[00:00.13] Chapter eight.
[00:02.68] Prisoners.
[00:04.91] I panicked.
[00:06.98] I ran round the camp, shouting,
[00:10.59] Challenger, Summerly, Lord John!
[00:15.97] Even though any fool could see there was no one there.
[00:21.37] I felt so helpless and alone.
[00:26.25] I realised how much I'd relied on them.
[00:31.56] Challenger with his self-confidence,
[00:37.18] Lord John with his cool courage.
[00:45.13] How was I going to survive on my own?
[00:50.49] I slumped down to the ground in despair.
[00:56.36] I'm going to die here, I moaned, swamped by self-pity.
[01:07.71] Then I calmed down a bit, and tried to think.
[01:13.22] I'll look for them when it's light, I decided.
[01:18.67] I needed rest.
[01:21.22] I was too exhausted to walk another step.
[01:27.13] I lit three fires in the camp, and that made me feel braver.
[01:35.59] I tried to work out what had happened.
[01:39.45] The camp had been attacked, but by what?
[01:45.83] Lord John's rifle was still here, but useless, snapped in two.
[01:54.80] Our cameras and binoculars were smashed.
[01:59.95] Only the food had been taken.
[02:05.59] Still puzzling about it, I fell into a restless sleep.
[02:16.67] The next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder.
[02:22.54] Woa!
[02:25.40] I croaked.
[02:27.91] What is it?
[02:33.35] A wild-eyed face looked down into mine.
[02:39.85] Lord John! I cried, fully awake now.
[02:46.82] His thin face was scratched and bloody, his clothes were torn.
[02:55.57] Quick! he said, racing off.
[02:59.80] We've got to get out of here.
[03:04.47] It's the first place the apemen will look for me.
[03:10.98] I sprang up.
[03:14.01] The apemen?
[03:16.69] Did they attack the camp?
[03:20.80] Where are the professors?
[03:24.98] I followed him until we stopped, breathless, in a clump of bushes.
[03:34.33] We'll be safe here for the moment, said Lord John.
[03:40.64] Then he told me what had happened.
[03:47.71] Challenger and I were asleep, he said.
[03:53.81] When the apemen came leaping down from the trees.
[04:01.52] Summerly yelled a warning, but it was too late.
[04:09.52] I managed to grab my rifle,
[04:16.60] but they tore it from me.
[04:22.16] Challenger charged at them, bellowing like an angry bull.
[04:31.45] But there were too many of them.
[04:35.86] They tied our hands with creepers, and marched us off into the jungle.
[04:44.72] I managed to escape, but the others are in great danger.
[04:54.21] We must go back and rescue them.
[05:00.84] Lord John grabbed my arm.
[05:04.53] His eyes glittered with excitement.
[05:09.54] He seemed to delight in danger.
[05:14.25] The higher the risk, the more he liked it.
[05:19.84] Come on! he cried.
[05:23.27] Let's hope we're not too late.
[05:30.68] It was easy to track the apemen.
[05:36.40] As they'd dragged their captives along, they'd smashed down grass and bushes.
[05:49.05] As we got nearer to them, we heard their whoops and chattering cries.
[05:57.95] We crept through the bushes in silence.
[06:04.61] Suddenly Lord John said, "Get down!"
[06:13.31] Until my dying day, I shall never forget what I saw as I peeped out between the ferns.
[06:24.43] We were close to the edge of the cliffs, where the trees came to an end.
[06:32.77] I could see shaggy, red-haired ape creatures, some walking on all fours, some upright.
[06:45.93] Summerly was tied to a tree, and an ape man squatted in the branches above him, as if on guard.
[06:58.26] Where's Challenger? I whispered, fearing the worst.
[07:07.97] Then I saw him.
[07:13.47] His clothes were tattered, his shirt half torn from his hairy chest.
[07:22.23] But he was not tied up.
[07:27.62] He was sitting with the largest apeman, who seemed to be their chief.
[07:36.90] The apeman chief was handing him pineapples in a friendly way, as if to an equal.
[07:48.43] And, I must say, at first glance, Professor Challenger and the apeman looked very alike.
[08:02.41] The professor had the same squat figure, the same heavy shoulders and long, dangling arms, the same hairiness.
