CfU-u 
 
In the Morning of Time 
 
Mawg swung the limp form across his shoulder with a grin of satisfaction." 
 
 [page 149- 
 
In the Morning of Time 
 
 By Charles G. D. Roberts Author of 
 
 "The Backwoodsman," "The Forge in the Forest," 
 "A History of Canada," "More Kindred of the 
 Wild," etc., etc. :: :: :: :: :: :: :: 
 
 With Sight Illustrations 
 
 LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. 
 PATERNOSTER <ROW 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. — The World without Man i 
 
 II. — The King of the Triple Horn . . 20 
 
 III. — The Finding of Fire ... 41 
 
 IV. — The Children of the Shining One . 70 
 
 V. — The Puller-down of Trees . . 98 
 
 VI. — The Battle of the Brands . . 125 
 
 VII. — The Rescue of A-ya . . . 152 
 
 VIII. — The Bending of the Bow . . . 178 
 
 IX. — The Destroying Splendour . . 203 
 
 X. — The Terrors of the Dark . . 224 
 
 XI. — The Feasting of the Cave Folk . 249 
 
 XII. — On the Face of the Waters . . 266 
 
 XIII.— The Fear 285 
 
 XIV. — The Lake of Long Sleep . . . 303 
 
 462661 
 

 In the Morning of Time 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 IT lay apparently afloat on the sluggish, faintly 
 discoloured tide — a placid, horse-faced, shovel- 
 nosed head, with bumpy holes for ears and immense 
 round eyes of a somewhat anxious mildness. 
 
 The anxiety in the great eyes was not without 
 reason, for their owner had just arrived in the 
 tepid and teeming waters of this estuary, and the 
 creatures which he had already seen about him 
 were both unknown and menacing. But the 
 inshore shallows were full of water-weeds of a 
 rankness and succulence far beyond anything he 
 had enjoyed in his old habitat, and he was deter- 
 mined to secure himself a place here. 
 
 From time to time, as some new monster came 
 in sight, the ungainly head would shoot up amaz- 
 ingly to a distance of five or ten, or even fifteen 
 feet, on a swaying pillar of a neck, in order to get 
 a better view of the stranger. Then it would 
 slowly sink back again to its repose on the water. 
 
 i 
 
•"'-'IN* "'THE : MOWING OF TIME 
 
 The water at this point was almost fresh, because 
 the estuary, though fully two miles wide, was filled 
 with the tide of the great river rolling slowly down 
 from the heart of the continent. The furthet shore 
 was so flat that nothing could be seen of it but an 
 endless, pale green forest of giant reeds. But the 
 nearer shore was skirted, at a distance of perhaps 
 half a mile from the water, by a rampart of abrupt, 
 bright, rust-red cliffs. The flat land between the 
 waterside and the cliffs, except for the wide strip 
 of beach, was clothed with an enormous and riotous 
 growth of calamaries, tree-ferns, cane and palm, 
 which rocked and crashed in places as if some 
 colossal wayfarers were pushing through them. 
 Here and there along the edge of the cliffs sat tall 
 beings with prodigious, saw-toothed beaks, like 
 some species of bird conceived in a nightmare. 
 
 Far out across the water one of these creatures 
 was flapping slowly in from the sea. Its wings — 
 eighteen feet across from tip to tip — were not the 
 wings of a bird, but of a bat or a hobgoblin. It 
 had dreadful, hand-like claws on its wing-elbows ; 
 and its feet were those of a lizard. 
 
 As this startling shape came flapping shoreward, 
 the head afloat upon the water eyed it with in- 
 terest, but not, as it seemed, with any great 
 apprehension. Yet it certainly looked formidable 
 enough to excite misgivings in most creatures. 
 Its flight was not the steady, even winging of a 
 bird, but spasmodic and violent. It came on at a 
 height of perhaps twenty feet above the sluggish 
 tide, and its immense, circular eyes appeared to 
 
 2 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 take no notice of the strange head that watched 
 it from the water's surface. It seemed about to 
 pass a little to one side, when suddenly, with a 
 hoarse, hooting cry, it swerved and swooped, and 
 struck at the floating head with open jaws. 
 
 Swift as was that unexpected attack, the assailant 
 struck nothing but a spot of foam where the head 
 had disappeared. Simultaneously with the light- 
 ning disappearance, there was a sudden boiling of 
 the water some eighty-odd feet away. But the 
 great bird-lizard was ♦either too furious to notice 
 this phenomenon or not sagacious enough to inter- 
 pret it. Flopping into the air again, and gnashing 
 his beaklike jaws with rage, he kept circling about 
 the spot in heavy zigzags, expecting the harmless- 
 looking head to reappear. 
 
 All at once his expectations were more than 
 realized. The head not only reappeared, but on 
 a towering, leather-coloured column of a neck it 
 shot straight into the air to a height of twenty feet. 
 The big, placid eyes were now sparkling with anger. 
 The flat, shovel jaws were gaping open. They 
 seized the swooping foe by the root of the tail, 
 and, in spite of screeches and wild flappings, plucked 
 him down backwards. At the surface of the 
 water there was a convulsive struggle, and the wide 
 wings were drawn clean under. 
 
 For several minutes the water seethed and 
 foamed, and little waves ran clattering up the 
 beach, while the owner of the harmless-looking 
 head trod his assailant down and crushed him 
 among the weeds of the bottom. Then the foam 
 
 3 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 slowly crimsoned, and the mauled, battered body 
 of the great bird-lizard came up again ; for the 
 owner of the mysterious head was a feeder on deli- 
 cate weeds and succulent greenstuff only, and 
 would eat no blood-bearing food. The body was 
 still struggling, and the vast, dark, broken wings 
 spread themselves in feeble spasms on the surface. 
 But they were not left to struggle long. 
 
 The water, in the distance, had been full of eager 
 spectators of the fight, and now it boiled as they 
 rushed in upon the disabled prey. Ravenous, 
 cavern-jawed, fishlike beasts, half-porpoise, half- 
 alligator, swarmed upon the victim, tearing at it 
 and at each other. Some bore off trailing mouth- 
 fuls of dark wing-membrane, others more substan- 
 tial booty, while the .rest fought madly in the 
 vortex of discoloured foam. 
 
 At the beginning of the fray the grim figures 
 perched along the red ramparts of the cliff had 
 shown signs of excitement, lifting their high 
 shoulders and half unfolding the stiff drapery of 
 their wings. As they saw their fellow overwhelmed 
 they launched themselves from their perch and 
 came hooting hoarsely over the rank, green tops 
 of the palms and feathery calamaries. Swooping 
 and circling they gathered over the hideous final 
 struggle, and from time to time one or another 
 would drop perpendicularly downward to stab the 
 crown or the face of one of the preoccupied fish- 
 beasts with his trenchant beak. Such of the fish- 
 beasts as were thus disabled were promptly torn 
 to pieces and devoured by their companions. 
 
 4 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 Some fifty feet away, nearer shore, the harmless- 
 looking head which had been the source and 
 inspirer of all this bloody turmoil lay watching 
 the scene with discontent in its round, wondering 
 eyes. Slowly it reared itself once more to a height 
 of eight or ten feet above the water, as if for better 
 inspection of the combat. Then, as if not relishing 
 the neighbourhood of the fish-beasts, it slowly 
 sank again and disappeared. 
 
 Immediately a heavy swirling, a disturbance that 
 stretched over a distance of nearly a hundred feet, 
 began to travel shoreward. It grew heavier and 
 heavier as the water grew shallower. Then a 
 leather-coloured mountain of a back heaved itself 
 up through the smother, and a colossal form, that 
 would make the hugest elephant a pigmy, came 
 ponderously forth upon the beach. 
 
 The body of this amazing being was thrice or 
 four times the bulk of the mightiest elephant. It 
 stood highest — a good thirteen feet — over the 
 haunches (which were supported on legs like 
 columns), and sloped abruptly to the lower and 
 lighter-built fore-shoulders. The neck was like 
 a giraffe's, but over twenty feet in length to its 
 juncture with the mild little head, which looked 
 as if Nature had set it there as a pleasantry at the 
 expense of the titanic body. The tail, enormous 
 at the base and tapering gradually to a whip-lash, 
 trailed out to a distance of nearly fifty feet. As 
 its owner came ashore, this tremendous tail was 
 gathered and curled in a semi-circle at his side — 
 perhaps lest the delicate tip, if left too distant, 
 
 5 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 might fall a prey to some insignificant but agile 
 marauder. 
 
 For some minutes the colossus (he was one of the 
 Dinosaurs, or Terrible Lizards, and known as a 
 Diplodocus) remained on all-fours, darting his 
 sinuous neck inquiringly in all directions, and 
 snatching here and there a mouthful of the rank, 
 tender herbage which grew among the trunks of 
 fern and palm. Apparently the spot was to his 
 liking. Here was a wide beach, sunlit and ample, 
 whereon to bask at leisure. There were the warm 
 and weed-choked shallows wherein to pasture, to 
 wallow at will, to hide his giant bulk from his 
 enemies if there should be found any formidable 
 enough to make hiding advisable. Swarms of 
 savage insects, to be sure, were giving him a hot 
 reception — mosquitoes of unimaginable size, and 
 enormous stinging flies which sought to deposit 
 their eggs in his smooth hide, but with his giraffe- 
 like neck he could bite himself where he would, and 
 the lithe lash of his tail could flick off tormentors 
 from any corner of his anatomy. 
 
 Meanwhile, the excitement off-shore had died 
 down. The harsh hootings of the bird-lizards had 
 ceased to rend the air as the dark wings hurtled 
 away to seek some remoter or less disturbed hunt- 
 ing-ground. Then across the silence came sud- 
 denly a terrific crashing of branches, mixed with 
 gasping cries. Startled, the diplodocus hoisted 
 himself upon his hind-quarters, till he sat up like 
 a kangaroo, supported and steadied by the base of 
 his huge tail. In this position his head, forty feet 
 
 6 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 above the earth, overlooked the tops of all but the 
 tallest trees. And what he saw brought the look 
 of anxiety once more into his round, saucer-eyes. 
 
 Hurling itself with desperate, plunging leaps 
 through the rank growths, and snapping the trunks 
 of the brittle tree-ferns in its path as if they had 
 been cauliflowers, came a creature not unlike him- 
 self, but of less than half the size, and with neck 
 and tail of only moderate length. This creature 
 was fleeing in frantic terror from another and much 
 smaller being, which came leaping after it like a 
 giant kangaroo. Both were plainly dinosaurs, 
 with the lizard tail and hind-legs ; but the lesser 
 of the two, with its square, powerful head and 
 tiger-fanged jaws, and the tremendous, rending 
 claws on its short forearms, was plainly of a different 
 species from the great herb-eaters of the dino- 
 saurian family. It was one of the smaller members 
 of that terrible family of carnivorous dinosaurians 
 which ruled the ancient cycad forests as the black- 
 maned lion rules the Rhodesian jungles to-day. 
 The massive iguanodon which fled before it so 
 madly, though of fully thrice its bulk, had reason 
 to fear it as the fat cow fears a wolf. 
 
 A moment more, and the dreadful chase, with 
 a noise of raucous groans and pantings, burst 
 forth into the open, not fifty feet from where the 
 colossus stood watching. Almost at the watcher's 
 feet the fugitive was overtaken. With a horrid 
 leap and a hoot of triumph, the pursuer sprang 
 upon its neck and bore it to the ground, where it 
 lay bellowing hoarsely and striking out blunder- 
 
 7 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 ingly with the massive, horn-tipped spur which 
 armed its clumsy wrist. The victor tore madly at 
 its throat with tooth and claw, and presently its 
 bellowing subsided to a hideous, sobbing gurgle. 
 
 The diplodocus, meanwhile, had been looking 
 down upon the scene with half-bewildered appre- 
 hension. These creatures were insignificant in size, 
 to be sure, as compared with his own colossal 
 stature, but the smaller one had a swift ferocity 
 which struck terror to his dull heart. 
 
 Suddenly a red wrath mounted to his small and 
 sluggish brain. His tail, as we have seen, was 
 curled in a half-circle at his side. Now he bent 
 his body with it. For an instant his whole bulk 
 quivered with the extraordinary tension. Then, 
 like a bow released, the bent body sprang back. 
 The tail (and it weighed at least a ton) struck the 
 victor and the victim together with an annihilating 
 shock, and swept them clean around beneath the 
 visitor's feet. 
 
 Down he came upon them at once, with the 
 crushing effect of a hundred steam pile-drivers ; 
 and for the next few minutes his panicky rage 
 expended itself in treading the two bodies into a 
 shapeless mass. Then he slowly backed off down 
 into the water where the weedy growths were 
 thickest, till once more his whole form was con- 
 cealed except the insignificant head. This he 
 reared among the swaying tufts of the " mares' 
 tails," and waited to see what strange thing would 
 happen next. 
 
 He had not long to wait. That hideous, mangled 
 8 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 heap there, sweating blood in the noon sun, seemed 
 to have some way of making its presence known. 
 Crashing sounds arose in different parts of the 
 forest, and presently some half-dozen of the leap- 
 ing, kangaroo-like flesh-eaters appeared. 
 
 They were of varying sizes, from ten or twelve 
 feet in length to eighteen or twenty, and they eyed 
 each other with jealous hostility. But one glance 
 at the weltering heap showed them that here was 
 feasting abundant for them all. With a chorus of 
 hoarse cries they came hopping forward and fell 
 upon it. 
 
 Presently two vast shadows came overhead, 
 hovering a moment, and a pair of the great bird- 
 lizards dropped upon the middle of the heap. 
 Hooting savagely, with wings half uplifted, they 
 struck about them with their terrible beaks till 
 they had secured room for themselves at the 
 banquet. Other unbidden guests came leaping 
 from among the thickets ; and in a short time there 
 was nothing left of the carcases except two naked 
 skeletons, dragged apart and half dismembered by 
 mighty teeth. In the final melee one of the smaller 
 revellers was himself pounced upon and devoured. 
 
 Then, as if by consent of a mutual distrust, the 
 throng drew quickly apart, each eyeing his neigh- 
 bour warily, and scattered into the woods. Only 
 the two grim bird-lizards remained, seeming to 
 have a sort of understanding or partnership, or 
 possibly being a mated pair. They pried into the 
 cartilages and between the joints of the skeletons 
 with the iron wedges of their beaks, till there was 
 
 9 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 not another tit-bit to be enjoyed. Then, hooting 
 once more with satisfaction, they spread their 
 batlike vanes and flapped darkly off again to their 
 red watch-tower on the cliff. 
 
 When all was once more quiet the giant visitor 
 fell to pasturing among the crisp and tender water- 
 weeds. It took a long time to fill his cavernous 
 paunch by way of that slender neck of his, and when 
 he was satisfied he went composedly to sleep, his 
 body perfectly concealed under the water, his head 
 resting on a little islet of matted reeds in a thicket 
 of " mares' tails." When he woke up again the 
 sun was half-way down to the west, and the beach 
 glowed hotly in the afternoon light. Everything 
 was drenched in heavy stillness. The visitor made 
 up his drowsy mind that he must leave his hiding- 
 place and go and bask in that delicious warmth. 
 
 He was just bestirring himself to carry out his 
 purpose, when once more a swaying in the rank 
 foliage of the cycads caught his vigilant eye. Dis- 
 creetly he drew back into hiding, the place being, 
 as he had found it, so full of violent surprises. 
 
 Suddenly there emerged upon the beach a 
 monster even more extraordinary in appearance 
 than himself. It was about thirty-five feet in 
 length, and its ponderous bulk was supported on 
 legs so short and bowed that it crawled with its 
 belly almost dragging the ground. Its small head, 
 which it carried close to the earth, was lizard-like, 
 shallow-skulled, feeble-looking, and its jaws cleft 
 back past the stupid eyes. In fact, it was an 
 inoffensive-looking head for such an imposing 
 
 10 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 body. At the base of the head began a system of 
 defensive armour that looked as if it might be proof 
 against artillery. Up over the shoulders, over the 
 mighty arch of the back, and down over the 
 haunches as far as the middle of the ponderous 
 tail, ran a series of immense flat plates of horn, with 
 pointed tips and sharpened edges. The largest of 
 these plates, those that covered the centre of the 
 back, were each three feet in height, and almost of 
 an equal breadth. Where the diminished plates 
 came to an end at the middle of the tail, their place 
 was taken by eight immense, needle-pointed spines, 
 set in pairs, of which the chief pair had a length of 
 over two feet. The monster's hide was set thick 
 with scales and knobs of horn, brilliantly coloured 
 in black, yellow, and green, that his grotesque 
 bulk might be less noticeable to his foes among the 
 sharp shadows and patchy lights of the fern jungles 
 where he fed. 
 
 The sluggish giant moved nervously, glancing 
 backwards as he came, and seemed intent upon 
 reaching the water. In a few moments his anxiety 
 was explained. Leaping in splendid bounds along 
 his broad trail came two of those same ferocious 
 flesh-eaters whom the great watcher among the 
 reeds so disliked. They ranged up one on each 
 side of the Stegosaur, who had halted at their 
 approach, stiffened himself, and drawn his head so 
 far back into the loose skin of his neck that only 
 the sharp, chopping beak projected from under the 
 first armour-plate. One of the pair threatened him 
 from the front, as if to engross his attention, while 
 
 n 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the other pounced upon one of his massive, bowed 
 hind-legs, as if seeking to drag it from beneath 
 him and roll him over on his side. 
 
 But at this instant there was a clattering of the 
 plated hide, and that armed tail lashed out with 
 lightning swiftness, like a porcupine's. There was 
 a tearing screech from the rash flesh-eater, and he 
 was plucked back sidewise, all four feet in air, 
 deeply impaled on three of those gigantic spines. 
 While he clawed and writhed, struggling to twist 
 himself free, his companion sprang hardily to the 
 rescue. She hurled herself with all her weight and 
 strength full upon the stegosaur's now unprotected 
 flank. So tremendous was the impact that, with 
 a frightened grunt, he was rolled clean over on his 
 side. But at the same time his sturdy fore-arms 
 clutched his assailant, and so crushed, mauled and 
 tore her that she was glad to wrench herself away. 
 
 Coughing and gasping, she bounded backwards 
 out of reach ; and then she saw that her mate, 
 having wriggled off the spines, was dragging himself 
 up the beach toward the forest, leaving a trail of 
 blood behind him. She followed sullenly, having 
 had more than enough of the venture. The 
 triumphant stegosaur rolled himself heavily back 
 upon his feet, grunted angrily, clattered his 
 armoured plates, jerked his terrible tail from side 
 to side as if to see that it was still in working order, 
 and went lumbering off to another portion of the 
 wood, having apparently forgotten his purpose of 
 taking to the water. As he went, one of the grim 
 bird-lizards from the cliff swooped down and 
 
 12 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 hovered, hooting, over his path, apparently dis- 
 appointed at his triumph. 
 
 The watcher in the reeds, on the other hand, 
 was encouraged by the result of the combat. He 
 began to feel a certain dangerous contempt for 
 those leaping flesh-eaters, in spite of their swiftness 
 and ferocity. He himself, though but an eater of 
 weeds, had trodden one into nothingness, and now 
 he had seen two together overthrown and put to 
 flight. With growing confidence he came forth 
 from his hiding, stalked up the beach, coiled his 
 interminable tail beside him, and lay down to 
 bask his dripping sides in the full blaze of the 
 sun. 
 
 The colossus was at last beginning to feel at 
 home in his new surroundings. In spite of the 
 fact that this bit of open beach, overlooked by the 
 deep green belt of jungle and the rampart of red 
 cliffs, appeared to be a sort of arena for titanic 
 combats, he began to have confidence in his own 
 astounding bulk as a defence against all foes. 
 What matter his slim neck, small head and feeble 
 teeth, when that awful engine of his tail could 
 sweep his enemies off their feet, and he could crush 
 them by falling upon them like a mountain ! A 
 pair of the great bird-lizards flapped over him, 
 hooting malignantly and staring down upon him 
 with their immense, cold eyes, but he hardly took 
 the trouble to look up at them, 
 
 Warmed and well fed, his eyes half-sheathed in 
 their membraneous lids, he gazed out vacantly 
 across the waving herbage of the shallows, across 
 
 13 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the slow, pale tides whose surface boiled from time 
 to time above the rush of some unseen giant of a 
 shark or ichthyosaur. 
 
 In the heavy heat of the afternoon the young 
 world had become very still. The bird-lizards, all 
 folded in their wings, sat stiff and motionless along 
 the ramparts of red cliff. The only sounds were 
 the hiss of those seething rushes far out on the 
 tide, the sudden droning hum of some great insect 
 darting overhead, or the occasional soft clatter of 
 the long, crisp cycad leaves as a faint puff of hot 
 air lifted them. 
 
 At the back of the beach, where the tree-ferns 
 and the calamaries grew rankest, the foliage parted 
 noiselessly at a height of perhaps twenty feet 
 from the ground, and a dreadful head looked forth. 
 Its jaws were both long and massive, and armed 
 with immense, curved teeth like scimitars. Its 
 glaring eyes were overhung by eaves of bony plate, 
 and from the front of its broad snout rose a single 
 horn, long and sharp. For some minutes this 
 hideous apparition eyed the unconscious colossus 
 by the waterside. Then it came forth from the 
 foliage and crept noiselessly down the beach. 
 
 Except for its horned snout and armoured eyes, 
 this monster was not unlike in general type to 
 those other predatory dinosaurs which had already 
 appeared upon the scene. But it was far larger, 
 approaching thirty-five feet in length, and more 
 powerfully built in proportion to its size ; and the 
 armoury of its jaws was more appalling. With a 
 stealthy but clumsy-looking waddle, which was 
 
 14 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 nevertheless soundless as a shadow, and his huge 
 tail curled upwards that it might not drag and 
 rattle the stones, he crept down until he was 
 within some fifty feet or more of the drowsing 
 colossus. 
 
 Some premonition of peril, at this moment, began 
 to stir in the heavy brain of the colossus, and he 
 lifted his head apprehensively. In the same 
 instant the horned giant gathered himself, and 
 hurled himself forward. In two prodigious leaps 
 he covered the distance that separated him from 
 his intended prey. The coiled tail of the colossus 
 lashed out irresistibly, but the assailant cleared it 
 in his spring, fell upon the victim's shoulders, and 
 buried his fangs in the base of that columnar 
 neck. 
 
 The colossus, for the first time, was overwhelmed 
 with terror. He gave vent to a shrill, bleating 
 bellow — an absurdly inadequate utterance to issue 
 from this mountainous frame — writhed his neck 
 in snaky folds, and lashed out convulsively with 
 the stupendous coils of his tail. But he could not 
 loosen that deep grip, or the clutch of those iron 
 claws. 
 
 In spite of the many tons weight throttling his 
 neck, he reared himself aloft, and strove to throw 
 himself over upon his assailant. But the marauder 
 was agile, and eluded the crushing fall without 
 loosing his grip. Then, bleating frightfully, till 
 the sounds re-echoed from the red cliffs and set 
 all the drowsing bird-lizards lifting their wings, 
 he plunged down into the tide and bore his dreadful 
 
 15 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 adversary out of sight beneath a smother of ensan- 
 guined foam. 
 
 Now, the horned giant was himself a powerful 
 swimmer and quite at home in the water, but in this 
 respect he was no match for his quarry. Refusing 
 to relinquish his hold, he was borne out into deep 
 water ; and there the colossus, becoming all at 
 once agile and swift, succeeded in rolling over upon 
 him. Forced thus to loose his grip, he gave one 
 long, ripping lunge with his horn, deep into the 
 victim's flank, and then writhed himself from under. 
 The breath quite crushed out of him, he was forced 
 to rise to the surface for air. There he rested, 
 recovering his self-possession, reluctant to give up 
 the combat, but even more reluctant to expose 
 himself to another such mauling in the depths. 
 As he hesitated, about a hundred feet away he 
 saw the mild little head of the colossus, apparently 
 floating on the tide, and regarding him anxiously. 
 That decided him. With a crashing bellow of rage 
 and a sweep of his powerful tail he darted at the 
 inoffensive head. But it vanished instantly, and a 
 sudden tremendous turmoil, developing into a wake 
 that lengthened out with the speed of a torpedo- 
 boat, showed him the hopelessness of pursuit. 
 Turning abruptly, he swam back to the shore 
 and sulkily withdrew into the thickets to seek 
 some less unmanageable quarry. 
 
 The colossus, so deeply wounded that his trail 
 threw up great clots and bubbles of red foam, 
 swam onward several miles up the estuary. He 
 realized now that that patch of sunny beach was 
 
 16 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 just a death-trap. But in the middle of the 
 estuary, far out from either shore, far removed from 
 the unseen, lurking horrors of the fern forests, 
 spread acre upon acre of drowned marsh, over- 
 grown with tall green reeds and feathery " mares' 
 tails." Through these stretches of marsh he 
 ploughed his way, half-swimming, half-wading, 
 and felt that here he might find a safe refuge as 
 well as an unfailing pasturage. But the anguish 
 of his wounds urged him still onwards. 
 
 Beyond the reed-beds he came to a long, narrow 
 islet of wet sand, naked to the sun. This appeared 
 to him the very refuge he was craving, a spot where 
 he could lie secure and lick his hurts. He dragged 
 himself out upon it eagerly. Not until he had 
 gained the very centre of it did he notice how his 
 ponderous feet sank in it at every stride. As soon 
 as he halted he felt the treacherous sands sucking 
 him down. In terror he struggled to free himself, 
 to regain the water. But now the sands had a 
 grip upon him, and his efforts only engulfed him 
 the more swiftly. He reared upon his hind legs, 
 and immediately found himself swallowed to the 
 haunches. He fell forward again, and sank to his 
 shoulder-blades. And then, the convulsive thrash- 
 ings of his tail hurling the sands in every direction, 
 he lifted his head and bleated piteously. 
 
 The struggle had already drawn the dreadful eyes 
 of those grim, folded figures perched along the 
 cliff-tops miles away ; and now, as if in answer 
 to his cry, they came fluttering darkly over him. 
 Seeing his helplessness, they flapped down upon 
 
 17 2 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 him with hoots of exultation. Their vast beaks 
 tore at his helpless back, and stabbed at the swiftly 
 writhing convolutions of his neck. One, more heed- 
 less than his fellows, came within reach of the 
 thrashing tail, and was dashed, half stunned, to 
 earth, where the sands got him in their hold before 
 he could recover himself. With dreadful screeches, 
 he was sucked down, but his fellows paid no atten- 
 tion to his fate. And meanwhile, in a ring about 
 the islet, not daring to come nearer for terror of 
 the quicksand, crocodiles and alligators and 
 ichthyosaurs, with upturned, gaping snouts, watched 
 the struggle greedily. 
 
 As the lower part of his neck was drawn down 
 into the quicksand, the colossus lost the power to 
 move his head quickly enough to evade the attacks 
 of his horrid assailants. A moment more, and he 
 was blinded. Then he felt his head enfolded in 
 the strangling membranes of wings and borne 
 downwards. Once or twice the convulsions of his 
 neck threw his enemies off, and the bleeding, 
 sightless head re-emerged to view. 
 
 But not only his force, but his will to struggle, 
 was fast ebbing away. Presently, with a thun- 
 derous, gasping sob, the last breath left his mighty 
 lungs, and his head dropped on the sand. It was 
 trodden under in an instant ; and then, afraid of 
 being engulfed themselves, the hooting revellers 
 abandoned it, to crowd struggling upon the arched 
 hump of the back. Here they tore and gorged 
 and quarrelled till, some fifteen minutes later, their 
 last foothold sank beneath them, Then, with 
 
 18 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN 
 
 dripping beaks and talons, they all flapped back to 
 their cliffs ; and slowly the fluent sand smoothed 
 itself to shining complacency over the tomb of the 
 diplodocus, hiding and sealing away the stupendous 
 skeleton for half a million years. 
 
 19 2* 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 IT was a little later in the Morning of Time — 
 later by perhaps some two or three hundred 
 thousand years. Monstrous mammals now held 
 sway over the fresh, green round of the young 
 earth, so exuberant in her youthful vigour that 
 she could not refrain from flooding the Poles them- 
 selves with a tropical luxuriance of flower and 
 tree. The supremacy of the Giant Reptiles had 
 passed. 
 
 A few representatives of their most colossal and 
 highly-specialized forms still survived, still terrible 
 and supreme in those vast, steaming, cane-clothed 
 savannahs which most closely repeated the condi- 
 tions of an earlier age. But Nature, pleased with 
 her experiments in the more promising mammalian 
 type, had turned her back upon them after her 
 fashion, and was coldly letting them die out. Her 
 failures, however splendid, have always found 
 small mercy at her hands. 
 
 But it was little like a failure, he looked, the 
 giant who now heaved his terrible, three-horned 
 
 20 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 front from the lilied surface of the lagoon wherein 
 he had been wallowing, and came ponderously 
 ploughing his way ashore. As he emerged upon 
 dry ground, he halted — with the tip of his massive, 
 lizard-like tail still in the water — and shook a 
 shower from the hollows of his vast and strangely 
 armoured head. 
 
 His eyes, coldly furious, and set in a pair of 
 goggle-like projections of horn, peered this way 
 and that, as if suspecting the neighbourhood of a 
 foe. His gigantic snout — horned, cased in horn, 
 and hooked like the beak of a parrot — he lifted 
 high, sniffing the heavy air. Then, as if to end 
 his doubts by either drawing or daunting off the 
 unknown enemy, he opened his grotesquely awful 
 mouth and roared. The huge sound that exploded 
 from his throat was something between the bellow 
 of an alligator and the coughing roar of a tiger, 
 but of infinitely vaster volume. 
 
 The next moment, as if in deliberate reply to the 
 challenge, an immense black beast stepped from 
 behind a thicket of pea-green bamboo, and stood 
 scrutinizing him with wicked little piglike eyes. 
 
 It was the old order confronted by the new, the 
 latest, most terrible and perhaps most efficient of 
 the titanic but vanishing race of the Dinosaurs, 
 face to face with one of those monstrous mammalian 
 forms upon which Nature was just now trying her 
 experiments. 
 
 And the place of this meeting was not unfitted 
 to such a portentous encounter. The further shore 
 of the lagoon was partly a swamp of rankest 
 
 21 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 growth, partly a stretch of savannah clothed with 
 rich cane-brake and flowering grasses that towered 
 fifteen or twenty feet into the air. But the hither 
 shore was of a hard soil mixed with sand, carpeted 
 with a short, golden-green herbage, and studded 
 with clumps of bamboo, jobo, mango and mahogany, 
 with here and there a thicket of canary-flowered 
 acacia, bristling with the most formidable of thorns. 
 
 They were not altogether ill-matched, these two 
 colossal protagonists of the Saurian and the 
 Mammal. The advantage of bulk lay altogether 
 with the Dinosaur, the three-horned King of all 
 the Lizard Kind. His armament, too, whether 
 for offence or for defence, was distinctly the more 
 formidable. Fully twenty feet in length, and 
 perhaps eight feet high at the crest of the massively- 
 rounded back, he was of ponderous breadth, and 
 moved ponderously on legs like columns. 
 
 His splotched brown and yellow hide was studded 
 along the neck and shoulders with pointed knobs 
 of horn. His enormous, fleshy tail, some seven feet 
 long and nearly two feet thick at the base, tapered 
 very gradually to a thick tip, and dragged on the 
 ground behind him. But the most amazing thing 
 about this King of the Lizards was his monstrous 
 and awe-inspiring head. 
 
 Wedge-shaped from the tip of its cruel parrot- 
 beak to its spreading, five-foot-wide base, its total 
 length was well over seven feet. Its three horns, 
 one on the snout and two standing out straight 
 forward from the forehead just above the eyes, 
 were immensely thick at the base and fined down 
 
 22 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 smoothly to points of terrible keenness. The one 
 on the snout was something over a foot in length, 
 while the brow pair were nearly three feet long. 
 
 Almost from the roots of these two terrific 
 weapons protruded the huge horn goggles which 
 served as sockets for the great, cold, implacable 
 lizard-eyes. Behind the horns, outspreading like 
 a vast ruff from three to four feet wide upwards 
 and laterally, slanted a smooth, polished shield of 
 massive shell like the carapace of a giant turtle, 
 protecting the neck and shoulders from any 
 imaginable attack. 
 
