, 1916-11-09

Wrists and Pulled Him BrutalIy to
the Front.
men, who watched them closely and
made all escape impossible. Then,
right out from all the others and close
to the edge of the cliff, We're two fig
ures. so strange and under other cir
cumstances so ludicrous, that they
absorbed my attention. The one was
our cOmrade. Professor Challenger.
The remains OF his coat still hung III
strips from his shoulders. but his
shirt had been all torn out, and his
great beard merged itself in the black
tangle which covered his mighty chest.
He had lost his hat. and his hair.
which had grown long III our wander
ings. was flying in wild disorder. A sin
gle day seemed to have changed him
from the highest product of modern
civilization to the most desperate sav-
age in South America. Beside him
stood his master, the king OF the ape
men. III all things he was, as Lord
John had said, the very image of our
professor. save that his coloring was
red instead OF black. The same short.
broad figure, the same heavy shout
ders, the same forward hang Of the
arms, the same bristling beard merg-
ing itself in the hairy chest. Only
above the eyebrows, where the sloping
forehead and low, curved skull of the
ape man were in sharp contrast to the
broad brow and magnificent Uranium
of the European, could II see any
marked difference. At every other
point the king was an absurd parody
of the professor
All this, which takes me 80 long to
describe, impressed itself upon me in
a few seconds. Then we had very diff
ferent things to think Of. for an active
drama was in progress. Two of the
ape men had seized one of the Indians
out of the group and dragged him for
ward to the edge Of the cliff. The king
raised his hand as a signal. They
caught the man by his leg n arm and
swung him three times backward and
forward with tremendous violence.
Then with n frightful heave they shot
the poor wretch over the precipice.
With such force did they throw him
that he curved high in the air before
beginning to drop. As he vanished
from sight the whole assembly, except
the guards, rushed forward to the edge
OF the precipice, and there was a long
IL of absolute silence, broken by u
mad yell of delight. They sprang
about, tossing their long, hairy arms IN
the air and bowling with eNultation.
Then they fell back from the edge
formed themselves again into line n
waited for the next victim.
This time 1t was Summarize. Two OF
his guards caught him by the wrists
and pulled him brutally to the front.
His thin figure and long limbs strug-
eled and nuttered like a chicken being
dragged from II coop. Challenger a
turned to the King and waved his hands
frantically before him. He was beg
cling, pleading, imploring for his com
rade's life. The ape man pushed nm
roughly aside and shook his head. "
was the last conscious movement he
was to make upon earth. Lord Johns
rifle cracked, and the king sank down
a tangled red sprawling thing, upon
the ground.
'Shoot into the thick of them! Shoot
sonny, shOot!' cried my companion.
There are strange red depths i'll the
soul of the most commonplace man. l
am tender hearted by nature and have
found my eyes moist many a time over
the scream OF a wounded hare. Yet
the blood lust was on me now. l
found myself ON my feet emptytng II
magazine, then the other, clicking open
the breech to reload. swapping 1t TO
again, while cheering and yelling with
pure ferocity and JOY of slaughter as l
did so.
With our four good guns the two or
us made u horrible havoc. Both the
guards who held Summerlee were
down. and he vas staggering o
like a drunken man In his amazement,
unable TO realize that he was a free
man. The dense mob of p men ran