The Swedes knew that their men hated
them, and that an overt act against Kovudoo would quickly be carried
to the chief at the first opportunity. Nor were they sufficiently
strong in either guns or loyal followers to risk antagonizing the
wily old chief.
Following this episode came the encounter with the baboons and
the strange, white savage who had allied himself with the beasts
against the humans. Only by dint of masterful maneuvering and
the expenditure of much power had the Swedes been able to repulse
the infuriated apes, and even for hours afterward their camp was
constantly besieged by hundreds of snarling, screaming devils.
The Swedes, rifles in hand, repelled numerous savage charges which
lacked only efficient leadership to have rendered them as effective
in results as they were terrifying in appearance. Time and time
again the two men thought they saw the smooth-skinned body of the
wild ape-man moving among the baboons in the forest, and the belief
that he might head a charge upon them proved most disquieting.
They would have given much for a clean shot at him, for to him they
attributed the loss of their specimen and the ugly attitude of the
baboons toward them.
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