e would not have admitted even to himself how deeply he was
concerned over the girl. As far as he knew, this section might be
entirely uninhabited. It might be given over entirely to the
anthropoids. In this case he shuddered to think of what might happen
to Ellen Estabrook if he were slain.

He quickened his pace until Ellen kept stride with him with
difficulty. The object uppermost in Bentley's mind was to get as far
away as possible from the ominous drumbeats.

They rounded a bend in the trail and stopped stock-still.

Within fifty yards of them, blocking the trail, was a brute whose
great size sent a thrill of horror through Bentley. It towered to the
height of a big man, and must have weighed in the neighborhood of four
hundred pounds. It was larger by far than any bull ape Bentley had
seen in captivity.

It had been waiting for them, silently, with almost human cunning; but
now that it was discovered the shaggy creature rose to his hind legs
and screamed a challenge, at the same time striking his chest with
blows of his hairy fists which rolled in a dull booming of sound
through the jungle. At the same time the creature moved forward.

* * * * *

Bentley whirled to run, his hand clasping tighter the hand of Ellen
Estabrook. But they had not retreated ten steps down the pathway when
their way was blocked by another of the great shaggy brutes. And they
could hear others on both sides.

Bentley's face was chalk-white as he turned to the girl. Her calm
acceptance of their predicament, an attitude in which he could read no
slightest vestige of fear, helped him to regain control of his own
nerves, which had threatened to send him into a panic. She even
smiled, and Lee felt a trifle ashamed of himself.

Now the crashing sounds were closing in. The two brutes before and
behind on the trail were pressing in upon them. But no general
headlong charge had yet begun. Bentley looked around him, seeking a
tree with limbs low enough for them to reach and thus climb to safety.

"There's one!" cried Ellen. Tugging at his hand she began to run.

At the same moment the great apes bellowed and charged.

But the charge was never finished, for through the drumming of their
mighty fists on mighty barrel-like chests, through the sound of their
charge, through the crackling underbrush came again that sound of
laughter. There was fierce joy in the laughter, and the laughter was
followed by words o