[08:16.55] They look like brothers, chuckled Lord John.
[08:22.80] That was just like him, joking in the face of danger.
[08:30.89] But I was shaking.
[08:34.53] There were only two of us.
[08:38.00] How were we going to rescue the professors?
[08:44.93] Then, suddenly, two more prisoners were hustled forward from between the trees, their hands tied.
[08:58.12] They weren't ape creatures, but looked more like humans.
[09:05.97] There was a girl and a little boy.
[09:12.55] Both wore animal skins and stone beads.
[09:19.23] The girl had long dark hair, decorated with brightly colored feathers.
[09:29.77] Maybe they're cave dwellers, I wondered.
[09:35.70] The little boy was whimpering and terrified.
[09:43.75] But if the girl was scared, she hid it well.
[09:51.04] Her eyes flashed defiance.
[09:56.76] She held her head high, as proud as a princess.
[10:04.90] But then apemen began dragging the boy towards the cliff edge.
[10:13.51] The girl cried out, clearly trying to stop them.
[10:22.05] With growing horror, I saw what they were going to do.
[10:28.85] I thought of that skeleton, every bone broken at the bottom of the plateau walls.
[10:41.63] They're going to throw him over the cliff! I gasped.
[10:47.23] That's what they do with their prisoners.
[10:52.53] But Lord John was already on his feet and running in a magnificent, desperate rescue attempt.
[11:04.98] They'll pull him to pieces, I thought.
[11:12.70] Challenger was waving his arms around, shouting, "No, no!"
[11:20.57] And trying to make the ape chief stop the killing.
[11:26.18] But the ape chief grunted and pushed him away, as if they weren't friends any longer.
[11:36.29] Then I was up and running too.
[11:40.93] I saw the ape creatures staring at me, and I thought these were my last moments on earth.
[11:50.45] But suddenly, the edge of the forest seemed to come alive.
[11:59.18] The ferns shook, the tall grass rippled.
[12:06.36] Then, with wild cries, a band of men came running out of the trees.
[12:15.10] I stopped, bewildered.
[12:22.33] They were waving flint spears.
[12:27.10] They looked very warlike.
[12:32.06] Like me, Lord John had skidded to a halt, as if he didn't know who to fight first.
[12:45.31] But the newcomers weren't after us.
[12:50.58] Instead, with their stone weapons, they charged at the ape men.
[12:59.06] Terrified, the hairy creatures scattered, leaving their prisoners and swinging through the trees to escape.
[13:10.62] We could hear their frightened shrieks and howls long after they disappeared into the forest.
[13:20.67] As the last howl had faded into the distance, I untied Summerly.
[13:29.23] He was drooping with shock and weariness, but the brave old boffin still managed to gasp,
[13:39.36] "How fascinating.
[13:43.39] These newcomers must be a stone Age tribe.
[13:49.81] I have met apemen and stone age people all in one day!"
[13:59.31] The girl must really have been their princess, because her rescuers bowed down low before her and treated her with great respect.
[14:12.07] She was about to lead them away, but then she seemed to remember us.
[14:19.71] She turned and beckoned in a friendly way for us to follow with the little boy.
[14:28.32] So we tagged on behind, stumbling and blood streaked.
[14:36.26] We tramped across a grassy plain, and through thorny scrub.
[14:44.87] Once, we passed a strange pool of boiling mud, coming up through the rocks from deep underground.
[14:57.98] It bubbled like a magic cauldron.
[15:03.55] Great blisters of gas burst on its surface.
[15:11.53] Summerly, scientific as ever, said, "Just as I thought.
[15:21.63] That proves this whole plateau is an old volcano.
[15:28.36] There is still some volcanic activity deep underground.
[15:38.11] I thought Challenger would argue, but perhaps he felt guilty for eating pineapples with the apeman chief, while his fellow professor had been tied up.
[15:52.04] I was trying to tell that ape chief to free you, he blustered.
[15:59.66] Well, you were taking a long time about it, said Summerly in his dry voice.
[16:09.94] But did you notice, boomed Challenger, what a remarkable creature that ape chief was?
[16:20.76] How intelligent and handsome!
[16:26.88] Lord John said you two could have been brothers, I told him.
[16:34.36] Challenger puffed out his chest and seemed to glow with pleasure.