 The antagonist who had come in answer to the 
 giant's challenge was less extravagant in appear- 
 ance and more compact in form. He was not 
 much over a dozen feet in length, but this length 
 owed nothing to the tail, which was a mere wriggling 
 pendant. He was, perhaps, seven feet high, very 
 sturdy in build, but not mountainous like his 
 terrible challenger. His legs and feet were some- 
 thing like those of an elephant, and he looked 
 capable of a deadly alertness in action. But, as 
 in the case of the King Dinosaur, it was his head 
 that gave him his chief distinction. Long, massive 
 and blunt-nosed, it was armed not only with six 
 horns, set in pairs, but also with a pair of deadly, 
 downward-pointing tusks — like those of a walrus, 
 but much shorter, sharper and more effective. 
 
 Of the six horns, the first pair, set on the tip of 
 the broad snout, were mere bony points, of no use 
 as weapons, and employed by their owner for 
 rooting in the turf after the fashion of a tuber- 
 
 23 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 hunting pig. The second pair, set about the middle 
 of the long face, just over the eyes, were about 
 eighteen inches in length, and redoubtable enough 
 to make other weapons seem superfluous. 
 
 The third pair, however, were equally formidable, 
 and set far back at the very base of the skull, 
 like those of an antelope. The eyes, as has been 
 already stated, were small, deep-set and vindictive. 
 The sullen black of his colouring added to the 
 portentousness of his swift appearance around the 
 clump of pea-green bamboo. 
 
 For several minutes the two monsters stood 
 eyeing each other, while the rage of an instinctive 
 hatred mounted slowly in their sluggish brains. 
 To the King Dinosaur, this stranger was a tres- 
 passer on his domain, where no other creature, 
 unless of his own kind, had ever before had the 
 presumption to confront him. The suddenness 
 of the black apparition, also, exasperated him ; 
 and he loathed at once the sickly sour smell, so 
 unlike the pungent muskiness of his own kindred, 
 which now for the first time met his sensitive nostrils. 
 
 The Dinoceras, on his part, was in a chronic 
 state of rage. He was a solitary old bull, driven 
 out, for his bad temper, from the comfortable 
 herd of his fellows, and burning to find vent for 
 his bottled spleen. The herd, in one of its migra- 
 tions, had just arrived in the neighbourhood of 
 the great lagoons, and he, in his furious restlessness, 
 was unconsciously playing the part of vanguard 
 to it. 
 
 He had never, of course, conceived of so terrible 
 24 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 an adversary as this splotched brown and yellow 
 monster before him. But he was in no mood to 
 calculate odds. For all his blind rage, however, 
 he was a crafty fighter, always. Seeing that the 
 challenger made no move, he gave voice to a huge, 
 squealing grunt, like the noise of a herd of raging 
 pigs. Then he dug his armed snout into the turf 
 and hurled a shower of sod into the air. 
 
 In the eyes of the King Dinosaur this was appa- 
 rently an intolerable insult. With a roar he came 
 lumbering forward, at a slow, rolling run which 
 seemed to jar the earth. Grunting again, and 
 moving at thrice his speed, the black beast rushed 
 to meet him, head down, like a charging bison. 
 
 They met under the spreading branches of an 
 immense hoya-tree. But they did not meet fairly, 
 head to head, as the Dinosaur intended. Had they 
 done so the battle would have been decided then 
 and there, for the black beast's horns and unpro- 
 tected front were no match for the impenetrable 
 armour and levelled lances of the King's colossal 
 head. But they did not meet fairly. The black 
 stranger was much too crafty for that. At the 
 last moment he swerved nimbly aside, wheeled 
 with an agility that was marvellous for a creature 
 of his bulk, and thrust at the shoulders of the 
 colossus with a fierce, rooting movement like the 
 stroke of the wild boar. 
 
 But he struck the rim of that impenetrable 
 defence, the spreading ruff of horn. And he 
 might as well have struck a mountain-side. That 
 enormous bulk, firm-based on the wide-set columns 
 
 25 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 which formed its legs, merely staggered an instant, 
 coughed from the jarring of the blow, and swung 
 about to present his terrific horns against another 
 such attack. The black stranger, meanwhile, as 
 if disappointed at the meagre result of his tactics, 
 had drawn back out of reach. He stood rooting 
 the turf and squealing defiance, in the hope of 
 luring the giant into a second charge. 
 
 The stupendous duel had two interested spec- 
 tators. On the top of the next tree sat an extra- 
 ordinary-looking bird, about the size of a pheasant, 
 coloured blue and rose like a macaw. Its tail was 
 like a lizard's, long and fully-vertebrated, with a 
 pair of flat feathers standing out opposite each 
 other at right angles from each joint, for all the 
 world like an immense acacia- frond done in red. 
 At the tips of its wing-elbows it carried clutching, 
 handlike claws, resembling those of the flying 
 reptiles ; and its straight, strong beak was armed 
 with pointed teeth. It kept opening and shutting 
 its beak excitedly and uttering sharp cries, as if 
 calling everyone to come and see the fight. 
 
 The other spectator was not excited at all. He 
 was a large, apelike man — one would have said, 
 rather, a manlike ape, had it not been for the 
 look in his eyes. 
 
 This enigmatic figure sat on a branch immediately 
 over the combatants, and held on with one power- 
 ful, hairy hand to the branch just above him. 
 He was covered with thick, brown hair, like fur, 
 from head to foot, but that on his head was true 
 hair, long and waving. His shoulders were mas- 
 
 26 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 sive, his chest of great depth, his arms so long that 
 if he had been standing erect they would have 
 hung to his knees, his legs short, massive and 
 much bowed. His hands were furred to the 
 second joint of the fingers, but they were the 
 hands of a man, not those of an ape, for the huge 
 thumb was opposed to the fingers instead of being 
 set parallel with them like another finger. His 
 head was low in the arch of the skull, low and 
 narrow in the forehead, with a small facial angle 
 and hardly any bridge to the broad, flat, wide- 
 nostrilled nose ; and the jaws were heavy and 
 thrust forward brutishly. But the eyes, under 
 the roof of the heavy, bony brows, held an ex- 
 pression profoundly unlike the cold, mechanical 
 stare of the giant Dinosaur or the twinkling, 
 vindictive glare of the black stranger. They gazed 
 down at the battle with a sort of superiority, con- 
 siderate, a little scornful, in spite of the obvious 
 fact that either of the two, as far as mere physical 
 bulk and prowess were concerned, could have 
 obliterated him by simply setting foot upon him. 
 In his free hand he grasped a branch of acacia set 
 with immense thorns, the needle-like points of 
 which he touched contemplatively from time to 
 time, as if pondering what use he could put them 
 to. He had no marked prejudice, for the moment, 
 in favour of either side in the battle below him. 
 Both monsters were his foes, and the ideal result, 
 in his eyes, would have been for the two to destroy 
 each other. But if he had any preference, it was 
 for the black mammalian beast, the lizard monster 
 
 27 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 appearing to him the more alien, the more incom- 
 prehensible and the more impregnable to any 
 strategy that he might devise. 
 
 For perhaps a couple of minutes, now, the King 
 kept his place, wheeling ponderously to face his 
 agile opponent, who circled about him at a distance 
 of ten to twelve yards, seeking an opportunity to 
 get in a rush upon his open flank. This wheeling 
 and circling made the cool watcher in the tree 
 impatient. Wrenching off a heavy branch, he 
 hurled it down with all his force upon the King's 
 face. To the King this seemed but another insult 
 from his black antagonist, and his rage exploded 
 once more. With a roar he wallowed forward, 
 thinking to pin the elusive foe to earth and tread 
 the life out of him. 
 
 This gave the black beast his opportunity. 
 Doubling nimbly like a wild boar, he dashed in 
 and caught his colossal opponent fairly on the 
 side, midway between the shoulder and the 
 haunch. The impact shocked the breath from the 
 monster's lungs, with a huge, explosive cough, and 
 brought him to a bewildered standstill, though it 
 could not throw him from his feet. But the 
 armoured hide proved too tough for the black 
 beast's horns to penetrate. Perceiving this on the 
 instant, the latter reared, and brought down the 
 two awful daggers of his tusks upon the monster's 
 ribs. They penetrated, but they failed to rip as 
 far and as conclusively as their owner intended. 
 And while he struggled to free himself for another 
 attack, the monster recovered from his daze. 
 
 28 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 Now the stranger had taken count only of those 
 weapons which the King Dinosaur bore on his 
 terrible front ; and these for the moment were 
 out of reach. But he had forgotten the massive 
 and tremendous tail. Suddenly it lashed out, 
 nearly half a ton in weight, and with the force of 
 a pile-driver. It struck the black beast on the 
 legs, and swept them clean from under him. 
 
 Before he could pick himself up the Dinosaur 
 had swung about and buried all three horns, to 
 the sockets, in his throat and chest. His life went 
 out in one ear-splitting squeal of rage and anguish. 
 The red blood streaming from horns and ruff, the 
 monster wrenched himself free, and then moved 
 irresistibly over his victim, like a rolling mountain. 
 
 When satisfied that his triumph was complete, 
 the King drew back a pace or two, and examined 
 the mangled heap with his cold, unchanging stare. 
 Then he sniffed at it contemptuously, and prodded 
 it with his nose-horn, and tore it with his extra- 
 vagant parrot-beak. But, being a feeder on 
 herbage only, he had not thought of tasting the 
 red flesh. The smell of it was abominable to 
 him ; and presently he moved closer under the 
 trees to wipe his beak, as a bird might, on a clump 
 of coarse grasses. 
 
 As he did so, the lowering of his head threw his 
 horny ruff far forward, exposing the folds of naked 
 hide on the back of his neck. The silent man- 
 creature on the branch above was quick to note 
 the opportunity. He was displeased at the 
 monster's triumph. He was also interested to see 
 
 29 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 if he had any power to hurt so colossal and well 
 protected a foe. Swinging down by his legs and 
 one hand, he thrust the thorned branch of acacia 
 deep in under the ruff. The monster, jerking his 
 head up sharply at this unexpected assault, drove 
 the long thorns well home. 
 
 In an instant he was beside himself with rage 
 and pain. Roaring till the blue-and-crimson bird 
 on the tree-top flew off in a panic, he shook his 
 head desperately, and then almost tried to stand 
 upon it. He started to roll over on his back, 
 hoping thus to dislodge the galling thing beneath 
 the carapace, but thought better of it at the first 
 added pressure. His contortions were so vehement 
 that the man discreetly drew himself up to a higher 
 branch, a slow grin widening his heavy mouth, 
 as he marked his power to inflict injury on even 
 such an adversary as the King Dinosaur. The 
 experiment had been successful beyond his utmost 
 anticipations. Like Nature herself, he was con- 
 tinually experimenting, but by no means always 
 with satisfactory results. 
 
 Suddenly the monster made off, with head held 
 as low as possible, for the edge of the lagoon. 
 Ploughing his way in with a huge splashing, he 
 disappeared beneath the water. A minute later 
 he returned to the surface and swam rapidly 
 towards the jungle on the opposite shore, probably 
 intending to find some projecting stump of a dead 
 limb on which he could scratch the torment from 
 under his ruff. At the edge of the. jungle he was 
 joined by another monster, like himself, but smaller 
 
 30 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 — probably one of his mates — and together they 
 disappeared, with heavy crashings, in the rank 
 tangle of the swamp-growths. 
 
 The man-creature descended from his refuge, 
 carrying in one hand a heavy fragment of branch, 
 which he held awkwardly, as if not over-familiar 
 with the idea of an artificial weapon. He seemed 
 to be groping his way towards some use of it, 
 either as a club or as a stabbing instrument. 
 During the fight, while he was experimenting with 
 the thorn branch, he had evidently had this weapon 
 lodged in some safe crotch. And now he kept 
 handling it with a curious interest. 
 
 Standing erect, he might easily have been mis- 
 taken for a slightly built and shapelier variety of 
 gorilla but for the true man-hands and the steady, 
 contemplative, foreseeing look in the eyes. He 
 came and examined the mangled bulk of the 
 Dinoceras, scrutinized the horns and tusks 
 minutely, and strove with all his force to wrench 
 one of the latter from its socket, as if hoping to 
 make some use of it. Then, fastidiously selecting 
 a shred of the victim's torn flesh, he sniffed and 
 nibbled at it, and then threw it aside. He could 
 eat and enjoy flesh-food at a pinch. But just 
 now fruit was abundant ; and fruit, with eggs 
 and honey, formed the diet he preferred. As he 
 stood pondering the lifeless mass before him, a 
 shrill call came to his ears, and, turning sharply, 
 he saw his mate, with her baby in the crook of her 
 hairy arm, standing at the foot of a tree, and 
 signalling him to come to her. As soon as she saw 
 
 3i 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 that he understood, and was coming, she swung 
 herself lightly up into the branches. He ran to 
 the tree, climbed after her, and followed her to the 
 very top, where she awaited him. The tree was 
 taller than any of its neighbours, and commanded 
 a clear view of the meadow-lands that lay a half 
 mile back from the lagoon. His mate was point- 
 ing eagerly to these meadows. He saw that they 
 were dotted and spotted with groups of great, 
 black, horned and tusked beasts like the one whose 
 destruction he had just witnessed. These were 
 the migrant herds of the Dinoceras, just arrived 
 at their new pasturage. The man eyed them with 
 discontent. He had seen a specimen of their 
 temper ; and he congratulated himself that he 
 and his mate knew how to live in trees. 
 
 The man-creature himself was a new-comer to 
 the shores of the great lagoon. The place suited 
 him admirably by reason of the abundance of 
 its fruit. Along the banks of the lagoon were 
 innumerable little groves of plantain, the rich 
 sustaining fruit of which was of all foods his 
 favourite. And he had found no trace whatever 
 of his most dangerous enemies, the gigantic and 
 implacable black lion of the caves, the red bear 
 and the sabre-tooth. 
 
 Such an irresistible giant as the King of the 
 Triple Horn he might wonder at, and hate, but 
 he thought he had little cause to fear him. It is 
 easy enough, if one is prudent, to avoid a mountain. 
 
 Having found the place good, and resolved to 
 stay, the man had built a refuge for himself and 
 
 32 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 his family in this tall watch-tower of a tree. With 
 interwoven branches he had made a rude but sub- 
 stantial platform, and carpeted it to something 
 like softness with smaller branches and twigs. A 
 similar but lighter platform overhead made him 
 a roof that was anything but waterproof, and a 
 few bushy branches served for walls. Such as 
 it was, it was at least the beginning of a home. 
 He loved it ; and in defence of the little hairy 
 brown mate and downy brown baby who shared 
 it with him he would have fought both Dinosaur 
 and Dinoceras with his naked hands. 
 
 For some days nothing more was seen of the 
 two Dinosaurs, the King being probably occupied, 
 in the depths of the jungle, with the nursing of 
 his wrath and his hurts. The herds of the Dino- 
 ceras, meanwhile, kept to their meadows, having 
 better drinking-water in a slow stream which 
 traversed the pastures than in the brackish tide of 
 the lagoon. 
 
 Then came a morning when the brown mother, 
 babe on arm, was gathering plantains not far from 
 the water-side, while the man chanced to be away 
 exploring the limits of his new domain. The woman 
 looked up suddenly ; and there, almost upon her, 
 was the giant horror of the Dinosaur, his cold, 
 expressionless eyes gaping at her immovably from 
 their goggling sockets. She turned to flee ; and 
 there was the monster's mate, not quite so huge, 
 but equally appalling. Behind her was an im- 
 penetrable wall of thorn-acacia. There was only 
 one refuge — a tree, all too small, but lofty enough 
 
 33 3 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 to take her beyond the reach of those horrifying 
 horned and immobile masks. Up the little tree 
 she went, nimbly as a monkey, and crouched 
 shivering in a crotch. The slender trunk swayed 
 beneath her weight. She clutched the brown 
 baby to her heart, and sent shriek after shriek 
 through the glades. 
 
 A mile away the man heard it. He gave one 
 deep-chested shout in answer, and then came 
 running in silence, saving his breath. 
 
 But it was a mile he had to come. The female 
 Dinosaur, the more instantly malignant of the 
 two, hurled herself upon the trunk of the tree. 
 It swayed horribly, but did not yield at once. 
 Thereupon the two began to root beneath it with 
 their horns, having often used this method to 
 obtain fruits which were above their reach. The 
 tree leaned far over. The giant straddled it as a 
 moose straddles a poplar sapling, and bore it 
 down irresistibly. Its top touched earth. 
 
 The brown mother sprang forth with a tre- 
 mendous leap, clearing the horns with a twist 
 which nearly broke her back. She thought herself 
 free. And then a gigantic tail struck her and 
 felled her senseless. A second more, and the 
 female Dinosaur's great foot crushed her and the 
 wailing babe out of existence together. 
 
 The swift end of the tragedy the man had seen 
 as he came racing down a stretch of open glade. 
 He did not need to look at the awful thing beneath 
 the monster's foot to know that all was over. 
 Beyond one hoarse groan he uttered not a sound. 
 
 34 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 But blindly — for he had never yet practised such 
 an art — he hurled his ragged club at the nearest 
 monster. It rebounded like a baby's rattle from 
 the vast horn-armoured head. But a lucky chance 
 had guided it. One of its sharp, splintered knots 
 struck fairly in the Dinosaur's eye, and smashed 
 it in the socket. She roared with agony ; and 
 the two, side by side, came lunging towards him. 
 
 The man ran back slowly. His despairing grief 
 had changed suddenly into a cold hate and a 
 resolve for vengeance. It was so easy for him 
 to outstrip these lumbering monsters who were 
 spouting their fetid, musky breath close upon 
 his heels. He stumbled carefully at every other 
 step. He let them feel that at the next stride 
 they would transfix him. He led them on, the 
 earth shaking beneath their tread, till another 
 fifty feet would have brought them out upon the 
 skirts of the meadow. But at this point, wearied 
 by such an unwonted burst of effort, the King 
 halted sulkily. He had not had an eye put out. 
 He wanted to give it up. But his mate came 
 right on, thirsting for her revenge. 
 
 The man was not content with her pursuit alone. 
 Spurting ahead, he gathered up two handfuls of 
 sand and gravel, whirled about, and drove them 
 with all his strength into the King's cold eyes. 
 It worked. Smarting and half blinded, the monster 
 forgot his weariness, and came charging along 
 furiously in the trail of his mate. 
 
 They were stupid, these Lizard Kings, with 
 more brains in their pelvic arches than in their 
 
 35 3* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 giant skulls. Because the puny man-creature 
 went stumbling almost within reach of their beaks, 
 they imagined they were going to catch him. That 
 he would go dodging around thickets which they 
 crashed over blindly, and would then return to 
 present himself again deliberately before them, 
 did not strike them as at all suspicious. Their 
 dull but relentless hate once thoroughly aroused, 
 as long as he was in sight and they could move 
 the mighty columns of their legs, they would 
 pursue him. 
 
 Through the last heavy fringe of bush and 
 leafage they pursued him, and with a great crash- 
 ing of branches came out upon the open, short- 
 grass meadow. Still the man-creature stumbled 
 on, straight out into the open, and still they 
 followed, raging silently. 
 
 The black herds of the Dinoceras stopped feed- 
 ing all at once, and raised their vicious heads and 
 stared. 
 
 There were countless cows in the herd, horned 
 like the bulls, but smaller, and without the rend- 
 ing tusks. The cows, at this season, all had young. 
 After one long, comprehending stare at the two 
 gigantic mottled shapes bearing down upon them, 
 the herd put itself in motion. The man-creature 
 they hardly noticed, he seemed so insignificant. 
 
 With eyes that took in everything, coolly and 
 sagaciously, the man observed that the motion of 
 the herd was an ordered one. The black beasts 
 were deftly sorting themselves out to meet the 
 danger. The bulls came thrusting themselves to 
 
 36 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 the front — a terrific array which might have struck 
 panic to the hearts of even the colossal Dinosaurs 
 had they not been too stupid with rage for any 
 new impression to pierce their brains. The cows, 
 meanwhile, pushing their calves into a huddled 
 mass behind them, formed themselves into a 
 second array, a reserve of less mass and strength 
 than the ranks of the bulls, but of an invincible 
 mother-fury. 
 
 The man, with a wise fearlessness, ran on straight 
 through the gathering line of bulls, the nearest of 
 whom thrust at him carelessly and then paid him 
 no more heed. Behind their ranks, hidden now 
 from the sight of his pursuers, he swerved, avoid- 
 ing the line of cows, ran sharply to the right, and 
 came back around the end of the line to see what 
 was going to happen. For all his grief, his heart 
 was thumping almost to suffocation as his titanic 
 vengeance moved to its end. 
 
 When the two raging Dinosaurs lost sight of 
 their prey they stopped short, stupidly bewildered. 
 Then they noticed the array of black beasts charg- 
 ing upon them. This, in their mad mood, afforded 
 a new object to their rage. They plunged wallow- 
 ing forward to meet the new foe. And at that 
 moment the man, appearing round the wing of 
 the black ranks, halted abruptly, and laughed. 
 
 It was a strange, disconcerting sound, that 
 laughter, and the nearest Dinoceras, disturbed by 
 it, edged away and crowded against his neighbour's 
 flank in an inexplicable apprehension. 
 
 The next moment the stupendous opposing 
 
 37 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 forces met with a shock that, to the man's over- 
 strung senses, seemed to make the very daylight 
 reel. There was no space for evasion or manoeuvre. 
 The two ponderous bulks went straight through 
 the ranks of the black bulls, ripping them with 
 beak and horn from shoulder to rump, treading 
 them down like corn, and trampling them under 
 foot as they rolled on. The bulls on either side 
 charged on their flanks, rearing, grunting, squealing 
 insanely and ripping with the massive daggers of 
 their tusks. But as this terrific assault came 
 from both sides at once, the two monsters were in 
 reality supported by it, so that they were not 
 swept off their feet. Almost without a check, 
 as it seemed, they ploughed straight on, lashing 
 with their mighty tails, and leaving a trail of 
 disabled victims behind them, and so wore their 
 way right up to the line of the cows. 
 
 But here they were stopped. The calves were 
 behind that line. 
 
 The black mothers simply heaped themselves 
 upon those impaling horns and armoured fronts, 
 bearing them down, smothering, engulfing them 
 in an avalanche of screaming and monstrous bulks. 
 The bulls, meanwhile, were rending, tearing, 
 stabbing, on flank and rear. The two Dinosaurs 
 disappeared from view. The dreadful mountain 
 of writhing, gigantic shapes heaved convulsively 
 for some minutes. f Then the great columns that 
 were the Dinosaurs' legs seemed to crumble beneath 
 the weight. The awful, battling heap sagged, fell 
 apart, and let in the glare of the sunlight upon 
 
 38 
 
THE KING OF THE TRIPLE HORN 
 
 what had been the two colossal monarchs of the 
 early world. The dreadful, unrecognizable things 
 still moved, still heaved and twisted ponderously 
 among the bodies of their slain, but it was mere 
 aimless paroxysm, the blind life struggling to 
 resist its final expulsion and dissipation. The 
 wounded Dinoceras drew away, to die or recover 
 as curious Nature might decree. The surviving cows 
 returned to assure themselves that their young had 
 come to no hurt. And the great black bulls who 
 had escaped serious injury in the struggle stood 
 about in a ring, thrusting and ripping at the un- 
 responsive mountains of flesh. As they satisfied 
 themselves, one after another, that the victory 
 was complete, and that there was nothing more to 
 battle against, they fell to devouring their prey. 
 Ordinarily feeders on herbage and roots, they were 
 like pigs and rats and men, more or less without 
 prejudice in their diet, and they seemed to think 
 that dinosaur went very well with grass. 
 
 At a distance of not more than fifty paces from 
 these destroying hosts, the man-creature stood 
 carelessly, and stared and considered. He had 
 no fear of them. He knew he could avoid them 
 with ease. So insignificant that in their excite- 
 ment they hardly noticed him, so small that in 
 bulk he was no greater than the least of their 
 calves, he nevertheless despised the gigantic beasts 
 and felt himself their lord. He had played with 
 the two monarchs of all the early world, led them 
 into his. trap, and taken such dreadful vengeance 
 upon them that his grief was almost assuaged by 
 
 39 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the fulness of it. The black herds of the Dino- 
 ceras he had used as the tools of his vengeance. 
 No doubt, if necessary, he could use them again 
 in some such fashion. 
 
 He turned his back upon them, knowing that 
 his fine ear would inform him at once if any should 
 take it into their heads to pursue him, and stalked 
 away with deliberation towards the wooded 
 ground. But he avoided his tree. He would 
 never more go near that empty home. He would 
 return to the regions beyond the head of the 
 lagoon, where he would find scattered members of 
 his kindred. He would find another mate ; and 
 in a dim, groping way he harboured a desire for 
 new offspring, for sons, in particular, who should 
 be inquiring and full of resource, like himself. 
 At the edge of the wood he turned, and gave one 
 more long, musing look at the invincible black 
 herds whom he had used. The idea of sons came 
 back upon him insistently. A faint sense of the 
 immeasurable vastness of what was to be done 
 swept over his soul. But he was not daunted. 
 He would at least do something. And he would 
 teach his children, till they should learn, perhaps, 
 by taking thought, even to overcome the ferocity 
 of the sabre-tooth and foil the malice of the great 
 red bear. 
 
 40 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 THE People of the Little Hills were in extrem- 
 ity. Trouble after trouble had come 
 upon them, blow after blow had stricken them, 
 till now there were but three score fighting-men, 
 with perhaps twice that number of women able 
 to bear children, left to the tribe. It looked as 
 if but one more stroke such as that which had just 
 befallen them must wipe them out of existence. 
 And that, had ruthless Nature suffered it, would 
 have been a damage she might have taken some 
 thousands of years to repair. For the People of 
 the Little Hills had climbed higher from the 
 pregnant ooze than any other of the man or half- 
 man tribes at that time struggling into being on 
 the youthful Earth. 
 
 First and not least formidable to the tribe had 
 been an incursion from the east of beings who 
 were plainly men, in a way, but still more plainly 
 beasts. Had the tribe of the Little Hills but 
 known it, these Ape-men were much like their 
 own ancestors except for the blackness of their 
 
 4i 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 skins beneath the coarse fur, the narrow angle of 
 their skulls and the heavy forward thrust of their 
 lower jaws. 
 
 Soon afterwards, appearing from no man could 
 say just where, came a scattered incursion of 
 mammoth cave-bears, sabre-toothed tigers and a 
 few gigantic cave-lions. These ravenous monsters 
 not only slaughtered wholesale the game on which 
 the Hillmen most depended, but strove — each for 
 himself, fortunately — to seize the caves. As they 
 raged against each other no less desperately than 
 against their human adversaries, the issue of the 
 war was never in doubt. The Hillmen stood 
 together solidly, fought with all their cunning of 
 pitfall and ambuscade, and overwhelmed the 
 mightiest by sheer weight of numbers. But again 
 the victory was dear bought. When the last of 
 the monsters, sullen and amazed, withdrew to 
 seek less difficult encounters, he left mourning and 
 lamentation in the caves. 
 
 This war had been a matter of some seasons. 
 Then had followed a summer of peace and good 
 hunting, which had given wounds time to heal. 
 But with winter had swept down another dreadful 
 invasion, again from the unfriendly east — wolves, 
 wolves of gigantic stature, and hunting in such 
 huge packs that many outlying sections of the 
 tribe were cut off and devoured before the Hillmen 
 could combine to withstand them. Fortunately, 
 the different packs had no combined action, so 
 after the first shock the sagacious warrior who 
 ruled the men of the Little Hills was able to get 
 
 42 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 his diminished followers together, along with most 
 of their stored supplies, and mass them in the 
 amphitheatre of the central caves. 
 
 So dragged by half the desperate winter. Then 
 suddenly the wolves, having exterminated or driven 
 off all the game among the Little Hills, once more 
 took the trail, though with diminished ranks, and 
 swept off ravaging to the south-westward. The 
 People of the Little Hills were free once more to 
 come out into the sun. But there was no more 
 game to hunt, neither in the forest, nor on the 
 upland slopes, nor in the reeking marshes by 
 the estuary. The tribe was driven to fumbling 
 in the pools at low tide for scallops and clams 
 and mussels, a diet which their souls despised and 
 their bodies resented. 
 
 The fact that the invasion of the wolves had 
 forced the tribe to concentrate, however, presently 
 proved to have been a painfully disguised blessing. 
 Had they remained as before, scattered all over 
 their domain for the convenience of the chase, 
 their next and hardest trial would surely have 
 annihilated them. 
 
 It was once more out of the east that it came 
 upon them, by the trail of the vanished Ape-men 
 and the ravaging wolves. About sunrise of a 
 summer's day a woman of the tribe was grubbing 
 for roots with a pointed stick by the banks of a 
 brook when she was pounced upon by a pair of 
 squat, yellow-brown, filthy men with enormous 
 shoulders, short bow-legs and flat faces with gaping, 
 upturned nostrils. Young and vigorous, she fought 
 
 43 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 like a tigress till stunned by a blow on the head, 
 which was not before both her assailants were 
 streaming with blood from the jabs of her sharp 
 digging-stick. Her cries had aroused the tribe, 
 however, and her captors, appreciating in her a 
 shapeliness and fairness beyond anything they 
 had ever seen in their own females, hastened to 
 make sure of their prize by dragging her off into 
 the woods. Three of the Hillmen, raging in 
 pursuit, were intercepted by a horde of the squat 
 strangers suddenly leaping from the thickets, 
 surrounded, pulled down after a heaving convul- 
 sion of struggle, torn to pieces and trodden into 
 the earth. 
 
 The Chief of the tribe, from his vantage at the 
 top of the slope which led up to the little amphi- 
 theatre of caves wherein he had gathered his 
 people, saw and understood. The perils of the 
 past two years had made him cool and provident. 
 One look at those foul and shaggy hordes, leaping 
 like beasts, had told him that this was to be a 
 battle to the death. Angrily beating back the 
 hotheads who would have rushed down to avenge 
 their kin and inevitably to share their fate, his 
 shouts, bellowed sonorously from his deep and 
 hairy chest, called up the whole tribe to the defence 
 of the bottle-neck pass which led into the amphi- 
 theatre. At a word, passed on breathlessly from 
 mouth to mouth, the old men and the old women, 
 with some of the bigger children, swarmed up 
 among the rocks and ledges which formed the two 
 walls of the pass, while others raced about collect- 
 
 44 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 ing stones to hand up to them. The younger 
 women and grown girls, armed, like the men, with 
 stone-headed clubs and flint-tipped spears, took 
 their places in the hinder ranks at the mouth of 
 the pass. 
 
 The Bow-legs, their yellow skin showing through 
 the clotted tufts of coarse, clay-coloured hair which 
 unevenly clothed their bodies, came plunging 
 irregularly through the brook and gathered in 
 confused masses along the foot of the slope, jab- 
 bering shrilly to each other and making insolent 
 gestures toward the silent company at the top. 
 The hair of their heads was stringy, coarse and 
 scant, and of an inky blackness, in contrast to 
 the abundant locks of the Hillmen, which were 
 for the most part of a dark brown or ruddy hue. 
 
 In other respects the contrast was still more 
 striking. The Hillmen, erect and straight, were 
 taller than their bestial-looking opponents by a 
 foot or fifteen inches. With less breadth of shoulder 
 and heaviness of trunk, they had great depth of 
 chest, great muscular development in arm and 
 leg, and a leanness of flank that gave them a look 
 of breed. Their skins, very hairy in the case of 
 the mature men, were of a reddish-tan colour, 
 paling to pink and cream in the children and 
 younger women. They had ample foreheads under 
 the wild thatch of their hair, and high, well-bridged 
 noses, and fierce, steady eyes of green, blue or 
 brown-grey. Outnumbered nearly ten to one, 
 and shrewd enough to see at a glance what ferocious 
 power lurked in those misshapen frames at the 
 
 45 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 foot of the slope, they stood staring down upon 
 them in silence, with an undaunted loathing. 
 
 For some minutes the hordes of the Bow-legs 
 clustered together, jabbering and waving their 
 crude but massive clubs excitedly. They seemed 
 to have no chief, no plan of attack, no discipline of 
 any sort. Some of them even squatted down on 
 the turf ,and scratched themselves like monkeys, 
 glaring malignantly but stupidly at the little array 
 of their opponents, and snorting through their 
 hideous upturned nostrils, which were little more 
 than wide, red pits in their faces. Then some of 
 those who were squatting on the ground began 
 to play with a dreadful red ball which had some 
 wisps of hair yet clinging to it. 
 
