All this fifty feet below! And they, six fighting divisions, helpless to aid their friends! Ramey whirled to Kohrisan frantically. "But how do we get down from here?" Kohrisan grinned. There was fire in the ape-man's eye now. Ramey thought that never had Captain Kohrisan seemed less the man, more the jungle beast, than now. Battlelust seemed to have thickened even his speech; it was with difficulty he made the human words intelligible. * * * * * But his words were not directed to Ramey. He spoke to the warriors behind him. And they, obediently, sprang to their task. One wrapped his arms round a pillar standing at the lip of the exit. A second gripped the first ape's legs, and himself slipped over the ledge to dangle by his companion's heels. A third clambered over the body of his comrade to dangle a few more feet down the wall. A fourth ... a fifth.... Lake cried hoarsely, "A ladder! A ladder of flesh and blood, Ramey! Of course! It is part of their jungle heritage!" "But--" said Ramey to Kohrisan--"if one of them be killed? Then the ladder is broken--" "And it will be rebuilt, Lord Ramaíya!" retorted the captain. "There! Now it reaches the floor below. Forward!" Ramey said no more. All warfare is a gamble. This was no more desperate a measure than that one nation should hurl the soft bodies of men against the adamant ramparts of machines. Eyes glinting, he let himself over the ledge and hand-over-hand down the living chain that dangled to the room below. He was but one of many. For now there were other chains ... swarms of comrades flinging themselves down over the bodies of their brothers. And before his feet had touched the floor, he was surrounded by a force of more agile ape-warriors, turning to him for command. His voice could not be heard in the melee, but a gesture was enough. "Forward!" And to the relief of the beleaguered loyalists, like a great brown flood of strength, surged the monkey-soldiers. From the rear they struck, and there were scores of Videlians who fell without ever knowing what hand had struck them down. When finally they whirled to see this new danger descending upon them, already they were outnumbered. It scarcely mattered that one courageous archer broke a chain by piercing the key-man on the ledge. Though a dozen tumbled headlong to the granite floor, instantly a new chain was forged. And in a trice, the complexion of the battle had changed. Now it was Ravana's men, instead of the loyalists, who were on the defensive. Hard-pressed, they withdrew from the doorway they had been attacking. But the moment their pressure was withdrawn, Thalakka and Tauthus roared their followers forward.