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I expectā€”but they carried away all our loose food. Summerlee and I got some rough handlinā€™ on the wayā€”thereā€™s my skin and my clothes to prove itā€”for they took us a bee-line through the brambles, and their own hides are like leather. But Challenger was all right. Four of them carried him shoulder high, and he went like a Roman emperor. Whatā€™s that?ā€

It was a strange clicking noise in the distance not unlike castanets.

ā€œThere they go!ā€ said my companion, slipping cartridges into the second double barrelled ā€œExpress.ā€ ā€œLoad them all up, young fellah my lad, for weā€™re not going to be taken alive, and donā€™t you think it! Thatā€™s the row they make when they are excited. By George! theyā€™ll have something to excite them if they put us up. The `Last Stand of the Graysā€™ wonā€™t be in it. `With their rifles grasped in their stiffened hands, mid a ring of the dead and dyinā€™,ā€™ as some fathead sings. Can you hear them now?ā€

ā€œVery far away.ā€

ā€œThat little lot will do no good, but I expect their search parties are all over the wood. Well, I was telling you my tale of woe. They got us soon to this town of theirsā€”about a thousand huts of branches and leaves in a great grove of trees near the edge of the cliff. Itā€™s three or four miles from here. The filthy beasts fingered me all over, and I feel as if I should never be clean again. They tied us upā€”the fellow who handled me could tie like a bosunā€”and there we lay with our toes up, beneath a tree, while a great brute stood guard over us with a club in his hand. When I say `weā€™ I mean Summerlee and myself. Old Challenger was up a tree, eatinā€™ pines and havinā€™ the time of his life. Iā€™m bound to say that he managed to get some fruit to us, and with his own hands he loosened our bonds. If youā€™d seen him sitting up in that tree hob-nobbinā€™ with his twin brotherā€”and singinā€™ in that rollinā€™ bass of his, `Ring out, wild bells,ā€™ cause music of any kind seemed to put ā€˜em in a good humor, youā€™d have smiled; but we werenā€™t in much mood for laughinā€™, as you can guess. They were inclined, within limits, to let him do what he liked, but they drew the line pretty sharply at us. It was a mighty consolation to us all to know that you were runninā€™ loose and had the archives in your keepinā€™.

ā€œWell, now, young fellah, Iā€™ll tell you what will surprise you. You say you saw signs of men, and fires, traps, and the like. Well, we have seen the natives themselves. Poor devils they were, down-faced little chaps, and had enough to make them so. It seems that the humans hold one side of this plateauā€”over yonder, where you saw the cavesā€”and the ape-men hold this side, and there is bloody war between them all the time. Thatā€™s the situation, so far as I could follow it. Well, yesterday the ape-men got hold of a dozen of the humans and brought them in as prisoners. You never heard such a jabberinā€™ and shriekinā€™ in your life. The men were little red fellows, and had been bitten and clawed so that they could hardly walk. The ape-men put two of them to death there and thenā€”fairly pulled the arm off one of themā€”it was perfectly beastly. Plucky little chaps they are, and hardly gave a squeak. But it turned us absolutely sick. Summerlee fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. I think they have cleared, donā€™t you?ā€

We listened intently, but nothing save the calling of the birds broke the deep peace of the forest. Lord Roxton went on with his story.

ā€œI Think you have had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad. It was catchinā€™ those Indians that put you clean out of their heads, else they would have been back to the camp for you as sure as fate and gathered you in. Of course, as you said, they have been watchinā€™ us from the beginninā€™ out of that tree, and they knew perfectly well that we were one short. However, they could think only of this new haul; so it was I, and not a bunch of apes, that dropped in on you in the morning. Well, we had a horrid business afterwards. My God! what a nightmare the whole thing is! You remember the great bristle of sharp canes down below where we found the skeleton of the American? Well, that is just under ape-town, and thatā€™s the jumpinā€™-off place of their prisoners. I expect thereā€™s heaps of skeletons there, if we looked for ā€˜em. They have a sort of clear parade-ground on the top, and they make a proper ceremony about it. One by one the poor devils have to jump, and the game is to see whether they are merely dashed to pieces or whether they get skewered on the canes. They took us out to see it, and the whole tribe lined up on the edge. Four of the Indians jumped, and the canes went through ā€˜em like knittinā€™ needles through a pat of butter. No wonder we found that poor Yankeeā€™s skeleton with the canes growinā€™ between his ribs. It was horribleā€”but it was doocedly interestinā€™ too. We were all fascinated to see them take the dive, even when we thought it would be our turn next on the spring-board.