 A snarling roar went up from the ranks of the 
 Hillmen, and some of them would have rushed to 
 accept the ghastly challenge. But the Chief held 
 them back sternly. Then he himself, half a head 
 taller than all but one or two of his followers, with 
 magnificent chest and shoulders, and a dark, 
 lionlike mane thick-streaked with grey, strode out 
 three or four paces to the front and stood leaning 
 on his huge, porphyry-headed club while he glared 
 down contemptuously over the gesticulating horde. 
 
 The Bow-legs stilled their jabbering for a moment 
 to stare with interest at this imposing figure. 
 Then one of those who were seated on the ground 
 seized the ghastly ball that they were playing 
 with, whirled it by the hair and hurled it two- 
 thirds of the way up the slope. As it fell and 
 rebounded, two young women sprang from the 
 
 46 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 ranks, their thick locks streaming like a cloud 
 behind them, and dashed down the hill to meet 
 it. The foremost caught it up, clutched it to her 
 naked breast, and screamed a curse upon the 
 gaping murderers. Then the two fled back, and 
 were lost in the ranks of the Hillmen. 
 
 The sight of the two women, with their bright 
 skins, their strong, straight limbs and their 
 rich, floating hair, appeared to give the Bow-legs 
 just the spur to concerted action that they were 
 needing. They rightly judged there were more of 
 those desirable beings in the crowd behind that 
 tall, contemptuous chief. Those on the ground 
 scrambled eagerly to their feet, and with shrill, 
 bestial yells the whole horde charged up the slope. 
 
 As the leaping and hideous forms approached 
 the top the pent-up fury of the Hillmen, in spite 
 of all the Chief could do, broke loose, and with 
 a roar the foremost ranks bounded forth to meet 
 them. At the first crash of contact the enemy 
 were crushed back, the stone-headed clubs and 
 flint-tipped spears working havoc in the reeking 
 masses. But, as the Chief had foreseen it would 
 be, that forward rush was a mistake, exposing the 
 flanks ; and sheer weight of numbers presently 
 forced the Hillmen back till their front was once 
 more level with the jaws of the pass. Here, how- 
 ever, with their flanks protected, they were solid 
 as a wall of granite. 
 
 Upon this narrow wall the yelling wave of the 
 attack surged and recoiled, and surged again, and 
 made no impression. The clumsy weapons of 
 
 47 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the enemy were no match for the pounding swing 
 of the stone clubs, the long, lightning thrust of 
 the flint-headed spears. But the Bow-legs, their 
 little pig-eyes red with lust for their prey, fought 
 with a sort of frenzy, diving in headlong and clutch- 
 ing at the legs of the Hillmen with their apelike, 
 sinewy arms, dragging them down and tearing 
 them with crooked, clawlike fingers. 
 
 Many of the Hillmen, and some women, died 
 in this way. But no woman was dragged away 
 alive ; for if this fate threatened her, and rescue 
 was impossible, she was instantly speared from 
 her own ranks to save her from a fate which would 
 have dishonoured the tribe. And the women 
 indeed, in this battle were no less formidable than 
 the men themselves, for they fought with the swift 
 venom of the she-wolf, the cunning fury of the 
 mad heifer, intuitive and implacable. Their 
 instincts of motherhood, the safeguard of the 
 future, made them loathe with a blind, unspeak- 
 able hate these filthy and bestial males who 
 threatened to father their children. 
 
 The centre of the Hillmen's front was securely 
 held by the great Chief, whose massive club, 
 wielded with the art acquired in many battles, kept 
 a space cleared before him across which no foe 
 could pass alive. As his followers went down on 
 either side, others from the ranks behind stepped 
 eagerly into the gaps. At the extreme left, where 
 the walls of the pass, lower and less abrupt than 
 on the right, invited an attack as fierce as that 
 upon the centre, the defence was led by a warrior 
 
 4 8 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 named Grom, who seemed no less redoubtable 
 than the Chief himself. He, too, like the Chief, 
 fought in grim silence, saving his breath, except 
 for an occasional incisive cry of command or 
 encouragement to those about him. And his 
 club also, like that of the Chief, kept a zone of 
 death before him. 
 
 But his club was much smaller than that shatter- 
 ing mace of porphyry wielded by the Chief — 
 smaller and lighter, considerably longer in the 
 handle and quite of another pattern. The head 
 was of flint, a sort of ragged cone set side- 
 ways into the handle, so that one end of the head 
 was like a sledge-hammer and the other like a 
 pick. Grasping this neat weapon nearly half-way 
 up the handle, he made miraculous play with it, 
 now smashing with the hammer front, now tap- 
 ping with the pick, now suddenly swinging it out 
 to the full length of the long handle to reach and 
 drop an elusive adversary. The weapon was both 
 club and spear to him ; and to guard against any 
 possibility of its being wrenched from him in the 
 melee, he held it secured to his wrist by a thong 
 of hide. 
 
 This warrior, though his renown in the tribe, 
 both as hunter and fighter, was second only to 
 that of the great Chief himself, had never aroused 
 the Chief's jealousy. This for several reasons. 
 He had always loyally supported the Chief's 
 authority, instead of scheming to undermine it, 
 and his influence had always made for tribal dis- 
 cipline. He was not so tall as the Chief, by 
 
 49 4 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 perhaps half a handbreadth, and for all his huge 
 muscles of arm and breast he was altogether of a 
 slimmer build ; wherefore the Chief, while vastly 
 respecting his counsels, was not suspicious of his 
 rivalry. Moreover, up to the time of the invasion 
 of the wolves, he had always dwelt in a remote 
 cave, quite on the outskirts of the tribe, con- 
 stituting himself a frontier defence, as it were, 
 and avoiding all the tribal gossip. Slightly younger 
 than the Chief, and with few grey streaks as yet 
 in the dense, ruddy-brown masses of his hair and 
 beard, his face nevertheless looked older, by reason 
 of its deeper lines and the considering gravity of 
 the eyes. 
 
 In his remote cave Grom had had the com- 
 panionship of his family, consisting of his old 
 mother, his two wives, and his four children — three 
 sons and a daughter. It was while he was absent 
 on a hunting expedition that the wolves had come. 
 They had surprised the little, isolated family, and 
 after a terrible struggle wiped it out. 
 
 Conspicuous among the fighters at Grom's back 
 was a young girl, tall, with a fair skin and masses 
 of long, very dark hair. Armed with a spear, she 
 fought savagely, but at the same time managed 
 to keep an eye on all the warrior's movements. 
 
 Suddenly from the rocks above came a shrill 
 cry. To Grom's ears it seemed like the voice of 
 one of his dead children. At the end of a long 
 stroke, when his arms and the club were out- 
 stretched full length, he glanced upwards in spite 
 of himself. Instantly the club was clutched by 
 
 50 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 furious hands. He was pulled forward. At the 
 same time one of the enemy, ducking under his 
 arms, plunged between his legs. And he came down 
 upon his face. 
 
 With a piercing scream, the tall girl bounded 
 forth and stood across him ; and her spear stabbed 
 his nearest assailant straight through the flat and 
 grinning face. So lightning swift was the rage of 
 her attack that for one vital moment it held the 
 whole horde at bay. Then the Hillmen swarmed 
 forward irresistibly, battered down the foremost 
 of the foe, and dragged the fallen warrior back 
 behind the lines to recover. In half a minute he 
 was once more at the front, fighting with renewed 
 fury, his head and back and shoulders covered 
 with blood. And close behind him stood the girl, 
 breathless, clutching at her heart and staring at 
 him with wide eyes, unaware that the blood which 
 covered him was not his but her own. 
 
 Although to the invaders, their every charge 
 broken and hurled back with terrific slaughter, 
 it must have seemed that their tall opponents had 
 all the best of the battle, to the wise old men and 
 women up among the rocks it was clear that 
 their warriors were being rapidly worn away as a 
 bank is eaten by the waves. But now from a high 
 ledge on the right, where the wall of the pass was 
 a sheer perpendicular, came two shrill whistles. 
 It was a signal which the Chief, now bleeding from 
 many wounds, had been waiting for. He roared a 
 command, and his ranks, after one surge forward 
 to recover their wounded, gave back sullenly till 
 
 5i 4* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 their front was more than half-way down the 
 pass. With yells of triumph the Bow-legs fol- 
 lowed, trampling their dead and wounded, till 
 the bottle-neck was packed so tightly that there 
 was no room to move. 
 
 From the left wall a ceaseless shower of stones 
 came down upon their heads ; but from the right, 
 for a few moments, only a rain of pebbles and 
 dust, which blinded them and choked their hideous, 
 upturning nostrils. 
 
 Above that dust a band of greybeards heaved 
 upon a lever. They grunted and strained, with 
 eyes staring and the sweat jumping forth on 
 their foreheads. Then something gave. A great 
 slice of the rock- face began to slip. Some of the 
 toilers scrambled back to safety, their long, white 
 hair flying behind them. But others, unable to 
 recover themselves in time, fell sprawling forward. 
 Then with a thunderous growl a huge slab of rock 
 and earth and debris crashed down upon the 
 packed hordes in the neck of the pass. A long 
 shout of triumph went up from the Hillmen. 
 The outer ranks of the invaders stood for a second 
 or two petrified with horror. Then they turned 
 and fled, screaming, down the slope. On their 
 heels the Hillmen pursued, slaughtering, till the 
 brook-bed was choked with the dead. Of that 
 filthy horde hardly a score escaped, and these 
 fled back, gibbering, to meet the migrant hosts of 
 their kin who were following on their trail. The 
 story they told was of a tribe of tall, fair-skinned 
 demons, invincible in war, who tore up mountains 
 
 52 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 to hurl them on their adversaries. And there- 
 after, for a time, the Bow-legged hosts changed 
 the path of their migration, sweeping far to the 
 southward to avoid the land of the Little Hills. 
 
 II 
 
 A white, high-sailing moon streamed down into 
 the amphitheatre, where the scarred remnant of 
 the tribe of the Little Hills, squatting before their 
 cave-mouths, took counsel. Their dead had all 
 been reverently buried, under heaps of stones, on 
 the bare and wind-swept shoulder of the downs. 
 Outside the pass the giant jackals, cave-hyenas 
 and other scavengers of the night, howled and 
 scuffled over the carcases of the slain invaders. 
 
 Endless and tumultuous was the talk, the white- 
 haired, bent old men and the women who had 
 borne children being listened to as attentively as 
 the warriors. The Chief, sitting on a rock which 
 raised him above the rest, spoke only a word now 
 and then, but gave ear to all, glancing from 
 speaker to speaker with narrowed eyes, weighing 
 all suggestions. On the outskirts of the circle 
 stood Grom, leaning on his club, staring at the 
 moon, apparently lost in dreams. 
 
 Suddenly the Chief uttered a sharp word, and 
 the tribe fell silent. He rose, yet stiff from his 
 wounds, and, towering masterfully over the council, 
 announced his decision. 
 
 " I have heard much foolishness," said he, " but 
 also some wisdom. And the greatest wisdom has 
 
 53 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 come from the lips of my father yonder, Alp the 
 old/' He pointed to a decrepit figure, whose 
 bowed head was hidden under a mass of white 
 hair. " My father's eyes are blind with age," 
 he continued, " but behind their darkness they 
 see many things that we cannot see. They have 
 seen that all these disasters which have lately 
 come upon us have come out of the east. They 
 see that there must be a reason. They see that 
 other terrible dangers must also be coming out of 
 the east, and that we People of the Little Hills 
 lie in their path. How many more can we with- 
 stand, and live ? Not one more. Therefore, I 
 say, we will leave this place, this home of our 
 fathers, and we will go toward the setting sun, 
 and find a new home far from our enemies till we 
 can grow strong again. I have said it." 
 
 As he sat down there was a low murmur, many 
 thinking he was right ; while others, not daring 
 to dissent quite openly, yet were angry and afraid 
 at the idea of leaving their familiar dwellings. 
 But Grom, who had turned on his club and listened 
 to the Chief with shining eyes, now stepped forward 
 into the circle and spoke. 
 
 " Bawr is our Chief," said he, in a clear, calm 
 voice ; " not only because he is our mightiest in 
 war, but because he is also our wisest in counsel. 
 When do we go ? " 
 
 The Chief thought for a moment. For the 
 murmurs of the dissidents he cared nothing, 
 having made up his mind. But he was glad of 
 Grom's support. 
 
 54 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 " Two moons hence," he answered presently. 
 " Our wounded must be healed, for we must be 
 strong on the journey. And as we go far, and know 
 not where we go, we must gather much food to 
 carry with us. When the moon is twice again full, 
 we leave these caves and the Land of the Little 
 Hills." 
 
 " Then," said Grom, " if Bawr will allow me, I 
 will go and find a place for us, and come again 
 quickly and lead the tribe thither by the shortest 
 way." 
 
 "It is good ! " said Bawr, quick to see what 
 dangerous wanderings might be spared to the tribe 
 by this plan. " When will you go ? " 
 
 " In to-morrow's morning-red," answered Grom. 
 
 At Grom's words, the young girl, A-ya, who 
 had been watching the warrior where he stood 
 aloof, sprang to her feet in sharp agitation and 
 clutched her dark hair to her bosom in two great 
 handfuls. At this a huge youth, who had been 
 squatting as close as possible to the girl, and 
 eyeing her averted face greedily, jumped up with 
 a jealous scowl. 
 
 " Grom is a traitor ! " he cried. " He deserts 
 us in our need. Let him not go, Chief ! " 
 
 A growl of protest went up from his hearers. 
 The girl faced round upon him with blazing eyes. 
 Grom gave him an indifferent glance, and turned 
 away, half smiling. The Chief struck the rock 
 with his club, and said coldly : 
 
 " Mawg is young, and his words are foolish. 
 Grom is a true man. He shall do as he will." 
 
 55 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 The youth's heavy features worked angrily for 
 a moment as he sought words for a further attack. 
 Then his face smoothed into a grin as he remem- 
 bered that from so perilous a venture it was most 
 unlikely his rival would ever return. He gave a 
 crafty side-glance at the girl, and sat down again, 
 while she turned her back upon him. At a sign 
 from the Chief the council broke up, and all slipped 
 off, chattering, into their caves. 
 
 As the first pink light crept up the sky, Grom set 
 forth on his mysterious venture. It was just such a 
 venture as his sanguine and inquiring spirit, avid of 
 the unknown, had always dreamed of. But never 
 before had he had such an object before him as 
 seemed to justify the long risk. There was all a 
 boy's eagerness in his deep eyes, under their shaggy 
 brows, as he slipped noiselessly out of the bottle- 
 neck, picked his way lightly over the well-gnawed 
 bones of the slain invaders, turned his back on the 
 sunrise, and took his course up the edge of the 
 stream. The weapons he carried were his war- 
 club, two light, flint-headed hunting-spears and a 
 flint knife hung from his wolfskin girdle. 
 
 All that day, till mid-afternoon, he journeyed 
 swiftly, straight ahead, taking no precaution save 
 to keep always a vigilant watch and to avoid dark 
 coverts whence tiger or leopard might spring upon 
 him. He was in a region which he had often 
 hunted over, and where he felt at home. He 
 
 56 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 travelled very swiftly, at a long, noiseless lope ; 
 and when he wished to rest he climbed into a 
 tree for security. 
 
 Several times during the day he had had a sensa- 
 tion of being followed ; and, turning quickly, he 
 had run back, in the hope of detecting his pursuer. 
 But when he found no one, he concluded that it 
 was merely one of the ghosts the tribe so feared, 
 but whom he himself rather held in contempt as 
 futile. 
 
 Long before noon he had forsaken the brook, 
 because its course had ceased to lead him west- 
 ward. In the afternoon he reached a river which 
 marked the limit of his former explorations. It 
 was a wide, swift water, but too shallow and tur- 
 bulent for swimming, and he forded it with some 
 difficulty. Once across, he went with more caution, 
 oppressed with a sense of strangeness, although 
 the landscape as yet was in no way greatly 
 changed. > 
 
 As the sun got low, Grom cast about for a safe 
 tree in whose top to pass the perilous hours of 
 dark. As he stared around him a cry of fear 
 came from the bunch of woods which he had just 
 quitted. The voice was a woman's. He ran back. 
 The next: second the trees parted, and a girl came 
 rushing towards him, her dark hair streaming 
 behind her. Close after her came three huge cave- 
 wolves. 
 
 Grom shouted, and hurled a spear. It struck 
 one of the wolves full in the chest, splitting the 
 heart. At this the other two halted irresolutely. 
 
 57 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 But as Grom's tall figure came bounding down 
 upon them, their indecision vanished. They 
 wheeled about, and ran off into the thickets. The 
 girl came forward timorously, and knelt at Grom's 
 feet. 
 
 At first with wonder and some annoyance, the 
 warrior looked down upon her. Then recognition 
 came into his eyes. He saw the tip of a deep 
 wound on her shoulder, and knew that it ran, livid 
 and angry, half-way down her bosom. It was 
 the young girl A-ya. His eyes softened, for he 
 had heard how it was she who had saved him in 
 the battle, fighting so furiously over him when he 
 was down — she in whose blood he had found his 
 shoulders bathed. Yet up to that time he had 
 never noticed her, his mind being full of other 
 matters than women. Now he looked at her and 
 wondered. He was sorely afraid of being ham- 
 pered in his great enterprise, but he asked her 
 gently why she had followed him. 
 
 " I was afraid for you," she answered, without 
 looking up. " You go to such great dangers. I 
 could not stay with the tribe, and wait." 
 
 " You think I need help ? " he asked, with a self- 
 confident look in his eyes. 
 
 " You did need me in the battle ! " answered the 
 girl proudly. 
 
 " True ! " said Grom. ■■ But for you I should 
 now have been sleeping under the stones and the 
 wind." 
 
 He looked at her with a feeling that surprised 
 himself, a kind of thrilling tenderness, such as he 
 
 58 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 had never felt toward a woman before. His wives 
 had been good wives and dutiful, and he had been 
 content with them. But it occurred to him that 
 neither of them would ever have thought to come 
 with him on this expedition. 
 
 " I could not stay without you," said the girl 
 again. " Also, I was afraid of Mawg," she added 
 cunningly. 
 
 A wave of jealous wrath surged through Grom's 
 veins. 
 
 " If Mawg had troubled you, I would have killed 
 him ! " said he fiercely. And, snatching the girl 
 to her feet, he crushed her for a moment vehe- 
 mently to his great breast. 
 
 " But why," he went on, " did you follow me so 
 secretly all day ? " 
 
 " I was afraid you would be angry, and send me 
 back," she answered, with a sigh of content. 
 
 " I could not have sent you back," said Grom, 
 his indifference quite forgotten. " But come, we 
 must find a place for the night." 
 
 And hand in hand they ran to a great tree 
 which Grom had already marked for his retreat. 
 As they climbed to the upper branches, dusk fell 
 quickly about them, some great beast roared 
 thunderously from the depths of the forest, and 
 from a near-by jungle came sudden crashings of 
 the undergrowth. 
 
 59 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 in 
 
 For three weeks Grom and the girl pressed on 
 eagerly, swinging north to avoid a vast lake, whose 
 rank and marshy shores were trodden by monsters 
 such as they had never before set eyes upon. Of 
 nights, no matter how high or how well hidden 
 their tree-top refuge might be, they found it neces- 
 sary to keep vigil turn and turn about, so numerous 
 and so enterprising were the enemies who sought 
 to investigate the strange human trail. 
 
 Had Grom been alone he would soon have been 
 worn out for want of sleep. The girl, however, 
 her eyes ever bright with happiness, seemed 
 utterly untiring, and Grom watched her with daily 
 growing delight. He had never heard or dreamed 
 of a man regarding a woman as he regarded the 
 lithe, fierce creature who ran beside him. But he 
 had never been afraid of new things or new ideas, 
 and he was not ashamed of this sweet ache of 
 tenderness at his astonished heart. 
 
 Beyond the lake and the morasses they came 
 to a strange, broken land, a land of fertile valleys, 
 deep-verdured and teeming with life, but sown 
 with abrupt, conelike, naked hills. Along the 
 near horizon ran a chain of those sharp, low 
 summits, irregularly jagged against the pale blue. 
 From several of the summits rose streamers of 
 murky vapour ; and one of these, darker and 
 
 60 
 
' A grey bear, of a bulk beyond that of the hugest grizzly, was 
 almost upon him." 
 
 [page 61. 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 more abundant than the others, spread abroad at 
 the top on the windless air till it took the shape of 
 a colossal pine-tree. To the girl the sight was 
 portentous. It filled her with apprehension, and 
 she would have liked to avoid this unfamiliar- 
 looking region. But, seeing that Grom was filled 
 with interest at the novel phenomena before them, 
 she thrust aside her fears and assumed a like 
 eagerness on the subject. 
 
 In the heat of the day they came to a pair of 
 trees, lofty and spreading, which stood a little 
 apart from the rest of the forest growth, in a 
 stretch of open meadows. An ice-cold rivulet 
 babbled past their roots. It was time for the 
 noonday rest, and these trees seemed to offer a 
 safe retreat. The girl drank, splashed herself 
 with the delicious coolness, flung back her dripping 
 hair, then swung herself up lightly into the branches. 
 Grom lingered a few moments below, letting the 
 water trickle down and over his great muscles 
 by handfuls. Then he threw himself down upon 
 his face and drank deep. 
 
 While he was in this helpless position — his sleep- 
 less vigilance for the moment at fault — from 
 behind a near-by thicket rushed a gigantic, shaggy 
 grey form, and hurled itself at him ponderously 
 but with awful swiftness, like a grey boulder 
 dashing down a hillside. The girl, from her perch 
 in the lower branches, gave a shriek of warning. 
 Grom bounded to his feet, and darted for the tree. 
 But the monster — a grey bear, of a bulk beyond 
 that of the hugest grizzly — was almost upon him, 
 
 61 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and would have seized him before he could climb 
 out of reach. A spear hurtled close past his head. 
 It grazed, and laid open, the side of the beast's 
 snout, and sank deep into its shoulder. With a 
 roar, the beast halted to claw it forth. And in 
 that moment Grom swung himself up into the 
 branches, dropping both his spears as he did 
 so. 
 
 The bear, mad with pain and fury, reared himself 
 against the trunk and began to draw himself up. 
 Grom struck at him with his club, but from his 
 difficult position could put no force into his blow, 
 and the bear hardly seemed to notice it. 
 
 " We must lead him up, then drop down and 
 run," said Grom. And the two mounted nimbly. 
 
 The bear followed, till the branches began to yield 
 too perilously beneath his weight. Then Grom 
 and the girl slipped over into the next tree. As 
 they did so, another bear, even huger than the 
 first, and apparently her mate, appeared below, 
 glanced up with shrewd, implacable eyes, and 
 proceeded to climb the second tree. 
 
 Grom looked at the girl with a piercing anxiety 
 such as he had never known before. 
 
 " Can you run, very fast ? " he demanded. 
 
 The girl laughed, her terror almost forgotten in 
 her pride at having once more saved him. 
 
 " I ran from the wolves," she reminded him. 
 
 " Then we must run, perhaps very far," answered 
 Grom, reassured, " till we find some place of steep 
 rocks where we can fight with some hope. For 
 these beasts are obstinate, and will never give up 
 
 62 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 from pursuing us. And, unlike the red cave-bears 
 they seem to know how to climb trees." 
 
 When both bears were high in the two trees, 
 Grom and the girl slipped down by the bending 
 tips of the branches, almost as swiftly as falling. 
 They snatched up Grom's two spears and A-ya's 
 broken one, and ran, down along the brook toward 
 the line of the smoking hills. The bears, descend- 
 ing more slowly, came after them at a terrific, 
 ponderous gallop. 
 
 The girl ran, as she had said, well — so well that 
 Grom, who was famous in the tribe for his running, 
 did not have greatly to slacken his pace in her 
 favour. Finding that, at first, they gained 
 slightly on their pursuers, Grom bade her slow 
 down a little till they did no more than hold 
 their own. Fearing lest she should exhaust her- 
 self, he ran always a pace behind her, admonishing 
 her how to save her strength and her breath, and 
 ever warily casting his eyes about for a possible 
 refuge. Warily, too, he chose the smoothest ways, 
 sparing her feet. For he knew that if she gave 
 out and fell he would stop and fight his last fight 
 over her body. 
 
 For an hour or more the girl ran easily. Then 
 she began to show signs of distress. Her face 
 grew ashen, the breath came harshly from her 
 open lips, and once or twice she stumbled. With 
 the first pang of fear at his heart, Grom closed up 
 beside her, made her lean heavily on his rigid 
 forearm, and cheered her with words of praise. He 
 pointed to a spur of broken mountains now 
 
 6 3 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 close ahead, with a narrow valley cleaving them 
 midway. 
 
 M There will be ledges," he said, " where we 
 can defend ourselves, and where you can rest." 
 
 Skirting a bit of jungle, so dense with massive 
 cane and thorned creepers that nothing could 
 penetrate it, they came suddenly upon a space of 
 barren grey plain, and saw, straight ahead, the 
 opening of the valley. It was not more than a 
 couple of furlongs distant. And its walls, partly 
 clothed with shrubbery, partly naked, were so 
 seamed and cleft and creviced that they appeared 
 to promise many convenient retreats. But across 
 the mouth of the valley extended an appalling 
 barrier. From an irregular fissure in the parched 
 earth, running on a slant from one wall to the 
 other, came tongues of red flame, waving upwards 
 to a height of several feet, sinking back, rising 
 again, and bowing as if in some enchanted dance. 
 
 Grom's heart stood still in awe and amazement, 
 and for a second he paused. The girl shut her eyes 
 in unspeakable terror, and her knees gave way 
 beneath her. As she sank, Grom's spirit rose to 
 the emergency. The bears were now almost upon 
 them. He jerked the girl violently to her feet, 
 and spoke to her in a voice that brought her back 
 to herself. Dragging her by the wrist, he ran 
 on straight for the barrier. The girl, obedient to 
 his order, shrank close to his side and ran on 
 bravely, keeping her eyes upon the ground. 
 
 " If they are gods, those bright, dancing things," 
 said Grom, with a confidence he was far from 
 
 6 4 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 feeling, " they will save us. If they are devils, I 
 will fight them." 
 
 A little to the right appeared a gap in the leap- 
 ing barrier, an opening some fifty feet across. 
 Grom made for the centre of this opening. The 
 fissure here was not more than three feet in width. 
 The runners took it in their stride. But a fierce 
 heat struck up from it. It filled the girl with 
 such horror that her senses failed her utterly. 
 She ran on blindly a dozen paces more, then reeled 
 and fell in a swoon. Before her body touched 
 the ground, Grom had swung her up into his arms, 
 but as he did so he looked back. 
 
 The bears were no longer pursuing. A spear's- 
 throw back they had stopped, growling and 
 whining, and swaying their mountainous forms 
 from side to side in angry irresolution. 
 
 " They fear the bright, dancing things," said 
 Grom to himself ; and added, with a throb of 
 exultation, " which I do not fear." 
 
 Noticing for the first time in his excitement that 
 the ground, here parched and bare, was uncom- 
 fortably hot beneath his feet, he carried his burden 
 a few rods further on, to where the green began 
 again, and laid her down on the thick herbage. 
 Then he turned to see what the bears were going 
 to do. 
 
 Seeing that their intended prey made no further 
 effort to flee, the two monsters grew still more 
 excited. For a moment Grom thought they 
 would dare the passage of the barrier, but he 
 was reassured to see that the flames filled them 
 
 65 5 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 with an insuperable fear. They dared not come 
 nearer than the thin edges of the verdure. At 
 last, as if the same notion had struck them both 
 at once, they whirled about simultaneously, made 
 off among the dense thickets to the right, and 
 disappeared. Grom knew too well the obstinate 
 vindictiveness of their kind to think that they 
 had given up the chase ; but, feeling safe for the 
 present, and seeing that the girl, recovered from 
 her swoon, was sitting up and staring with awed 
 eyes at the line of fire, he turned all his attention 
 to these mysterious, shining, leaping shapes to 
 which they owed their escape. 
 
 With an attitude of deference, yet carrying both 
 club and spear in readiness, he slowly approached 
 the barrier, at the point where the flames were 
 lowest and least imposing. Their heat made him 
 very uneasy, but under the eyes of the girl he 
 would show no sign of fear. At a distance of six 
 or eight feet he stopped, studying the thin, up- 
 curling tongues of brightness. Their heat, at 
 this distance, was uncomfortable to his naked flesh, 
 but as he stood there wondering and took no further 
 hurt, his confidence grew. At length he dared to 
 stretch out his spear-tip and touch the flames, 
 very respectfully. The green-hide thongs which 
 bound the flint to the wood smoked, shrivelled and 
 hissed. He withdrew the weapon in alarm, and 
 examined the tip. It was blackened, and hot to 
 the touch. But, seeing that the bright dancers 
 had taken no notice, he repeated the experiment. 
 Several times he repeated it, deeply pondering, 
 
 66 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 while the girl, from her place at the edge of the 
 grass, stared with the wide eyes of a child. 
 
 At last, though the green thongs still held, the 
 dry wood burst into flame. Startled to find that 
 when he drew the point back he brought a portion 
 of the shining creature with it, Grom dashed the 
 weapon down upon the ground. The flame, 
 insufficiently started, flickered and died. But it 
 left a spark, winking redly on the blackened wood. 
 Audacious in his consuming curiosity, Grom 
 touched it with his finger. It stung smartly, and 
 Grom snatched back his finger with an exclamation 
 of alarm. But by that touch the spark itself was 
 extinguished. That was an amazing thing. Suck- 
 ing his finger, Grom stood gazing down at the spear- 
 tip, which had but now been so bright, and was 
 now so black. Plainly, it was a victory for him. 
 He did not understand it. But at least the 
 Mysterious Ones were not invincible, however 
 much the bears feared them. Well, he did not fear 
 them, he said proudly in his heart. Aloud he said 
 to A-ya : 
 
 '■' The Shining Dancers are our friends, but they 
 do not like to be touched. If you touch them, 
 they bite." 
 
 His heart swelled with a vast, unformulated 
 hope. Ideas, possibilities which he could not 
 yet grasp, seethed in his brain. Dimly, but over- 
 poweringly, he realized that he had passed the 
 threshold of a new world. He picked up the spear 
 and turned to renew his experiments. 
 
 This time he let the fire take well hold upon 
 
 67 5* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the spear- tip before he withdrew it. Then he 
 held it upright, burning like a torch. As he gazed 
 at it raptly a scream from the girl aroused him. 
 She had sprung to her feet and stood staring 
 behind her, not knowing which way to run because 
 of her fear of the fire. And there, not twenty paces 
 from her, their giant grey bulks half emerging from 
 the thicket, stood the bears, slavering in their fury 
 but afraid to come nearer the flame. 
 
 With a shout, Grom darted at them, and the 
 wind of his going fanned his spear-point to a 
 fierce blaze. The girl screamed again at the 
 sight, but bravely stood her ground. The bears 
 shrank, growled, then turned and fled. With a 
 dozen leaps Grom was upon them. The flame was 
 already licking up the spear-shaft almost to his 
 grip. With all his force he threw, and the flint 
 tip buried itself in the nearest monster's haunch. 
 The long fur blazed, and, in a frenzy of terror, the 
 great beasts went crashing off through the coverts. 
 The fire was speedily whipped out by the branches, 
 but their panic was uncontrollable ; and long after 
 they had passed out of sight the sounds of their 
 wild flight could be followed. Grom's heart came 
 near bursting with exultation, but he disdained 
 to show it. He turned to the girl, and said 
 quietly : " They will not come back." And the 
 girl threw herself at his feet in adoration. 
 
 And now for hours Grom sat motionless, ponder- 
 ing, pondering, and watching the line of flames 
 with deep eyes. The girl did not dare to interrupt 
 his thoughts. With the going of the sun came a 
 
 68 
 
THE FINDING OF FIRE 
 
 chill breeze drawing down from the ridges. Grom 
 rose, led the girl nearer the flames, and reseated 
 himself. As the girl realized the kindly and com- 
 forting warmth her fears diminished. She laughed 
 softly, turned her shapely body round and round 
 in the glow, and then curled herself up like a cat 
 at Grom's knees. 
 
