"Kohrisan!"
The cry brought an instant response. From one of the arched doorways of the council room, as if he had been waiting on hair-trigger for the call to catapult him forward, sprang a strange figure. A short, gnarled figure so elaborately adorned, cap-a-pied, in the glittering habiliments of a warrior that Ramey had to look twice to see it was no man at all, but another of the weirdly humanoid apes.
The monkey-captain sized up the situation at a glance, lifted his voice in a cry that bore little resemblance to the shrill chattering of ordinary banderlogs. The apparently tenantless court sprang to life. Through every portal flooded troops of the armed monkey-men to arraign themselves grimly behind their leader. The furry captain spoke, this time directly to Ravana, who scowled at him.
For a moment it seemed Ravana trembled on the brink of a decision. His right hand yearned toward his sword. Then he shrugged and forced a smile to his lips. He made a perfunctory, almost insulting, bow to the blue-skinned lord of the jungle, then crisped a word to his followers. They turned and marched from the room. As Ravana passed the squat ape-man, he sneered a mocking taunt; the gaudily garbed little creature flinched as if struck with a blow. Then Ravana and his bullies were gone, and Sugriva beckoned Ramey's party to advance toward him.
Ramey's first impression of the emperor had been that Sugriva was a wishy-washy sort. Now he was forced to alter that opinion. There was no nervousness, no uncertainty in the blue lord's manner. He seemed to have weighed carefully the problem and arrived at a conclusion. He was a gentle man but he could act when action was required. And he was a man of penetrating intellect. He had already recognized that Sheng-ti was the only one to whom his words held meaning. He addressed himself to the bonze. Sheng-ti answered with a new note of humility in his voice, then relayed the message.
"The Blue One says to follow him. He would understand and be understood."
Wonderingly the little group followed Sugriva to a small privy chamber beyond the throne-room. As they entered this Ramey's eyes widened to behold another metal cabinet somewhat similar to that in which they had been borne here, but of hemispherical shape. Into this the ruler motioned them. Red Barrett looked dubious.
"Hey, what's he going to do, Ramey? Send us back where we come from? So soon? Aw, gee! Me and Toots here ain't hardly got acquainted yet."
Syd offered warningly, "Look out. It's a trick of some sort. I don't trust—"