CHAPTER II

_Into the Jungle_

They had to smile together at the results achieved with the bedraggled
bits of cloth. Bentley suspected that they had been taken from bodies
washed ashore as gruesome reminders of the catastrophe which had
befallen the _Bengal Queen_, and because he did suspect this he did
not ask questions that might cause Ellen to remember any longer than
was necessary. Not that he doubted her courage, for she had proved
that sufficiently; and she had proved that she was sensible, with none
of the notions of the proprieties which would have made any other girl
of Bentley’s acquaintance a nuisance.

Their next concern was food, which they must find in the jungle, or
from other wreckage cast ashore from the _Bengal Queen_. Now, hand in
hand–which seemed natural in the circumstances–they began to walk
along the shore, heading into the north by mutual consent.

As they walked Bentley kept pondering on that strange laughter he had
heard and on the sound of savage drumming. The laughter puzzled him.
If there were anyone in the jungle back of them, why had he or they
failed to challenge them?

As for the drumming sound–Bentley remembered what the second officer
had said about this section of the coast. It was a bit of jungle
inhabited by the great apes in large numbers. So, that drumming had
been a challenge, the man-ape’s manner of mocking an enemy by beating
himself on his barrel chest with his huge fists. But that the ape had
not been challenging Bentley and the girl Bentley felt quite sure, as
the brute would certainly have shown himself in that case.

They trudged on through the sand, while the sun beat down unmercifully
on their uncovered heads. Ellen Estabrook strode along at Bentley’s
side without complaint.

* * * * *

After perhaps an hour of this unbearable effort, when both felt as
though the sun had sucked them dry of perspiration, they encountered
a rough footpath leading into the jungle. The path suggested human
habitation somewhere near. The inhabitants might be hostile natives,
even cannibals perhaps, but in this unknown land they would have to
take a chance on that.

With a sigh of relief, and refusing to look ahead too far, or try to
guess what lay in wait for them in the black mystery of the jungle,
they turned into the footpath. The jungle was fetid and sweaty, but
even this was a relief from the intolerable sun which could not reach
them here because the jungle had closed its leafy arms over the trail
instantly. One could not tell from the path whether it had been made
by natives or by whites, for it was packed hard. It led straight away
from the shoreline.

“We’ll have to keep a sharp lookout for possible poisoned spring
darts, Ellen,” said Bentley.

“I’m not afraid, Lee,” she answered stoutly. “Fate wouldn’t allow us
to come through what we have only to end things with poisoned darts.
It just couldn’t happen that way!”

Thus simply they addressed each other. It seemed as though years had
been squeezed into a matter of hours. They knew each other as well as
they would, in other circumstances, have known each other after a year
of constant association. Here barriers of conventions were razed as
simply and naturally as among children.

* * * * *

They had pressed well into the gloom of the jungle when the first
sound came.

Not the laughter they had heard before, but the drumming. It was ahead
and somewhat to the left, and as they stopped without speaking they
could distinctly hear the threshing of a huge body through the
underbrush. The sound seemed to be approaching and for a minute or so
they listened. Then the sound was repeated off to the right, a trifle
further away.

“Can you climb, Ellen?” asked Bentley simply. “This section is filled
with anthropoid apes, according to the second officer of the _Bengal
Queen_. We may have to take to the trees.”

“I can climb,” she said, “but from what I’ve studied of the habits of
these brutes they do a great deal of bluffing before they actually
charge, and may not molest us at all if we pay no attention.”

Bentley felt almost nude because he had no weapons save his own fists.
And he would not have admitted even to himself how deeply he was
concerned over the girl. As far as he knew, this section might be
entirely uninhabited. It might be given over entirely to the
anthropoids. In this case he shuddered to think of what might happen
to Ellen Estabrook if he were slain.

He quickened his pace until Ellen kept stride with him with
difficulty. The object uppermost in Bentley’s mind was to get as far
away as possible from the ominous drumbeats.

They rounded a bend in the trail and stopped stock-still.

Within fifty yards of them, blocking the trail, was a brute whose
great size sent a thrill of horror through Bentley. It towered to the
height of a big man, and must have weighed in the neighborhood of four
hundred pounds. It was larger by far than any bull ape Bentley had
seen in captivity.

It had been waiting for them, silently, with almost human cunning; but
now that it was discovered the shaggy creature rose to his hind legs
and screamed a challenge, at the same time striking his chest with
blows of his hairy fists which rolled in a dull booming of sound
through the jungle. At the same time the creature moved forward.