 At last Grom arose once more. Picking up his 
 remaining spear, he approached the fire with 
 decision, and thrust the butt, instead of the tip, 
 into the flame. When it was well alight, he thrust 
 it down upon a tuft of withered grass. The stuff 
 caught at once, blazed up and died out. Then 
 Grom rolled the burning spear-butt on the earth 
 till it, too, was quite extinguished. The sparks 
 still winking in the grass he struck with his palm. 
 They stung him, but they perished. He drew 
 himself up to his full height, turned to the girl 
 and stretched out his blackened hand. The girl 
 sprang to her feet, thrilled and wondering. 
 
 " See," said Grom, " I have made the bright 
 Dancing Ones my servants. The tribe shall come 
 here. And we shall be the masters of all things." 
 
 Once more the girl threw herself at his feet. 
 He seemed to her a god. But remembering how 
 she had twice saved his life, she laid her cheek 
 against his knee. He lifted her into the hollow 
 of his great arm, and she leaned against him, 
 gazing up into his face, while he stood staring into 
 the fire, his eyes clouded with visions. 
 
 6 9 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 F^ROM the lip of the narrow volcanic fissure, 
 which ran diagonally two-thirds of the 
 way across the mouth of the valley, the line of 
 fire waved and flickered against the gathering dark. 
 Sometimes only a few inches high, sometimes sink- 
 ing suddenly out of sight, and then again as sud- 
 denly leaping up to a height of five or six feet, 
 the thin, gaseous flames danced elvishly. Now 
 clear yellow, now fiery orange, now of an almost 
 invisible violet, they shifted, and bowed their 
 crests, and thrust out shooting tongues, till Grom, 
 sitting on his haunches and staring with fascinated 
 eyes, had no choice but to believe that they were 
 live things like himself. The girl, curled up at 
 his side like a cat, paid little attention to the 
 marvel of the flames. Her big, dark eyes, wild 
 and furtive under the dark, tangled masses of 
 her hair, kept wandering back and forth between 
 the man's brooding face and the obscure black 
 thickets which filled the valley behind him. The 
 
 70 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 dancing flames she did not understand, but she 
 understood the ponderous crashings, and growls, 
 and savage cries which came from those black 
 thickets and slopes of tumbled rocks. The man 
 being absorbed in watching the wonder of the 
 flames, and apparently all-forgetful of the perils 
 prowling back there in the dark, it was plainly her 
 duty to keep watch. 
 
 From time to time Grom would drag his eyes 
 away from their contemplation of the flames to 
 study intently the charred spots on his club and 
 the burned, blackened end of his spear. He 
 looked down at the lithe figure of the girl, and 
 laid a great, hairy hand on her shoulder in a 
 musing caress, as if appraising her, and delighting 
 in her, and finding in her a mate altogether to his 
 desire, although but a child to his inmost thoughts. 
 But those sounds of menace from the darkness 
 behind him he affected not to hear at all. He 
 could see from the girl's eyes that the menace 
 was not yet close at hand ; and since he had 
 learned the power of the fire, and his own mastery 
 over that power, he felt himself suddenly little less 
 than a god. The fire was surely something of a 
 god ; and if he had any measure of control over 
 the fire, so as to make it serve him surely, then 
 still more of the god was there in his own intelli- 
 gence. His heart swelled with a pride such as 
 he had never before conceived, and his brain 
 seethed with vague but splendid possibilities. 
 Never before had he, though at heart the bravest 
 of his brave clan, been able to listen to the terrible 
 
 7i 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 voices of the cave-bear, the cave-hyena, or the 
 sabre-tooth without fear, without the knowledge 
 that his own safety lay in flight. Now he feared 
 them not at all. 
 
 A louder roaring came out of the shadows, 
 closer than before, and he saw A-ya's eyes dilate 
 as she clutched at his knee. A slow smile spread 
 across his bony face, and he turned about, rising 
 to his feet as he did so, and lifting the girl with 
 him. 
 
 With a new, strange warmth at his heart he 
 realized how fully the girl trusted him, how cool 
 and steady was her courage. For there, along 
 the edge of the lighted space, glaring forth from 
 the fringes of the thickets, were the monstrous 
 beasts whom man had most cause to dread. 
 Nearest, his whole tawny length emerging from 
 the brush, crouched a giant sabre-tooth, with the 
 daggers of his tusks, ten inches long, agleam in 
 the light of the dancing flames. He was not 
 more than thirty or forty paces distant, and his 
 tail twitched heavily from side to side as if he 
 were trying to nerve himself up to a closer approach 
 to the fire. Some twenty paces further along the 
 fringe of mingled light and shadow, their bodies 
 thrust half way forth from the undergrowth, 
 stood a pair of huge, ruddy cave-bears, their 
 monstrous heads held low and swaying surlily 
 from side to side as they eyed the prey which 
 they dared not rush in and seize. The man- 
 animal they had hitherto regarded as easy prey, 
 and they were filled with rage at the temerity of 
 
 72 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 these two humans in remaining so near the dreaded 
 flames. Intent upon them, they paid no heed to 
 their great enemy, the sabre-tooth, with whom 
 they were at endless and deadly feud. Away off 
 to the left, quite clear of the woods, but safely 
 remote from the fire, a pack of huge cave-hyenas 
 sat up on their haunches, their long, red tongues 
 hanging out. With jaws powerful enough to 
 crack the thigh-bones of the urus, they neverthe- 
 less hesitated to obtrude themselves on the notice 
 either of the crouching sabre-tooth or of the two 
 giant bears. 
 
 With neither the bears nor the great hyenas 
 did Grom anticipate any trouble. But he felt it 
 barely possible that the sabre-tooth might dare 
 a rush in. Snatching up a dry branch, and leading 
 the girl with him by the wrist, he backed slowly 
 nearer the flames. Terrified at their dancing and 
 the scorching of their breath, the girl sank down 
 on her naked knees and covered her face with her 
 hair. Smiling at her terror, Grom thrust the 
 branch into the flames. When it was all ablaze 
 he raised it above his head, and, carrying his spear 
 in his right hand, he rushed at the sabre-tooth. 
 For a few seconds the monster faced his approach, 
 but Grom saw the shrinking in his furious eyes, 
 and came on fearlessly. At last the beast whipped 
 about with a screeching snarl, and raced back 
 into the woods. Then Grom turned to the bears, 
 but they had not stayed to receive his attentions. 
 The sight of the flames bursting, as it seemed, 
 from the man's shaggy head as he ran, was too 
 
 73 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 much for them, and they had slunk back discreetly 
 into the shadows. 
 
 Grom threw the blazing stick on the ground, 
 laid several more branches upon it, and presently 
 had a fine fire of his own going. He seized a small 
 branch and hurled it at the hyenas, sending them 
 off with their tails between their legs to their 
 hiding-places on the ragged slopes. Then he fed 
 his fire with more dry wood till the fierce heat of 
 it drove him back. Returning to the side of the 
 wondering girl, he sat down, and contemplated his 
 handiwork with swelling pride. When the flames 
 died down he piled on more branches till they 
 blazed again to the height of the nearest tree- 
 tops. This he repeated, thoughtfully, several 
 times, till he had assured himself of his power to 
 make this bright, devouring god great or little at 
 his pleasure. 
 
 This stupendous fact established clearly, Groin 
 brought an armful of grass and foliage, and made 
 the girl take her sleep. He himself continued for 
 an hour or two his experiments with the fire, 
 building small ones in a circle about him, discover- 
 ing that green branches would not burn well, and 
 brooding with knit brows over each new centre of 
 light and heat which he created. 
 
 Then, seated on his haunches beside the sleeping 
 A-ya, he pondered on the future of his tribe, on 
 the change in its fortunes which this mysterious 
 new creature was bound to bring about. At iast, 
 when the night was half worn through, he 
 awakened the girl, bade her keep sharp watch, 
 
 74 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 and threw himself down to sleep, indifferent to 
 the roars, and snarls, and dreadful cries which 
 came from the darkness of the upper valley. 
 
 The valley looked straight into the east. When 
 the sun rose, its unclouded, level rays paled the 
 dancing barrier of flames almost to invisibility. 
 Refreshed by their few hours' sleep in the vital 
 warmth, Grom and the girl stood erect in the 
 flooding light and scanned the strange landscape. 
 Grom's sagacious eyes noted the fertility of the 
 level lands at a distance from the fire, and of the 
 clefts, ledges and lower slopes of the tumbled 
 volcanic hills. Here and there he made out the 
 openings of caves, half overgrown with vine and 
 bush. And he was satisfied that this was the land 
 for his tribe to occupy. 
 
 That it was infested with all those monstrous 
 beasts which were Man's deadliest foes seemed to 
 him no longer a fact worth considering. The bright 
 god which he had conquered should be made to 
 conquer them. Some inkling of his purposes he 
 confided to the girl, who stood looking up at him 
 with eyes of dog-like devotion from under the 
 matted splendour of her hair. If he was still the 
 man she loved, her mate and lover, yet was he 
 also now a sort of demi-god, since she had seen 
 him play at his ease with the flames, and drive 
 the hyena, the sabre-tooth and the terrible red 
 bear before him. 
 
 When the two started on their journey back 
 to the Country of the Little Hills, Grom carried 
 with him a bundle of blazing brands. He had 
 
 75 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 conceived the idea of keeping the bright god alive 
 by feeding him continually as they went, and of 
 renewing his might from time to time by stopping 
 to build a big fire. 
 
 The undertaking proved a troublesome one from 
 the first. The brands kept the great beasts at a 
 distance, but time and again the red coals almost 
 died out, and Grom had anxious and laborious 
 moments nursing them again into activity ; and 
 the care of the mysterious things made progress 
 slow. Grom learned much, and rapidly, in these 
 anxious efforts. He discovered once, just at a 
 critical moment, the remarkable efficacy of dry 
 grass. A bear as big as an ox came rushing upon 
 them, just when the flames were flickering out 
 along the bundle of brands. A-ya started to run, 
 but Grom's nerve was of steel. 
 
 Ordering her to stop, he flung the brands to the 
 ground, and snatched a double handful of grass 
 to feed the dying flame. Luckily, the grass was 
 dry. It flared up on the sudden. The bear 
 stopped short. Grom piled on more grass, shouted 
 arrogantly, and rushed at the beast with a blazing 
 handful. It was a light and harmless flame, almost 
 instantly extinguished. But it was too mysterious 
 for the monster to face. 
 
 Grom was wise enough not to follow up his 
 victory. Returning to the fire he fed it to a safe 
 volume. And the girl, flinging herself down in 
 a passion of relief and adoration, embraced his 
 knees. 
 
 After this they journeyed slowly, Grom tending 
 
 7 6 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 the brands with vigilant care, and striving to break 
 down the girl's terror of them. That night he 
 built three fires about the base of a huge tree, 
 gathered a supply of dry wood, taught the girl 
 to feed the flames — which she did with head bowed 
 in awe — and passed the hours of darkness, once 
 so dreaded, in proud defiance of the great beasts 
 which prowled and roared beyond the circle of 
 light. He made the girl sleep, but he himself 
 was too prudent to sleep, lest these fires of his 
 own creation should prove false when his eye 
 was not upon them. 
 
 The following day, about midday, when he 
 slept heavily in the heat, the fire went out. It 
 had got low, and the girl, attempting to revive it, 
 had smothered it with too much fuel. In an 
 agony of fear and remorse, she knelt at Grom's 
 side, awakened him, and showed him what she 
 had done. She expected a merciless beating, 
 according to the rough-and-ready customs of her 
 tribe. But Grom had always been held a little 
 peculiar, especially in his aversion to the beating 
 of women, so that certain females of the tribe had 
 even been known to question his manhood on 
 that account. 
 
 Furthermore, he regarded the girl with a tender- 
 ness, an admiration, an appreciation, which he 
 could not but wonder at in himself, seeing that he 
 had never heard of it as a customary thing that 
 a man should regard a woman in any such manner. 
 At the same time he was in a state of exaltation 
 over his strange achievements, and hardly open, 
 
 77 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 at the moment, to any common or base brutality of 
 rage. 
 
 He gave the girl one terrible look, then went 
 and strove silently with the dead, black embers. 
 The girl crept up to him on her knees, weeping 
 For a few seconds he paid her no heed. But when 
 he found that the flames had fled beyond recovery, 
 he lifted her up, drew her close to him, and com- 
 forted her. 
 
 " You have let the Bright One escape," said he. 
 " But do not be afraid. He lives back there in 
 the valley of the bears, and I will capture him 
 again." 
 
 And when the girl realized that he had no 
 thought of beating her, but only wished to comfort 
 and shield her, then she felt quite sure he was 
 a god, and her heart nearly burst with the passion 
 of her love. 
 
 ii 
 
 It galled Grom's proud heart to find himself 
 now compelled, through loss of the fire, to go 
 warily, to scan the thicket, to keep hidden, to hold 
 spear and club always in readiness, and to climb 
 into a tree at night for safety like the apes. But 
 he let no sign of his chagrin, or of his anxiety, 
 appear. Like the crafty hunter and wise leader 
 that he was, he forgot no one of his ancient 
 precautions. 
 
 They had by this time passed beyond the special 
 haunts of the red bear and the sabre-tooth. Twice 
 
 7 8 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 they had to run before the charge of the great 
 woolly rhinoceros, against whose massive hide 
 Grom's spear and club would have been about as 
 effective as a feather duster. But they had fled 
 mockingly, for the clumsy monster was no match 
 for them in speed. Once, too, they had been 
 treed by a bull urus, a gigantic white beast with 
 a seven-foot spread of polished horns. 
 
 But his implacable and patient rage they had 
 cunningly evaded by making off unseen and 
 unheard, through the upper branches. They came 
 to earth again half a mile away, and ran on gaily, 
 laughing at the picture of the furious and foolish 
 beast waiting there at the foot of the tree for 
 them to come down. Once a prowling leopard 
 confronted them for a moment, only to flee in 
 great leaps before their instant and unhesitating 
 attack. Once a huge bird, nearly nine feet high, 
 and with a beak over a foot in length, struck at 
 them savagely, with a shrill hissing, through a 
 fringe of reeds, because they had incautiously 
 come too near its nest. But they killed it, and 
 feasted on its eggs. And so, without further mis- 
 adventure, they came at last to the skirts of their 
 own country, and looked once more on the rounded, 
 familiar, wind-swept tops of the Little Hills, sacred 
 to the barrows of their dead. 
 
 It was toward sunset, and the long, rosy glow 
 was flooding the little amphitheatre wherein the 
 remnants of the tribe were gathered, when Grom 
 crossed the brook, and came striding up the slope, 
 with A-ya close behind him. She had been 
 
 79 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 travelling at his side all through the journey, but 
 here she respected the etiquette of her tribe, and 
 fell behind submissively. 
 
 Hardly noticing, or not heeding if he noticed, 
 that the tribe offered no vociferous welcome, and 
 seemed sullenly surprised at his appearance, Grom 
 strode straight to the Chief, whom he saw sitting 
 on the judgment stone, and threw down spear and 
 club at his feet in sign of fealty. But A-ya, follow- 
 ing, was keen to note the hostile attitude of the 
 tribe. Her defiant eyes darted everywhere, and 
 everywhere noted black looks. She could not 
 understand it, but she divined that there was 
 some plot afoot against Grom. Her heart swelled 
 with rage, and her dark-maned head went up arro- 
 gantly, for she felt as if the strongest and wisest 
 of the tribe were now but children in comparison 
 with her lord. But, though children, they were 
 many, and she closed up behind him for a guard, 
 grasping more firmly the shaft of her short, service- 
 able spear. She saw the broad, black, scowling 
 visage of young Mawg, towering over a little group 
 of his kinsfolk, and eyeing her with mingled greed 
 and rage, and she divined at once that he was at 
 the back of whatever mischief might be brewing. 
 She answered his look with one of mocking scorn, 
 and then turned her attention to the Chief, who 
 was sitting in grim silence, the customary hand of 
 welcome ominously withheld. 
 
 A haughty look came over Grom's face, his 
 broad shoulders squared themselves, and he met 
 the Chief's eyes sternly. 
 
 80 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 " I have done the bidding of Bawr the Chief," 
 he said, in a clear voice, so that all the tribe might 
 hear. " I have found a place where the tribe may 
 hold themselves secure against all enemies. And 
 I have come back, as was agreed, to lead the tribe 
 thither before our enemies destroy us. I have 
 done great deeds. I have not spared myself. I 
 have come quickly. I have deserved well of the 
 people. Why has Bawr the Chief no welcome for 
 me? " 
 
 A murmur arose from the corner where Mawg 
 and his friends were grouped, but a glance from 
 the Chief silenced it. With his piercing gaze 
 making relentless inquisition of the eyes that 
 answered his so steadily, he seemed to ponder 
 Grom's words. Slowly the anger faded from his 
 scarred and massy face, for he knew men ; and 
 this man, though his most formidable rival in 
 strength and prestige, he instinctively trusted. 
 
 " You have been accused," said he at length, 
 slowly, " of deserting the tribe in our weak- 
 ness " 
 
 A puzzled look had come over Grom's face at 
 the word " accused " ; then his deep eyes blazed, 
 and he broke in upon the Chief's speech without 
 ceremony. 
 
 " Show me my accusers ! " he demanded harshly. 
 
 The Chief waved his hand for silence. 
 
 " In our weakness ! " he repeated. " But you 
 have returned to us. So I see that charge was 
 false. Also, you have been accused of stealing 
 the girl A-ya. But you have brought her back. 
 
 81 6 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 I see not what more your accusers have against 
 you." 
 
 Grom turned, and, with a quick, decisive motion, 
 drew A-ya to his side. 
 
 " Bawr the Chief knows that I am his servant, 
 and a true man ! " said he sternly. " I did not 
 steal the girl. She followed me, and I had no 
 thought of it." 
 
 Angry jeers came from Mawg's corner, but Grom 
 smiled coldly, and went on : 
 
 " Not till near evening of the second day, when 
 she was chased by wolves, did she reveal herself 
 to me. And when I understood why she had come, 
 I looked on her, and I saw that she was very fair 
 and very brave. And I took her. So that now 
 she is my woman, and I hold to her, Chief ! But I 
 will pay you for her whatsoever is just, for you 
 are the Chief. And now let Bawr show me my 
 accusers, that I may have done with them quickly. 
 For I have much to tell." 
 
 " Not so, Grom," said the Chief, stretching out 
 his hand. " I am satisfied that you are a true 
 man. And for the girl, that will we arrange 
 between us later. But I will not confront you 
 with your accusers, for there shall be no fighting 
 between ourselves when our warriors that are left 
 us are so few. And in this I know that you, being 
 wise, will agree with me. Come, and we two will 
 talk of what is to be done." 
 
 He got up from his seat, an immense and master- 
 ful figure, to lead the way to his own cave, where 
 they might talk in private. But Grom hesitated, 
 
 82 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 fearing lest annoyance should befall A-ya if he left 
 her alone with his enemies. 
 
 " And the girl, Chief ? " said he. "I would not 
 have her troubled." 
 
 Bawr turned. He swept a comprehensive and 
 significant glance over the gaping crowd. 
 
 " The girl A-ya," said he in his great voice 
 which thundered over the amphitheatre, " is 
 Grom's woman. I have spoken." 
 
 And he strode off toward his cave door. Grom 
 picked up his club and spear. And the girl, with 
 a haughty indifference she was far from feeling, 
 strolled off toward the cave of certain old women, 
 kinsfolk of the Chief. 
 
 But as the meaning of the Chief's words pene- 
 trated Mawg's dull wits he gave vent to a great 
 bellow of rage, and snatched up a spear to hurl 
 at Grom. Before he could launch it, however, his 
 kinsmen, who had no wish to bring down upon 
 themselves both Grom's wrath and that of the 
 Chief, fell upon him and bore down his arm. 
 Raging blindly, Mawg struggled with them, and, 
 having the strength of a bull, he was near to 
 wrenching himself free. But other men of the 
 tribe, seeing from the Chief's action that their 
 bitterness against Grom had been unjustified, and 
 remembering his past services, ran up and took a 
 hand in reducing Mawg to submission. For a 
 few seconds Grom looked on contemptuously ; 
 then he turned on his heel and followed the Chief, 
 as if he did not hold his rival worth a further 
 thought. Mawg struggled to his feet. Grom had 
 
 83 6* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 disappeared. But his eyes fell on the figure of 
 A-ya, slim and brown and tall, standing in the 
 entrance of the near-by cave. He made as if to 
 rush upon her, but a bunch of men stood in the 
 way, plainly ready to stop him. He looked at his 
 kinsmen, but they hung their heads sullenly. 
 Blind with fury though he was, and slow of wit, 
 he could not but see that the tribe as a whole was 
 now against him. Stuttering with his rage, he 
 shouted to the girl, " You will see me again ! " 
 Snatching up his club and spears, he rushed 
 forth from the amphitheatre, darted down the 
 slope, and plunged into the thick woods beyond 
 the brook. His kinsmen withdrew sullenly into 
 their cave, followed by two young women. And 
 the rest of the people looked at each other doubt- 
 fully, troubled at this sudden schism in the weakened 
 tribe. 
 
 u One more good warrior gone ! " muttered an 
 old man through his bush of matted white beard. 
 
 That night Grom was too wary to sleep, suspect- 
 ing that his enemy might return and try to snatch 
 the girl from him under cover of the dark. 
 
 He was not attacked or disturbed, however, but 
 just before dawn, against the grey pallor beyond 
 the mouth of the pass, he marked four shapes 
 slinking forth. As they did not return, he did 
 not think it worth while to raise the alarm. When 
 day came, it was found that two kinsmen of 
 Mawg, with the two young women who were 
 attached to them, had fled to join the deserter in 
 the bush. The Chief, indignant at this further 
 
 8 4 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 weakening of the tribe, declared them outlaws, 
 and ordered that all — except the women, who 
 were needed as mothers — should be killed as tribal 
 traitors, at sight. 
 
 ill 
 
 As was natural, since he was trying to present 
 a totally new conception, with no known analogies 
 save in the lightning and the sun, Grom found it 
 impossible to convey to the Chief's mind any real 
 idea of the nature of his tremendous discovery. 
 He did succeed, however, in making it clear to 
 Bawr that there was a certain mighty Bright One, 
 capable of putting even the sabre-tooth and the 
 red bear to instant flight, and that he had some- 
 how managed to subdue this powerful and mys- 
 terious being into the service of the tribe. Bawr 
 had examined with deep musing the strange black 
 bite of the Bright One on Grom's club and spear. 
 And he realized readily enough that with such an 
 ally the tribe, even in its present state of weakness, 
 would be able to defy any further invasions of the 
 bow-legged beast-men from the east. There was 
 a rumour, vague enough but disquieting, of another 
 migration of the beast-men under way. So there 
 was no time to lose. Bawr gave orders that the 
 tribe should get together their scanty possessions of 
 food, skins and weapons, and make a start on the 
 morrow for their new home. 
 
 The attempts of the girl, meanwhile, to explain 
 • 85 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 about the fire and Grom's miraculous subjugation 
 of it to his will, had only spread terror in the tribe. 
 The dread of this unknown Bright One, which 
 was plainly capable of devouring them all if Grom 
 should lose control of it, was more nerve-shaking 
 than their dread of the beast-men. Moreover, 
 there was the natural reluctance to leave the old, 
 familiar dwellings for an unknown, distrusted land, 
 confessedly the haunt of those monstrous beasts 
 which they had most cause to fear. Then, too, 
 there were not a few in the tribe who professed 
 to think that the hordes of the Bow-legs were 
 never likely to come that way again. No wonder, 
 therefore, that there was grumbling, and protest, 
 and shrill lamentation in the caves ; but Bawr 
 being in no mood, since the defection of Mawg and 
 his party, to tolerate any opposition, and Grom being 
 now regarded as a dangerous wizard, the prepara- 
 tions for departure went on as smoothly as if all were 
 of one mind. Packing was no great matter to 
 the People of the Little Hills, the richest of whom 
 could transport all his wealth on the back of the 
 feeblest of his wives. So it came that before the 
 sun marked noon the whole tribe was on the 
 march, trailing forth from the neck of the amphi- 
 theatre at the heels of Grom and A-ya, and picking 
 their way over the bones of their slain enemies 
 which the vultures and the jackals had already 
 polished white. Bawr, the Chief, came last, seeing 
 to it that there were no laggards ; and as the tail 
 of the straggling procession left the pass he climbed 
 swiftly to the nearest pinnacle of rock to take 
 
 86 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 observation. He marked Grom and the girl, the 
 tribe strung out dejectedly behind them, winding 
 off to the left along the foot of the bare hills ; 
 and a pang of grief, for an instant, twitched his 
 massive features. Then he turned his eyes to the 
 right. Very far off, in a space of open ground by 
 the brookside, he marked the movement of con- 
 fused, living masses, of a dull brown on the green. 
 A closer look convinced him that the moving 
 masses were men — new hordes of the beast-men, 
 the gaping-nosed Bow-legs. 
 
 " Grom is a true man," he muttered, with satis- 
 faction, and went leaping like a stag down the 
 slope to rejoin the tribe. When news of what he 
 had seen was passed from mouth to mouth through 
 the tribe, every murmur was hushed, and the 
 sulkiest laggards pushed on feverishly, as if 
 dreading a rush of the beast-men from every cleft 
 and glade. 
 
 The journey proved, for the most part, unevent- 
 ful. Travelling in a compact mass, only by broad 
 day, their numbers and their air of confidence 
 kept the red bear and the sabre-tooth, the black 
 lion and the wolf-pack, from venturing to molest 
 them. By the Chief's orders they maintained a 
 noisy chatter, with laughter and shouting, as soon 
 as they felt themselves safely beyond range of the 
 beast-men's ears. For Bawr had observed that 
 even the sabre-tooth had a certain uneasiness at 
 the sound of many human voices together. At 
 night — and it was their rule to make camp while 
 the sun was yet several hours high — with the aid 
 
 8 7 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 of their flint spearheads they would laboriously 
 cut down the saplings of the long-thorned acacia, 
 and surround the camp with a barrier which the 
 monsters dared not assail. Even so, however, the 
 nights were trying enough to the stoutest nerves. 
 Half the tribe at a time was obliged to stand on 
 guard, and there was little sleep to refresh the 
 weariest when, the shadows beyond the barriers 
 were alive with mutterings and prowlings, and 
 terrible, paling, gleaming eyes. 
 
 On the fourth day of the journey, however, 
 the tribe met a foe whose dense brain was quite 
 unimpressed by the menace of the human voice, 
 and whose rage took no account of their numbers 
 or their confidence. An enormous bull urus — 
 perhaps the same beast which, some days earlier, 
 had driven Grom and the girl into the tree-tops — 
 burst up, dripping and mud-streaked from his 
 wallow in a reedy pool, and came charging upon 
 the travellers with a roar. No doubt an outcast 
 from the herd, he was mad with the lust of killing. 
 With shouts of warning and shrieks of fear the 
 tribe scattered in every direction. The nearest 
 warriors hurled their spears as they sprang aside, 
 and several of the weapons went deep into the 
 monster's flanks, but without checking him. He 
 had fixed his eyes on one victim, an old man with a 
 conspicuous shock of snow-white hair, and him he 
 followed inexorably. The doomed wretch screamed 
 with despair when he found himself thus hideously 
 selected, and ran, doubling like a rabbit. Just as 
 the monster overtook him he fell, paralysed with 
 
 88 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 his fright, and one tremendous horn pinned him 
 to the earth. At this instant the Chief arrived, 
 running up from the rear of the line, and Grom, 
 coming from the front. The Chief, closing in 
 fearlessly, swung his club with all his strength 
 across the beast's front, blinding one eye, and 
 confusing him for the fraction of a moment. And 
 in that moment, Grom, calculating his blow with 
 precision, drove his spear clean through the massive 
 throat. As he sprang back, twisting his ragged 
 weapon in the wound and tearing it free, the 
 monster, with a hoarse cough, staggered forward 
 across his victim, fell upon his knees, and slowly 
 sank, while the blood emptied itself in enormous, 
 smoking jets from the wound. 
 
 The incident caused a day's delay in the march ; 
 for there was the dead elder to be buried, with 
 heavy stones heaped over his body, according to 
 the custom of the tribe, and there was also the 
 meat of the slain bull to be cut up for carrying — 
 a rank food, but sustaining, and not to be despised 
 when one is on a journey with uncertainties ahead. 
 And the delay was more than compensated for 
 by the new spirit which now seized this poor, 
 fugitive remnant of the Tribe of the Little Hills. 
 The speedy and spectacular triumph over a foe 
 so formidable as the giant bull urqs was unani- 
 mously accepted as an omen of good fortune. 
 
 As they approached the valley whose mouth was 
 guarded by the line of volcanic fire, Grom purposely 
 led the tribe by such a path that they should get 
 no glimpse of the dancing flames until close upon 
 
 8 9 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 them. Down behind a long line of woods he led 
 them, with no warning of what was to come. 
 Then suddenly around into the open ; and there, 
 not a hundred paces distant, was the valley-mouth, 
 and the long, thin line of flickering scarlet tongues 
 drawn across it. 
 
 As the people came in sight of the incompre- 
 hensible phenomenon, they stared for a moment, 
 gasping, or uttering low cries ; then they fell upon 
 their faces in awe. Grom remained standing, leaning 
 upon his spear ; and A-ya stood with bowed head 
 close behind him. When the Chief, shepherding 
 and guarding the rear flanks, emerged around the 
 elbow of woods and saw his people thus prostrate 
 before the shining wonder, he too was moved to 
 follow their example, for his heart went cold within 
 him. But not without reason was he Chief, for he 
 could control himself as well as others. A pallor 
 spread beneath the smoky tan of his broad features, 
 but without an instant's hesitation he strode to 
 the front, and stood like Grom, with unbowed head, 
 leaning calmly on his great club. His thought 
 was that the Shining One must be indeed a god, 
 and might, indeed, slay him from afar, like the 
 lightning, but it could not make him afraid. 
 
 Grom gave him a quick look of approval. " Tell 
 the people," said he, " to follow us round through 
 the open space yonder, and into the valley, that 
 we may make camp, for there are many great 
 beasts here, and very fierce. And tell them not 
 to approach the Shining One, lest he smite them, 
 but also not to fear, for he will not come at them." 
 
 90 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 When the people — trembling, staring with 
 fascinated eyes at the dancing array, and shrinking 
 nervously from the strange warmth — had all been 
 gathered into the open space between the fire and 
 the thickets, Grom led the Chief up to the flames 
 and hurriedly explained to him what he had found 
 out as to how they must be managed. Then, 
 leaving him to ponder the miracle, and to experi- 
 ment, he took A-ya to help him build other fires 
 along the edge of the thickets in order to keep 
 the monsters at bay. And all the while the tribe 
 sat watching, huddled on their haunches, with 
 mouths agape and eyes rolling in amazement. 
 
 Bawr the Chief, meanwhile, was revolving many 
 things in his sagacious brain, as he alternately 
 lighted and extinguished the little, eating flames 
 which fixed themselves upon the dry wood when 
 he held it in the blaze. His mind was of a very 
 different order from that of Grom, though, perhaps, 
 not less capacious and capable. Grom was the 
 discoverer, the initiator, while Bawr was essentially 
 the ruler, concerned to apply all he learned to the 
 extension and securing of his power. It was his 
 realization of Grom's transparent honesty and 
 indifference to power which made him so free from 
 jealousy of Grom's prestige. His shrewd percep- 
 tions told him that Grom would far rather see 
 him rule the tribe, so long as he ruled it effectually, 
 than be troubled with the task himself. But there 
 were others in the tribe whom he suspected of 
 being less disinterested — who were capable of 
 becoming troublesome if ever he should find his 
 
 9i 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 strength failing. One of these, in particular, a 
 gigantic, black-browed fellow by the name of 
 Ne-boo, remotely akin to the deserter Mawg, was 
 now watching him with eyes more keen and con- 
 siderate than those of his companions. As Bawr 
 became conscious of this inquiring, crafty gaze, 
 he made a slip, and closed his left hand on a 
 portion of his branch which was still glowing red. 
 With superb nerve he gave no sign of the hurt. 
 And he thought quickly : he had taken a liberty 
 with the Bright One, and been bitten by those 
 mysterious, shining teeth which left a scar of 
 black. Well, someone else should be bitten, also. 
 Calmly heating the branch again till it was a live 
 coal for three-quarters of its length, he called the 
 crafty-eyed warrior to him. The man came, 
 uneasy, but full of interest. 
 
