A wave of mad fury surged over me. The cruel cowardliness of the
power-drunk creature whose malignant mind conceived such frightful
forms of torture stirred to their uttermost depths my resentment
and my manhood. The blood-red haze that presaged death to my foes
swam before my eyes.
The guard lolled before the unbarred gate of the cage which confined
me. What need of bars, indeed, to keep those poor victims from
rushing into the arena which the edict of the gods had appointed
as their death place!
A single blow sent the black unconscious to the ground. Snatching
up his long-sword, I sprang into the arena. The apes were almost
upon the maidens, but a couple of mighty bounds were all my earthly
muscles required to carry me to the centre of the sand-strewn floor.
For an instant silence reigned in the great amphitheatre, then
a wild shout arose from the cages of the doomed. My long-sword
circled whirring through the air, and a great ape sprawled, headless,
at the feet of the fainting girls.
The other apes turned now upon me, and as I stood facing them
a sullen roar from the audience answered the wild cheers from the
cages. From the tail of my eye I saw a score of guards rushing
across the glistening sand toward me. Then a figure broke from
one of the cages behind them. It was the youth whose personality
so fascinated me.
He paused a moment before the cages, with upraised sword.
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