Travelling towards the Rocky Mountains, the three are captured by a renegade group of humans. The astronauts are kept in the village jail while Galen is to be executed as a warning to the apes who constantly threaten the humans' liberty. When the gorillas appear with a large army, Virdon teaches Galen the art of guerrilla warfare and tells him to pass the information on to Seth, the human leader, thus saving Galen's life and the human cause. Armed with only bow-and-arrows, Galen's tactics prove much more effective against the heavily armed gorillas and in gratitude Seth allows the fugitives to escape from the village.