 " Take this, and hold it for me," said Bawr, and 
 tossed him the red brand. With shrinking hands 
 Ne-boo caught it, to drop it instantly with a yell 
 of pain and terror. It fell, scraping his leg, and 
 his foot, and in his fright he threw himself down 
 beside it, begging it not to smite him again. 
 
 " Strange," said Bawr, in a voice for all the 
 tribe to hear, " the Shining One will not suffer 
 Ne-boo to touch him." With the air of a high 
 priest he picked the brand up, and held it again 
 into the flames. And Grom returning at this 
 moment to his side, he commanded in a low voice : 
 " Let none but ourselves attend or touch the 
 Bright One." 
 
 Grom, his mind occupied with plans for the 
 92 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 settling of the tribe, agreed without asking the 
 reason for this decree. He was thinking about 
 getting the tribe housed in the caves which he 
 had noticed in the steep sides of the valley. He 
 knew well enough that these caves were the houses 
 of the red bear, the sabre-tooth and the bone- 
 crushing hyenas, but, as he explained to the Chief 
 with thrilling elation, the Shining One would drive 
 these monsters out, and teach them to keep their 
 distance. To Bawr, who had had some experience 
 in his day of the red bear and the sabre-tooth, 
 and who had not yet seen all that these dancing 
 tongues of gold and scarlet could do, the enter- 
 prise seemed a formidable one. But he saga- 
 ciously reserved his judgment, pondering things 
 that he felt sure Grom would not dream of. 
 
 That night, when all was thick darkness beyond 
 the magic circle of the fires, the People of the 
 Little Hills sat or crouched trembling and wonder- 
 ing, while monstrous dim shapes of such bears 
 or tigers as they had never imagined in their worst 
 nightmares prowled roaring all about them, held 
 off by nothing more substantial than just those 
 thin and darting tongues of flame. That the 
 little, bright things could bite terribly they had 
 evidence enough, both in the charred and corroded 
 wood which the flames had licked, and in the angry 
 wounds of Ne-boo. At the same time they saw 
 their Chief and Grom apparently handling the 
 Terror with impunity, and the girl A-ya approach- 
 ing it and serving it freely, though always with 
 bowed head and every mark of awe. 
 
 93 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 But what made the deepest, the most inefface- 
 able impression on the minds of the tribe was to 
 see Grom and the Chief, each waving a pair of 
 dead branches all aflame, charge at a pair of giant 
 sabre-tooths who had ventured too near, and 
 drive them scurrying like frightened sheep into 
 the bush. Repeating the tactics which he had 
 previously found so effective, Grom hurled one 
 of his flaming weapons after the fugitives — an 
 example which the Chief, not to be outshone, 
 followed instantly. The result was startling. The 
 brands chanced to fall where there was a great 
 accumulation of dry wood and twigs and leaves. 
 In a moment, as it seemed, the flames had leapt 
 up into full fury, and were chasing the fugitives 
 up the valley with a roar. In the sudden great 
 glare could be seen sabre-tooths stretching out in 
 panic-stricken flight, burly red bear fleeing with 
 their awkward but deadly swift gallop, huge hyenas 
 scattering to this side and that, and many furtive 
 unknown creatures driven into a blind and howling 
 rout. Grom himself was as thunderstruck as 
 anyone at the amazing result of his action, but 
 his quick wits told him to disguise his astonish- 
 ment, and bear himself as if it were exactly what 
 he had planned. The Chief copied his attitude 
 with scrupulous precision and unfailing nerve, 
 though quite prepared to see the red whirlwind 
 suddenly turn back and blot himself, the audacious 
 Grom, and the whole shuddering tribe from the 
 face of the outraged earth. But no such thing 
 happened. The torrent of flame raged straight up 
 
 94 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 the valley, cutting a path some fifty odd paces in 
 width, and leaving a track of smouldering, winking, 
 red stems and stumps behind it. And all the 
 beasts hid themselves in their terror, so that not 
 one of them was seen again that night. As for 
 the People of the Little Hills, they were now ready 
 to fall down and put dust in their hair in utter 
 abasement, if either Grom or the Chief so much as 
 looked at them. 
 
 Soon after sunrise the next day, the Chief and 
 Grom, bearing lighted brands, and followed close 
 by A-ya with a bundle of dry faggots, twigs and 
 grass, took possession of two great caves on the 
 southward-facing slope of the valley. The giant 
 bears which occupied one of them fled ignominiously 
 at the first threat of the flames, having been 
 scorched and thoroughly cowed by the conflagra- 
 tion of the previous night. The other cave had 
 been already vacated by the hyena pack, which 
 had no stomach to face these throwers of flame. 
 Before the mouth of each cave, at a safe distance, 
 a fire was lighted — a notice to all the beasts that 
 their rule was at an end. The whole tribe was 
 set to the gathering of a great store of fuel, which 
 was heaped about the mouths of the caves as a 
 shield against the weather. Then the people 
 began to settle themselves in their new home, 
 secure in the faith that not even the hordes 
 of the Bow-legs, should they chance that way, 
 would have the temerity to face their new and 
 terrible protector. 
 
 When all was ordered to his satisfaction, the. 
 95 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Chief called Grom to his side. The two stood 
 apart, and watched the tall figure of A-ya moving 
 from the one fire to the other, and tending them 
 reverently, as one performing a rite. Grom's eyes 
 took on a certain illumination at the sight of her, 
 a look which the Chief had never observed in 
 any man's eyes before. But he thought little 
 of it, for his mind was full of other matters. 
 
 "It is well," said he presently, in a low voice, 
 " that the service and understanding of the Bright 
 One should not be allowed to the people, but 
 should be kept strictly to ourselves, and to those 
 whom we shall choose to initiate. I shall appoint 
 the two best men of my own kin, and two others 
 whom you shall select, as servants of the Bright One. 
 And I will make a law that the people shall hence- 
 forth worship only the Bright One, instead of, as 
 heretofore, the Thunder, and the Wind, and un- 
 known Spirits, which, after all, as far as I can see, 
 have never been able to do much either for or 
 against us. But this Bright One is a real god, such 
 as we can be sure of. And you and I shall be his 
 priests. And only we shall be allowed to under- 
 stand him." 
 
 " That is good," agreed Grom, whose brain was 
 busy devising other ways of making the wild flames 
 serviceable to man. " But," he went on, " there 
 is A-ya. She knows as much about it as you 
 and I." 
 
 The Chief pondered a moment. 
 
 M Either the girl must die," said he, eyeing 
 Grom's face, " or she must be a priest along with us." 
 
 96 
 
CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE 
 
 " I think she will be a very good priest," said 
 Grom drily, his eyes resting upon her. 
 
 Then the Chief, ascending a rock between the 
 two fires, spoke to the people, and decreed as he 
 had said. He told a little about the Shining One, 
 just so much as he thought it good for his hearers 
 to know. He declared that the ones he had chosen 
 for the great honour of serving the fires must tend 
 them by turns, night and day, and guard them 
 with their lives ; for that, if one or the other should 
 be suffered to die out, some great disaster would 
 assuredly come upon the tribe. 
 
 " And henceforth," he concluded, " you shall 
 not be called the People of the Little Hills ; for 
 these ridges, indeed, are not such hills as those 
 whose bald and windy tops are keeping the bones 
 of our fathers. But you shall be known and 
 feared greatly by our enemies as ' The Children of 
 the Shining One,' under whose protection I declare 
 you." 
 
 97 
 
- CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 ON the broken hill-slope overlooking the Valley 
 of Fire, in the two great caves known as 
 the Cave of the Bears and the Cave of the Hyenas, 
 the tribe of the Children of the Shining One now 
 dwelt secure and began to recover heart. Before 
 each cave-mouth, tended night and day, burned 
 the sacred flame, its tongues licking upwards in 
 gold and scarlet with a radiance from which all 
 the tribe, with the sole exceptions of Bawr, the 
 Chief, and Grom, his right hand and councillor, 
 were wont to avert their eyes in awe whenever 
 they passed it in their comings and goings. Only 
 from a distance would they presume to look at 
 the flames directly ; and ever as they looked their 
 wonder and their reverence grew. Their trust in 
 the protection of the Shining One came to have no 
 bounds, for night after night would the great red 
 bears return, prowling in the mysterious gloom just 
 beyond the ring of light, with their dreadful eyes 
 turned fixedly upon their former habitation, only 
 to be driven off ignominiously when Grom rushed 
 
 9 8 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 at them with a shout and a flaming torch above 
 his head. And night after night 'would the troops 
 of the hyenas come back, their monstrous- jowled 
 heads swinging low from their mighty shoulders, 
 to sit and howl their devilish laughter above their 
 ancient lair, only to slink off in cowed silence when 
 the Chief would hurl a blazing brand among them. 
 When the beasts were thus discomfited and 
 abashed, the boldest of the warriors would go 
 leaping after them and bring down the hinder- 
 most with spears. So it came about that presently 
 the great animals knew themselves beaten, and 
 sullenly withdrew to the other side of the hills. 
 
 It was just this country at the other side of the 
 hills which most appealed to the restless imagina- 
 tion of Grom. Within the valley — which widened 
 out, as it receded from its fiery gateway, to enclose 
 league upon league of fertile plain — was good, 
 hunting, along with an abundance of roots, fruits 
 and edible herbs. But in Grom's heart burned that 
 spirit of unquenchable expectation which has led 
 the race of Man upwards through all obstacles — 
 the urge to find out ever what lies beyond. So 
 the saw-toothed line of these dark, volcanic 
 summits drew him irresistibly, with the promise 
 of unknown wonders hidden behind them. 
 
 During these few weeks since coming to the 
 Valley of the Fire, Grom had been tirelessly ex- 
 perimenting with the bright element, trying this 
 kind of fuel and that, one after another, in order 
 to learn what food was most acceptable to it. He 
 learned that certain substances it would devour 
 
 99 7* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 in raging haste, only to fail and die soon after ; 
 or not truly to die, he imagined, but to flee back 
 unseen to its dancing, flickering source at the 
 valley mouth. Other substances he found that 
 it would consume slowly, but pertinaciously. 
 While into yet others, such as dry turf and punk, 
 it would eat its way and hide, maintaining therein 
 for a long time a retired but potent existence, 
 ready to leap into radiant life under certain provo- 
 cation. His invention stimulated by these experi- 
 ments, he had made himself several hollow tubes 
 of a thick green bark whipped about with thongs, 
 and had stuffed them with that mixture of turf 
 and punk which he found best calculated to hold 
 the furtive seeds of fire alive. 
 
 With one of these slow torches alight, and several 
 spare ones slung over his shoulders, Grom set out 
 to cross the pointed hills and seek new wonders 
 in the lands beyond. The tall girl, A-ya, went 
 with him. This not being customary in the tribe, 
 they gave reasons. Grom said that he needed the 
 girl because she alone knew how rightly to serve 
 and tend the Shining One in combat. It was a 
 good reason, but he was amazed to find in his 
 heart so deep a desire for her that he was ill content 
 whenever his eyes could not rest upon her. There 
 was no one in the tribe with whom he could discuss 
 this strange emotion, for no one, not even the 
 wise and subtle-minded Chief, would have com- 
 prehended it — romantic love not yet having come 
 openly to these men of the Morning of Time. So 
 Grom gave the lesser reason, which all, including 
 
 ioo 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 himself, could understand. As for the girl, she 
 said that whatever her lord commanded she must 
 needs obey, which she did with a most seemly 
 readiness. But in her heart she knew that if 
 her man had commanded her to stay behind, she 
 would have obeyed only so long as he remained in 
 sight, and would then have followed him secretly. 
 
 Like Grom, the girl carried two flint-headed 
 spears. Both wore clumsy but effective slivers, 
 flint, for knives, in their girdles of twisted skin. 
 The girl, besides her weapons, carried a substantial 
 burden of strips of meat dried hard in the sun, in 
 case game should prove scarce or elusive in the 
 land beyond the hills. But when they had got 
 well out of sight of the caves, Grom turned, relieved 
 her of the burdens which, according to tribal 
 conventions, it was her duty to carry for her 
 man, and gave her instead the light but precious 
 tube of fire. 
 
 As they ascended the ragged slopes, vegetation 
 grew sparse, and when toward nightfall they 
 gained the pass which Grom was making for — a 
 deep cleft between two steep red and purple peaks 
 — the rock beneath their feet was naked but for 
 a low growth of flowering herbs and thorn. The 
 pass was too high for the aloe and mesembryan- 
 themum to flourish, and the lava-bed which floored 
 it was yet too new to have clothed itself in any 
 of the larger mountain-loving trees. Here they 
 passed the night, in a shallow niche of rock with 
 a fire before it ; and the fire being visible from a 
 long way off, no prowlers cared even to approach it. 
 
 101 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 On the following day they travelled swiftlv, but 
 the pass was long. It was near sunset again when 
 at last the rocks fell away to either side, and they 
 saw spread out below their feet the land which 
 they had come to explore. 
 
 It was a vast, rolling plain, golden-green with 
 rank, cane-like grasses, dotted with innumerable 
 clumps of trees, and laced with full watercourses 
 which lay in spacious loops of blue and silver. 
 Here and there lay broad, irregular patches where 
 the grass did not flourish, and these were of vivid 
 emerald-green from some unknown growth. 
 
 Along the horizon to the north sparkled a great 
 water. And half-way down the steep, toward the 
 right, smoked and smouldered a shallow, saucer- 
 shaped crater from whose broken lower rim a 
 purple-brown serpent of comparatively recent lava 
 descended in sluggish curves across the intense 
 green. 
 
 Somewhat to the girl's apprehension, Grom 
 seemed anxious to investigate the smoking crater, 
 but the only practicable path down the mountain 
 led them away from it, so he was content to leave 
 it for another time and another, perhaps less 
 repellent, approach. 
 
 Descending presently into a region of ledges and 
 ravines clothed with dense thickets, they found 
 on every hand traces of the giant bears and the 
 sabre-tooth tigers whom they had driven from 
 the caves in the Valley of Fire. Grom hurriedly 
 whirled the smouldering torch into a flame, and 
 from it lighted a couple of resinous brands, one 
 
 102 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 for himself, and one for A-ya to carry. Thus 
 armed, they fearlessly followed the broad trail of 
 bears, which led them very conveniently down the 
 steep. And bear and sabre-tooth alike, at sight 
 of the flames thus apparently seeking them out, 
 remembered their recent scorching discomfiture, 
 and slunk off like whipped curs. 
 
 Grom's immediate object was to make his way 
 straight to the shores of that great water, whose 
 gleaming on the horizon had been like an invitation 
 to his inquiring spirit. But when early in the 
 forenoon of the fourth day they reached the low- 
 lands, he found that his way would be anything 
 but straight. The immense grasses, a species of 
 cane, grew so tall, so dense and so thick in the 
 stem, that it was impossible to force a path through 
 them just where he would. 
 
 He saw that he must use the trails of the wild 
 beasts, which intersected it in all directions. 
 There were the tracks of every animal he knew 
 — the hunters and the hunted alike — and of many 
 more which he did not know. But one broad trail 
 in particular arrested his attention. It struck such 
 fear to the heart of the girl, whose eyes were keen 
 and understanding, that her knees trembled beneath 
 her, and had she dared she would have begged 
 Grom to turn back from a land which held such 
 monsters. 
 
 Even Grom himself felt a thrill of awe as he 
 stared at the trail which bespoke so mighty a 
 traveller. Wherever it led, the sturdiest growths 
 were crushed flat as if some huge boulder from 
 
 103 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the mountains had been rolled over them. And 
 the monster footprints, which here and there 
 stamped themselves clearly in the trail, were thrice 
 the size of those of the hugest mammoth. 
 
 Grom stooped and studied these footprints, 
 pondering them with knit brows. What manner 
 of giant it might be which moved on such colossal 
 and misshapen members it was beyond his wits 
 to guess. But of a surety it was a fine roadmaker ! 
 
 With a confident arrogance born of the know- 
 ledge that he was the lord of Fire, he deliberately 
 chose to pursue this dreadful trail. And the 
 girl, hiding her terror lest it should diminish her 
 credit in his sight, followed close at his elbow, her 
 bright eyes tirelessly searching the jungle on 
 either side. 
 
 Suddenly behind them came a confused, terrify- 
 ing noise of panting breaths and trampling feet. 
 It came sweeping down the broad trail. There 
 were grunting cries, also ; and Grom understood 
 at once that a herd of pig-tapirs — heavy-footed, 
 timorous beasts, as tall as heifers — were sweeping 
 down upon them in mad flight before some unknown 
 pursuer. 
 
 Against that blind panic, that headlong frantic 
 rush, he knew that blazing brands would avail 
 nothing. He clutched the girl by the hand. 
 " Come ! " he ordered. And they fled side by side 
 down the trail. 
 
 It was in their minds to climb the first suitable 
 tree they should come to, and let the rout go by. 
 In half a minute or so, over the tops of the giant 
 
 104 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 grasses, they sighted such a tree, only a few hundred 
 yards ahead. The trail, swerving opportunely, 
 appeared to lead directly towards its foot, and 
 they raced on, the girl now laughing softly with 
 excitement, and forgetting her fear of the un- 
 known because of the known peril behind her. It 
 pleased her curiously to find that her man had 
 not grown too divine to be ready to run away on 
 fitting occasion ; and she kept glancing at him 
 from under her dark tangle of hair with eyes of 
 passionate possession. 
 
 The wild uproar behind was drawing nearer 
 swiftly, but the refuge was now not more than 
 fifty paces ahead. All at once the way to it was 
 barred. Out from a little side-track on the right 
 came lumbering a gigantic rhinoceros, his creased 
 and folded hide clothed in matted brown wool and 
 caked with clay. He swung round into the trail, 
 almost blocking it with his bulk, stared for a 
 couple of seconds with evil little eyes at the two 
 slim beings before him, then lowered the huge 
 double horn that armed his snout, and charged 
 at them with a grunt of fury. 
 
 Caught thus fairly between the devil before, 
 and the deep sea of trampling hoofs behind, Grom 
 had no choice. A second's waving of the lighted 
 brands convinced him that the rhinoceros was too 
 dense of brain to fear the fire, or even to notice 
 it. Once more clutching the girl's hand, he ran 
 back a little way, seeking to draw the two perils 
 together, and give them an opportunity to distract 
 each other's attention. 
 
 105 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 He ran back till the flying, plunging herd of 
 the pig-tapirs came into full view around the curve 
 of the trail. Then, with all his strength, he forced 
 his way into the grass, on the left, shouldering 
 aside the upright stems to make room for the girl 
 to enter. She hurled her blazing brand full into 
 the face of the rhinoceros, hoping to confuse or 
 divert him for an instant, then thrust herself lithely 
 in past Grom. 
 
 The rhinoceros was diverted for an instant. 
 The smoke and sparks half blinded him, and in 
 a paroxysm of fury he checked himself to trample 
 the strange assailant under foot. Then he thun- 
 dered forward. But the tough stems of the grass 
 had closed up again. The two fugitives were 
 hidden. He saw the packed herd of the tapirs 
 bearing down upon him ; and, forgetting the insig- 
 nificant creatures who had first roused his anger, 
 he charged forward at full speed to meet this new 
 foe. 
 
 Realizing well enough that in three or four 
 seconds more the crash would come, and that 
 the struggle between the rhinoceros and the mad- 
 dened herd would be little short of a cataclysm, 
 Grom and the girl struggled breathlessly to force 
 themselves to a safe distance lest they should be 
 crushed in the melee. 
 
 The sweat ran down into their eyes, and swarms 
 of tiny insects, breeding in the giant stems, choked 
 their throats and nostrils ; but they wrestled their 
 way onwards blindly, foot by foot. Behind them, 
 out in the trail, came a ponderous crash, and 
 
 106 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 then an appalling explosion of squeals, screams, 
 grunts and roars. The next instant the rigid stems 
 gave way suddenly before them, and they fell 
 forward, with a startled cry from the girl, into a 
 deep and sunless water. 
 
 They came up, spluttering and choking ; but 
 as soon as she could catch breath the girl laughed, 
 whereupon the grimness of Grom's face relaxed. 
 The water was a deep creek, perfectly overshadowed 
 and hidden by the rank growth along its banks. 
 But just opposite was the tree whose refuge they 
 had been trying to gain. They swam across in 
 half-a-dozen strokes, and drew themselves ashore, 
 and shook themselves like a pair of retrievers. 
 Through all the flight, the fierce effort among the 
 grass-stems, and the unexpected ducking, they 
 had kept tenacious hold of every one of their 
 treasures. But — their fire was out ! The brand 
 was black ; the precious tube, with the seeds of 
 fire lurking at its heart, was drenched, saturated 
 and lifeless. 
 
 For a moment or two Grom looked into the 
 girl's eyes steadily, conveying to her without a 
 word the whole tremendous significance of their 
 loss. The girl responded, after a second's dismay, 
 with a look of trust and adoration which brought 
 a rush of warmth to Grom's heart. He smiled 
 proudly, and shook his club as if to reassure him- 
 self. Then, climbing hurriedly into the tree, they 
 stared back over the plumed tops of the grasses. 
 
 The sight that met their eyes was not one for 
 weak nerves. The spot in the grass which they 
 
 107 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 had just escaped from was a shambles. The fore- 
 most of the panic-stricken pig-tapirs, met by the 
 charge of the rhinoceros, had been ripped and 
 split by the rooting of his double horn, and hurled 
 to either side as if by some titanic plough. A 
 couple more had been trampled down and crushed 
 before his charge was stayed by the irresistible 
 pressure of the surging, squealing mass. 
 
 There he had stood fast, like a jagged promontory 
 in the surges, tossing his mighty head and thrust- 
 ing hideously, while the rest of the herd passed 
 on, either scrambling clean over him or breaking 
 down the canes and pouring around on either side. 
 Of those that passed over him about one in every 
 three or four got ripped by the tossing horn, and 
 went staggering forward a few paces, only to 
 fall and be trodden out by their fellows. Close 
 behind the last of the squealing fugitives came 
 the cause of their panic — two immense black 
 lions, who had apparently been playing with their 
 prey like cats. 
 
 When they came face to face with the rhinoceros 
 where he stood among his victims, shaking the 
 blood from horn and head and shoulder, they 
 stopped abruptly. Together, perhaps, they would 
 have been a match for him. But theirs was a far 
 higher intelligence than his. They knew the 
 almost impenetrable toughness of his hide, his 
 Berserk rage, his imperviousness to reasonable 
 fear ; and they had no care to engage themselves 
 without cause in so uncertain and unprofitable a 
 combat. 
 
 108 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 With a roar that rolled in thunder over the 
 plain and seemed to set the very tree-tops quivering, 
 they leaped lazily aside and went off in enormous 
 bounds through the grass, circling about as if to 
 intercept, in sheer wantonness of slaughter, the 
 remnants of the fleeing herd. At the sight Grom 
 frowned anxiously, thinking how helpless he and 
 the girl would be against such foes, now that they 
 no longer had the Shining One to protect them. 
 
 Squealing to split the ears, the pig-tapirs came 
 galloping past the tree, making for a piece of 
 water some furlongs further on, where doubtless 
 they hoped to evade both the lions and the rhino- 
 ceros. But they had yet another adversary to 
 reckon with. 
 
 Just past the tree, at a thicket of immense 
 scarlet poinsettias, the trail curved sharply. From 
 behind the poinsettias arose a gigantic shape 
 unlike anything that Grom had ever dreamed of. 
 And he knew that the maker of the mysterious 
 trail and those tremendous footprints was before 
 him. 
 
 With a trumpeting bray of indignation the 
 monster sat upright on hind-quarters far more 
 ponderous than those of a mammoth. Its tail, 
 as thick at the base as the body of a bear, helped 
 to support it, while its clumsy frame towered to a 
 height of eighteen or twenty feet. Its hind legs 
 were very short, thick like tree-trunks, grotesquely 
 bowed ; and its thighs like buttresses. Its fore 
 legs were more arms than legs, of startling length 
 and massive strength, draped in long, stiff hair, 
 
 109 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and terminated by colossal hands with immense 
 hooked claws for fingers. The whole body was 
 clothed with rusty hair of an amazing coarseness, 
 like matting fibre. The vast head, flat on top 
 and prolonged to a snout that was almost a pro- 
 boscis, had the look of being deformed by reason 
 of its fantastically exaggerated jowl, or lower 
 jaw. This terrifying monster thrust out a narrow 
 pink tongue, some three or four feet in length, 
 stooped and turned, and gave a hurried look at 
 something crouching behind its mighty thighs. 
 
 " It's baby ! " muttered the girl, with a little 
 indrawn breath of sympathy. 
 
 Then the strange being sat up again to meet 
 and ward off the rush of the maddened pig- 
 tapirs. 
 
 For a moment it beat off the assault, seizing the 
 frantic beasts and hurling them this way and that 
 as if they had been so many rabbits. Then it was 
 completely surrounded by the reeking, squealing, 
 bleeding horde, which paid no more personal 
 attention to it than if it had been a mass of rock. 
 They rolled over the little one, unheeding, and 
 trod it flat. Its death cry split the air ; and at 
 that sound the mother seemed to sink down into 
 her haunches. In her agony of rage and grief 
 she literally tore some of her assailants in halves, 
 throwing the awful fragments impatiently from 
 her in order to lose no time in seizing a new victim. 
 A few seconds more and the rush was past ; and 
 presently the mad rout was hurling itself with a 
 tremendous splashing into the water. The monster 
 
 no 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 ooked around for more victims — and was just in 
 time to see the hideous vision of the rhinoceros 
 charging down upon her. Triumphant from the 
 encounter with the lions, he had rushed back to 
 slake his still unsatisfied fury on the pig-tapirs. 
 At any other time he would have given such an 
 antagonist as the colossal megatherium a wide 
 berth ; but just now he was in one of his mad- 
 nesses. His furious little swinish eyes blinking 
 through the blood which dripped over them, he 
 hurled himself straight onward. His horn was 
 plunged into the monster's paunch ; but at the 
 same time one of those gigantic armed hands fell 
 irresistibly on his neck, shattering the vertebrae 
 through all their deep protection of hide and 
 muscle. He collapsed with an explosive grunt ; 
 and the giant hands tossed him aside. 
 
 It was a frightful wound which the monster had 
 received, but for a few moments she paid no atten- 
 tion to it, being occupied in licking the trampled 
 body of her young one with that amazing tongue 
 of hers. At length, apparently convinced that 
 the little one was quite dead, she brayed again 
 piteously, dropping forward upon all fours, and 
 made off slowly down the trail, walking with gro- 
 tesque awkwardness on the sides of her feet. For 
 two or three hundred yards she kept on, drawing 
 a wake of crimson behind her ; and then, appa- 
 rently exhausted by her wound, she turned off 
 among the canes, and lay down, close beside the 
 trail, but effectively screened from it. 
 From their place in the tree Grom and the girl 
 HI 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 had followed breathlessly these astounding en- 
 counters. At last Grom spoke : 
 
 " This is a country of very great beasts," he 
 remarked, with the air of one announcing a dis- 
 covery. As A-ya showed no inclination whatever to 
 dissent from this statement, he presently went on to 
 his conclusion, leaving her to infer his minor premise. 
 
 " We must go back and recover the Shining One. 
 It is not well for us to go on without him." 
 
 " Yes," agreed the girl eagerly. For all her 
 courage and her passionate trust in her man, the 
 sight of those black lions bounding over the tops 
 of the towering grasses had somewhat shaken her 
 nerve. She feared no beasts but the swiftest, and 
 those which might leap into the lower branches of 
 the trees. " Yes ! " she repeated. " Let us go 
 back for the Shining One, lest he be angry at us 
 for having put him in the water." 
 
 " But for yet a day more we will stay here in 
 this tree, and rest and sleep in safety," continued 
 Grom, " that we may travel the more swiftly, till 
 we get beyond the grasses." 
 
 Then, climbing higher into the tree, he proceeded 
 to build a platform and roof of interlaced branches 
 for their temporary home. In this task the girl 
 did not help him, because of the great muscular 
 strength which it required. She lay in a crotch, 
 her hairy but long and shapely legs coiled under 
 her like a leopard's, now gazing at her man with 
 ardent eyes, now staring out apprehensively across 
 the sun-drenched, perilous landscape. 
 
 Suddenly she gave a cry of amazement, and 
 112 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 pointed excitedly down the trail. Beyond the 
 water wherein the pig-tapirs had found refuge, 
 beyond the lurking-place of the wounded mega- 
 therium, came three men, running desperately. 
 Shading his eyes, Grom made out that they were 
 nearly exhausted. They were clearly men of the 
 type of his own tribe, light-skinned and well 
 shaped ; and the leader, who carried a long club, 
 was a man of stature equal to his own. Grom's 
 sympathies went out to them, and his impulse 
 was to hasten to their assistance. Glancing 
 further along the trail to learn the cause of their 
 headlong flight, he saw two black lions in pursuit, 
 probably the same two which had been driving 
 the pig-tapirs a couple of hours earlier. They 
 were coming on at such a pace that Grom feared 
 the weary fugitives would be overtaken before 
 they could reach the tree of refuge. Instinctively 
 he started to climb down. But, his eyes falling 
 upon the girl, he remembered that he had no right 
 to enter upon a venture so utterly hopeless while 
 he had her to take care of. His eager clutch 
 upon his spear relaxed. 
 
 " They are spent. They'll never get here ! " he 
 muttered anxiously. 
 
 " No ! " said A-ya, with blank unconcern. " The 
 lions will get them. It's Mawg, and his two 
 cousins." 
 
 Grom growled an exclamation of astonishment. 
 The girl's eyes — or her intuitions — were keener 
 than his. But he saw at a second glance that she 
 was right. 
 
 113 8 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 At this moment Mawg, running a few paces in 
 advance by reason of his superior speed and stamina, 
 passed the spot where the wounded megatherium 
 lay hidden. The monster lifted her dreadful head. 
 The next second the other two arrived, running 
 elbow to elbow, with drooped shoulders of ex- 
 haustion. Through the screen of canes a gigantic 
 hand shot out above their heads and came down 
 upon them, crushing the two together. They had 
 no time for outcry ; but it was clear that some 
 sound caught the leader's ears, for he glanced back 
 over his shoulder. He was near enough now for 
 the keen-eyed watchers in the tree to see his face 
 change with horror. He ran on without a pause, 
 but now with fresh speed, as if the sight had 
 shocked him into new vigour. Seeing that there 
 was, after all, a good prospect of his reaching the 
 tree in time, Grom swung down to be ready to help 
 him up. As he did so he saw the two lions approach 
 the hiding-place of the monster. 
 
 That vast, clawed hand still lay there on the 
 two crushed bodies in the middle of the trail. 
 The lions saw it, and they checked themselves at a 
 safe distance. They knew that just behind the 
 grass-screen lurked another such shaggy and 
 monstrous member, waiting to rend them as they 
 would rend an antelope. They shrank, and drew 
 back, snarling angrily. It is possible they feared 
 lest the screen on either side of the trail might 
 conceal more than one of the monsters ; for they 
 sprang far aside as if to make a wide circuit of the 
 perilous spot. 
 
 114 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 " There's plenty of time ! " muttered Grdm, 
 and dropped upon his feet in the middle of the 
 trail. The girl came in mad haste after him, but 
 at his sharp command " Stay there ! " she con- 
 tented herself with slipping out upon the lowest 
 branch, just over his head, and holding her spear 
 ready. 
 
 " Kill him ! " she cried. But Grom seemed not 
 to hear. 
 
 Staggering, and half blind with exhaustion, 
 Mawg was within twenty paces before he noticed 
 who was confronting him. Then his dull eyes 
 blazed. With a snarl of fury he hurled his club 
 straight at Grom's face, missing him only by a 
 hand's-breadth. But the effort, and the dis- 
 appointment at finding himself thus baulked, as 
 he imagined, on the very threshold of escape, 
 seemed to finish him. He stumbled on with 
 groping hands outstretched, and fell just at Grom's 
 feet. 
 
 Grom hesitated, wondering how he could get 
 this inert weight up into the tree. The girl did not 
 understand his hesitation. 
 
 " Kill him ! " she hissed, leaning down eagerly 
 from her branch overhead. 
 
 " No, he's a great warrior, and the tribe needs 
 him," answered Grom, stooping to shake the 
 prostrate form. 
 
 Mawg stirred, beginning to recover. Grom shook 
 him again. 
 
 " Up into the tree, quick I " he ordered in a 
 loud, sharp voice. " The lions are coming." 
 
 115 8 # 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Mawg roused himself, sat up, and stared with 
 a look of bewilderment changing swiftly into hate. 
 
