philip’s dismal forebodings were destined to be realized within a very short time. if his subjects had been impatient on the day previous because they only saw him on the balcony, they were furious now when the windows and doors remained closed and their king came not forth to greet them.
from his place of refuge he could hear a murmuring sound, as of the waves on the sea-shore; but after an hour passed this had increased to a deafening roar, which was echoed and re-echoed from every portion of the forest until it seemed as if the entire island must be covered with apes searching for their ruler.
now and then the fugitive could hear a hoarse cry, which arose above the general din, and in it he believed he recognized goliah’s voice. the huge baboon, who had been only suspicious on the day previous, was probably positive now that the king was not all he should be, and was most likely inciting the multitude to open rebellion.
judging from the events which followed, it was not a hard task to induce these long-tailed subjects to rise in their might, for before noon the attack was begun.
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the apes, probably understanding that they could not learn the cause of the king’s indisposition and sudden disappearance except by demolishing the building which they themselves had reared, made a furious attack on all four sides at the same moment.
from previous experience philip knew that in this assault they must necessarily be successful owing to their numbers, and also because it was no longer possible for him to interpose any lengthy resistance; therefore he remained in one corner of the kitchen, with the musket in his hands and the small amount of ammunition in his pocket, resolved to sell his life dearly when the supreme moment should arrive.
against the sides of the building the heavy missiles rattled like hail; the walls shook under the repeated blows, and now and then the crashing and splintering of roof-timbers told that slowly but surely philip’s place of refuge was being reduced to a ruin.
at rare intervals the bombardment ceased as the entire army burst forth in noisy cries of grief, deafening howls of sympathy, and groans which were intended to be expressive of tenderness.
this mourning for their king was always followed by a more vigorous onslaught, and, as near as philip could judge, it was about the hour of sunset when the building gave way beneath a shower of rocks. first a heavy crash from above told that the roof had fallen; then the front wall was forced in, probably burying amid its ruins the papers and books of captain seaworth, and causing philip’s hiding-place[232] to rock to and fro like a tree shaken by the wind.
finally there came that which philip had not anticipated.
instead of the dwelling being demolished in such a manner that he was exposed to view, the walls, besieged on every side, fell inward; and at the last deafening crash he commended himself to god, for it seemed positive he was buried alive.
in the brief space of time which elapsed from the first shattering of the side-wall until the end came philip thought, with intense relief, that he would be crushed to death rather than murdered by those who had been so loyal a few days previous. then the ceiling and sides of the room burst in, sending forth great clouds of dust, which from the outside must have looked like smoke ascending from a funeral pyre.
the assailants were silenced—awed by their work. the building was nothing more than a mass of ruin, but yet no trace of their king could be seen.
looking from the outside, one would have said there could be no living thing beneath these enormous fragments of rock and wood; and yet, strange as it may seem, philip was there with not so much as a single scratch upon his body. it was destined that his life should not be taken by his subjects during an assault planned by goliah.
the heavy furniture, piled up from the door of the cupboard to the corner of the room as a barricade in case the apes succeeded in entering the[233] building, had been sufficient to uphold the weight which fell upon it, and the timbers of the ceiling had formed across the top a perfect support.
the king of the apes, whose reign had been of such short duration, was thus literally buried alive; but in this accidental tomb he had provisions sufficient to serve him many days.
for a few moments after the falling of the timbers philip congratulated himself upon this fact; but his joy was short-lived. he soon realized that unless—as was improbable—he could have aid from the outside, the stock of provisions would simply serve to prolong his wretched life a certain time, after which death must inevitably come.
“at all events i need not starve,” he said to himself after some reflection, as he raised his musket; and with the knowledge that he could invoke death before the torture of hunger and thirst became agonizing, he grew more resigned.
then came a long time of silence, which was finally broken by the sound as of some one digging from above.
“probably the night has passed, during which the apes were asleep, and now they are searching for my body,” philip said to himself; and although he knew death would be inevitable in case of discovery (for the mandrill skin had literally been torn from his body), it was with a certain sense of relief he learned that the debris from above was being removed.
yet one does not welcome death, however full of[234] torture may be the alternative; and when the noise made by the army of laborers grew more distinct, telling that they were approaching nearer to his narrow prison each moment, the thought of the struggle which must ensue was very painful. with twenty cartridges he would hardly be able to hold the first squad of laborers in check sixty seconds. then, unarmed, he must meet those whom he had so unwittingly deceived.
as the moments passed he was able to form a definite idea of the approach of his enemies, for in such a light must he now consider his former subjects. already could he see tiny rays of light through the crevices of the rocks and timbers, and the shower of dust which fell upon him told that but a few feet of the debris remained between him and the open air.
now he clutched his musket more firmly and stood on the alert, prepared to spring forward at the instant the aperture was sufficiently large to admit of the passage of his body, although he knew that the ruins were surrounded by an army so great that it would be impossible to make his way twenty feet before receiving a death-wound.
it was at this moment, when he had nerved himself for the struggle he believed was about to ensue, that he felt, rather than heard, a noise directly beneath his feet, and even while wondering as to the cause of it an upheaval of the floor told that the enemy were searching for him both above and below.
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then one of the boards upon which he stood was pushed aside, almost overturning him, and he leveled his musket, ready to fire when they should spring upon him out of what was evidently a tunnel.
the fragments from above had been so far removed by this time that the darkness was partially dispersed, allowing him to see everything in the vicinity quite distinctly.
an ape’s head presented itself from this unexpected aperture, and, in order to save his ammunition as far as possible, philip raised his musket to strike. another instant and there would have been one ape the less on the island—an event well calculated to plunge the prisoner into an agony of grief.
it was the chimpanzee, ben bolt, and not one of goliah’s adherents, who had thus come from the very earth, as it were; and an instant later the besieged youth was shaking the animal by the paw as if he were a human being, for there could be no question but that the two chimpanzees had formed some plan to extricate their old master from his perilous position.
there was no time to be wasted in ceremonies, however. the laborers above had so nearly reached the tiny place of refuge that fragments of stone were already falling between the timbers, and the chimpanzee realized quite as well as did philip that to make this means of escape practicable they must beat an immediate retreat.
the former stood at the edge of the tunnel and pointed downward with an impatient gesture.
philip descended into a narrow excavation barely large enough to admit of his crawling on his hands and knees; and here, as if waiting for him, was the other chimpanzee, who immediately led the way through the passage, assuring herself that he would follow by winding her long tail around his neck in such a manner that he must perforce be dragged if he could not creep.
had a spectator been in the place so lately occupied by philip he would have seen ben bolt pull the furniture together even above his head, and then, retreating into the hole, drag some of the floor-boards after him to hide the existence of the tunnel.
in this he displayed reasoning powers beyond a peradventure, for those who were working above would, on reaching the bottom, find no evidences of an excavation, and it was hardly probable they would pursue their investigation any further than the floor of the room.
