This time it was Summerlee. Two of his guards caught him by the wristsand pulled him brutally to the front. His thin figure and long limbsstruggled and fluttered like a chicken being dragged from a coop.Challenger had turned to the king and waved his hands franticallybefore him. He was begging, pleading, imploring for his comrade'slife. The ape-man pushed him roughly aside and shook his head. It wasthe last conscious movement he was to make upon earth. Lord John'srifle cracked, and the king sank down, a tangled red sprawling thing,upon the ground.
"Shoot into the thick of them! Shoot! sonny, shoot!" cried mycompanion.
There are strange red depths in the soul of the most commonplace man.I am tenderhearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many a timeover the scream of a wounded hare. 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 re-load, snapping it to again, whilecheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughter as I didso. With our four guns the two of us made a horrible havoc. Both theguards who held Summerlee were down, and he was staggering about like adrunken man in his amazement, unable to realize that he was a free man.The dense mob of ape-men ran about in bewilderment, marveling whencethis storm of death was coming or what it might mean. They waved,gesticulated, screamed, and tripped up over those who had fallen.Then, with a sudden impulse, they all rushed in a howling crowd to thetrees for shelter, leaving the ground behind them spotted with theirstricken comrades. The prisoners were left for the moment standingalone in the middle of the clearing.
Challenger's quick brain had grasped the situation. He seized thebewildered Summerlee by the arm, and they both ran towards us. Two oftheir 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 loadedrifle into the hands of each. But Summerlee was at the end of hisstrength. He could hardly totter. Already the ape-men were recoveringfrom their panic. They were coming through the brushwood andthreatening to cut us off. Challenger and I ran Summerlee along, oneat each of his elbows, while Lord John covered our retreat, firingagain and again as savage heads snarled at us out of the bushes. For amile or more the chattering brutes were at our very heels. Then thepursuit slackened, for they learned our power and would no longer facethat unerring rifle. When we had at last reached the camp, we lookedback and found ourselves alone.
So it seemed to us; and yet we were mistaken. We had hardly closed thethornbush door of our zareba, clasped each other's hands, and thrownourselves panting upon the ground beside our spring, when we heard apatter of feet and then a gentle, plaintive crying from outside ourentrance. Lord Roxton rushed forward, rifle in hand, and threw itopen. There, prostrate upon their faces, lay the little red figures ofthe four surviving Indians, trembling with fear of us and yet imploringour protection. With an expressive sweep of his hands one of thempointed to the woods around them, and indicated that they were full ofdanger. Then, darting forward, he threw his arms round Lord John'slegs, and rested his face upon them.
"By George!" cried our peer, pulling at his moustache in greatperplexity, "I say--what the deuce are we to do with these people? Getup, little chappie, and take your face off my boots."
Summerlee was sitting up and stuffing some tobacco into his old briar.
"We've got to see them safe," said he. "You've pulled us all out ofthe jaws of death. My word! it was a good bit of work!"
"Admirable!" cried Challenger. "Admirable! Not only we asindividuals, but European science collectively, owe you a deep debt ofgratitude for what you have done. I do not hesitate to say that thedisappearance of Professor Summerlee and myself would have left anappreciable gap in modern zoological history. Our young friend hereand you have done most excellently well."
He beamed at us with the old paternal smile, but European science wouldhave been somewhat amazed could they have seen their chosen child, thehope of the future, with his tangled, unkempt head, his bare chest, andhis tattered c
lothes. He had one of the meat-tins between his knees,and sat with a large piece of cold Australian mutton between hisfingers. The Indian looked up at him, and then, with a little yelp,cringed to the ground and clung to Lord John's leg.
"Don't you be scared, my bonnie boy," said Lord John, patting thematted head in front of him. "He can't stick your appearance,Challenger; and, by George! I don't wonder. All right, little chap,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 a little out of theordinary. If you hadn't been so like the king----"
"Upon my word, Lord John, you allow yourself great latitude."
"Well, it's a fact."
"I beg, sir, that you will change the subject. Your remarks areirrelevant and unintelligible. The question before us is what are weto do with these Indians? The obvious thing is to escort them home, ifwe knew where their home was."
"There is no difficulty about that," said I. "They live in the caveson the other side of the central lake."
"Our young friend here knows where they live. I gather that it is somedistance."
"A good twenty miles," said I.
Summerlee gave a groan.
"I, for one, could never get there. Surely I hear those brutes stillhowling upon our track."
As he spoke, from the dark recesses of the woods we heard far away thejabbering cry of the ape-men. The Indians once more set up a feeblewail of fear.
"We must move, and move quick!" said Lord John. "You help Summerlee,young fellah. These Indians will carry stores. Now, then, come alongbefore they can see us."
In less than half-an-hour we had reached our brushwood retreat andconcealed ourselves. All day we heard the excited calling of theape-men in the direction of our old camp, but none of them came ourway, and the tired fugitives, red and white, had a long, deep sleep. Iwas dozing myself in the evening when someone plucked my sleeve, and Ifound Challenger kneeling beside me.
"You keep a diary of these events, and you expect eventually to publishit, Mr. Malone," said he, with solemnity.
"I am only here as a Press reporter," I answered.
"Exactly. You may have heard some rather fatuous remarks of Lord JohnRoxton's which seemed to imply that there was some--someresemblance----"
"Yes, I heard them."
"I need not say that any publicity given to such an idea--any levity inyour narrative of what occurred--would be exceedingly offensive to me."