 " Up ! " shouted Grom again. " The tree. 
 They're coming ! " 
 
 At this the fellow growled, but sprang up as if 
 he had been jabbed with a spear, and clambered 
 into the tree as nimbly as a monkey. Grom 
 followed, quickly but coolly. A-ya, who had 
 waited with her eyes watchfully on Mawg, stepped 
 close to Grom's side ; and all three swung upwards 
 into the higher branches as the two lions arrived 
 beneath. 
 
 Glaring up into the tree with shrewd, malevolent 
 eyes, the great beasts realized that, for the present 
 at least, the three man-creatures were quite out 
 of reach. Lashing their tufted tails in disappoint- 
 ment, they turned aside to sniff, in surly scorn, 
 at the dead, mountainous hulk of the rhinoceros, 
 which lay with one ponderous foot stuck up in 
 the air as if in clumsy protest at Fate. Compre- 
 hending readily the manner of its death, they came 
 back and lay down under the tree, and fell to 
 gnawing lazily at the body of one of the pig-tapirs 
 which the megatherium had torn in two. They 
 had the air of intending to stay some time, so Grom 
 presently turned his attention to his rescued rival. 
 
 Mawg was sitting on the next branch, a good 
 spear's length distant, and glowering at A-ya's 
 lithe shapeliness with eyes of savage greed. Grom 
 knit his brows, and significantly passed an arm 
 about the girl's shoulders. Mawg shifted his 
 attention to him. 
 
 116 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 " What do you want of me ? " he demanded, in 
 a thick, guttural voice. 
 
 " I thought you ran as if you did not want 
 the lions to eat you," answered Grom. 
 
 Mawg stared with a stupid brutality and incom- 
 prehension ; and the eyes of the two men, meeting 
 fairly, seemed to lock in a duel of personalities. 
 
 They presented a significant contrast. Both, 
 physically, superb specimens of their race — the 
 highest then evolved upon the youthful earth — 
 the elder man, in his ample forehead and calm, 
 reasoning eyes, displayed all the promise of the 
 future ; while the youth, low-skulled and with his 
 dull but pugnacious eyes set under enormous bony 
 brows, suggested the mere brute from which the 
 race had mounted. His hair was shorter and 
 coarser than Grom's, and foully matted ; and his 
 neck was set very far forward between his powerful 
 but lumpy shoulders. The colour of his coarse 
 and furrowed skin was so dark as to make the 
 weathered tan of Grom and A-ya look white by 
 contrast. 
 
 In no way lacking courage, but failing in will 
 and steadiness, in a dozen seconds Mawg involun- 
 tarily shifted his gaze, and looked down at the 
 lions. 
 
 M What do you want of me ? " he demanded 
 again, as if he had had no answer before. 
 
 " The tribe has too few warriors left. I will 
 take you back to the tribe ! " replied Grom with 
 authority. 
 
 Mawg curled back his thick lips from his great 
 117 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 yellow dog-teeth in a snarling laugh of incre- 
 dulity. 
 
 " You want to kill me!" said he, nodding his 
 head. 
 
 Grom stared at him for a moment or two with a 
 look of fatigued contempt, then tore off a substan- 
 tial strip of dried flesh from the bundle hanging on 
 the branch, and tossed it to him. The fellow 
 snatched it, and hid it behind him, being too 
 hungry to refuse it, but too savage to eat it under 
 his captor's eye. Grom smiled slowly, and fell to 
 playing with a heavy strand of A-ya's hair which 
 had fallen over his arm. But to this caress the 
 girl paid no attention. She was puzzled and out- 
 raged at Grom's action in protecting his rival. 
 Her nostrils dilated, and a red spot glowed angrily 
 under each cheek-bone. 
 
 Suddenly from down the trail came a noise of 
 crackling grass-stems. The two lions got up from 
 their meal, and turned their heads inquiringly 
 toward the sound. The next moment they went 
 stalking off the opposite way with an air of haughty 
 indignation, ignoring all the bodies of the slain 
 pig-tapirs. When they had rounded the first turn 
 in the trail they leaped into the grass, and went 
 bounding off in a straight line toward a large 
 patch of wood some miles distant. The wounded 
 megatherium was returning. 
 
 Perhaps stung into restlessness by the anguish 
 of that rending thrust, the monster came dragging 
 herself back toward the tree, crawling on the sides 
 of her feet. Arriving at the scene of battle, she 
 
 118 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 sniffed once more at her mangled young one, and 
 brayed piteously over it. Then turning in an 
 explosive fury upon the body of the rhinoceros, 
 began to tear it limb from limb as one might pull 
 apart a roast pigeon. While thus occupied, she 
 chanced to turn her eyes upon the tree, and caught 
 sight of the three figures looking down upon her. 
 
 On the instant her rage was diverted to them. 
 Braying like a steam siren, she came under the 
 tree, reared herself against it, flung her giant arms 
 about it, and strove to pull it down. The tree 
 rocked as if struck by a tornado ; and Mawg, who 
 had been too slow to notice what was about to 
 happen, gave a yell of horror as he barely saved 
 himself from falling. The girl laughed, whereupon 
 he shot her a menacing look which so enraged her 
 that she raised her spear as if to transfix him. 
 
 But there was too much happening below for 
 her attention to remain on Mawg. Finding the 
 tree quite too sturdy to be pulled down off-hand, 
 the monster gripped the lowest main branch, a 
 limb eight or ten inches through, and with one 
 wrench peeled it down like a stalk of celery. Her 
 first effort, upon the main trunk, had set the blood 
 once more pumping from her wound, but she paid 
 , no attention to it. Reaching to the next great 
 branch, she ripped that one down also, taking 
 another great strip from the main trunk. Grom 
 saw that her purpose obviously was to pull the 
 tree to pieces bit by bit, in order to get at her 
 intended victims. Mawg apparently saw this also, 
 and it was too much for him. Gripping his strip 
 
 119 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 of dried meat between his teeth, he slipped around 
 the trunk till he was sheltered from the monster's 
 sight, dropped to a branch which stretched far 
 over the water, ran out along it nimbly as an ape, 
 and dived. The monster, her eyes fixed upon 
 the two remaining in the tree, never noticed his 
 escape. Mawg swam the creek, thrush his way 
 through the grass-stems, darted back to snatch 
 up his club, shook it at Grom, and, yelling an 
 obscene taunt, raced off to seek himself another 
 retreat before nightfall. 
 
 Neither Grom nor A-ya had any heed to spare 
 him at that moment. The monster had just torn 
 down a limb so huge that the main trunk was 
 almost split in half by its loss. Grom saw that 
 unless he could stop this process of destruction, 
 in a few moments more the tree would be over- 
 thrown. The monster was just rearing herself 
 to clutch the next great bough. Spear in hand, 
 Grom slipped down to meet her, and halted on a 
 branch just out of reach. The monster brayed 
 vindictively, stretched to her full height, and 
 then shot forth her tremendous muscular red coil 
 of tongue, thinking evidently to lick down her 
 insignificant adversary from his perch. She was 
 within an inch of succeeding. Grom just eluded 
 the strange attack by stepping aside nimbly ; and 
 quick as thought A-ya's spear slashed the dreadful 
 red tongue as it reached flickering after her lord's 
 ankles. The next moment, seeing the monster's 
 throatjupstretched and unguarded, Grom drove his 
 spear full force, straight into the soft hollow of 
 
 120 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 it. The weapon sank in to a depth of perhaps 
 three feet, till the ragged flint lodged in the vertebra 
 of the monster's neck. Then the shaft was wrenched 
 violently from his hand ; and the monster, blow- 
 ing blood and foam from mouth and nostrils, fell 
 with a crash among the litter of great branches 
 which she had pulled down. 
 
 Grom drew a deep breath of relief, and com- 
 mended the girl for her timely and effective stroke 
 at that terrible tongue. Then he set himself coolly 
 to the task of completing their shelter for the 
 night. As he wove leafy branches into the floor 
 of the platform to make it soft, she contemplated 
 his work with satisfaction. Presently he remarked : 
 
 "I'm glad we are rid of that Mawg." 
 
 " You should have killed him ! " said the girl 
 curtly. 
 
 " But why ? " demanded Grom, in some surprise. 
 In his eyes the fellow was a valuable piece of 
 property belonging to the tribe, a fighting asset. 
 
 " He wants me ! " answered the girl, meeting his 
 eyes resentfully. 
 
 Grom let his eyes roam all over her — face, hair 
 and form — and such a look of passionate admira- 
 tion glowed in their steady depths that her anger 
 faded, her own eyes dropped, and her breast gave 
 a happy, incomprehensible flutter. She had never 
 seen such a look in any man's face before, or even 
 dreamed of such a look as possible. 
 
 " Of course, he wants you," said Grom, wonder- 
 ing, as he spoke, at the ring of his own voice. 
 " You are the fairest thing, and the most desirable, 
 
 121 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 on earth. All men whose eyes come to rest on 
 you must want you. But none shall have you, ever, 
 for you are mine, and none shall tear you from me." 
 
 And at that the girl forgot her anger, and forgave 
 him for having neglected to kill Mawg. 
 
 That night sleep was impossible for them, though 
 their lofty shelter was comfortable and secure. A 
 vast orange moon, near the full, illuminated the 
 spacious landscape ; and beneath the tree came all 
 the giant night-prowlers, gathering to the un- 
 paralleled banquet which the day had spread for 
 them. Only the two black lions, perhaps already 
 glutted, did not come. Wolves, a small pack of 
 self-disciplined wild dogs, a troop of hyenas, and 
 several enormous leopards, howled, snarled and 
 wrangled in knots over the widely scattered car- 
 cases, each group watching its neighbours with 
 suspicion and deadly animosity. 
 
 A gigantic red bear came lumbering up, and all 
 the lesser prowlers scattered discreetly but resent- 
 fully before him. He strode straight to the chief 
 place, under the rent, dishevelled tree, and fell to 
 tearing at the mountainous corpse of the mega- 
 therium. He was undisturbed till two sabre- 
 tooths arrived, their tawny coats spectral in the 
 moonlight, their foot-long tusks giving their broad 
 masks a dreadful grin. 
 
 Before one sabre-tooth the bear would have 
 stood his ground scornfully ; but before the two 
 he thought it best to defer. Slowly, and with a 
 thunderous grumbling, he moved over to the body 
 of the rhinoceros, pretending that he preferred it. 
 
 122 
 
THE PULLER-DOWN OF TREES 
 
 The air was split and battered with the clamour 
 of raving voices. Other sabre-tooths came, and 
 then another bear. 
 
 There were swift, sudden battles, as swiftly 
 dropped because neither combatant wished to 
 fight to a finish when there was feasting so abundant 
 for all. And once a leopard, dodging the paw of 
 a sabre-tooth, sprang into the tree, only to fall 
 back howling from the spears thrust at him 
 through the floor of Grom's platform. 
 
 Just before dawn the girl slept, while Grom 
 kept watch beside her lest another leopard should 
 fancy to explore their refuge. An hour later, when 
 the first pallor was spreading, she awoke with a 
 cry of fear, and clung to Grom's arm, shuddering 
 strongly. 
 
 " But — what is it ? " he asked, in a tender voice, 
 stroking her heavy mane. 
 
 " I was afraid ! " she answered, like a child. 
 
 " What were you afraid of ? " asked Grom 
 humouring her. 
 
 " I was afraid of Mawg. I am afraid of him ! " 
 she answered, sitting up and shaking the hair 
 from her eyes, and staring out fearfully over the 
 grey, transparent plains. 
 
 " Why should you fear Mawg ? " demanded 
 Grom proudly. " Am not I your man ? And am 
 not I always with you ? Many such mad brutes 
 as Mawg could not take you from me." 
 
 " I know," answered the girl, " that he and such 
 as he would be as straw in my lord's hands. But 
 — even Grom must sometimes sleep ! " 
 
 123 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Groin laughed gently at her forebodings. 
 
 M He must sleep now, indeed, for we have a 
 long and perilous journey before us," said he. 
 Laying his great shaggy head in her lap, and 
 stretching his limbs as far as the tiny platform 
 would allow, he was asleep in two seconds. The 
 girl, stooping forward till her rich hair shadowed 
 the rugged, sleeping face, with its calm brows, 
 pondered deeply over his inexplicable forbearance 
 toward his rival. Her instincts all assured her 
 that it was dangerous ; but something else within 
 her, something which she strove in vain to grasp, 
 suggested to her that in some way it was noble, 
 and made her glad of it. Then, all at once, the 
 first of the sunrise, flooding into the tree-top, 
 bathed her face with a rosy glow, and wonderfully 
 transfigured it. 
 
 124 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 NOW for two years had the remnants of the 
 tribe been settled in the Valley of Fire. 
 They had prospered exceedingly. The caves were 
 swarming with strong children ; for at the Chief's 
 orders every warrior had taken to himself either 
 two or three wives, so that none of the widows had 
 been left unmated. Grom alone remained with but 
 one wife, although his position in the tribe, second 
 only to that of Bawr himself, would have entitled 
 him to as many as he might choose. 
 
 Singularly happy with the girl A-ya, Grom had 
 been unwilling to receive other women into their 
 little grotto, which branched off from the high 
 arched entrance of the main cave. He might, 
 however, have yielded, from policy and for the 
 sake of the tribe, to pressure from the Chief, but 
 for a look of startled anguish which he had seen 
 leap into A-ya's eyes when he mentioned the 
 matter to her. This had surprised him at the 
 moment, but it had also thrilled him curiously. 
 And as the girl made no objection to a step so 
 
 125 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 absolutely in accordance with the tribal customs, 
 Grom thought about it a good deal. A few days 
 later he excused himself to the Chief, saying that 
 other women in his cave would be a nuisance, and 
 would interfere with those studies of the Shining 
 One which had proved so beneficial to the tribe. 
 Bawr had accepted the excuse, though somewhat 
 perplexed by it, and had accommodatingly taken 
 the extra wives himself — a solution which had 
 seemed to meet with the unqualified approval of 
 A-ya. 
 
 The first winter in the Valley of Fire had been 
 a wonderful one to the tribe, thanks to the fierce 
 but beneficent element ever shining, dancing and 
 whispering in its mysterious tongue before the 
 cave doors. Bleak winds and driving, icy rains 
 out of the north had no longer any power to dis- 
 tress them. 
 
 But when the storm was violent, with drenching 
 and persistent rain, then it was found necessary 
 to feed the fires before the cave-mouths lavishly 
 with dry fuel from the stores which Grom's fore- 
 thought had caused to be accumulated under 
 shelter. These contests between fire and rain 
 were sagaciously represented by Bawr (who had 
 by now to his authority as Chief added the subtle 
 sanctions of High Priest) as the fight of the Shining 
 One in protection of the tribe, his children. 
 
 On more than one occasion of torrential down- 
 pour the struggle had almost seemed to hang for a 
 while in doubt. But the Shining One lost no 
 prestige, thereby, for always, down there across 
 
 126 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 the valley-mouth, kept leaping and dancing those 
 unquenchable flames of scarlet, amber and violet, 
 fed by the volcanic gases from within the crevice, 
 and utterly regardless of whatever floods the sky 
 might loose upon them. This was evidence con- 
 clusive that the Shining One was master of the 
 storm, no less than of the monsters which fled so 
 terror-stricken before him. 
 
 In the early spring, the girl A-ya bore a child 
 to Grom ; a big-limbed, vigorous boy, with shapely 
 head and spacious brow. In this event, and in 
 the mother's happiness about it (a happiness that 
 seemed to the rest of the women to savour of 
 foolish extravagance), Grom felt a gladness which 
 dignity forbade him to betray. 
 
 But pondering over the little one with bent 
 brows, and with deep eyes full of visions, he con- 
 ceived such an ambition as had perhaps never 
 before entered into the heart of man. It was 
 that this child might grow up to achieve some 
 wonderful thing, as he himself had done, for the 
 advancement of his people. Of this baby, child of 
 the woman toward whom he felt emotions so new 
 and so profound, he had a premonition that new 
 and incalculable things would come. 
 
 One day Grom was following the trail of a deer 
 some distance up the valley. Skilled hunter that 
 he was, he could read in the trail that his quarry 
 was not far ahead, and also that it had not yet 
 taken alarm. He followed cautiously, up the 
 wind, noiseless as a leopard, his sagacious eyes 
 taking note of every detail about him. 
 
 127 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Presently he came to a spot where the trail was 
 broken. There was a twenty-foot gap to the next 
 hoofprints, and these went off at right angles to 
 the direction which the quarry had hitherto been 
 pursuing. Grom halted abruptly, slipped behind 
 a tree, crouched, and peered about him with the 
 tense vigilance of a startled fox. He knew that 
 something had frightened the deer, and frightened 
 it badly. It behoved him to find out what that 
 something was. 
 
 For some minutes he stood motionless as the 
 trunk against which he leant, searching every 
 bush and thicket with his keen gaze, and sniffing 
 the air with expert nostrils. There was nothing 
 perceptible to explain that sudden fright of the 
 deer. He was on the point of slipping around the 
 trunk # to investigate from another angle. But 
 stop ! There on a patch of soil where some bear 
 had been grubbing for tubers he detected a strange 
 footprint. Instantly, he sank to the ground, and 
 wormed his way over, silently as a snake, to 
 examine it. 
 
 It was a human footprint, but much larger than 
 his own, or those of his tribe ; and Grom's beard, 
 and the stiff hairs on the nape of his corded neck, 
 bristled with hostility at the sight of it. 
 
 The toes of this portentous print were immensely 
 long and muscular, and the heel protruded gro- 
 tesquely far behind the arch of the foot, which 
 was low and flat. The pressure was very marked 
 along all the outer edge, as if the author of the 
 print had walked on the outer sides of his feet. 
 
 128 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 To Grom, who was an adept in the signs of the 
 trail, it needed no second look to be informed that 
 one of the Bow-legs had been here. And the trail 
 was not five minutes old. 
 
 Grom slipped under the nearest bushes, and 
 writhed forward with amazing speed in the direc- 
 tion indicated by the strange footprint, pausing 
 every other second to look, sniff the air, and listen. 
 The trail was as clear as daylight to him. Sud- 
 denly he heard voices, several of them, guttural 
 and squealing, and stopped again as if turned to 
 stone. Then another voice, at which he started 
 in amazement. It was Mawg's, speaking quietly 
 and confidentially. Mawg, then, had gone over 
 to the Bow-legs ! Grom's forehead wrinkled. A-ya 
 had been right. He ought to have killed the 
 traitor. He writhed himself into a dense covert, 
 and presently, over the broken brink of a vine- 
 draped ledge, was able to command a view of 
 the speakers. 
 
 They were five in number, and grouped almost 
 immediately below him. Four were of the Bow- 
 legs, squat, huge in the shoulder, long-armed, flat- 
 skulled, of a yellowish clay colour, with protruding 
 jaws, and gaping, pit-like, up-turned nostrils to 
 their wide, bridgeless noses. Grom's own nose 
 wrinkled in disgust as the sour taint of them 
 breathed up to him. 
 
 They were all armed with spears and stone- 
 headed clubs, such as their people had been un- 
 acquainted with up to the time of their attack 
 upon the Tribe of the Little Hills. It was 
 
 129 9 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 apparent to Grom that the renegade Mawg, who 
 towered among them arrogantly, had been teaching 
 them what he knew of effective weapons. 
 
 Having no remotest comprehension of the lan- 
 guage of the Bow-legs — which Mawg was speak- 
 ing with them — Grom could get little clue to the 
 drift of their talk. They gesticulated frequently 
 toward the east, and then again toward the caves 
 at the valley-mouth, so Grom guessed readily 
 enough that they were planning something against 
 his people. 
 
 It was clear, also, that this was but a little 
 scouting party which the renegade had led in 
 to spy upon the weakness of the tribe. This was 
 as far as he could premise with any certainty. 
 The obvious conclusion was that these spies would 
 return to their own country, to lead back such an 
 invasion as should blot the Children of the Shining 
 One out of existence. 
 
 Grom was quick to realize that to listen any 
 longer was to waste invaluable time. All that it 
 was possible for him to learn, he had learned. 
 Writhing softly back till he had gained what he 
 considered a safe distance from the spies, he rose 
 to his feet and ran, at first noiselessly, and crouch- 
 ing 3.s he went, then at the top of that speed for 
 which he was famous in the tribe. Reaching the 
 Caves, he laid the matter hurriedly before the Chief, 
 and within five minutes they were leading a dozen 
 warriors up the trail. 
 
 Besides their customary weapons, both Grom 
 and the Chief carried fire-sticks, tubes of thick, 
 
 130 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 green bark, tied round with raw hide, filled with 
 smouldering punk, and perforated with a number 
 of holes toward the upper end. This was one of 
 Grom's inventions, of proved efficacy against sabre- 
 tooth and bear. By cramming a handful of dry 
 fibre and twigs into the mouth of the tube, and 
 then whirling it around his head, he was able to 
 obtain a sudden and most unexpected burst of 
 flame which no beast ever dared to face, and 
 which never failed to compel the awe and wonder 
 of his followers. 
 
 Like shadows the little band went gliding in single 
 file through the thickets and under the drooping 
 branches, their passage marked only by the occa- 
 sional upspringing of a startled bird or the fright- 
 ened crashing flight of some timorous beast sur- 
 prised by their swift and noiseless approach. 
 Arriving near the hollow under the ledge, they 
 sank flat and wormed their way forward like 
 weasels till they had gained the post of observation 
 behind the vine-clad rock. 
 
 But the strangers had vanished. An examina- 
 tion of their footprints showed that they had fled 
 in haste ; and to Grom's chagrin it looked as if 
 he had himself given them the alarm. The problem 
 was solved in a few minutes by the discovery that 
 Mawg — easily detected by his finer footprints — had 
 scaled the ledge and come upon the place where 
 Grom had lain hidden to watch them. Seeing 
 that they were discovered, and that their discoverer 
 had evidently gone to arouse the tribe, they had 
 realized that, the Bow-legs being slow runners, 
 
 131 9* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 their only hope lay in instant flight. From the 
 direction which they had taken it was evident 
 that they were fleeing back to their own country. 
 
 The Chief ordered instant pursuit. To this 
 Grom demurred, not only because the fugitives 
 had obtained such a start — as was shown by the 
 state of the trail — but because he dreaded to 
 leave the Caves so long unguarded. He foresaw 
 the possibility of another band of invaders sur- 
 prising the Caves during the absence of this most 
 efficient fighting force. But the Chief overruled 
 him. 
 
 For several hours was the pursuit kept up ; 
 and from the trail it appeared, not only that Mawg 
 was leading his followers cleverly, but also that 
 the Bow-legs were making no mean speed. The 
 pursuers were come by now to near the head of 
 the valley, a region with which they were little 
 familiar. It was a broken country and well fitted 
 for ambuscade, where a lesser force, well posted 
 and driven to bay, might well secure a deadly 
 advantage. The tribe was too weak to risk its 
 few fighting men in any uncertain contest ; and 
 the Chief, yielding slowly to Grom's arguments, 
 was on the point of giving the order to turn back, 
 when a harsh scream of terror from just ahead, 
 beyond a shoulder of rock, brought the line to a 
 halt. 
 
 Waving their followers into concealment on 
 either side of the trail, the Chief and Grom stole 
 forward and peered cautiously around the turn. 
 
 Straight before them fell away a steep and 
 132 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 rugged slope. Midway of the descent, with his 
 back to a rock, crouched one of the Bow-legs, 
 battling frantically with his club to keep off the 
 attack of a pair of leopards. The man was kneeling 
 upon one knee, with the other leg trailed awkwardly 
 behind him. It seemed an altogether difficult 
 and disadvantageous position in which to do 
 battle. 
 
 " The fool ! " said Bawr. '■ He doesn't know 
 how to fight a leopard." 
 
 " He's hurt. His leg is broken ! " said Grom. 
 And straightway, a novel purpose flashing into his 
 far-seeing brain, he ran leaping down the slope 
 to the rescue, waving his fire-stick to a blaze as he 
 went. 
 
 The Chief looked puzzled for a moment, wonder- 
 ing why the deliberate Grom should trouble to do 
 what it was plain the leopards would do for him 
 most effectually. But he dreaded the chance of 
 an ambuscade. Shouting to the men behind to 
 come on, he waved his own fire-stick to a blaze, 
 and followed Grom. 
 
 One of the leopards had already succeeded in 
 closing in upon the wounded Bow-leg ; but at 
 the sight of Grom and the Chief leaping down upon 
 them they sprang back snarling and scurried off 
 among the thickets like frightened cats. The 
 Bow-leg lifted wild eyes to learn the meaning of 
 his deliverance. But when he saw those two tall 
 forms rushing at him with flame and smoke circling 
 about their heads, he gave a groan and fell forward 
 upon his face. 
 
 133 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Grom stood over him, staring down upon the 
 misshapen and bleeding form with thoughtful 
 eyes ; while the Chief looked on, striving to fathom 
 his purpose. The warriors came up, shouting 
 savage delight at having at last got one of their 
 dreaded enemies into their hands alive. They 
 would have fallen upon him at once and torn 
 him to pieces. But Grom waved them back sternly. 
 They growled with indignation, and one, suffi- 
 ciently prominent in the tribal counsels to dare 
 Grom's displeasure, protested hotly against this 
 favour to so venomous a foe. 
 
 M I demand this fellow, Bawr, as my captive ! " 
 said Grom. 
 
 " It was you who took him," answered the 
 Chief. "He is yours." He was about to add, 
 '■' though I can't see what you want of him ; " 
 but it was a part of his policy never to seem in 
 doubt or ignorance about anything that another 
 might perhaps know. So, instead, he sternly told 
 his followers to obey the law of the tribe and 
 respect Grom's capture. Then Grom stepped close 
 beside him and said at his ear : " Many things 
 which we need to know will Bawr learn from this 
 fellow presently, as to the dangers which are like 
 to come upon us." 
 
 At this the Chief, being ready of wit, compre- 
 hended Grom's purpose ; and, to the amazement of 
 his followers, he looked down upon the hideous 
 prisoner with a smile of satisfaction, 
 
 " Well have I called you the Chief's Right 
 Hand," he answered. M I shall also have to call 
 
 134 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 you the Chief's Wisdom, for in saving this fellow's 
 life you have shown more forethought than I." 
 
 The captive's wounds having been dressed with 
 astringent herbs, and his broken leg put into 
 splints in accordance with the rude but not in- 
 effective surgery of the time, he was placed on a 
 rough litter of interlaced branches and carried back 
 by the reluctant warriors to the Caves. 
 
 None of the warriors were advanced enough to 
 have understood the policy of their leaders, so no 
 effort was made by either the Chief or Grom to 
 explain it. The Chief, doubly secure in his domi- 
 nance by reason of Groin's loyal support, cared 
 little whether his followers were content or not, 
 and he took no heed of their ill-humour so long as 
 they did not allow it to become articulate. 
 
 But when, after an hour's sullen tramping, they 
 suddenly grew merry at their task, and fell to 
 marching with a child-like cheer under their re- 
 pulsive and groaning burden, he was surprised, 
 and made inquiry as to the reason for this sudden 
 complaisance. It turned out that one of the 
 warriors, accounted more discerning than his 
 fellows, had suggested that the captive was to be 
 nursed back to health in order that he might be 
 made an acceptable sacrifice to the Shining One. 
 As this notion seemed to meet with such hearty 
 approval, the wise Chief did not think it worth 
 while to cast any doubt upon it. In fact, as he 
 thought, such a solution might very well arrive, 
 in the end, in case Grom's design should fail to come 
 up to his expectations. 
 
 135 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 To the presence of the hideous and repulsive 
 stranger in her dwelling, A-ya, as was natural, 
 raised warm objection. But when Grom had 
 explained his purpose to her, and the imminence 
 of the peril that threatened, she yielded readily 
 enough, the dread of Mawg being yet vivid in her 
 imagination. She lent herself cheerfully to the 
 duty of caring for the captive's wounds and of 
 helping Grom to teach him the simple speech of 
 the tribe. 
 
 As for the captive, for some days he was 
 possessed by a morose anticipation of being brained 
 at any moment — an anticipation, however, which 
 did not seem to interfere with his appetite. He 
 would clutch eagerly all the food offered him, 
 and crouch, huddled over it, with his face to the 
 rock- wall, while he devoured it with frantic 
 haste and bestial noises. But as he found himself 
 treated with invariable kindness, he began to 
 develop an anxious gratitude and docility. On 
 A-ya's tall form his little round eyes, shy and fierce 
 at the same time, came to rest with an adoring 
 awe. The smell of him being extremely offensive 
 to all this cleanly tribe, and especially to A-ya and 
 Grom, who were more fastidious than their fellows, 
 A-ya had taken advantage of her office as priestess 
 of the Shining One to establish a little fire within 
 the precincts of her own dwelling, and by the 
 judicious use of aromatic barks upon the blaze she 
 was able to scent the place to her taste. And the 
 Bow-leg, seeing her mastery of the mysterious and 
 dreadful scarlet tongues which licked upwards 
 
 136 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 from the hollow on their rocky pedestal, regarded 
 her less as a woman than as a goddess — a being 
 who, for her own unknown reasons, chose to be 
 beneficent toward him, but who plainly could 
 become destructive if he should in any way trans- 
 gress. Toward Grom — who regarded him alto- 
 gether impersonally as a means to an end, a pawn 
 to be played prudently in a game of vast import — 
 his attitude was that of the submitted slave, his 
 fate lying in the hollow of his master's hand. 
 Toward the rest of the tribe — who, till their curi- 
 osity was sated, kept crowding in to stare and jeer 
 and curse — he displayed the savage fear and hate 
 of a lynx at bay. 
 
 But the babe on A-ya's arm seemed to him some- 
 thing peculiarly precious. It was not only the son of 
 Grom, his grave and distant master, but also of that 
 wonderful, beautiful, enigmatic deity, his mistress, 
 the fashioner and controller of the flames. The 
 adoration which soon grew up in his heart for 
 A-ya's beauty, but which his awe of her did not 
 suffer him even to realize to himself, was turned 
 upon the babe, and speedily took the form of a 
 passionate and dog-like devotion. A-ya, with her 
 mother instinct, was quick to understand this, and 
 also to realize the possible value to her child of 
 such a devotion, in some future emergency. More- 
 over, it softened her heart toward the hideous 
 captive, so that she busied herself not only to help 
 Grom teach him their language, but also to reform 
 his manners and make him somewhat less un- 
 pleasant an associate. His wounds soon healed. 
 
 137 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 thanks to the vitality of his youthful stock ; and 
 the bones of the broken leg soon knit themselves 
 securely. But Grom's surgery having been hasty 
 and something less than exact, the leg remained 
 so crooked that its owner could do no more than 
 hobble about with a laborious, dragging gait. It 
 being obvious that he could not run away, there 
 was no guard set upon him. 
 
 But it soon became equally obvious that nothing 
 would induce him to remove himself from the 
 neighbourhood of A-ya's baby. He was like a 
 gigantic watch-dog squatting at Grom's doorway, 
 chained to it by links stronger than any that 
 hands could fashion. And those of the tribe who 
 had been hoping to do honour to the Shining One, 
 as well as to the spirits of their slain kinsmen 
 back in the barrows on the windy hills, by a great 
 and bloody sacrifice, began to realize with discon- 
 tent that their hopes were like enough to be 
 disappointed. 
 
 II 
 
 The captive said his name was Ook-ootsk — a 
 clicking guttural which none but A-ya was able to 
 master. When he had learned to make himself 
 understood, he proved eager to repay Grom's 
 protection by giving all the information that he 
 possessed. Simple-minded, but with much of a 
 child's shrewdness, he quickly came to regard 
 himself as of some importance when both the Chief 
 
 138 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 and Grom would spend hours in interrogating him. 
 His own people he repudiated with bitterness, 
 because, when he had fallen among the rocks and 
 shattered his leg, his party had refused to burden 
 their flight by helping him. It became his pride to 
 identify himself with the interests of his master, and 
 to call himself the slave of his master's baby. 
 
