Chapter 13

A Sight Which I Shall Never Forget

It was quite dark when I at last turned back to our camp, and my last vision as I went was the red gleam of Zambo’s fire, the one point of light in the wide world below. And yet I felt happier, for it was good to think that the world should know what we had done.

Finally, I closed the door of the refuge, lit three separate fires, and having eaten a hearty supper fell asleep. In the early morning, just as day was breaking, a hand was laid on my arm, and with all my nerves strained and my hand feeling for a rifle, I gave a cry of joy as in the cold gray light I saw Lord John Roxton.

It was he… and yet it was not he. He was pale and wild-eyed. His gaunt face was scratched and bloody, his clothes were hanging in rags, and his hat was gone. I stared in amazement, but he gave me no chance for questions. He was grabbing at our stores all the time he spoke.

“Quick, my friend! Quick!” he cried. “Every moment counts. Get the rifles, both of them. I have the other two. Now, all the cartridges you can gather. Fill up your pockets. Now, some food. Half a dozen tins will do. That’s all right! Don’t talk or think. Move on, or we are done!”

Still half-awake, and unable to imagine what it all might mean, I found myself hurrying madly after him through the wood, a rifle under each arm and a pile of various stores in my hands. Finally he came to a dense brush-wood.

“There!” he panted. “I think we are safe here. They’ll find us in the camp. It will be their first idea. But this should puzzle them.”

“What is it all about?” I asked. “Where are the professors? And who is it that is after us?”

“The ape-men,” he cried. “My God, what brutes! Don’t raise your voice, they have long ears… sharp eyes, too, but no power of scent, so far as I could judge, so I don’t think they can smell us out. Where have you been, my friend? You were well out of it.”

In a few sentences I told what I had done.

“Nothing good,” said he, when he had heard of the dinosaur and the pit. “It isn’t quite the place for a rest cure, is it? But I had no idea what this place was until those devils attacked us. The man-eating Papuans had me once, but they are nice compared to this crowd.”

“How did it happen?” I asked.

“It was in the early morning. Our learned friends hadn’t even begun to argue yet. Suddenly apes appeared. They had been hiding in the dark, I suppose. I shot one of them through the belly, but before we knew where we were they had us spread-eagled on our backs. I call them apes, but they carried sticks and stones in their hands and talked to each other, and ended up by tying our hands with creepers, so they are ahead of any beast that I have seen in my wanderings. Ape-men… that’s what they are… Missing Links, and I wish they had stayed missing. They carried off their wounded comrade. They were big fellows, as big as a man and even stronger. Challenger is no chicken, but even he was cowed. He jumped to his feet and yelled and cursed at them like a lunatic.

“Well, what did they do?” I asked.

“I thought it was the end of us, but that is what happened. Suddenly one of them stood out beside Challenger. You’ll smile, my friend, but this old ape-man – he was their chief – was a sort of red Challenger. He had the short body, the big shoulders, the round chest, no neck, a great beard, the ‘What do you want, damn you!’ look about the eyes. When the ape-man stood by Challenger and put his paw on his shoulder, the thing was complete. Summerlee laughed till he cried. The ape-men started dragging us through the forest. They didn’t touch the guns and things – they thought them dangerous, I expect – but they carried away all our food. They were careless about Summerlee and I but Challenger was all right. Four of them carried him shoulder high, and he went like a Roman emperor.”

It was a strange clicking noise in the distance.

“There they go!” said my companion. “My friend, we’re not going to be taken alive! That’s the row they make when they are excited. By George! Can you hear them now?”

“Very far away.”

“I think their search parties are all over the wood. Well, I was telling you my tale. They got us soon to this town of theirs… about a thousand huts of branches and leaves near the edge of the cliff. It’s three or four miles from here. Those beasts tied us up and there we lay with our toes up, beneath a tree, while a great brute stood guard over us with a big stick in his hand. When I say ‘we’ I mean Summerlee and myself. Old Challenger was eating pineapples and having the time of his life. I should say that he managed to get some fruit to us, and with his own hands he loosened our bonds. If you’d seen him sitting there with his twin brother and singing in that rolling bass of his, because music of any kind seemed to put them in a good humor, you’d have smiled. But we weren’t in mood for laughing, as you can guess.”

“Well, now, young fellah, I’ll tell you what will surprise you. You say you saw signs of men, and fires, traps, and the like. Well, we have seen the natives themselves. They are poor people, down-faced little chaps, and had enough to make them so. It seems that there is bloody war between them and apes all the time. Well, yesterday the ape-men got hold of a dozen of the humans and brought them in as prisoners. The men were little red fellows, and had been bitten and clawed so that they could hardly walk. The ape-men put two of them to death… it was perfectly beastly. Summerlee fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. I think they are gone, don’t you?”

