"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]
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—?"