"Invaded? Old Gib invaded? What are you trying to hand us, chum? You mean from the air? But we ain't got no airplanes--" Dr. Aiken said, "No, Barrett, that's not what Sydney means. He is referring to a well-known fact which has baffled engineers, soldiers and scientists alike for many years: the fact that the Rock of Gibraltar, though a rock-bound island, is 'invaded' and deserted at will by the Barbary Apes." "The who-berry which?" "Barbary Apes. The monkeys whose natural habitat is the African coast, some twelve miles distant. How these Apes enter and leave the Rock is, and has been, and probably always will be a mystery."[11] [Footnote 11: This is not mere imaginative fiction. The mystery of the Barbary Apes continues to baffle the military men and cartographers of Gibraltar to this day. These African visitors seem to invade and desert the Rock at will, despite the fact there is no visible connection between the two places.--Ed.] Ramey said impatiently, "Very interesting. But we've no time for legends now, Doctor. Suppose we--" He was interrupted by the single member of that assemblage least prone to voicing opinions. That one was the monkey-captain, Kohrisan. It was hard to read emotion on his curiously wizened face, but his eyes had widened as Dr. Ian Aiken spoke. Now he leaped from his seat excitedly, pushed forward. "Excuse me, my Lord Janakan," he chattered in that voice which, though it spoke human words, would always carry a flavor of the jungles whence he had sprung. "Excuse me--but--these invaders you called 'apes.' Were they 'new men' like myself?" "Yes, Captain Kohrisan. Quite like yourself. Save that they do not speak the tongue of men--" "The Burrowers!" cried Kohrisan. "I have heard of them not only at this 'Jibra altar' you speak of but _here_--here at the Lake of Lanka! It may be true, the tales I have heard!" The little warrior was wildly excited now, beside himself with thoughts incomprehensible to the less impetuous humans. "Excuse me, my Lords! Your permission to withdraw, my Lord Sugriva? Thank you!" And without even waiting for the Gaanelian's acquiescence, he scampered from the meeting. * * * * * Red Barrett stared after him, amused. "Nice little guy, just the same," he said. "Kind of whacky, maybe, but a lot of humans are that way, too. You were saying, Ramey--?" "I was saying," continued Ramey, "that our best bet seems to be another attempt to get the Bow of Rudra. We must give up our dream of an invasion in force. Select a group of our sturdiest fighters, join Vibhishana and somehow gain our way to Ravana's chamber. Once we have the Bow--" "We are still powerless," finished Sugriva. "Hate me, O my friends, for ever thus disrupting your dreams. But the fact remains that we, no more than Ravana, have the fuel with which to charge the precious weapon!" Lake O'Brien, who had been strangely silent for one usually so volatile, glanced at Ramey quizzically now.