to every part of this inner world it diffuses its perpetual noonday
light and torrid heat.

"This inner world must have cooled sufficiently to support animal
life long ages after life appeared upon the outer crust, but that
the same agencies were at work here is evident from the similar
forms of both animal and vegetable creation which we have already
seen. Take the great beast which attacked us, for example.
Unquestionably a counterpart of the Megatherium of the post-Pliocene
period of the outer crust, whose fossilized skeleton has been found
in South America."

"But the grotesque inhabitants of this forest?" I urged. "Surely
they have no counterpart in the earth's history."

"Who can tell?" he rejoined. "They may constitute the link between ape
and man, all traces of which have been swallowed by the countless
convulsions which have racked the outer crust, or they may be merely
the result of evolution along slightly different lines--either is
quite possible."

Further speculation was interrupted by the appearance of several
of our captors before the entrance of the hut. Two of them entered
and dragged us forth. The perilous pathways and the surrounding
trees were filled with the black ape-men, their females, and their
young. There was not an ornament, a weapon, or a garment among
the lot.

"Quite low in the scale of creation," commented Perry.