r fight to hold their own against wild beasts,
and especially against the ape-men who would regard them as intruders,
and wage a merciless war upon them with a cunning which the larger
beasts would lack. Hence the fact that their numbers appear to be
limited. Well, gentlemen, have I read you the riddle aright, or is
there any point which you would query?"

Professor Summerlee for once was too depressed to argue, though he
shook his head violently as a token of general disagreement. Lord John
merely scratched his scanty locks with the remark that he couldn't put
up a fight as he wasn't in the same weight or class. For my own part I
performed my usual role of bringing things down to a strictly prosaic
and practical level by the remark that one of the Indians was missing.

"He has gone to fetch some water," said Lord Roxton. "We fitted him up
with an empty beef tin and he is off."

"To the old camp?" I asked.

"No, to the brook. It's among the trees there. It can't be more than
a couple of hundred yards. But the beggar is certainly taking his
time."

"I'll go and look after him," said I. I picked up my rifle and
strolled in the direction of the brook, leaving my friends to lay out
the scanty breakfast. It may seem to you rash that even for so short a
distance I should quit the shelter of our friendly thicket, but you
will remember that we were many miles from Ape-town, that so far as we
knew the creatures had not discovered our retreat, and that in any case
with a rifle in my hands I had no fear of them. I had not yet learned
their cunning or their strength.

I could hear the murmur of our brook somewhere ahead of me, but there
was a tangle of trees and brushwood between me and it. I was making my
way through this at a point which was just out of sight of my
companions, when, under one of the trees, I noticed something red
huddled among the bushes. As I approached it, I was shocked to see
that it was the dead body of the missing Indian. He lay upon his side,
his limbs drawn up, and his head screwed round at a most unnatural
angle, so that he seemed to be looking straight over his own shoulder.
I gave a cry to warn my friends that something was amiss, and running
forwards I stooped over the body. Surely my guardian angel was very
near me then, for some instinct of fear, or it may have been some faint
rustle of leaves, made me glance upwards. Out of the thick green
foliage which hung low over my head,