The party commanded by Philip had marched down the broad avenue fully two-thirds of the entire distance from the village to the sea-shore without seeing so much as the tip of an ape’s tail, when suddenly every man came to a halt without waiting for the word of command as a piercing scream from the thicket at the left rang out on the clear air.

Involuntarily the colonists gazed in the direction from whence the cry had come, and as they did so a vast army of apes poured out from the thicket on the opposite side of the road armed with stones and sticks, attacking them with such fury that before the men could recover from their bewilderment three had fallen mortally wounded.

Philip, who was in the rear of the troops, delayed firing in the hope of having as a target the gigantic form of Goliah.

In this, however, he was unsuccessful, for that worthy had taken good care to be out of harm’s way, although more than once Philip fancied he saw his grinning face. It was but a few seconds, however, that he could remain inactive, so vigorous and well-directed was the shower of rocks, and then he[260] discharged his repeating-rifle again and again into the solid ranks of apes without producing any apparent effect.

During fifteen minutes this hot engagement continued, and then, as a shrill cry arose which could be distinctly heard above the rattle of musketry, every ape who was left alive vanished amid the thicket in a twinkling, leaving the colonists at liberty to count the cost of this first attempt at subduing the original proprietors of the soil.

Five men were dead, three severely wounded, and hardly one had escaped without some injury. On the other side at least forty apes were left behind, either dead or unable to beat a retreat. It was safe to assume that as many more had carried away bullets in their bodies; but this made the victory a costly one for the colonists, when the number of apes supposed to be on the island was taken into consideration.

“Twenty engagements like this and we shall no longer have men enough to defend the village,” Philip said to himself as he gave the order for the dead and dying to be carried back to the dwellings.

While this portion of Captain Seaworth’s army were returning in funeral procession the sounds of conflict could be heard from the extreme northern end of the road, and the reports of the weapons continued for about ten minutes, when they died away entirely, causing Philip to believe the apes had pursued the same tactics as during the first engagement.

[261]

The vast army of apes poured from the thicket attacking the party with great fury.—(See page 259.)

[262]

When Philip and his decimated party reached the main building of the settlement, the squad of men commanded by Mr. Clark, first officer of the Reynard, could be seen approaching, bearing ominous-looking burdens, which told that their portion of the conflict had also been attended with fatal results. As the remainder of the colonists returned, company by company, having seen no signs of the enemy, Captain Seaworth called a council of war, since it was evident that Goliah did not intend to give battle again during this day.

As nearly as could be judged about a hundred of the apes had been killed, or so severely wounded as to make their deaths certain; but, on the other hand, twelve men were dead, and fully twenty so badly disabled as to render it impossible for them to take any further part in the defense of the settlement for many weeks to come.

“To continue in this way will simply be to exterminate ourselves,” Captain Seaworth said when his officers were assembled. “The apes so far outnumber us that in less than a week we shall be at the mercy of the animals unless some safer plan of atta............