ay.

Then Ellen saw Manape, screamed, and for the first time since she had
been saved from the deep by Bentley, fainted dead away.

The two so strangely related creatures faced each other across her
supine body--and both were savagely snarling. Apeman weakly but
angrily, Manape with a sound of such brute savagery that even the
twittering of birds died away to awed silence.

CHAPTER VIII

_Struggle for Mastery_

It was Apeman who charged. Pity for Apeman welled up in Bentley. That
was his own body which Apeman was so illy using. His own poor bruised
and bleeding body, which Apeman had all but slain by forcing it far
beyond human endurance. It must be saved, in spite of Apeman.

But there was something first to do. Bentley bent over Ellen, caught
her under his arm, and returned to the trees, with Apeman chattering
angrily and futilely behind him. Bentley found a crotch in the tree
where he could place Ellen, made sure that she was safely propped
there and that no snakes were near, and hurried back to the contest
with Apeman which could not be avoided.

He did not fear the battle he knew he must fight. He hurried back
because Apeman might realize himself beaten and escape into the
jungle. In his weakened condition he could not travel far and would be
easy prey for any prowling leopard, easy prey for the crawling things
whose fangs held sure death. Or would the cunning of Apeman, denizen
of the jungle, warn him against any such? His ape brain would warn
him, but would his human strength avail in case of necessity, in case
of attack by another ape, or a four-footed carnivore?

Bentley hurried back because Apeman must be saved, somehow, even
against his will. Apeman hated Manape with a deadly hatred. Yet to
subdue the travesty of a human being, Manape must take care that he
did not destroy his own casement of humanity. Any moment now and a
great cat might charge from the shadows and destroy Apeman.

* * * * *

Apeman, snarling, beating his puny chest with his puny hands, was
waiting for Manape his enemy.

Manape found himself thinking of the line: "'O wad some power the
giftie gie us, to see oursilves as ithers see us,'" and adding some
thoughts of his own.

"If that were actually 'I' down there, my chance of preserving the
life of myself, and that of Ellen against the rigors of the jungle,
would be absolutely nil. How helpless we humans are in primitive
surroundings! The tinie