We listened intently, but nothing except the calling of the birds broke the deep peace of the forest. Lord Roxton went on with his story.

“I think you have had the escape of your life, my friend, you are lucky not to be caught. Well, we had a horrid business afterwards. My God! what a nightmare the whole thing is! You remember the place where we found the skeleton of the American? Well, that is just under ape-town, and that’s the jumping off place of their prisoners. They have a sort of ceremony on the top. One by one the poor creatures have to jump, and the game is to see whether they are merely dashed to pieces or whether they get skewered on the bamboo canes. They took us out to see it, and the whole tribe lined up on the edge. Four of the Indians jumped, and the canes went through them like knitting needles through a pat of butter. No wonder we found that poor Yankee’s skeleton with the canes growing between his ribs. It was horrible… We thought we would be next.

“Well, it wasn’t. Their language is more than half signs, and it was not hard to follow them. So I thought it was time we made a break for it. I had thought out one or two points that were helpful. One was that these brutes could not run as fast as a man in the open. They have short legs, you see, and heavy bodies. Another point was that they knew nothing about guns. I don’t believe they understood how the fellow I shot was hurt. If we could get at our guns there was no saying what we could do. So I broke away early this morning, gave my guard a kick and sprinted for the camp. There I found you and the guns, and here we are.”

“But the professors!” I cried.

“Well, we must just go back and save them. I couldn’t bring them with me. Challenger was up the tree, and Summerlee was not strong enough. The only chance was to get the guns and try a rescue. I don’t think they would touch Challenger, but I wouldn’t answer for Summerlee. So we are to go back and have them out or meet the end with them.”

Lord Roxton was a born leader. His love of danger, his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventure, a fierce game between you and Fate made him a wonderful companion at such hours. If it were not for our fears as to the fate of our companions, it would have been a positive joy to throw myself with such a man into such an affair. We were rising from our brushwood hiding-place when suddenly he gripped my arm.

“By George!” he whispered, “here they come!”

A party of the ape-men was passing. They went close to each other, their hands occasionally touching the ground, their heads turning to left and right as they walked along. Many of them carried sticks, and at the distance they looked like a line of very hairy and deformed human beings. Then they were lost among the bushes.

“Not this time,” said Lord John. “Our best chance is to lie quiet until they have given up the search. Then we shall see whether we can’t get back to their town and hit them where it hurts most. Give them an hour and we’ll march.”

We decided to have braekfast. Lord Roxton had had nothing but some fruit since the morning before and ate like a starving man. Then, at last, our pockets full of cartridges and a rifle in each hand, we started off on our mission of rescue. Lord John gave me some idea of his plans.

“So long as we are among the trees these monsters are our masters”, said he. They can see us and we cannot see them. But in the open it is different. There we can move faster than they. So we must stick to the open all we can. The edge of the plateau has fewer large trees than further inland. So that’s our line of advance. Go slowly, keep your eyes open and your rifle ready. Come quick! I hope we are not too late already!

I found myself shaking with nervous excitement as I lay down beside him, looking out through the bushes at a clearing which stretched before us.

It was a sight which I shall never forget until my dying day, so weird, so impossible. I know that it will seem to be some wild nightmare. But it is still fresh in my memory.

In the open, and near the edge of the cliff, there had gathered a crowd of some hundred of these red-haired creatures, many of them of immense size, and all of them horrible to look at. There was a certain discipline among them. In front there stood a small group of Indians… little, red fellows, whose skins glowed like polished bronze in the strong sunlight. A tall, thin white man was standing beside them, his head bowed, his arms folded. There was no mistaking – it was Professor Summerlee.

There were several ape-men, who watched the prisoners closely and made all escape impossible. Then, close to the edge of the cliff, were two figures, so strange, and under other circumstances so ridiculous, that they got my attention. The one was our friend, Professor Challenger. The remains of his coat still hung in strips from his shoulders, but his shirt had been all torn out. He had lost his hat, and his hair was flying in wild disorder. Beside him stood his master, the king of the ape-men. In all things he was, as Lord John had said, the very image of our Professor, except the fact that his colouring was red instead of black. The same short, broad figure, the same heavy shoulders, the same beard on the hairy chest. Only the shape of their skulls was different. At every other point the king was an absurd parody of the Professor.

Two of the ape-men had seized one of the Indians out of the group and dragged him forward to the edge of the cliff. The king raised his hand as a signal. They caught the man by his leg and arm, and swung him three times backwards and forwards with tremendous violence. Then, with a frightful heave they shot the poor over the chasm. As he vanished from sight, the whole assembly, except the guards, rushed forward to the edge of the chasm, and there was a long pause of absolute silence, broken by a mad yell of delight. They sprang about, tossing their long, hairy arms in the air and howling with joy. Then they fell back from the edge and waited for the next victim.

