ents in the past:
the feel of Naida's first kiss, her look as they advanced to the altar
in the temple. Then he saw things as they were now, with Naida
surrounded by all the tribes of the apes, and with Quetzalcoatl staring
from beneath heavily lidded lashes at the whiteness of her.

Suddenly Kirby stirred to free his shoulder of Ivana's supine weight
against it, and he made himself look down his rifle. He let the breath
half out of his lungs, and nursed the trigger.

* * * * *

But he did not fire.

All at once he started so violently that he almost hurtled from the
tree. Suddenly, trembling, he lowered his rifle.

"Oh, thank God!" he yelped in the silence of the night.

The idea which had transformed him was perhaps the conception of a
lunatic. But it was still an idea, and offered a chance.

Again Kirby peered down his rifle. But he no longer aimed at Naida. As
Quetzalcoatl lifted white fangs, Kirby aimed deliberately at him, and
turned loose his fire.

With the first shot, the Serpent lurched back from the cage, snapped his
jaws, and closed evil, black eyes. From one lidded socket squirted dark
blood. As a second and third shot crashed into the cavernous fanged
mouth, and others ripped into the flat skull, Quetzalcoatl seemed dazed.
His head wavered back and forth and his hiss filled the night, but he
did nothing.

But all at once Kirby felt that he was _going_ to do something in a
second, and a great calm came upon him. He quickly jammed home a fresh
clip of shells.

"Nini! Ivana! Fire at the Serpent. Give him everything you've got! Do
you understand? Fire! He thinks that the ape-people have hurt him, and
he will be after them in a second. If we have any luck, he will do to
them what we never could have done, and maybe destroy himself at the
same time! Me, I'm going down there and get Naida now!"

CHAPTER XIII

No sooner did Kirby see comprehension in the girls' faces than he swung
around and let go of his perch. As he crashed, caught the next limb
below him, and let go to crash to another, he had all he could do to
suppress a yelp of joy. For all at once every voice in the ape
congregation was raised in howls and screams of devastated terror.

He did not care how he got down from the tree. Seconds and half seconds
were what counted. From the last limb above the ground he swung into
space, and a split second later staggered to his feet, clutched his
rifle, and start