But they had not made fifty steps in this direction, when they heard the dog barking furiously.
All rushed back to the shore again.
There they saw that the situation had changed. The apes, seized with a sudden panic, from some unknown cause, were trying to escape. Two or three ran and clambered from one window to another with the agility of acrobats. They were not even trying to replace the ladder, by which it would have been easy to descend; perhaps in their terror they had forgotten this way of escape. The colonists, now able to take aim without difficulty, fired. Some wounded or killed, fell back into the rooms, with piercing cries. The rest, throwing themselves out, were dashed to pieces in their fall, and in a few minutes, so far as they knew, there was not a living quadrumana in Granite House.
At this moment the ladder was seen to slip over the threshold, then unroll and fall to the ground.
"Hallo!" cried the sailor, "this is queer!"
"Very strange!" murmured the engineer, leaping first up the ladder.
"Take care, captain!" cried Pencroft, "perhaps there are still some of these rascals———"
"We shall soon see," replied the engineer, without stoping. All his companions followed him, and in a minute they had reached the threshold. They searched everywhere. There was no one in the rooms nor in the storehouse, which had been respected by the band of quadrumana.
"Well now, and the ladder," cried the sailor; "who can the gentleman have been who sent us that down?"
But at that moment a cry was heard, and a great orang, who had hidden himself in the passage, rushed into the room, pursued by Neb. "Ah, the robber!" cried Pencroft.
Hatchet in hand, he was about to cleave the head of the animal, when Cyrus Harding seized his arm, saying, "Spare him, Pencroft."
"Pardon this rascal?"
"Yes! it was he who threw us the ladder!"
The engineer said this in such a peculiar voice it was difficult to know if he spoke seriously or not. Nevertheless, they threw themselves on the orang. He defended himself gallantly, but was overpowered and bound.
