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'What do we do now, sir?' Hawkins asked.

'Pray, I should think,' said the Brigadier. He called softly to Robins. 'Robins, take a step backwards.'

They waited to see if Robins would respond. Robins lifted one foot, held it poised a moment, then swung it back from the chasm.

'Good man,' said the Brigadier. 'Now bring the other leg one step backwards.'

Again they had to wait to see how Robins would react. He lifted his other leg, held it poised, then stepped back. He was now no longer right on the edge of the chasm.

'Now then, Robins,' said the Brigadier, in the same quiet voice.

'Eyes right, and about turn!'

Robins carried out the order as though he were on the parade ground.

'That's very good going,' said the Brigadier. 'Now I want you to march, shoulders back, towards me.'

Like a sleep-walker, Robins began to march very slowly towards the Brigadier. 'He's going to be all right,' whispered Sergeant Hawkins. 'You've pulled him through it, sir.'

'A bit more towards me,' said the Brigadier, and Robins slightly altered his direction to take himself directly to the Brigadier.

As Robins came up close the Brigadier said, 'Good man! Now you're safe, and you're with friends.'

Robins smiled at the Brigadier. Then some strange wild look flashed in his eyes. 'Grab him,' shouted the Brigadier, and Sergeant Hawkins lunged forward. Robins recoiled backwards in sudden panic, then turned and ran straight for the chasm. His body hurtled into the darkness. The Brigadier and Hawkins rushed to the edge and looked down. A long-drawn-out scream came up to them, a scream that never seemed to end. The scream went on, fading further and further into the distance, as Robins plummetted into the bowels of the Earth. The Brigadier and the Sergeant remained standing where they were for some time. Then the Brigadier moved away from the chasm. 'There's nothing we can do for him, Sergeant. We'd better press on.'

Sadly the two men made their way back to the waiting soldiers.

Morka's third eye stopped pulsating.

'What have you done?' asked K'to.

'Killed one of them,' said Morka. 'They have moved out of range. I can only control the weakest.'

'Or the least mutated,' said K'to.

'There are other ways to kill apes,' said Morka. 'I have released one of our fighting animals into the caves. Later I shall release all our animals to destroy the humans.'

'Okdel will stop you,' said K'to. 'In any case if it is true that so many apes now pollute our planet, our fighting animals will be of little use against them.'

Morka found this a terrible thought. 'We cannot let the apes over-run us! They are vermin!'

'I agree,' said K'to. 'But our fighting animals alone cannot now destroy them.'

Morka looked more closely at K'to. 'I think you are really a friend of mine,' he told the scientist. 'Before now, I thought you had no opinions, no feelings.'

'Because I am a man of science,' K'to said, 'does not mean that I lack feelings and passions. I have no wish to share the world with furry creatures. They are unclean. Insects sometimes live in their fur.

They disgust me.'

'Do you see some solution to our problem?' Morka asked.

'There are few of us but millions of them.'

K'to went to a metal cupboard, opened it and brought out a sealed canister. 'In our time you worked in the domed city,' he said.

'You were not a farmer, so there were things you did not know. As a scientist I had to assist our farmers. When the apes raided their crops, the substance in this canister was used. It is lethal.'

'Can we be sure that it will work on apes as they are now?'

asked Morka.

'Fortunately,' said K'to, 'we can conduct an experiment.' He turned and looked towards the prisoner cages. Major Barker was just recovering consciousness, and was rubbing his head.

'Kill him with this substance?' said Morka, not yet fully understanding. 'Killing them one at a time will not help us.'

'We shall not kill him,' said K'to. 'We shall let him free, and he will kill all the