 The information which he was able to give was 
 such as to cause the Chief and Grom the most 
 profound disquietude. It appeared that the Bow- 
 legs, having gradually recovered from the panic 
 of their appalling defeat in the Pass of the Little 
 Hills, had made up their minds that the disaster 
 must be avenged. But no longer did they hold 
 their opponents cheap on account of their scanty 
 numbers. They realized that if they would hope 
 toWcceed in their next attack they must organize, 
 and\prepare themselves by learning how to employ 
 their forces better. To this end, therefore, when 
 Mawg and his fellow-renegades fell into their 
 hands, instead of tearing them to pieces in bestial 
 sport, they had spared them, and made much of 
 them, and set themselves diligently to learn all 
 that the strangers could teach. And Mawg, seeing 
 here his opportunity both for vengeance on Grom 
 and for the gratification of that mad passion for 
 A-ya which had so long obsessed him, had gone 
 about the business with shrewd foresight and a 
 convincing zeal. 
 
 It was apparent from the accounts which Ook- 
 ootsk was able to give that the invasion would 
 take place as soon as possible after their hordes were 
 
 139 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 adequately armed with the new weapons. This, 
 said Ook-ootsk, would be soon after the dry season 
 had set in. In any case, he said, the hordes were 
 bound to wait for the dry season, because the way 
 from their country to the Valley of Fire lay through 
 a region of swamps which became impassable for 
 any large body of migrants during the month of 
 rains. 
 
 As the dry season was already close upon them, 
 Bawr and Grom now set themselves feverishly to 
 the arrangement of their defences. Counting the 
 older boys who had grown into sizable youths since 
 the last great battle and all the able-bodied women 
 and girls, they could muster no more than about 
 six score of actual combatants. They knew that 
 defeat would mean nothing less than instant anni- 
 hilation for the tribe, and for the women a foul 
 captivity and a loathsome mating. But they 
 knew also that a mere successful defence would 
 avail them only for the moment. Unless they 
 could inflict upon the invaders such a defeat as 
 would amount to a paralysing catastrophe, they 
 would soon be worn down by mere force of 
 numbers, or starved to death in their caves. It 
 was not only for defence, therefore, but for whole- 
 sale attack — the attack of six score upon as many 
 thousands — that Bawr planned his strategy and 
 Grom wove unheard-of devices. 
 
 Of the two great caves occupied by the tribe 
 one was now abandoned, as not lending itself easily 
 to defence. To Bawr's battle-trained eye it re- 
 vealed itself as rather a trap than a refuge, because 
 
 140 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 from the heights behind it an enemy could roll 
 down rocks enough to effectively block its mouth. 
 But the cliff in which the other cave was hollowed 
 was practically inaccessible, and hung beetling 
 far over the entrance. Into this natural fortress 
 all the tribe — with an infinite deal of grumbling 
 — was removed. Store of roots and dried flesh 
 was gathered within ; and everyone was set to 
 the collection of dry and half-dry fuel. The light 
 stuff, with an immense number of short, highly- 
 inflammable faggots, was piled inside the doorway 
 where no rain could reach it. And the heavy wood 
 was stacked outside, to right and left, in such a 
 fashion as to form practical ramparts for the 
 innermost line of defence. 
 
 Directly in front of the cave spread a small 
 fan-shaped plateau several hundred square yards 
 in area. On the right a narrow path, wide enough 
 for but one wayfarer at a time, descended between 
 perpendicular boulders to the second cave. On 
 the left the plateau was bordered by broken 
 ground, a jumble of serrated rocks, to be traversed 
 only with difficulty. In front there was a steep 
 but shallow dip, from which the land sloped gently 
 up the valley, clothed with high bush and deep 
 thickets intersected with innumerable narrow trails. 
 
 Directly in front of the cave, and about the 
 centre of the plateau, burned always, night and 
 day, the sacred fire, tended in turn by the members 
 of the little band appointed to this distinguished 
 service by the Chief. Under the Chief's direction 
 the whole of the plateau was now cleared of under 
 
 141 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 brush and grass, and then along its brink was laid 
 a chain of small fires, some ten or twelve feet apart, 
 and all ready for lighting. 
 
 Meanwhile, Grom was busy preparing the device 
 on which, according to his plan of campaign, the 
 ultimate issue was to hang. For days the tribe 
 was kept on the stretch collecting dry and leafy 
 brushwood from the other side of the valley, and 
 bundles of dead grass from the rich savannahs 
 beyond the valley-mouth, on the other side of 
 the dancing flames. All this inflammable stuff 
 Grom distributed lavishly through the thickets 
 before the plateau, to a distance of nearly a mile 
 up the slope, till the whole space was in reality 
 one vast bonfire laid ready for the torch. 
 
 While these preparations were being rushed — 
 somewhat to the perplexity of the tribe, who could 
 not fathom the tactics of stuffing the landscape 
 with rubbish — Bawr was keeping a little band of 
 scouts on guard at the far-off head of the valley. 
 They were chosen from the swift runners of the 
 tribe ; and Bawr, who was a far-seeing general, 
 had them relieved twice in the twenty-four hours, 
 that they might not grow weary and fail in vigilance. 
 
 When all was ready came a time of trying sus- 
 pense. As day after day rolled by without event, 
 cloudless and hot, the country became as dry as 
 tinder ; and the tribe, seeing that nothing unusual 
 happened, began to doubt or to forget the danger 
 that hung over them. There were murmurs over 
 the strain of ceaseless watching, murmurs which 
 Bawr suppressed with small ceremony. But the 
 
 142 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 lame Ook-ootsk, squatting misshapen in Grom's 
 doorway with A-ya's baby in his ape-like arms 
 grew more and more anxious. As he conveyed to 
 Grom, the longer the delay the greater the force 
 which was being gathered for the assault. 
 
 Having no inkling of Grom's larger designs, he 
 looked with distrust on the little heaps of wood 
 that were to be fires along the edge of the plateau, 
 and wished them to be piled much bigger, inti- 
 mating that his people, though they would be 
 terribly afraid of the Shining One, would be forced 
 on from behind by sheer numbers and would 
 trample the small fires out. The confidence of 
 the Chief and Grom, and of A-ya as well, in the 
 face of the awful peril which hung over them, filled 
 him with amazement. 
 
 Then, at last, one evening just in the dying flush 
 of "the sunset, came the scouts, running breath- 
 lessly, and one with a ragged spear-wound in his 
 shoulder. Their eyes were wide as they told of 
 the countless myriads of the Bow-legs who were 
 pouring into the head of the valley, led by Mawg 
 and a gigantic black-faced chief as tall as Bawr 
 himself. 
 
 " Are they as many," asked Grom, " as they who 
 came against us in the Little Hills ? " 
 
 But the panting men threw up their hands. 
 
 "As a swarm of locusts to a flock of starlings," 
 they replied. 
 
 To their astonishment the Chief smiled with 
 grim satisfaction at this appalling news. 
 
 "It is well," said he. Mounting a rock by the 
 
 143 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 cave-door, he gazed up the valley, striving to 
 make out the vanguard of the approaching hordes ; 
 while Grom, marshalling the servitors of the fire, 
 stationed them by the range of piles, ready to set 
 light to them on the given word. 
 
 It was nearly an hour — so swift had been the 
 terror of the scouts — before a low, terrible sound of 
 crashings and mutterings announced that the 
 hordes were drawing near. It was now twilight, 
 with the first stars appearing in a pallid violet 
 sky ; and up the valley could be discerned an 
 obscurely rolling confusion among the thickets. 
 Bawr gave orders, rapid and concise ; and the 
 combatants lined out in a double rank along the 
 front of the plateau some three or four paces 
 behind the piles of wood. 
 
 They were armed with stone-headed clubs, large 
 or small, according to personal taste, and each 
 carried at least three flint-tipped spears. At the 
 head of the narrow path leading up from the lower 
 cave were stationed half a dozen women, similarly 
 armed. Bawr had chosen these women because 
 each of them had one or more young children in 
 the cave behind her ; and he knew that no adven- 
 turous foe would get up that path alive. But A-ya 
 was not among these six wild mothers, for her 
 place was at the service of the fires. 
 
 The ominous roar and that obscure confusion 
 rolled swiftly nearer, and Bawr, with a swing of 
 his huge club, sprang down from his post of ob- 
 servation and strode to the front. Grom shouted 
 an order, and light was set to all the crescent of 
 
 144 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 fires. They flared up briskly ; and at the same 
 time the big central lire, which had been allowed 
 to sink to a heap of glowing coals, was heaped with 
 dry stuff which sent up an instant column of flame. 
 The sudden wide illumination, shed some hundreds 
 of yards up the valley, revealed the front ranks of 
 the Bow-legs swarming in the brush, their hideous 
 yellow faces, gaping nostrils and pig-like eyes all 
 turned up in awe towards the glare. 
 
 The advance of the front ranks came to an 
 instant halt, and the low muttering rose to a chorus 
 of harsh cries. Then the tall figure of Mawg sprang 
 to the front, followed, after a moment of wondering 
 hesitation, by that of the head chief of the hordes, 
 a massive creature of the true Bow-leg type, but 
 as tall as Bawr himself, and in colour almost black. 
 This giant and Mawg, refusing to be awed by the 
 tremendous phenomenon of the fire, went leaping 
 along the lines of their followers, urging them 
 forward, and pointing out that their enemies stood 
 close beside the flames and took no hurt. 
 
 On the front ranks themselves this reasoning 
 seemed, at first, to produce little effect. But to 
 those just behind it appeared more cogent, seconded 
 as it was by a consuming curiosity. Moreover, the 
 masses in the rear were rolling down, and their 
 pressure presently became irresistible. All at once 
 the front ranks realized that they had no choice 
 in the matter. They sagged forward, surged 
 obstinately back again, then gave like a bursting 
 dam and poured, yelling and leaping, straight on- 
 ward toward the crescent of fires. 
 
 145 10 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 As soon as the rush was fairly begun, both Mawg 
 and the Black Chief cleverly extricated themselves 
 from it, running aside to the higher, broken ground 
 at the left of the plateau whence they could see 
 and direct the attack. It was plain enough that 
 they accounted the front ranks doomed, and were 
 depending on sheer weight of numbers for the 
 inevitable victory. 
 
 Standing grim, silent, immovable between their 
 fires, the Chief and Grom awaited the dreadful 
 onset. In all the tribe not a voice was raised, not 
 a fighter, man or woman, quailed. But many 
 hearts stood still, for it looked as if that living flood 
 could never be stayed. Presently from all along 
 its front came a cloud of spears. But they fell 
 short, not more than half a dozen reaching the edge 
 of the plateau. In instant response came a deep- 
 chested shout from Bawr, followed by a discharge 
 of spears from behind the line of fire. 
 
 These spears, driven with free arm and practised 
 skill, went clean home in the packed ranks of the 
 foe, but they caused no more than a second's 
 wavering, as the dead went down and their fellows 
 crowded on straight over them. A second volley 
 from the grimly silent fighters on the plateau had 
 somewhat more effect. Driven low, and at shorter 
 range, every jagged flint-point found its mark, 
 and the screaming victims hampered those behind. 
 But after a moment the mad flood came on again, 
 till it was within some thirty paces of the edge 
 of the plateau. 
 
 Then came a long shout from Grom, a signal 
 146 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 which had been anxiously awaited by the front line 
 of his fighters. Each fire had been laid, on the 
 inner side, with dry faggots of a resinous wood 
 which not only blazed freely but held the flame 
 tenaciously. These faggots had been placed with 
 only their tips in the fire. Seizing them by their 
 unlighted ends, the warriors hurled them, blazing, 
 full into the gaping faces before them. 
 
 The brutal, gaping faces screeched with pain and 
 terror, and the whole front rank, beating frantically 
 at the strange missiles, wheeled about and clawed 
 at the rank behind, battling to force its way 
 through. But the rolling masses were not to be 
 denied. After a brief, terrible struggle, the 
 would-be fugitives were borne down and trodden 
 underfoot. The new-comers were greeted with a 
 second discharge of the blazing brands, and the 
 dreadful scene repeated itself. But now there 
 was a difference. For many of the assailants, 
 realizing that there was no chance of retreat, came 
 straight on, heedless of brand or spear, with the 
 deadly, uncalculating fury of a beast at bay. 
 
 For some seconds, under the specific directions 
 of the Chief on the right centre and of Grom far 
 to the left, many of the blazing brands had been 
 thrown, not into the faces of the front rank, but 
 far over their heads, to fall among the tinder-dry 
 brushwood. Long tongues of flame leaped up at 
 once, here, there, everywhere, curling and licking 
 savagely. Screeches of horror arose, which brought 
 all the hordes to a halt as far back as they could 
 be heard. A light wind was blowing up the valley, 
 
 147 10* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and almost at once the scattered flames, gathering 
 volume, came together with a roar. The hordes, 
 smitten with the blindest madness of panic, turned 
 to flee, springing upon and tearing at each other 
 in the desperate struggle to escape. 
 
 Shouting triumph and derision, the defenders 
 bounded forward, down over the edge of the 
 plateau, and fell upon the huddled ranks before 
 them. But these, with all escape cut off, and far 
 outnumbering their exultant adversaries, now fought 
 like rats in a pit. And the men of the caves found 
 themselves locked in a struggle to the death just 
 when they had thought the fight was done. 
 
 A-ya, no longer needed at the fires, was just 
 about to follow Grom down into the thick of the 
 reeking battle, when a scream from the cave- 
 mouth made her whip round. She was just in time 
 to see Ook-ootsk hurl his spear at the tall figure 
 of Mawg, leaping down upon him from the broken 
 slope on the left. A half score of the Bow-legs were 
 following hard upon Mawg's heels. With a scream 
 of warning to Grom she rushed back to the cave. 
 But Grom did not hear her. He had been pulled 
 down, struck senseless and buried under a writhing 
 heap of foes. 
 
 Her long hair streaming behind her, her eyes 
 like those of a tigress protecting her cubs, A-ya 
 darted to the cave-door. But she did not reach 
 it. Just outside the threshold a club descended 
 upon her head, and she dropped. Instantly she 
 was pounced upon, and bound. A moment later 
 three Bow-legs, followed by Mawg, streaming with 
 
 148 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 blood, came running out of the cave. Mawg swung 
 the limp form across his shoulder with a grin of 
 satisfaction, and the party beat a hurried retreat 
 up the slopes. 
 
 In a few minutes that last death-grapple along 
 the front of the plateau came to an end, and Bawr, 
 leaving nearly a third of his followers slain with 
 the slain Bow-legs, led the exultant survivors back 
 to the cave. It had been a costly victory for the 
 Children of the Shining One ; but for the invaders 
 it was little less than annihilation. The flames 
 were raging for a mile up the valley, wherever they 
 were not choked by the piles and windrows of the 
 dead or dying Bow-legs. The lurid night was 
 shaken with the incessant rising and falling chorus 
 of shrieks, and far off under the glare rolled that 
 awful receding wave of fugitives, with the flames 
 leaping upon them and slaying them as they fled. 
 Leaning upon his long club and gazing thoughtfully 
 across the scene of incredible destruction, Bawr 
 told himself that never again, so long as the memory 
 of this night survived, would the Bow-legs dare to 
 come against his people. 
 
 Then wild lamentations from the women drew 
 the Chief into the cave. Here he found that half 
 the little ones had been killed in that swift incur- 
 sion of Mawg, and that nearly all the old men and 
 women had been slaughtered in defending their 
 charges. Across Grom's doorway, crouching on his 
 face and with his great teeth buried in the throat 
 of a dead Bow-leg, lay the lame captive, Ook- 
 ootsk. Seeing that he still breathed, and marking 
 
 149 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the fury with which he had fought in defence of 
 their little ones, the warriors lifted him aside 
 gently. Beneath him, and safely guarded in the 
 crook of his shaggy arm, they found Grom's baby, 
 without a hurt. The women defending the head 
 of the path on the right having seen the rape of 
 A-ya, Bawr handed the babe to one of his own 
 wives to cherish. 
 
 Then search was made for Grom. At first the 
 Chief imagined that he had followed the captors 
 of A-ya, in a desperate hope of effecting her rescue 
 alone. But they found him under a heap of dead, 
 so nearly dead himself that they despaired of him. 
 Realizing that it was he who had saved the tribe, 
 they began over him that great keening lamenta- 
 tion hitherto reserved strictly for the funeral of the 
 supreme Chief himself. But Bawr, his massive 
 features furrowed with solicitude, stopped them, 
 vowing that Grom should not die. And lifting the 
 hero in his arms he bore him into the cave. 
 
 Grom's wounds proved to be deep, but not fatal 
 to one of these clean-blooded sons of the open 
 and the wind. It was some days before it was 
 clearly borne in upon him that A-ya had been 
 carried off alive by the Bow-legs. Then, with a 
 great cry, he sprang to his feet. The blood spouted 
 afresh from his wounds, and he fell back in a swoon. 
 When he came to himself again, for days he would 
 speak to no one, and it looked as if he would die, 
 not of his wounds so much as of the insufficient 
 will to live. But a chance word of the captive Ook- 
 ootsk, who was being nursed back to life beside 
 
 150 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE BRANDS 
 
 him, reminded him that there was vengeance to 
 be lived for, and he aroused himself a little. Then 
 Bawr, ever subtle in the reading of his people's 
 hearts, suggested to him that even such a feat as 
 the rescue of the girl A-ya might not be impossible 
 to the subjugator of the fire and the slayer of a 
 whole people. 
 
 And from that moment Grdm began climbing 
 steadily back to life. 
 
 151 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 THE clay-coloured, ape-like, bow-legged men 
 squatted in council. 
 
 It was not long, as time went in the long, slow 
 morning of the world — perhaps a half-score 
 thousand years or so — since their ancestors, in 
 the pride of their dawning intelligence, had swung 
 down from their tree-tops, to walk upright on the 
 solid earth and challenge the supremacy of the 
 hunting beasts. Their arms were still of an un- 
 human and ungainly length, their short and 
 powerful legs were still so heavily bowed that 
 they had no great speed in running ; and they 
 still had their homes high among the branches, 
 where they could sleep secure from surprise. They 
 were still tree dwellers ; but they were men, 
 intent upon asserting their lordship over all the 
 'other dwellers upon earth's surface. 
 
 They were not beautiful to look upon. Their 
 squat, powerful forms, varying in colour from a 
 dingy yellow-brown to blackish mud-colour, were 
 covered unevenly with a thin growth of dark hairs. 
 
 152 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 On thigh and shoulder, down the backbone, and 
 on the outer side of the long fore-arm, this growth 
 was heavier and longer, forming a sort of irregular 
 thatch ; while the hair of their heads was jet 
 black, and matted into a filthy tangle with grease 
 and clay. Their faces were broad and flat, with 
 powerful protruding jaws, low and very receding 
 foreheads, and wide noses which seemed to have 
 been punched in at the bridge so that the flaring 
 red nostrils turned upwards hideously. 
 
 It was but a battered and crestfallen remnant of 
 the tribe which now took counsel over their dimi- 
 nished fortunes. In an irregular half-circle they 
 squatted, pawing gingerly at their wounds or 
 scratching themselves uncouthly, while their apish 
 women loitered in chattering groups outside the 
 circle, or crouched in the branches of the neigh- 
 bouring trees. Those who were perched in the 
 trees mostly held babies at their breasts, and 
 were therefore instinctively distrustful of the 
 dangerous ground-levels. Here and there on the 
 outskirts of the crowd, either squatting on hillocks 
 or clinging in a tree- top, wary-eyed old women 
 kept watch against surprise ; though there were 
 few among either beasts or men who would be 
 likely to venture an attack upon the ferocious 
 tribe of the Bow-legs. 
 
 On a low, flat-topped boulder, which served the 
 purpose of a throne, sat the Chief of the Bow-legs, 
 playing with his unwieldy club (which was merely 
 the root end of a sapling hacked into shape with 
 sharp stones), as if it had been a bulrush. In 
 
 153 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 height and bulk he was far above his fellows, 
 though similar to them in general type except for 
 the matter of colour, which was dark almost to 
 blackness. His jaws were those of a beast, and 
 his whole appearance was bestial beyond that of 
 any other in the whole hideous throng — except 
 for his eye3. These, though small and deep-set, 
 blazed with fierce intelligence, and swept his 
 audience with an air of assured mastery which 
 made plain why he was chief. He was talking 
 rapidly, with broad gestures, and in a barking, 
 clicking speech which sounded little more than 
 half articulate. He was working himself up into 
 a rage ; and the squatting listeners wriggled appre- 
 hensively, while they applauded from time to time 
 with grunts and growls. 
 
 Near the end of the foremost rank of the semi- 
 circle, very close to the haranguing Chief, sat one 
 who was plainly of superior race to his companions. 
 Something in the harangue seemed to concern him 
 particularly, for he sprang to his feet and stood 
 leaning on his club — which was longer and more 
 symmetrically fashioned than that of the chief. 
 In colour he was manifestly white, for all that 
 dirt and the weather could do to disguise it. He 
 was taller even than the great Black Chief himself 
 — but shorter in the body, and achieving his 
 height through length and straightness of leg. He 
 had chest and shoulders of enormous power ; 
 but, unlike the barrel-shaped Bow-legs, he was 
 comparatively slim of waist and hips. He had less 
 hair on the body — except on the chest and fore- 
 
 154 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 arm — than his companions ; but far more on the 
 head, where it stood out all around like an immense 
 black-tawny mane. His face, though heavy and 
 lowering, was a face— with square, resolute jaws, 
 a modelled mouth, a big, fully-bridged nose, and a 
 spacious forehead. His eyes were blue, and now, 
 deep under their shaggy brows, glared upon the 
 Chief with desperate defiance. Close behind his 
 heels crouched a girl, obviously of his own race — ■ 
 a tall, strong, shapely figure of a woman, as could 
 well be seen, though her attitude was one of utter 
 dejection, her face sunk upon her knees, and half 
 her body hidden in the tangled torrent of her 
 dull chestnut hair. 
 
 The tall alien, so dauntlessly eyeing the Chief, 
 was Mawg the renegade. Arrogant in his folly, he 
 had not realized that the Tree Men would hold 
 him to account for the calamity which he had 
 brought upon them. He had not realized that 
 the girl A-ya, with her straight limbs and her 
 strong comeliness, might stir the craving of others 
 besides himself. Now, as he listened to the fierce 
 harangue of the Chief, as his alert ears caught the 
 mutterings behind and about him, he saw the pit 
 yawn suddenly at his feet. But though a brute 
 and a traitor, he was no coward. His veins began 
 to run hot, his sinews to stretch for the death 
 struggle which would presently be upon him. 
 
 As for the girl, unseeing, unhearing, her head 
 bowed between her naked knees, she cared nothing. 
 She loathed life, and all about her, equally. Her 
 baby and her lord, if they yet lived, were far away 
 
 155 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 beyond the mountains and the swamps, in the 
 caverned hillside behind the smoke of the fires. 
 Her captor, Mawg, she loathed above all ; but she 
 was here behind him because he held her always 
 within reach lest the filthy women of the Bow-legs 
 should tear her to pieces. 
 
 Suddenly, without looking around, Mawg spoke 
 to her, in their own tongue, which the Bow-legs 
 could not understand. " Be ready, girl. They 
 are going to kill me now. The Black Chief wants 
 you. But I kill him, and we run. They are all 
 dirt. Come I " 
 
 On the word, he sprang straight at the great 
 Black Chief, where he towered upon his rock. 
 But the girl, though she heard every syllable, never 
 stirred. 
 
 The spring of Mawg was like a leopard's ; but 
 the Black Chief, though slow of foot, was not slow 
 of hand or wits. Though taken by surprise, he 
 swung up his club in time to partly parry Mawg's 
 lightning stroke, which would otherwise have 
 broken his bull neck. As it was, the club was 
 almost beaten from his grasp. He dropped it with 
 a snarl and leaped at his assailant's throat with 
 clutching hands. 
 
 Had it been possible to fight it out man to 
 man, Mawg would have liked nothing better, 
 though the issue would have been a doubtful one. 
 But he had no mind to face the whole tribe, which 
 was now surging forward like a pack of wolves. 
 He had no time to repeat his blow fairly ; but as 
 he eluded the gigantic, clutching fingers he got in 
 
 156 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 a light glancing stroke with the butt which laid 
 open his adversary's cheek and closed one furious 
 little eye. At the same instant he whirled away 
 lithely, sprang from the rock on the further side, 
 and ran off like a deer through the trees, cursing the 
 girl because she had not followed him. About half 
 the tribe went trailing after him, yelling hoarsely, 
 while the rest drew back and waited uneasily to 
 see what their Chief would do. 
 
 The Chief, clapping one hairy hand over his 
 wounded eye, glared after the fugitive _ with the 
 other. But he knew the folly of trying to catch his 
 fleet-foot adversary, and after a moment he dis- 
 missed him from his mind. With a grunt he 
 stepped down from his rock, and, heedless of his 
 wound, strode over to the girl. Through all the 
 tumult she had never lifted her head from between 
 her knees, or shown the least sign of concern. The 
 Chief seized her by the shoulder and shook her 
 roughly, ordering her to come with him. She did 
 not understand his language, but his meaning was 
 obvious. She looked up and stared straight into 
 his one open eye. In her own eyes shifted the 
 dangerous, lambent flame of a beast at bay, and 
 for a moment she was on the point of darting at 
 his throat. 
 
 But not without reason was the Black Chief 
 dictator of the Bow-legs. Brutal and filthy though 
 he was, and hideous beyond description, and 
 horrible with his gashed face and the blood pouring 
 down over his huge and shaggy chest, he was all 
 a man, and the mastery in him checked her. She 
 
 157 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 felt the hopelessness of fighting her fate. The 
 flame flickered out, leaving her eyes dull and 
 leaden. She rose listlessly, and followed her new 
 lord to the tree in which he had his dwelling of 
 woven branches. 
 
 At the foot of the tree the Black Chief stopped, 
 stood back, and signed the girl to ascend. A climber 
 as expert as himself, she clutched the rough trunk 
 with accustomed hands. Then she hesitated, and 
 shut her eyes. Should she obey, yielding to her 
 fate ? Mawg, her late captor, she had hated with 
 a murderous hate ; yet she had submitted to him, 
 in a dim way biding her time for vengeance. He 
 was of her own race ; and it was in her mind, her 
 spirit — though she herself could not so analyse 
 the emotion — that she hated him. But this new 
 master was an alien, and of a lower, beastlier type. 
 Toward him she felt a sick bodily repulsion. Be- 
 hind her tight-shut lids the dark went red. She 
 stood rigid and quivering, stormed through by a 
 raging impulse to tear out either his throat or her 
 own. She was herself a more advanced product 
 of her own advanced race, and urged by impulses 
 still hew and imperfectly applied to life. But the 
 countless centuries of submission were in her blood 
 also ; and they whispered to her insidiously that 
 she was lawful prey. A huge hand fell significantly 
 upon the back of her neck. She jumped, gave a 
 sobbing cry, and sprang up into the tree. Who 
 was she to challenge doom for an idea, a hundred 
 thousand years before her time ? 
 
 ****** 
 
 158 
 
\* 
 
 r sv 
 
 THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 Some days' journey to the westward of the 
 swampy refuge of the Bow-legs, a tall hunter was 
 making his way warily through the forest. yHis 
 colour, his build, and his swift grace of movement 
 proclaimed him of the same race as Mawg and the 
 girl A-ya, acquitting him easily of any kinship with 
 the People of the Trees. In height and weight he 
 was much like Mawg, but lighter in complexion, 
 somewhat less hairy, and of a frank, sagacious 
 countenance. His eyes were of a blue-grey, calm 
 and piercing, yet with a look in them as of one 
 who broods on mysteries. He was obviously much 
 older than Mawg, his long, thick hair and short, 
 close-curling beard being liberally touched with 
 grey. He carried in one hand a peculiar long- 
 handled club, which he had fashioned by lashing, 
 with strips of green hide, a split and jagged flint- 
 stone into the cleft head of a stick. In the other 
 hand he bore two long, slender spears, their tips 
 hardened and pointed in fire. 
 
 On the day, now many weeks back, when Grom 
 set out from the Caves behind the Fire to seek for 
 A-ya in the far-off country of the Bow-legs, he had 
 carried also two hollow tubes of green bark, with 
 the seeds of fire, kept smouldering in a bed of punk, 
 hidden in the hearts of them. But the need of 
 stopping frequently to build a fire and renew the 
 vitality of the secret spark had soon exasperated 
 his impatient spirit. Intolerant of the hindrance, 
 and confident in his own strength and craft, he had 
 thrown the* fire-tubes away and fallen back 
 upon the weapons which hacN^urficecl him before" 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 his discovery and conquest of the Shining 
 One. 
 
 Engrossed in his purpose, thinking only of 
 regaining possession of the girl, the mother of his 
 man-child, he shunned all contest with the great 
 beasts which crossed his path, and fled without 
 shame from those which undertook to hunt him. 
 
 He would risk no doubtful battle. He satisfied 
 his hunger on wild honey, and the ripe fruits and 
 tubers with which the forest abounded at this 
 season. At night he made his nest, of hurriedly 
 woven branches, in the highest swaying of the tree- 
 tops, where not even the leopard, cunning climber 
 though she was, could come at him without giving 
 timely warning. And so, doggedly and swiftly 
 making his way due east, he came at length to 
 the fringes of that vast region of swampy meres 
 and fruitful, rankly wooded islets which was 
 occupied by the Bow-legs. 
 
 *Here he had need of all that wood-craft which 
 had so often enabled him to stalk even the wary 
 antelope. The light colour of his skin being a 
 betrayal, he rubbed himself with clayey ooze till 
 he was of the same hue as the Bow-legs. Crawling 
 through the undergrowth at dusk as soundlessly 
 as a snake, or swinging along smoothly through 
 the branches like a grey ape in the first confusing 
 glimmer of the dawn, he made short incursions 
 among the outlying colonies, but could find no 
 sign of the girl, or of Mawg, in whose hands he 
 imagined her still to be. But working warily 
 around the outskirts of the tribe, to northward, he 
 
 i6q 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 came at last upon the stale but unmistakable trail 
 of a flight and a pursuit. This he followed up 
 till the pursuit came stragglingly to an end, and 
 the trail of the fugitive stood out alone and dis- 
 tinct. One clear footprint in the wet earth revealed 
 itself clearly as Mawg's — for there was no such 
 thing as confounding that arched and moulded 
 imprint with those left by the apish men. Fever- 
 ishly the hunter cast about for another trail, smaller 
 and slimmer. Forward he searched for it, and then 
 back among the trampings of the pursuers. But in 
 vain. Clearly Mawg had been the sole fugitive. 
 
 Grom sat down in sudden despair. If Mawg, 
 who at least was no coward, had fled alone, then 
 surely the girl was dead. Grom's club and his 
 spears dropped from his nerveless hands. His 
 interest in life sank into a sick indifference, a dull 
 anguish which he did not even try to understand. 
 It was well for him that no prowling beast came 
 by in that moment of his unseeing weakness. Then 
 a new thought came to him, and his despair flamed 
 into rage. He leapt to his feet, clutching at his 
 shaggy beard. The girl had been seized, without 
 doubt, by the great Black Chief. The thought of 
 this defilement to his woman, the mother of his 
 man-child, drove him quite mad for the moment. 
 Snatching up his weapons, he roared with anguish, 
 and ran blindly forward along the trampled trail, 
 ready to hurl himself upon the whole loathsome 
 tribe. A gigantic leopard, crouching in a thicket 
 of scarlet poinsettia beside the trail, made as if 
 to pounce upon him as he went by — but shrank 
 
 161 ii 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 back, instead, with flattened ears, daunted by his 
 fury. 
 
 But presently the madness burned itself out. As 
 sanity returned he checked his rush, glanced once 
 more watchfully about him, and at length stepped 
 furtively into the thick of the jungle. , Now more 
 than ever was his coolest craft demanded, that A-ya 
 might be plucked from the monster's arms. 
 
 Following up the plain clue of that tremendous 
 pursuit, Grom worked his way deep into the Bow- 
 legs' country. With all his craft and his lynx-like 
 stealth, it was at times hair-raising work. Not 
 only the ground thickets, but the tree-tops as 
 well, were swarming with his keen-eyed foes. He 
 had to worm his way between swamp-sodden roots, 
 and sometimes lie moveless as a stone for hours, 
 enduring the stings of a million insects. Some- 
 times, not daring to lift his head to look about 
 him, he had to trust to his ears and his hound- 
 like sense of smell for information as to what was 
 going on. And sometimes it was only his tireless 
 immobility that saved him from the stroke of a 
 startled adder or a questioning and indignant 
 crotalus. After long swaying, poised for the death- 
 stroke, the serpent would decide that the menacing 
 thing before it was not alive. It would slowly dis- 
 solve its tense coils, and glide away ; and Grom 
 would resume his shadowy progress. 
 
