Summerlee and myself. Old
Challenger was up a tree, eatin' pines and havin' the time of his life.
I'm bound to say that he managed to get some fruit to us, and with his
own hands he loosened our bonds. If you'd seen him sitting up in that
tree hob-nobbin' with his twin brother--and singin' in that rollin'
bass of his, 'Ring out, wild bells,' cause music of any kind seemed to
put 'em in a good humor, you'd have smiled; but we weren't in much mood
for laughin', as you can guess. They were inclined, within limits, to
let him do what he liked, but they drew the line pretty sharply at us.
It was a mighty consolation to us all to know that you were runnin'
loose and had the archives in your keepin'.

"Well, now, young fellah, I'll tell you what will surprise you. You
say you saw signs of men, and fires, traps, and the like. Well, we
have seen the natives themselves. Poor devils they were, down-faced
little chaps, and had enough to make them so. It seems that the humans
hold one side of this plateau--over yonder, where you saw the
caves--and the ape-men hold this side, and there is bloody war between
them all the time. That's the situation, so far as I could follow it.
Well, yesterday the ape-men got hold of a dozen of the humans and
brought them in as prisoners. You never heard such a jabberin' and
shriekin' in your life. The men were little red fellows, and had been
bitten and clawed so that they could hardly walk. The ape-men put two
of them to death there and then--fairly pulled the arm off one of
them--it was perfectly beastly. Plucky little chaps they are, and
hardly gave a squeak. But it turned us absolutely sick. Summerlee
fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. I think
they have cleared, don't you?"

We listened intently, but nothing save the calling of the birds broke
the deep peace of the forest. Lord Roxton went on with his story.

"I think you have had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad. It
was catchin' those Indians that put you clean out of their heads, else
they would have been back to the camp for you as sure as fate and
gathered you in. Of course, as you said, they have been watchin' us
from the beginnin' out of that tree, and they knew perfectly well that
we were one short. However, they could think only of this new haul; so
it was I, and not a bunch of apes, that dropped in on you in the
morning. Well, we had a horrid business afterwards. My God! what a