g Cole as usual at their heels.

The sentinel was right, as the pair ascertained immediately that they
brought their field-glasses to bear upon the part of the forest
indicated by the Indian. The undergrowth, consisting mostly of bushes
and shrubs, was fairly dense, rendering it impossible to see beyond a
yard or two into the forest, but by diligent and patient search the two
leaders were able to discern certain dark objects, which they identified
as heads, moving hither and thither, and pausing from time to time to
peer out at them through parted boughs. Then suddenly a frightful roar
was heard, immediately taken up and answered by many others, the bushes
swayed as heavy bodies irresistibly forced a way through them, and some
twenty monstrous figures bounded into the open and came charging down
upon the little group, emitting loud, savage roars as they came, with
the foam flying from their champing jaws.

"G-r-r-eat Caesar's ghost!" exclaimed Earle in amazement, as the
creatures broke cover; "what have we here, anyway? Whatever they may
be, they are certainly not human. And savage--they're as full of gall
as a wagon-load of catamounts! This is where we have to shoot to kill,
Dick, and don't you forget it. We can't begin too soon either, so get
busy, my lad. Darn that Indian! he's scooted. Well, I guess he's
better out of the way after all."

Earle might well be excused for the astonishment he betrayed at the
sight of the enemy. As he had said, they were certainly not human; they
were, in fact, gigantic apes, somewhat resembling gorillas in their
general appearance, though considerably bigger, their stature being, on
Earle's first hasty estimate, quite six feet. They were covered with
rather long, coarse, shaggy hair, of so dark a brown as to appear almost
black, the hair of the head and face being much longer than on the rest
of the body. Their arms were immensely long in proportion to their
lower limbs; from their build they appeared to be endowed with amazing
strength, a suggestion which was fully confirmed by the consummate ease
with which they flourished boughs of trees of formidable size with which
they had armed themselves.

They came charging down upon the two white men and the now madly raging
King Cole in a series of long bounds, springing from the ground and
landing upon it with both feet together, each leap being accompanied by
a deep, bellowing roar, the volume of which testified to immense po