one hand was promised extinction through lack of reproduction. On the
other, even swifter and more terrible extinction at the hands of the
ape-men, whom Naida called the Worshippers of Xlotli, the Rabbit God,
the God of all bestiality and drunkenness.

It was the menace of the ape-men, rather than the less appalling one of
lack of reproduction, which was making the most trouble now. Ages ago,
when the People of the Temple had flourished as a race, they had been
untroubled by the Worshippers of Xlotli. But now the ape-men were by far
the stronger; and they desired the girls who had been born as the last
generation of an ancient race. The battle of this morning had been only
one of many.

Dissension between the caciques, who ruled the People of the Temple, and
their girl subjects, had arisen on the subject of the best way of
dealing with the ape-man menace.

* * * * *

Some time ago, Naida, heading a council of all the girls, had proposed
to the caciques that support be sought amongst the people of the upper
world. This would be done judiciously, by bringing to the lower realm a
few men who were wise and strong, men who would make good husbands, and
who could fight the ape-men.

This proposal the priests had promptly quashed. They would never
receive, they said, any members of the teeming outer races from whom the
People of the Temple had so long been hidden. Those few who had
blundered into the Valley of the Geyser during the centuries, and who
had never escaped, were enough. Better, said the caciques, that a
compromise be arranged with the subjects of the Rabbit God.

Flatly then, the priests had proposed that some of the girls, the number
to be specified later, should be given to the ape-men, and peace won.
During the time of reprieve which would thus be afforded, prayers and
sacrifices could be offered the Lords of the Sun and Moon, and to
Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent. In answer to these prayers, the
Gods would surely send the aged people who alone were left as
prospective parents, a generation of sons.

Once the priests' program of giving up some of the girls to the ape-men
had been made definite, it had not taken Naida and the others long to
decide that they would never submit. And then, while matters were at an
acute stage, a tall, blond white man had come to the Valley of the
Geyser--Kirby.

* * * * *

As Naida had finished her story,