* *

In front of them, on the altar, the crown diamond winked and shimmered
in a dim light. The swelling chorus of triumph, in which the bridesmaids
had joined now, made the whole temple ring. Slowly, while Naida moved
easily beside him, Kirby began to march to the altar.

Then it was done, and they were halted. After both of them had given a
lingering glance at the crown whose diamond shimmered now within their
reach, they raised their eyes to the closed door behind the altar.

The thing was swinging open. An inch it moved, two inches.

Kirby waited, never taking his eyes away from the widening crack. With a
crashing final volume of sound, the chorus swept magnificently to its
climax. Then the door was flung wide.

Still Kirby stood stiffly before the altar, with Naida drawn up
splendidly beside him. After two seconds, however, he moved.

Duca and caciques were not standing in the corridor.

In the semi-darkness, the only figures visible there were squatting,
grotesque things whose bodies were covered with whitish hair and whose
leathery faces were disfigured by gashes of mouths filled with enormous
teeth.

A feeling of standing face to face with final disaster, turned Kirby
sick. As he jerked back from the altar, sweeping a paralyzed Naida with
him, the ape-men let out gibbering howls, half-human. With gigantic,
hopping strides, the foremost rank of the creatures swung forward,
straight into the temple.

CHAPTER X

Kirby, already falling back toward the other girls, caught Naida up in
his arms, and ran.

"Nini!" he bellowed. "Ivana! Get the rifles!"

While the two whom he had ordered sprang to a corridor, and four others
followed, Kirby fell in with the others and dropped Naida on her feet.
Sick as he was, there was still a ray of hope, because the hard-headed
precaution he had taken against treachery this morning was to have Nini
and Ivana bring the rifles here and hide them.

The first of the ape-men, snarling, laughing, had hopped beyond the
altar, and the yellow foam of madness was slavering from his jaws. Over
his shoulder he howled some jargon which made his hairy legion struggle
to catch up with him.

"Have you got any puff balls?" Kirby snapped at Naida.

She shook her head numbly, just as Nini and Ivana swung forward with the
Mannlichers.

"No. But you had sense enough to bring the rifles! Oh, what does it
mean?"

"The Duca has sold himself out to the ape-man! He was helpless