the she advanced a step toward the girl, and her snarl was a
terrible sound. Ellen retreated, but no further than was necessary to
still that snarl in the throat of the she. Manape moved in quite close
now, into position to interfere if the she tried to actually injure
Ellen Estabrook. If only, Bentley thought, there were some way of
making himself known to Ellen! But how could she believe, even if a
way were discovered?

"What shall I do?" moaned Ellen aloud, wringing her hands. "Poor Lee!
I can't move him. That brute won't let me touch him. Oh, I'm afraid!"

Bentley wanted to tell her not to be afraid, but had learned from
experience that when he tried to speak his voice was the bellowing one
of a great ape. And if he were to enunciate words that Ellen could
understand, what then? English from the lips of a giant anthropoid!
She would not believe, would think herself insane--and with excellent
reason. Slowly, as matters were transpiring, she had already been
given sufficient reason to believe that her mind was tottering.

* * * * *

Manape stood guard over her. A she had adopted the thing she thought
was Bentley. A score of great apes, which only three days ago had
tried to destroy both Bentley and herself, now surrounded Bentley and
Ellen with all the appearance of amity--crude, true, but
unmistakable. Certainly this was sufficiently beyond all human
experience to make Ellen believe she were in the throes of some awful
nightmare. What would she think if an ape began to address her in
English, and "Bentley" suddenly held speech with the great apes?

Add to this possibility, suppose she were suddenly confronted with the
truth--that the essential entities of Bentley and Manape had been
exchanged, and the whole thing were explained to her from the gross
lips of Manape himself, while "Bentley" looked on and chattered a
challenge in ape language while Manape talked?

No, at first she might have understood. Now it would have been even
more horrifying for her to hear the truth. She must think what she
would, and be allowed to adjust herself to the astounding state of
affairs. Apeman could not be moved for some time. Ellen would not
leave him, naturally. Nor would Manape. And the apes apparently
intended to remain with them. Which made the problem, after all, a
simple one. The trio must remain for the time being among the great
apes. They needed one another in a strange way, and they need