ing Apeman with him.

* * * * *

He reached the crotch where Ellen rested, and disposed Apeman nearby,
his own gross body between them. He even dared to gather Ellen closer
against him for warmth. His left hand held tightly the wrist of the
unconscious Apeman, so that he should not fall and become prey of the
night denizens of the jungle.

So, the two who seemed to be human--Apeman and Ellen, passed from
unconsciousness into natural sleep, while Bentley-Manape remained
motionless between them, afraid to close his eyes lest something even
more terrible than hitherto experienced might transpire. But his ears
caught every sound of the jungle, and his sensitive ape's nostrils
brought him every scent--which his man's mind strove to analyze,
reaching back and back into the dim and misty past for identification
of odors that were new, or that were really old, yet which had been
lost to man since they had left forever the simian homes of their
ancestors and their senses had become more highly specialized.

The questions which turned over and over in Bentley's mind were these:

How shall I tell Ellen the truth? Will she believe it?

What is the rest of Barter's experiment? How shall I proceed from this
moment on? How shall I procure food for Ellen? What food will Apeman
choose for my body to assimilate?

And jungle night drew on. Once Ellen shivered and pressed closer to
Manape as she slept.

What would morning bring to this strange trio?

CHAPTER IX

_Fate Decides_

Morning brought the great apes of the jungle--scores of them. They had
approached so silently through the darkness that Bentley had not heard
them, and his ape's nostrils had not told his human brain the meaning
of their odor. It appeared too that his ape's ears had tricked him.
For when morning came there were great apes everywhere.

Bentley still held the wrist of Apeman, whose chest was rising and
falling naturally, though the body was limp and plainly exhausted, and
exuded perspiration that told of some jungle fever or other illness
perhaps, induced by hardship and over-exertion. The ape's brain of
Apeman had driven Bentley's body to the uttermost, and now that body
must pay.

Bentley wondered how far he was now from the cabin of Caleb Barter.

He doubted if Apeman could stand the return journey, though Bentley's
ape body could have carried Apeman's with ease. But would Apeman
stand the journey? Apeman, Bentley