acing with her into the
hazards of the jungle. But he remembered the anthropoids out there,
and Barter's peculiar domination of the brutes.

Barter was now watching the two with interest, studying them in turn
speculatively, unmindful of the impertinence of his studious regard
and silence.

"I have it!" he said. "Will you two be good enough to excuse me? You
will need rest, I am sure. I am going away for a little time, but I
shall return shortly after dark. Make yourselves at home. But
remember--don't enter that room!"

"You need not worry," said Bentley grimly. "I sincerely hope we take
our next meal in some other room."

Barter laughed and passed out of the door without a backward glance.

From the jungle immediately afterward came the drumming of the great
apes, and now and again the laughter of Barter--high-pitched at first,
but dying away as Barter apparently moved off into the jungle.

* * * * *

"Ellen," said Bentley quickly, "I don't know what's going on here, but
I'm sure it's something sinister and awful. Let's take a look at our
rooms. If there isn't a door between them which can be left open,
then you'll have to spend the night in my room while I remain awake on
guard."

"I was thinking of the same thing, Lee," she whispered. "This place
gives me the horrors. Barter's association with the apes is a terrible
thing."

Hand in hand they stepped to the door Barter had designated as that of
Ellen Estabrook's. Bentley opened it cautiously, heaving a sigh of
relief to find it empty. He scarcely knew what he had expected. There
was a connecting door between the two rooms, open, and they peered
into the chamber Bentley was to occupy.

Back they came to her room, to stand before a window which gave onto a
shadowed little clearing in the rear of the cabin.

"Look!" whispered Ellen.

There was a single mound of earth, with a white cross set over it, on
which was the single word: Mangor.

It might have been a word in some native dialect. It might have been
some native's name. It might have been anything, but, whatever it was,
it added to the sinister atmosphere which seemed to hang like an evil
mist over the home of Caleb Barter.

"That settles it, Ellen," he said. "You'll spend the night in my
room."

Ellen retired in Bentley's room, closing the door which led to the
adjoining room, and Bentley walked back and forth in the reception
room, waiting for Barter to return.