rest. And now the savage figure was before them in terrifying
reality.

* * * * *

The eyes passed on to Kreiss. Then the ugly face swung toward Chet, and,
as their eyes met, it seemed to Chet that a blow had crashed stunningly
upon his brain. He tried to move--he knew that he must move. He must
reach for his bow, must leap upon this hulking brute and beat at the
glaring eyes with his bare fists. And his muscles that he tried to rouse
to action might have changed to stone, so unresponsive were they, and
unmoving.

The hairy hands reached out and touched Harkness. They passed on and
lingered upon the blanched features of the girl, and Chet raged inwardly
at his inability to resist and her utter helplessness to draw away. Then
Kreiss; and again Chet's turn. And, with the touching of those rough
animal hands, he felt that a contact had been established with some
distant force--a something that communicated with him, that sent
thoughts which his brain phrased in words.

"Curious!" said those thoughts. "How exceedingly curious! We shall be
interested in learning more. We shall learn all we can in one way and
another of this new race. We shall dismember them slowly, all but the
woman: we find her strangely attractive.... You will bring them to us at
once."

And Chet knew that the instructions were for the messenger whose hands
came stiffly upward to point the way; while, with a portion of his mind
that was functioning freely, Chet raged as he saw Diane take the first
stiff, involuntary step forward. Then Harkness and Kreiss! and he knew
that he too must follow, knew himself to be as helpless as the driven
brutes he had seen herded down below. And then, with the same mind that
was still able to comprehend the messages of his own eyes and ears, he
knew that from behind the savage figure there had come a sound.

* * * * *

His senses were alert, sharpened to an abnormal degree; the almost
silent footfall otherwise could never have been heard.

The raised hand swung toward him; he knew that he must turn and follow
the others to whatever awaited.... But the hand paused! Then swiftly the
savage figure swung to face toward the entrance, and those blazing eyes,
as Chet knew, were a match for any opponent.

But the eyes never found what they looked for and the quick swing of the
big ape-body was never completed. In the portal of light there was
framed a naked fig