* * * * *

Bentley whirled to run, his hand clasping tighter the hand of Ellen
Estabrook. But they had not retreated ten steps down the pathway when
their way was blocked by another of the great shaggy brutes. And they
could hear others on both sides.

Bentley’s face was chalk-white as he turned to the girl. Her calm
acceptance of their predicament, an attitude in which he could read no
slightest vestige of fear, helped him to regain control of his own
nerves, which had threatened to send him into a panic. She even
smiled, and Lee felt a trifle ashamed of himself.

Now the crashing sounds were closing in. The two brutes before and
behind on the trail were pressing in upon them. But no general
headlong charge had yet begun. Bentley looked around him, seeking a
tree with limbs low enough for them to reach and thus climb to safety.

“There’s one!” cried Ellen. Tugging at his hand she began to run.

At the same moment the great apes bellowed and charged.

But the charge was never finished, for through the drumming of their
mighty fists on mighty barrel-like chests, through the sound of their
charge, through the crackling underbrush came again that sound of
laughter. There was fierce joy in the laughter, and the laughter was
followed by words of a strange gibberish which Bentley could not
recall as being from any language he had ever heard.

The great apes paused. Out of the jungle to the right of the fugitives
burst a white man. He was well past middle age, for his white hair
hung almost to his shoulders, which were stooped with the weight of
years. He was a wisp of a man whose smooth shaven face was apple-red.
His eyes were black and expressionless as obsidian, and when Lee
encountered the full gaze of them he was conscious of that feeling
which he had experienced at various times in his life when he knew
that some deadly reptile was close by.

“Stand still a moment!” cried the old man. His voice was strangely
high-pitched and cracked.

* * * * *

From his right hand a whip with a long lash uncurled like a snake.

This he swung back and hurled to the front, and the snap of it was
like a pistol shot. The great ape on the path ahead cowered back,
bearing his fangs, roaring in anger. But that he feared the whip of
the old man was plain to be seen. The crashing sound in the jungle
died away rapidly, immediately the first report of the whip lash
sounded in the trail.

Fearlessly the little man dashed upon the first of the great brutes
the castaways had seen. His lash curled about the great beast’s body,
and the animal bellowed with pain. It clawed at the lash, but was not
fast enough to capture it. In the end the brute broke and fled.

The animal which had blocked their path in the rear had already
disappeared.

Now the little man came back to face the fugitives, and his lips were
parted in a cordial smile. He coiled his whip and tucked it under his
arm. He was dressed in well worn corduroy with high boots that were
rather the worse for wear. Bentley saw that his lips were too
red–like blood–and somehow he disliked the man instantly.

“Welcome to Barterville,” said the old man. “It has been years since I
have seen any of my own kind. People avoid this section of the
jungle.”

“I don’t wonder,” said Bentley, sighing deeply with relief. “Those
brutes would make anybody keep away from here, if they knew about
them. I thought they had us for a few minutes. They planned an ambush
almost as well as human beings could have done it–but that’s absurd
of course, merely a coincidence.”

* * * * *

“Coincidence?” snapped the old man, a hint of asperity in his words.
“Coincidence? I see you do not know the great apes, sir. I have always
maintained that apes could be trained to do anything men can do. I
have maintained that they have a language of their own, and even ways
of communicating without words, a sort of jungle writing which men of
course have never yet learned. I’ve devoted my life to learning the
secrets of the great apes, their life histories, and so forth. I am
Professor Caleb Barter!”

“Professor Caleb Barter!” ejaculated Ellen Estabrook. “Why I’ve heard
of him! He went on an expedition among the great apes ten years ago
and was never heard of again.”

“I am Caleb Barter,” said the old man. “I decided to disappear from
the world I knew, to let other fool scientists think me dead in order
that I might continue my investigations without molestation. And now I
have almost reached the place where I can go back to civilization with
information that will startle the world. There yet remains one
experiment. Now I hope to make that experiment. No! No! Don’t ask me
what it is. It is my secret and nobody will ever wrest it from me.”

Bentley studied the old man. He seemed slightly demented, Bentley
thought, but that might be merely the mental evolution of a man who
had made a hermit of himself for so many years–if this chap actually
were Professor Barter.

