doomed party as soon as did ours. He raised his head and leaning
far out over the low rail that rimmed his dizzy perch, voiced the
shrill, weird wail that called the demons of this hellish place to
the attack.

For an instant the brutes stood with stiffly erected ears, then
they poured from the grove toward the river's bank, covering the
distance with great, ungainly leaps.

The party had landed and was standing on the sward as the awful
horde came in sight. There was a brief and futile effort of defence.
Then silence as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of
their victims and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to
the flesh of their prey.

I turned away in disgust.

"Their part is soon over," said Thuvia. "The great white apes get
the flesh when the plant men have drained the arteries. Look, they
are coming now."

As I turned my eyes in the direction the girl indicated, I saw a
dozen of the great white monsters running across the valley toward
the river bank. Then the sun went down and darkness that could
almost be felt engulfed us.

Thuvia lost no time in leading us toward the corridor which winds
back and forth up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands
of feet above the level on which we had been.