f a strange gibberish which Bentley could not
recall as being from any language he had ever heard.

The great apes paused. Out of the jungle to the right of the fugitives
burst a white man. He was well past middle age, for his white hair
hung almost to his shoulders, which were stooped with the weight of
years. He was a wisp of a man whose smooth shaven face was apple-red.
His eyes were black and expressionless as obsidian, and when Lee
encountered the full gaze of them he was conscious of that feeling
which he had experienced at various times in his life when he knew
that some deadly reptile was close by.

"Stand still a moment!" cried the old man. His voice was strangely
high-pitched and cracked.

* * * * *

From his right hand a whip with a long lash uncurled like a snake.

This he swung back and hurled to the front, and the snap of it was
like a pistol shot. The great ape on the path ahead cowered back,
bearing his fangs, roaring in anger. But that he feared the whip of
the old man was plain to be seen. The crashing sound in the jungle
died away rapidly, immediately the first report of the whip lash
sounded in the trail.

Fearlessly the little man dashed upon the first of the great brutes
the castaways had seen. His lash curled about the great beast's body,
and the animal bellowed with pain. It clawed at the lash, but was not
fast enough to capture it. In the end the brute broke and fled.

The animal which had blocked their path in the rear had already
disappeared.

Now the little man came back to face the fugitives, and his lips were
parted in a cordial smile. He coiled his whip and tucked it under his
arm. He was dressed in well worn corduroy with high boots that were
rather the worse for wear. Bentley saw that his lips were too
red--like blood--and somehow he disliked the man instantly.

"Welcome to Barterville," said the old man. "It has been years since I
have seen any of my own kind. People avoid this section of the
jungle."

"I don't wonder," said Bentley, sighing deeply with relief. "Those
brutes would make anybody keep away from here, if they knew about
them. I thought they had us for a few minutes. They planned an ambush
almost as well as human beings could have done it--but that's absurd
of course, merely a coincidence."

* * * * *

"Coincidence?" snapped the old man, a hint of asperity in his words.
"Coincidence? I see you do n