charge, and the apes, once through, did not hesitate. If
their leader charged the blacks they would follow--and did, while
among them danced, cavorted and gibbered the travesty, Apeman.

He was Bentley's lieutenant, and Bentley-Manape was the lord of the
apes. Just now he forgot that he was more ape than man. Just now he
was happy that his strength was the strength of many men. He was
hurrying to the assistance of the woman he loved.

Behind him came the great apes, following like an army of poorly
trained recruits, yet armed as no army has ever been armed since the
days when men fought with fist and fang against their enemies. Bentley
lumbered swiftly toward the sound of Ellen's voice, aided in his
journey by the odor of her which came to his sensitive ape's nostrils.

* * * * *

The blacks never saw the approach of the apes, until, led by Manape
the Mighty, the great apes were right among them. Bentley did not
pause. A black man saw him and shrieked aloud in terror, a shriek
which seemed to freeze the other blacks in all sorts of postures.
Sitting men remained where they sat, and some of the motionless ones
saved their lives by their immobility. Dancers paused in midstride,
and those who did not, died.

For the hands of the great apes clutched at everything that moved, and
the great shoulders bulged, and the mighty muscles cracked, and men
were torn asunder as though they had been flies in the hands of
vengeful boys.

The black who had shrieked hurled a spear, purely a reflex,
perhaps--an action born of its habitual use. It missed Bentley by a
narrow margin, but passed through the stomach of the she who had
nursed Apeman. Snarling, snapping at the thing which hurt her, the she
tore the weapon free--then waddled forward swiftly, caught the man who
had hurled the spear, and tore his head off with a single twisting
movement of her great hands.

Next moment her blood was mingling with that of her slayer as she fell
above him. But her hands, in the convulsions of death, still ripped
and tore, and the black whom she held was a ghastly thing when the she
was finally dead. Bentley did not see the ghastly end of the spearman,
for he was seeking Ellen, and at the some time keeping a close watch
on Apeman.

Apeman seemed to be urging the apes to the attack, bidding them rip
and tear and gnash, and the apes were doing that, making of the
village a crimson shambles. But they did it in pass