I was following the others, when I found that Lord John and

Challenger had come across to join us.

"It's over," said Lord John. "I think we can leave the tidying up

to them. Perhaps the less we see of it the better we shall sleep."

Challenger's eyes were shining with the lust of slaughter.

"We have been privileged," he cried, strutting about like a

gamecock, "to be present at one of the typical decisive battles

of history--the battles which have determined the fate of

the world. What, my friends, is the conquest of one nation

by another? It is meaningless. Each produces the same result.

But those fierce fights, when in the dawn of the ages the

cave-dwellers held their own against the tiger folk, or the

elephants first found that they had a master, those were the real

conquests--the victories that count. By this strange turn of

fate we have seen and helped to decide even such a contest.

Now upon this plateau the future must ever be for man."

It needed a robust faith in the end to justify such tragic means.

As we advanced together through the woods we found the ape-men

lying thick, transfixed with spears or arrows. Here and there a

little group of shattered Indians marked where one of the

anthropoids had turned to bay, and sold his life dearly. Always in

front of us we heard the yelling and roaring which showed the

direction of the pursuit. The ape-men had been driven back to

their city, they had made a last stand there, once again they had

been broken, and now we were in time to see the final fearful

scene of all. Some eighty or a hundred males, the last

survivors, had been driven across that same little clearing which

led to the edge of the cliff, the scene of our own exploit two

days before. As we arrived the Indians, a semicircle of

spearmen, had closed in on them, and in a minute it was over,

Thirty or forty died where they stood. The others, screaming and

clawing, were thrust over the precipice, and went hurtling down,

as their prisoners had of old, on to the sharp bamboos six

hundred feet below. It was as Challenger had said, and the reign

of man was assured forever in Maple White Land. The males were

exterminated, Ape Town was destroyed, the females and young were

driven away to live in bondage, and the long rivalry of untold

centuries had reached its bloody end.

For us the victory brought much advantage. Once again we were

able to visit our camp and get at our stores. Once more also we

were able to communicate with Zambo, who had been terrified by

the spectacle from afar of an avalanche of apes falling from the

edge of the cliff.

"Come away, Massas, come away!" he cried, his eyes starting from

his head. "The debbil get you sure if you stay up there."

"It is the voice of sanity!" said Summerlee with conviction.

"We have had adventures enough and they are neither suitable to

our character or our position. I hold you to your word, Challenger.

From now onwards you devote your energies to getting us out of

this horrible country and back once more to civilization."

CHAPTER XV

"Our Eyes have seen Great Wonders"