urning point of our fortunes. From then onwards, we were in truth
masters of the plateau, for the natives looked upon us with a mixture
of fear and gratitude, since by our strange powers we had aided them to
destroy their hereditary foe. For their own sakes they would, perhaps,
be glad to see the departure of such formidable and incalculable
people, but they have not themselves suggested any way by which we may
reach the plains below. There had been, so far as we could follow
their signs, a tunnel by which the place could be approached, the lower
exit of which we had seen from below. By this, no doubt, both ape-men
and Indians had at different epochs reached the top, and Maple White
with his companion had taken the same way. Only the year before,
however, there had been a terrific earthquake, and the upper end of the
tunnel had fallen in and completely disappeared. The Indians now could
only shake their heads and shrug their shoulders when we expressed by
signs our desire to descend. It may be that they cannot, but it may
also be that they will not, help us to get away.

At the end of the victorious campaign the surviving ape-folk were
driven across the plateau (their wailings were horrible) and
established in the neighborhood of the Indian caves, where they would,
from now onwards, be a servile race under the eyes of their masters.
It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews in Babylon or the
Israelites in Egypt. At night we could hear from amid the trees the
long-drawn cry, as some primitive Ezekiel mourned for fallen greatness
and recalled the departed glories of Ape Town. Hewers of wood and
drawers of water, such were they from now onwards.

We had returned across the plateau with our allies two days after the
battle, and made our camp at the foot of their cliffs. They would have
had us share their caves with them, but Lord John would by no means
consent to it considering that to do so would put us in their power if
they were treacherously disposed. We kept our independence, therefore,
and had our weapons ready for any emergency, while preserving the most
friendly relations. We also continually visited their caves, which
were most remarkable places, though whether made by man or by Nature we
have never been able to determine. They were all on the one stratum,
hollowed out of some soft rock which lay between the volcanic basalt
forming the ruddy cliffs above them, and the hard granite which formed