This time it was Summerlee. Two of his guards caught him by the wrists and pulled him brutally to the front. Challenger had turned to the king and waved his hands frantically before him. He was begging and pleading for his comrade’s life. The ape-man pushed him aside and shook his head. At that moment Lord John’s rifle cracked and the king sank down on the ground.

“Shoot into the thick of them! Shoot, sonny, shoot!” cried my companion.

There are strange depths in the soul of the most commonplace man. I have always been kind-hearted by nature. Yet the blood lust was on me now. I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then the other, clicking open the breech to reload, snapping it to again, while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughter as I did so. With our four guns the two of us made a horrible mess. Both the guards who held Summerlee were down, and he was very much amazed, unable to realize that he was a free man. Ape-men ran about in bewilderment. They waved, gesticulated and screamed. Then, with a sudden impulse, they all rushed in a howling crowd to the trees for shelter. The prisoners were left for the moment standing alone.

Challenger’s quick brain had grasped the situation. He seized the bewildered Summerlee by the arm, and they both ran towards us. Two of their guards bounded after them and fell to two bullets from Lord John. We ran forward into the open to meet our friends, and pressed a loaded rifle into the hands of each. But Summerlee was at the end of his strength. He could hardly move. Already the ape-men were recovering from their panic. They were coming through the brushwood and threatening to cut us off. Challenger and I ran Summerlee along, one at each of his elbows, while Lord John covered our retreat, firing again and again as their heads appeared out of the bushes. For a mile or more the brutes were at our very heels. Then they evidently learned our power and stopped chasing. When we had at last reached the camp, we looked back and found ourselves alone.

So it seemed to us; and yet we were mistaken. We had hardly closed the door of our refuge, when we heard a patter of feet and then a gentle crying from outside our entrance. Lord Roxton rushed forward, rifle in hand, and threw it open. There lay the little red figures of the four surviving Indians, trembling with fear of us and yet asking for our protection. One of them pointed to the woods around them and indicated that they were full of danger. Then he threw his arms round Lord John’s legs, and rested his face upon them.

“By George!” cried our friend, “What are we to do with these people? Get up, little man, and take your face off my boots.”

Summerlee was sitting up and stuffing some tobacco into his old pipe.

“Well,” said he. “You’ve pulled us all out of the jaws of death. My God! it was very brave!”

“Admirable!” cried Challenger. “Admirable! Not only we as individuals, but European science collectively, owe you a deep debt for what you have done. I do not hesitate to say that the disappearance of Professor Summerlee and myself would have left an appreciable gap in modern zoological history. Our young friend and you have done most excellently well.”

European science would have been amazed could they have seen Challenger now, the hope of the future, with his tangled head, his bare chest, and his torn clothes.

The Indian looked up at him, and then, with a little yelp, clung to Lord John’s leg.

“Don’t be scared, my boy,” said Lord John, patting his head. “He is afraid of your appearance, Challenger! And I don’t wonder. All right, little man, he’s only a human, just the same as the rest of us.”

“Really, sir!” cried the Professor.

“Well, it’s lucky for you, Challenger, that you ARE not very ordinary. If you hadn’t been so like the king…”

“Upon my word, Lord John, you allow yourself a lot!”

“Well, it’s a fact.”

“I beg, sir, that you will change the subject. Your remarks are irrelevant and unintelligible. The question before us is what are we to do with these Indians? The obvious thing is to escort them home, if we knew where their home was.”

“There is no difficulty about that,” said I. “They live in the caves on the other side of the central lake.”

“Our young friend here knows where they live…”

Suddenly we heard far away the cry of the ape-men. The Indians trembled from fear.

“We must move, and move quick!” said Lord John. “You help Summerlee, my friend. These Indians will carry stores. Now, then, come along before they can see us.”

In less than half-an-hour we had reached our brushwood retreat and concealed ourselves. All day we heard the excited calling of the ape-men in the direction of our old camp, but none of them came our way, and the tired fugitives, red and white, had a long, deep sleep. I was dozing myself in the evening when someone plucked my sleeve, and I saw Challenger beside me.

“You keep a diary of these events, and you expect eventually to publish it, Mr. Malone,” said he, with solemnity.

“I am only here as a Press reporter,” I answered.

“Exactly. You may have heard some stupid remarks of Lord John Roxton’s which seemed to imply that there was some… some resemblance…”

“Yes, I heard them.”

“I need not say that any publicity… would be very offensive to me.”

“I will stick to the facts.”

“Lord John’s observations are frequently absolutely strange, and he is capable of expressing the most absurd things. Do you follow me?”

“Entirely.”

“I leave the matter to your discretion.” Then, after a long pause, he added: “The king of the ape-men was really a creature of great distinction… a most remarkably handsome and intelligent personality. Did it not strike you?”

“A most remarkable creature,” said I.

And the Professor, much eased in his mind, went to bed.