ā€œWell, it wasnā€™t. They kept six of the Indians up for to-dayā€” thatā€™s how I understood itā€”but I fancy we were to be the star performers in the show. Challenger might get off, but Summerlee and I were in the bill. Their language is more than half signs, and it was not hard to follow them. So I thought it was time we made a break for it. I had been plottinā€™ it out a bit, and had one or two things clear in my mind. It was all on me, for Summerlee was useless and Challenger not much better. The only time they got together they got slanginā€™ because they couldnā€™t agree upon the scientific classification of these red-headed devils that had got hold of us. One said it was the dryopithecus of Java, the other said it was pithecanthropus. Madness, I call itā€”Loonies, both. But, as I say, I had thought out one or two points that were helpful. One was that these brutes could not run as fast as a man in the open. They have short, bandy legs, you see, and heavy bodies. Even Challenger could give a few yards in a hundred to the best of them, and you or I would be a perfect Shrubb. Another point was that they knew nothinā€™ about guns. I donā€™t believe they ever understood how the fellow I shot came by his hurt. If we could get at our guns there was no sayinā€™ what we could do.

ā€œSo I broke away early this morninā€™, gave my guard a kick in the tummy that laid him out, and sprinted for the camp. There I got you and the guns, and here we are.ā€

ā€œBut the professors!ā€ I cried, in consternation.

ā€œWell, we must just go back and fetch ā€˜em. I couldnā€™t bring ā€˜em with me. Challenger was up the tree, and Summerlee was not fit for the effort. The only chance was to get the guns and try a rescue. Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge. I donā€™t think they would touch Challenger, but I wouldnā€™t answer for Summerlee. But they would have had him in any case. Of that I am certain. So I havenā€™t made matters any worse by boltinā€™. But we are honor bound to go back and have them out or see it through with them. So you can make up your soul, young fellah my lad, for it will be one way or the other before eveninā€™.ā€

I have tried to imitate here Lord Roxtonā€™s jerky talk, his short, strong sentences, the half-humorous, half-reckless tone that ran through it all. But he was a born leader. As danger thickened his jaunty manner would increase, his speech become more racy, his cold eyes glitter into ardent life, and his Don Quixote moustache bristle with joyous excitement. His love of danger, his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventureā€”all the more intense for being held tightly inā€”his consistent view that every peril in life is a form of sport, a fierce game betwixt you and Fate, with Death as a forfeit, made him a wonderful companion at such hours. If it were not for our fears as to the fate of our companions, it would have been a positive joy to throw myself with such a man into such an affair. We were rising from our brushwood hiding-place when suddenly I felt his grip upon my arm.

ā€œBy George!ā€ he whispered, ā€œhere they come!ā€

From where we lay we could look down a brown aisle, arched with green, formed by the trunks and branches. Along this a party of the ape-men were passing. They went in single file, with bent legs and rounded backs, their hands occasionally touching the ground, their heads turning to left and right as they trotted along. Their crouching gait took away from their height, but I should put them at five feet or so, with long arms and enormous chests. Many of them carried sticks, and at the distance they looked like a line of very hairy and deformed human beings. For a moment I caught this clear glimpse of them. Then they were lost among the bushes.

ā€œNot this time,ā€ said Lord John, who had caught up his rifle. ā€œOur best chance is to lie quiet until they have given up the search. Then we shall see whether we canā€™t get back to their town and hit ā€˜em where it hurts most. Give ā€˜em an hour and weā€™ll march.ā€

We filled in the time by opening one of our food tins and making sure of our breakfast. Lord Roxton had had nothing but some fruit since the morning before and ate like a starving man. Then, at last, our pockets bulging with cartridges and a rifle in each hand, we started off upon our mission of rescue. Before leaving it we carefully marked our little hiding-place among the brushwood and its bearing to Fort Challenger, that we might find it again if we needed it. We slunk through the bushes in silence until we came to the very edge of the cliff, close to the old camp. There we halted, and Lord John gave me some idea of his plans.

ā€œSo long as we are among the thick trees these swine are our masters, said he. They can see us and we cannot see them. But in the open it is different. There we can move faster than they. So we must stick to the open all we can. The edge of the plateau has fewer large trees than further inland. So thatā€™s our line of advance. Go slowly, keep your eyes open and your rifle ready. Above all, never let them get you prisoner while there is a cartridge leftā€”thatā€™s my last word to you, young fellah.ā€

When we reached the edge of the cliff I looked over and saw our good old black Zambo sitting smoking on a rock below us. I would have given a great deal to have hailed him and told him how we were placed, but it was too dangerous, lest we should be heard. The woods seemed to be full of the ape-men; again and again we heard their curious clicking chatter. At such times we plunged into the nearest clump of bushes and lay still until the sound had passed away. Our advance,

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