“Don’t you be scared, my bonnie boy,” said Lord John, patting the matted 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 the ordinary.  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 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.  I gather that it is some distance.”

“A good twenty miles,” said I.

Summerlee gave a groan.

“I, for one, could never get there.  Surely I hear those brutes still howling upon our track.”

As he spoke, from the dark recesses of the woods we heard far away the jabbering cry of the ape-men.  The Indians once more set up a feeble wail of fear.

“We must move, and move quick!” said Lord John.  “You help Summerlee, young fellah.  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 found Challenger kneeling 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 rather fatuous 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 given to such an idea—­any levity in your narrative of what occurred—­would be exceedingly offensive to me.”

“I will keep well within the truth.”

“Lord John’s observations are frequently exceedingly fanciful, and he is capable of attributing the most absurd reasons to the respect which is always shown by the most undeveloped races to dignity and character.  You follow my meaning?”

“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?”