“Professor Barter,” went on Ellen, “was the scientific leader of his
day. Others followed where he led. He made greater strides in surgery
and medicine, and in unravelling the mysteries of evolution, than
anyone else up to his time. Of course I believe you are Professor
Barter. My name is Ellen Estabrook, and this gentleman is Lee Bentley.
We believe ourselves to be the only survivors of the _Bengal Queen_.
Perhaps you can lead us to food and water?”

“Yes, oh yes! Indeed. One forgets how to be hospitable, I fear. I am
sorry to hear there was a wreck and that lives were lost–but it may
mean a great gain to the world of science. I am happier to see you
than you can possibly know!”

* * * * *

Bentley felt the cold chills racing along his spine as he listened to
the old man’s flow of words. He behaved well, but Bentley could feel
in spite of that, that there was a hidden current of menace in the old
man’s behavior. He wished that Ellen would keep him talking, would
somehow make sure of his identity. Perhaps the same thought was in her
mind, for it had scarcely come to him when the girl spoke again.

“Before he disappeared Professor Barter wrote a learned treatise on–“

“I am Professor Barter, I tell you, young woman. But if you wish proof
the title of the treatise was ‘The Language of the Great Apes.'”

Ellen turned quickly to Bentley and nodded. She was satisfied that the
man was the person he claimed to be. He didn’t ask how Ellen happened
to know about him, and Bentley himself considered the proof entirely
lacking in conclusiveness. Anyone might know about the last treatise
of Barter.

However, they could but await developments.

They followed Barter along the trail. Now and again apes challenged
from the jungle, and Barter answered them with that strange laughter
of his, or with a flow of gibberish that was like nothing human.

Bentley shivered. Barter, by his laughter, was identifying himself to
the great anthropoids. But with his gibberish was he actually
conversing with them?

“This experiment of yours,” said Bentley when the period of silence
became unbearable, “–won’t you tell us about it?”

The old man cackled.

“You’ll know all about it–soon! You’ll know everything, but the
secret will still rest with Caleb Barter. Do not be too curious, my
friends.”

“We are anxious to reach civilization, Professor,” said Bentley,
deciding to be placative with the old man. “Perhaps you can arrange
for guides for us?”

Barter laughed.

“I could not permit you to leave me for some time,” he said. “I want
you to witness my experiment. The world would never believe me without
the evidence of reliable witnesses.”

Barter laughed again.

* * * * *

They entered a clean clearing which was a riot of flowers. At the
further edge was a log cabin of huge proportions. The whole thing had
a decidedly homely appearance, but it was a welcome sight to the
castaways. There were cages in which strange birds chattered shrilly
in their own language at sight of the three. A pair of tame monkeys
chased each other on the roof of the house, whose corners were almost
hidden by climbing vines whose growth one could almost see.

Barter led the way at a swift walk across the clearing and into the
house.

Bentley gasped. Ellen Estabrook exclaimed with pleasure.

The reception room was as neat as though it received the hourly
attentions of a fussy housewife. It was cozily furnished, yet it was
evident that the furniture had been made on the spot of rough wood
and skins of various animals. Deep skin rugs covered the floor and
walls. There were three doors giving off of the reception room, all
three of which were closed.

“You are not married?” he asked the two.

“No!” snapped Bentley.

“That center door leads to your room, Bentley. The one next to it is
for the young lady. The other door? Ah, the other door my friends!
That door you must never open. But to make sure that curiosity does
not overcome caution, let me show you!”

* * * * *

They followed him to the door. He swung it open.

Both visitors started back and a gasp of terror burst from the lips of
Ellen Estabrook. Beads of perspiration burst forth on Bentley.

They saw a huge room. In one corner was a bed. The other held a great
cage–and in the cage was an anthropoid ape larger even than the great
brute they had met on the trail!

Barter laughed. He stepped into the room, uncoiled his whip and hurled
the lash at the cage. A great bellowing roar fairly shook the house,
while the brute tore at the bars which held him prisoner until the
whole massive cage seemed to dance. Barter laughed and continued to
goad him.

“Barter,” yelled Bentley, “stop that! If that beast should ever happen
accidentally to get free he’d tear you to pieces!”

“I know,” said Barter grimly, “and that’s part of the experiment! Now
we shall eat, and you, young lady, shall tell me what other fool
scientists had to say about me after I disappeared–to escape their
parrot-like repeating of my discoveries!”

Bentley started to offer protest as Barter began preparation for the
meal, which obviously was to be taken in the room which held the cage
of the giant anthropoid, but Ellen put her fingers to her lips and
shook her head. Her eyes were dancing with excitement.