For it was bitter battle between troops of Vibhishana and Ravana's hordes upon which Ramey and his rescue squad looked down! Down—from a tiny, frieze-embellished exit-hole near the roof of one of Lanka's highest chambers!
Fully fifty feet below them waged the conflict ... a battle between forces hopelessly outmatched. At the front of the decimated rebel group Ramey recognized men he knew, men who had been his companions in the dungeon. His great bulk sturdier still in battle-mail, Tauthus of Cush headed a handful of men desperately striving to hold a narrow doorway. Left flank of this party was protected by soldiers in the livery of Videlia ... loyalists rallied by Thalakka, whose sword was among their own. Even as Ramey watched, an arrow shattered on the breastplate of the faithful guardsman, and Thalakka tottered and fell, driven to his knees by the sheer driving impact of that shaft.
A glowering foe, seeing Thalakka's plight, leaped forward, stabbing viciously at the fallen man. But as his sword lifted for the destroying blow, the young Martian who had opposed Tauthus yesterday in the gaol sprang forward to parry it with a thrust of his own. Thalakka's attacker fell, blood gushing from a great wound in his breast, and even as he rolled lifeless to the floor, Thalakka was on his feet again.
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—"