin's instructions by turning the control switch to ten, the limit of sentient endurance. Every molecule of Mardlin's wiry body felt unbearable pain; he screamed and danced on the floor, but only for a moment. Nerve cells unable to handle the overload of pain stimuli short-circuited. In seconds, his brain was paralyzed. In less than a minute he was dead, though his tortured limbs still quivered with convulsive post-mortuary jerks.
Herndon shut the device off. He had done his job. He felt neither revulsion nor glee. All this was merely the preamble to what he regarded as his ultimate destiny.
He gathered up jewels and money and walked out.
CHAPTER V