Avon Fantasy Reader No. 12 — page 94: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

abr ttH UCR ddsu ILL a UL Somehow I want to live to know Omar is dead first... if I can stand it that long.” Dineen lay shuddering, hearing but not heeding. The great ape lifted him with his back against the tree bole and pointed toward a female ape that sat slumped in a heap as native women sit, its body leaning forward between its upthrust knees. Around its head was a pink puckered scar like the adie of a cap. One Icok at the sear re- vealed to Dineen the badly infected state. His dread-filled eyes gazed at the other apes and saw the healed sears around their heads. A burst of insane laughter came from his lips. “It’s tough on ye, Dincen, but youre safe with us, if that’s any comfort. ‘Vell me about the ape-girl.” “That wound needs surgical attention and disinfectants,” he mut- tered hearsely. “We got none, but there’s plenty in the Chinks’ kampong. Yon know drugs better’a I do. Pil take ye along.” “L won't gol” Dineen protested, but his resistance was feeble. The big ape was ruthless. Dineen saw that the ape body and instincts were not wholly controlled by the human brain, and Rourke had been a bold hunter, cruel enough when his work demanded. Dineen |} was sling over his shoulder like a sack, carried in swinging flight that swooped from branch to tree. To save the lashing of branches on his face he ducked his head against the hairy breast and shut his eyes. Presently he must awaken from this devil dream. ... There was a glimpse of dark water as the apes leaped and caught branches on the opposite shore; then he saw sun gleams on a bamboo palisade and thatched buildings like large huts. From high in the tree Dinecn looked down and saw humans. His first thought was of escape. Gathering all his strengih in a desperate effort he heaved suddenly against the ape’s grasp. Then he was falling, slithering through thick- foliaged branches, dropping to the ground inside the stockade. He heard the bellow of the apes and gim-shots crashing. Opening his eyes later he saw a Chinese walking beside him as coolies carried him to the hut. He alse saw three orang-outangs chained to trees in the kampong, leaping the length of their fetters, yelling horridly. The Chinese lashed at them with a whip in his band, and they cowered whimpering. A fourth ape slumped between its knees like the she-ape in the tree eyrie. Their heads were swathed in bandages, their four paws manacled., Dineen was glad to lie on a cot on the hut porch behind mosquito netting and drink what was handed him. The Chinese spoke excellent English, but as Dineen cursed the nightmare through which he was enduring so dreadfully, there came further horror. “It is neither fever nor a dream,” said the Chinese. “Those apes have human brains. We experimented long ago in that branch of 92 comicbooks.com