 Then, about sunrise (for the Bow-legs, like the 
 birds, were early risers) of the second day after 
 the discovery of Mawg's foot-prints, the patient 
 hunter's eyes fell upon A-ya. He had crept in 
 
 162 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 to within a hundred yards or so of the Council 
 Rock, which was surrounded by a horde of the 
 Bow-legs. Crouching low as he was, in a dense 
 thicket, Grom's view was limited ; but he could 
 see, over the heads of the listening mob, the Black 
 Chief seated on the rock, his ragged club in his 
 hand. He was haranguing his warriors in rapid 
 clicks and gutturals, which conveyed no meaning 
 to Grom's ear. The harangue came soon to an 
 end. The Chief stood up. The bestial crowd 
 parted — and through the opening Grom saw A-ya, 
 crouched, with her hair over her knees, at the 
 Chief's feet. Stepping down from the rock, the 
 Chief seized her by the wrist and dragged her 
 upright. She took her place at his heels, de- 
 jectedly, like a whipped dog. Grom, from in his 
 thicket, ground his teeth, and with difficulty held 
 himself in leash. Surrounded as A-ya was, at 
 that moment, by the hordes of her captors, any 
 attempt at her rescue would have been hopeless 
 folly. 
 
 There was something going on among the bow- 
 legged mob which Grom, from his hiding-place, 
 could not at first make out. Then he saw that 
 the Chief was trying to instruct his powerful but 
 clumsy followers in the handling of the club and 
 spear. Having been taught by the white rene- 
 gade, Mawg, the Chief used his massive club with 
 skill, but he was still clumsy and absurdly in- 
 accurate in throwing the spear. After he had 
 split the face of one of his followers by a misdirected 
 cast, he gave up the spear-throwing, turned to the 
 
 163 n* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 girl, and ordered her to teach this art of her people. 
 It was obvious that the mob had vast confidence 
 in her powers, as one of superior race, although a 
 mere woman, for they opened out at once on two 
 sides to leave room for the expected display. The 
 heart of the watcher in the thicket began to thump 
 as he saw a way clearing itself between his hiding- 
 place and the wild-haired woman he loved. 
 
 A-ya affected to misunderstand the Chief's 
 orders. She took the spear, but stood holding it in 
 stupid dejection. The Chief threatened her angrily, 
 but she paid no attention. At this moment the 
 whistling cry of a plover sounded from the thicket. 
 The girl straightened herself and every muscle 
 grew tense. The melancholy cry came again. It 
 was a strange place for a plover to lurk in, that 
 rank thicket of jungle ; but the Bow-legs took no 
 notice of the incongruity. Upon the girl, however, 
 the effect of the cry was magical. She gave no 
 glance toward the thicket, but suddenly, smilingly, 
 she seemed to understand the orders of the Chief. 
 Poising the rude spear at the height of her shoulder, 
 she pointed to a huge, whitish fungus which grew 
 upon a tree-root some sixty or seventy feet away. 
 With a flexing of her whole lithe body — as Grom 
 had taught her — she made her throw. The white 
 fungus was split in halves. 
 
 With a hoarse clamour of admiration, the mob 
 surged forward to examine the fragments. Even 
 the Chief, though disdaining to show the interest 
 of his followers, took a stride or two in the same 
 direction. For a second his back was turned. In 
 
 164 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 that second, the girl fled, light and swift as a deer, 
 speeding toward the thicket whence the cry of 
 the plover had sounded. Her long, bushy hair 
 streamed out behind her as she ran. 
 
 With a bellow of wrath, the Black Chief, the 
 whole mob at his heels, came pounding after her. 
 The next instant, out from the thicket leapt Grom, 
 a towering figure, and stood with spear uplifted. 
 Like a lion at bay, he glanced swiftly this way and 
 that, balancing the chances of battle and escape, 
 while he menaced the foes immediately confronting 
 him. 
 
 At this amazing apparition, the mob paused irre- 
 solute ; but the Black Chief came on like a mad 
 buffalo. Grom hurled one of his two spears. He 
 hurled it with a loathing fury ; but he was com- 
 pelled to throw high, to clear A-ya's head. The 
 Chief saw it coming, and cunningly flung himself 
 forward on his face. The weapon hurtled on 
 viciously, and pierced the squat body of one of 
 the waverers a dozen paces behind. At his yell 
 of agony the mob woke up, and came on again 
 with guttural, barking cries. But already Grom 
 and the girl, side by side, were fleeing down an 
 open glade to the left, toward a breadth of still 
 water which they saw gleaming through the trunks. 
 Grom knew that the way behind him was swarm- 
 ing with the enemy. He had seen that there was 
 no chance of getting through the hordes in front 
 and to the right. But in this direction there were 
 only a few knots of shaggy women, who shrank in 
 terror at his approach ; and he gambled on the 
 
 165 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 chance of the bow-legged men having no great skill 
 in the water. 
 
 All the Folk of the Caves could swim like otters, 
 and both Grom and the girl were expert beyond 
 their fellows. The water before them was some 
 three or four hundred yards in width. They did 
 not know whether it was a sluggish fenland river, 
 or the arm of a lake ; but, heedless of the peril 
 of crocodiles and water-snakes, they plunged in, 
 and with long, powerful side-strokes went surging 
 across toward the opposite shore. They had a 
 clear start of thirty or forty yards, and their pace 
 in the water was tremendous. Some heavy splashes 
 in the water behind them showed how the clumsy 
 missiles of their foes — ragged clubs and fragments 
 of broken branches — were falling short ; and they 
 looked back derisively. 
 
 The bow-legged, shaggy men with their wide, 
 red, skyward nostrils were ranged along the shore, 
 and the Chief was fiercely urging them into the 
 water. They shrank back in horror at the prospect 
 — which, indeed, seemed little to the taste of the 
 Chief himself. Presently he seized the two nearest 
 by their matted manes, and flung them headlong 
 in. With yells of terror they scrabbled out again, 
 and scurried off to the rear like half-drowned hens. 
 
 The Chief screeched an order. Straightway the 
 mob divided. One part went racing clumsily up 
 the shore to the left, the other followed the Chief 
 along through the rank sedge-growth to the right 
 — the Chief, by reason of his superior stature and 
 length of leg, rapidly opening up his lead. 
 
 166 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 " It's nothing but a pond," said Grom, in disgust, 
 " and they're coming round the shore to head 
 us off." 
 
 But the girl, her hair trailing darkly on the 
 water behind her, only laughed. She was free at 
 last. And she was with her man. 
 
 Suddenly Grom felt a sharp, stabbing pain in 
 the calf of his leg. With a cry, he looked back, 
 expecting to see a water-snake gliding off. He 
 saw nothing. But in the next instant another 
 stab came in the other leg. Then A-ya screamed : 
 " They're biting me all over." A dozen stinging 
 punctures distributed themselves all at once over 
 Grom's body. Then he understood that their 
 assailants were no water-snakes. 
 
 " Quick ! To shore ! " he ordered. Throwing 
 all their strength into a breath-sapping, over-hand 
 roll, they shot forward, gained the weedy shallows, 
 and scrambled ashore. Their bodies were hung 
 thickly with gigantic leeches. 
 
 Heedless of the wounds and the drench of blood, 
 they tore off their loathsome assailants. Then, 
 after a few seconds' halt to regain breath and 
 decide on their direction, they started north- 
 westward at a rapid, swinging lope, through a 
 region of open, grassy glades set with thickets of 
 giant fern and mimosa. 
 
 They had run on at this free pace for a matter 
 of half-an-hour or more, and were beginning to 
 flatter themselves that they had shaken off their 
 pursuers, when almost directly ahead of them, to 
 the right, appeared the Black Chief, lumbering 
 
 167 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 down upon them. Nearly half-a-mile behind, 
 between the mimosa clumps, could be seen the 
 mob of his followers straggling up to his support. 
 He yelled a furious challenge, swung up his great 
 club, and charged upon Grom. Waving A-ya 
 behind him, Grom strode forward, accepting the 
 challenge. 
 
 As man to man, the rivals looked not unfairly 
 matched. The fair-skinned Man of the Caves was 
 the taller by half a head, but obviously the lighter 
 in weight by a full stone, if not more. His long, 
 straight, powerfully muscled legs had not the 
 massive strength of his bow-legged adversary's. 
 He was even slim, by comparison, in hip and waist. 
 But in chest, arms and shoulders his development 
 was the finer. Physically, it seemed a matter of 
 the lion against the bear. 
 
 To Grom there was one thing almost as vital, 
 in that moment, as the rescue of his woman. This 
 was the slaking of his lust of hate against the 
 filthy beast-man who had held that woman 
 captive. Fading ancestral instincts flamed into 
 new life within him. His impulse was to fling down 
 spear and club, to fall upon his rival with bare, 
 throttling hands and rending teeth. But his will, 
 and his realization of all that hung upon the out- 
 come, held this madness in check. 
 
 Silent and motionless, poised lightly and gathered 
 as if for a spring, Grom waited till his adversary 
 was within some thirty paces of him. Then, with 
 deadly force and sure aim, he hurled his one re- 
 maining spear. But he had not counted on the 
 
 168 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 lightning accuracy, swifter than thought itself, 
 with which the men of the trees used their huge 
 hands. The Black Chief caught the spear-head 
 within a few inches of his body. With a roar of 
 rage he snapped the tough shaft like a parsnip 
 stalk, and threw the pieces aside. Even as he did 
 so, Grom, still voiceless and noiseless, was upon 
 him. 
 
 Had the vicious swing of Grom's flint-headed 
 club found its mark, the battle would have been 
 over. But the Black Chief, for all his bulk, was 
 quick as an eel. He bowed himself to the earth, 
 so that the stroke whistled idly over him, and in 
 the next second he swung a vicious, short blow 
 upwards. It was well-aimed, at the small of 
 Grom's back. But the latter, feeling himself over- 
 balanced by his own ineffective violence, leapt far 
 out of reach before turning to see what had hap- 
 pened. The Chief recovered himself, and the two 
 lashed out at each other so exactly together that 
 the great clubs met in mid-air. So shattering was 
 the force of the impact, so numbing the shock to 
 the hairy wrists behind it, that both weapons 
 dropped to the ground. 
 
 Neither antagonist dared stoop to snatch them 
 up. For several seconds they stood glaring at 
 each other, their breath hissing through clenched 
 teeth, their knotted fingers opening and shutting. 
 Then they sprang at each other's throats — Grom 
 in silence, the Black Chief snarling hoarsely. 
 Neither, however, gained the fatal grip at which 
 he aimed. They found themselves in a fair clinch, 
 
 169 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and stood swaying, straining, sweating, and grunt- 
 ing, so equally matched in sheer strength that to 
 A-ya, standing breathless with suspense, the dread- 
 ful seconds seemed to drag themselves out to 
 hours. Then Grom, amazed to find that in brute 
 force he had met his match, feigned to give way. 
 Loosing the clutch of one arm, he dropped upon 
 his knee. With a grunt of triumph the Black 
 Chief crashed down upon him, only to find himself 
 clutched by the legs and hurled clean over his wily 
 adversary's head. Before he could recover him- 
 self, Grom was upon him, pinning him to the earth 
 and reaching for his throat. In desperation he 
 set his huge ape teeth, with the grip of a bull- 
 dog, deep into the muscular base of Grom's 
 neck, and began working his way in toward the 
 artery. 
 
 At this moment A-ya glanced about her. She 
 saw two bodies of the Bow-legs closing in upon 
 them from either side — the nearest not much more 
 than a couple of hundred yards distant. Her lord 
 had plainly ordered her to stand aside from this 
 combat, but this was no time for obedience. She 
 snatched up the sharpened fragment of the broken 
 spear. Gripping it with both hands she drove it 
 with all her force into the side of the Black Chief's 
 throat, and left it there. With a hideous cough 
 his grip relaxed. His limbs straightened out stiffly, 
 and he lay quivering. 
 
 Covered with blood, Grom sprang to his feet, and 
 turned angrily upon A-ya. " / would have killed 
 him," he said, coldly. 
 
 170 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 " There was no time," answered the girl, and 
 pointed to the advancing hordes. 
 
 Without a word Grom snatched up his club, 
 wrenched the broken spear from his dead rival's 
 neck, thrust it into the girl's hands, and darted for 
 the narrowing space of open between the two con- 
 verging mobs. 
 
 With their greatly superior speed it was obvious 
 that the two fugitives might reasonably expect 
 to win through. They were surprised, therefore, 
 at the note of triumph in the furious cries of the 
 Bow-legs. A few hundred yards ahead the com- 
 paratively open country came to an end, and its 
 place was taken by a belt of splendid crimson bloom, 
 extending to right and left as far as the eye could 
 see. It was a jungle of shrubs some twenty feet 
 high, with scanty, pale-green leaves almost hidden 
 by their exuberance of blossom. But jungle 
 though it was, Groin' s sagacious eyes decided that 
 it was by no means dense enough to seriously 
 hinder their flight. When they reached it, the 
 jabbering hordes were almost upon them. But, 
 with mocking laughter, they slipped through, and 
 plunged in among the grey stems, beneath the 
 over-shadowing rosy glow. Their pursuers yelled 
 wildly — it seemed to Grom a yell of exultation — 
 but they halted abruptly at the edge of the rosy 
 barrier and made no attempt to follow. 
 
 11 They know they can't catch us," said Grom, 
 slackening his pace. But the girl, puzzled by this 
 sudden stopping of the pursuit, felt uneasy and 
 made no reply. 
 
 171 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Loping onward at moderate pace through the 
 enchanting pink light, which filtered down about 
 them through the massed bloom overhead, they 
 presently became conscious of an oppressive silence. 
 The cries of their pursuers having died away behind 
 them, there was now nothing but the soft thud of 
 their own foot-falls to relieve the anxious intent- 
 ness of their ears. Not a bird-note, not the flutter 
 of a wing, not the hum or the darting of a single 
 insect, disturbed the strangely heavy air. No 
 snake or lizard or squeaking mouse scurried among 
 the fallen leaves. They wondered greatly at such 
 stillness. Then they wondered at the absence of 
 small undergrowth, the lack of other shrubs and 
 trees such as were wont to grow together in the 
 warm jungle. Nothing anywhere about them but 
 the endless grey stems and pallid slim leaves of 
 the oleander, with their rose-red roof of blossom. 
 
 Presently they felt a lethargy creeping over 
 their limbs, which began to grow heavy ; and a 
 dull pain came throbbing behind their eyes. Then 
 understanding of those cries of triumph flashed 
 into Grom's mind. He stopped, and clutched the 
 girl by the wrist. " It is poison here. It is death," 
 he muttered. " That's why they shouted." 
 
 " Yes, everything is dead but the red flowers," 
 whispered A-ya, and clung to him, shuddering with 
 awe. 
 
 " Courage ! " cried Grom, lifting his head and 
 dashing his great hand across his eyes. " We must 
 get through. We must find air." 
 
 Shaking off the deadly sloth, they ran on again 
 172 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 at full speed, peering through the stems in every 
 direction. The effort made their brains throb 
 fiercely. And still there was nothing before them 
 and about them but the endless succession of slender 
 grey stems and the downpour of that sinister rosy 
 light. At last A-ya's steps again began to lag, 
 as if she were growing sleepy. 
 
 " Wake up ! " shouted Grom, and dragged so 
 fiercely at her arm that she cried out. But the 
 pain aroused her to a new effort. She sprang 
 forward, sobbing. The next moment, she was 
 jerked violently to the left. " This way ! " panted 
 Grom, the sweat pouring down his livid face ; and 
 there, through the stems to the left, her dazed eyes 
 perceived that the hated rosy glow was paling into 
 the whiteness of the natural day. 
 
 It was a big white rock, an island thrust up 
 through the sea of treacherous bloom. With 
 fumbling, nerveless fingers they scaled its bare 
 sides, flung themselves down among the scant but 
 wholesome herbage, which clothed its top, and 
 filled their lungs with the clean, reviving air. 
 Dimly they heard a blessed buzzing of insects, 
 and several great flies, with barred wings, lit upon 
 them and bit them sharply. They lay with closed 
 eyes, while slowly the throbbing in their brains 
 died away and strength flowed back into their 
 unstrung limbs. 
 
 Then, after perhaps an hour, Grom sat up and 
 looked about him. On 'every side outspread the 
 fatal flood of the rose-red oleanders, unbroken 
 except toward the north-west. In that quarter, 
 
 173 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 however, a spur of the giant forest, of growths 
 too mighty to feel the spell of the envenomed 
 blooms, was thrust deep into the crimson tide. 
 Its tip came to within a couple of hundred yards of 
 the rock. Having fully recovered, Grom and A-ya 
 swung down, with loathing, into the pink gloom, 
 fled through it almost without drawing breath, and 
 found themselves once more in the rank green 
 shadows of the jungle. They went on till they 
 came to a thicket of plantains. Then, loading 
 themselves with the ripe fruit, they climbed high 
 into a tree, and wove themselves a safe resting- 
 place among the branches. 
 
 For the next few days their journey was without 
 adventure, save for the frequent eluding of the 
 monsters of that teeming world. Grom had his 
 club, A-ya her broken spear ; but they were 
 avoiding all combats in their haste to get back 
 to their own country of the homely caves and the 
 guardian watch-fires. At the approach of the great 
 black lion or the sabre-tooth, or the wantonly 
 malignant rhinoceros, they betook themselves to the 
 tree-tops, and continued their way by that aerial 
 path as long as it served them. The most subtle 
 of the beasts they knew they could outwit, and 
 their only anxiety now was Mawg, whose craft and 
 courage Grom could no longer hold in scorn. He 
 was doubtless at large, and quite possibly on their 
 trail, biding his time to catch them unawares. 
 They never allowed themselves, therefore, to sleep 
 both at the same time. One always kept on 
 guard ; and hence their progress, for all their 
 
 174 
 
A safe resting-place among the branches. 
 
 [page 174. 
 
% 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 eagerness, was slower than it would otherwise 
 have been. 
 
 On a certain day, after a long unbroken stretch 
 of travel, A-ya rested and kept watch in a tree- 
 top, while Grom went to fetch a bunch of plantains. 
 It was fairly open country, a region of low herbage 
 dotted with small groves and single trees ; and the 
 girl, herself securely hidden, could see in every 
 direction. She could see Grom wandering from 
 plantain clump to plantain clump, seeking fruit 
 ripe enough to be palatable. And then, with a 
 shiver of hate and dread, she saw the dark form 
 of Mawg, creeping noiselessly on Grom's trail, and 
 not more than a couple of hundred paces behind 
 him. At the very moment when her eyes fell upon 
 him, he dropped flat upon his face, and began 
 worming his way soundlessly through the herbage. 
 
 Her mouth opened wide to give the alarm. But 
 the cry stopped in her throat, and a smile of bitter 
 triumph spread over her face. 
 
 If Mawg was hunting Grom, he was at the same 
 time himself being hunted. And by a dreadful 
 hunter. 
 
 Out from behind a thicket of glowing mimosa 
 appeared a monstrous bird, some ten or twelve 
 feet in height, lifting its feet very high in a swift 
 but noiseless and curiously delicate stride. Its dark 
 plumage was more like long, stringy hair than 
 feathers. Its build was something like that of a 
 gigantic cassowary, but its thighs and long blue 
 shanks were proportionately more massive. Its 
 neck was long, but immensely muscular to support 
 
 175 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the enormous head, which was larger than that of 
 a horse, and armed with a huge, hooked, rending, 
 vulture's beak. The apparent length of this terrible 
 head was increased by a pointed crest of blood- 
 red feathers, projecting straight back in a line with 
 the fore-part of the skull and the beak. 
 
 The crawling figure of Mawg was still a good 
 hundred paces from the unsuspecting Grom, when 
 the great bird overtook it. A-ya, watching from 
 her tree-top, clutched a branch and held her breath. 
 Mawg's ears caught a sound behind him, and he 
 glanced around sharply. With a scream, he 
 bounded to his feet. But it was too late. Before 
 he could either strike or flee, he was beaten down 
 again, with a smash of that pile-driving beak. 
 The bird planted one huge foot on its victim's 
 loins, gripped his head in its beak, and neatly 
 snapped his neck. Then it fell greedily to its 
 hideous meal. 
 
 At Mawg's scream of terror, Grom had turned 
 and rushed to the rescue, swinging his club. But 
 before he had covered half the distance, he saw 
 that the monster had done its work ; and he 
 hesitated. He was too late to help the victim. 
 And he knew the mettle of this ferocious bird, 
 almost as much to be dreaded, in single combat, 
 as the sabre-tooth itself. At his approach, the 
 bird had lifted its dripping beak, half turned, and 
 stood gripping the prey with one foot, swaying its 
 grim head slowly and eyeing him with malevolent 
 defiance. Still he hesitated, fingering his club ; 
 for the insolence of that challenging stare made 
 
 176 
 
THE RESCUE OF A-YA 
 
 his blood seethe. Then came A-ya's voice from the 
 tree- top, calling him. " Come away ! " she cried. 
 " It was Mawg." 
 
 Whereupon he turned, with the content of one 
 who sees all old scores cleanly wiped out together, 
 and went back to gather his ripe plantains. 
 
 The peril of Mawg being thus removed from their 
 path, they journeyed more swiftly ; and when the 
 next new moon was a thin white sickle in the sky, 
 just above the line of saw-toothed hills, they came 
 safely back to the comfortable caves and the clear- 
 burning watch-fires of their tribe. 
 
 177 12 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 BEFORE the Caves of the Pointed Hills the 
 fires of the tribe burned brightly. Within 
 the caves reigned plenty and an unheard-of 
 security ; for since the conquest of fire those 
 monstrous beasts and gigantic, carnivorous, run- 
 ning birds, which had been Man's ceaseless menace 
 ever since he swung down out of the tree-tops to 
 walk the earth erect, had been held at a distance 
 through awe of the licking flames. Though the 
 great battle which had hurled back the invading 
 hosts of the Bow-legs had cost the tribe more than 
 half its warriors, the Caves were swarming with 
 vigorous children. To Bawr, the Chief, and to 
 Grom, his Right Hand and Councillor, the future 
 of the tribe looked secure. 
 
 So sharp had been the lessons lately administered 
 to the prowling beasts — the terrible • sabre-tooth, 
 the giant red bear of the caves, the proud black 
 lion, and the bone-crushing cave hyena — that even 
 the stretch of bumpy plain outside the circle of 
 the fires, to a distance of several hundred paces, 
 
 178 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 was considered a safe play-ground for the children 
 of the tribe. On the outermost skirts of this play- 
 ground, to be sure, just where the reedy pools and 
 the dense bamboo thickets began, there was a 
 fire kept burning. But this was more as a reminder 
 than as an actual defence. When a bear or a 
 sabre-tooth had once had a blazing brand thrust 
 in his face, he acquired a measure of discretion. 
 Moreover, the activities of the tribe had driven 
 all the game animals to some distance up the 
 valley ; and it was seldom that anything more for- 
 midable than a jackal or a civet-cat cared to come 
 within a half-mile of the fires. 
 
 It was now two years since the rescue of A-ya 
 from her captivity among the Bow-legs. Her 
 child by Grom was a straight -limbed, fair-skinned 
 lad of somewhere between four and five years. 
 She sat cross-legged near the sentinel fire, some 
 fifty yards or so from the edge of the thickets, and 
 played with the lad, whose eyes were alight with 
 eager intelligence. Behind her sprawled, playing 
 contentedly with its toes and sucking a banana, 
 a fat brown flat-nosed baby of some fourteen or 
 fifteen months. 
 
 Both A-ya and the boy were interested in a new 
 toy. It was, perhaps, the first whip. The boy 
 had succeeded in tying a thin strip of green hide, 
 something over three feet in length, to one end 
 of a stick which was several inches longer. The 
 uses of a whip came to him by unerring insight, 
 and he began applying it to his mother's shoulders. 
 The novelty of it delighted them both. A-ya, 
 
 179 12* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 moreover, chuckled slyly at the thought that the 
 procedure might, on some future occasion, be 
 reversed, not without advantage to the cause of 
 discipline. 
 
 At last the lithe lash, so enthusiastically wielded, 
 stung too hard for even A-ya, with all her stoicism, 
 to find it amusing. She snatched the toy away 
 and began playing with it herself. The lash, at its 
 free end, chanced to be slit almost to the tip, form- 
 ing a loop. The butt of the handle was formed 
 by a jagged knot, where it had been broken from 
 the parent stem. Idly but firmly, with her strong 
 hands she bent the stick, and slipped the loop over 
 the jagged knot, where it held. 
 
 Interested, but with no hint of comprehension 
 in her bright eyes, she looked upon the first bow — 
 the stupendous product of a child and a woman 
 playing. 
 
 The child, displeased at this new, useless thing, 
 and wanting his whip back, tried to snatch the bow 
 from his mother's hands. But she pushed him off. 
 She liked this new toy. It looked, somehow, as 
 if it invited her to do something with it. Pre- 
 sently she pulled the cord, and let it go again. 
 Tightly strung, it made a pleasant little humming 
 sound. This she repeated many times, holding it 
 up to her ear and laughing with pleasure. The 
 boy grew interested thereupon, and wanted to try 
 the new game for himself. But A-ya was too 
 absorbed. She would not let him touch it. "Go 
 get another stick," she commanded impatiently ; 
 but quite forgot to see her command obeyed. 
 
 180 
 
With no hint of comprehension in her bright eyes, she looked upon 
 the first bow. ' ' 
 
 {page 1 80. 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 As she was twanging the strange implement 
 which had so happily fashioned itself under her 
 hands, Grom came up behind her. He stepped 
 carefully over the sprawling brown baby. He 
 was about to pull her heavy hair affectionately ; 
 but his eyes fell upon the thing in her hands, 
 and he checked himself. 
 
 For minute after minute he stood there motion- 
 less, watching and studying the new toy. His eyes 
 narrowed, his brows drew themselves down brood- 
 ingly. The thing seemed to him to suggest dim, 
 cloudy, vast possibilities ; and he groped in his 
 brain for some hint of the nature of these possi- 
 bilities. Yet as far as he could see it was good 
 for nothing but to make a faintly pleasant twang 
 for the amusement of women and children. At last 
 he could keep his hands off it no longer. " Give it 
 to me," said he suddenly, laying hold of A-ya's 
 wrist. 
 
 But A-ya was not yet done with it. She held 
 it away from him, and twanged it with redoubled 
 vigour. Without further argument, and without 
 violence, Grom reached out a long arm, and found 
 the bow in his grasp. A-ya was surprised that 
 such a trifle should seem of such importance in her 
 lord's eyes ; but her faith was great. She shook 
 the wild mane of hair back from her face, silenced 
 the boy's importunings with an imperative gesture, 
 and gathered herself with her arms about both 
 knees to watch what Grom would do with the 
 plaything. 
 
 First he examined it minutely, and then he 
 181 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 fastened the thong more securely at either end. 
 He twanged it as A-ya had done. He bent it to 
 its limit and eased it slowly back again, studying 
 the new force imprisoned in the changing curve. 
 At last he asked who had made it. 
 
 " I did," answered A-ya, very proud of her 
 achievement now that she found it taken so 
 seriously by the one being to whom her adven- 
 turous spirit really deferred. 
 
 " No, / did ! " piped the boy, with an injured 
 air. 
 
 The mother laughed indulgently. " Yes, he 
 tied one end, and beat me with it," said she. 
 " Then I took it from him, and bent the stick and 
 ied the other end." 
 
 " It is very good ! " said Grom, nodding his 
 approval musingly. He squatted down a few 
 feet away, and began experimenting. 
 
 Picking up a small stone, he held it upon the 
 cord, bent the bow a little way, and let go. The 
 stone flew up, and hit him with amazing energy 
 in the mouth. 
 
 "Oh/" murmured A-ya, sympathetically, as 
 the bright blood ran down his beard. But the 
 child, thinking that his father had done it on pur- 
 pose, laughed with hearty appreciation. Somewhat 
 annoyed, Grom got up, moved a few paces farther 
 away, and sat down again with his back to the 
 family circle. 
 
 As to the force that lurked in this slender little 
 implement he was now fully satisfied. But he was 
 not satisfied with the direction in which it exerted 
 
 182 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 itself. He continued his experiments, but was 
 careful to draw the bow lightly. 
 
 For a long time he found it impossible to guess 
 beforehand the direction which the pebbles, or 
 the bits of stick or bark, would take in their sur- 
 prising leaps from the loosed bow-string. But at 
 length a dim idea of aim occurred to him. He 
 lifted the bow — his left fist grasping its middle — to 
 the level of his eyes, at arm's length. He got the 
 cord accurately in the centre of the pebble, and 
 drew toward his nose. This effort was so successful 
 that the stone went perfectly straight — and caught 
 him fair on the thumb-knuckle. 
 
 The blow was so sharp that he dropped the bow 
 with an angry exclamation. Glancing quickly over 
 his shoulder to see if A-ya had noticed the incident, 
 he observed that her face was buried between her 
 knees and quite hidden by her hair. But her 
 shoulders were heaving spasmodically. He sus- 
 pected that she was laughing at him ; and for a 
 moment, as his knuckle was aching fiercely, he 
 considered the advisability of giving her a beating. 
 He had never done such a thing to her, however, 
 though all the other Cave Men, including Bawr 
 himself, were wont to beat their women on occa- 
 sion. In his heart he hated the idea of hurting 
 her ; and it would hardly be worth while to beat 
 her without hurting her. The idea, therefore, was 
 promptly dismissed. He eyed the shaking shoulders 
 gloomily for some seconds ; and then, as the throb- 
 bing in the outraged knuckle subsided, a grin of 
 sympathetic comprehension spread over his own 
 
 183 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 face. He picked up the bow, sprang to his feet, 
 and strolled over to the edge of a thicket of young 
 cane. 
 
 The girl, lifting her head, peered at him cau- 
 tiously through her hair. Her laughter was for- 
 gotten on the instant, because she guessed that 
 his fertile brain was on the trail of some new 
 experiment. 
 
 Arriving at the cane-thicket, Grom broke himself 
 half a dozen well-hardened, tapering stems, from 
 two to three feet in length, and about as thick at 
 their smaller ends as A-ya's little finger. 
 
 These seemed to suggest to him the possibility of 
 better results than anything he could get from 
 those erratic pebbles. 
 
 By this time quite a number of curious spectators 
 — women and children mostly, the majority of the 
 men being away hunting, and the rest too proud 
 to show their curiosity — had gathered to watch 
 Grom's experiments. They were puzzled to make 
 out what it was he was busying himself with. 
 But as he was a great chief, and held in deeper 
 awe than even Bawr himself, they did not presume 
 to come very near ; and they had therefore not 
 perceived, or at least they had not apprehended, 
 those two trifling mishaps of his. As for Grom, 
 he paid his audience no attention whatever. Now 
 that he had possessed himself of those slender, 
 straight shafts of cane, all else was forgotten. He 
 felt, as he looked at them and poised them, that 
 in some vital way they belonged to this fascinating 
 implement which A-ya had invented for him. 
 
 184 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 Selecting one of the shafts, he slowly applied the 
 bigger end of it to the bow-string, and stood for 
 a long time pondering it, drawing it a little way 
 and easing it back without releasing it. Then he 
 called to mind that his spears always threw better 
 when they were hurled heavy end first. So he 
 turned the little shaft and applied the small end 
 to the bow-string. Then he pulled the string 
 tentatively, and let it go. The arrow, all unguided, 
 shot straight up into the air, turned over, fell 
 sharply, and buried its head in a bit of soft ground. 
 Grom felt that this was progress. The spectators 
 opened their mouths in wonder, but durst not 
 venture any comment when Grom was at his 
 mysteries. 
 
 Plucking the shaft from the earth, Grom once 
 more laid it to the bow-string. As he pulled the 
 string, the shaft wobbled crazily. With a growl of 
 impatience, he clapped the fore-finger of his left 
 hand over it, holding it in place, and pulled it 
 through the guide thus formed. A light flashed 
 upon his brooding intelligence. Slightly crooking 
 his finger, so that the shaft could move freely, he 
 drew the string backward and forward, with deep 
 deliberation, over and over again. To his delight, 
 he found that the shaft was no longer eccentrically 
 rebellious, but as docile as he could wish. At last, 
 lifting the bow above his head, he drew it strongly, 
 and shot the shaft into the air. He shouted as it 
 slipped smoothly through the guiding crook of his 
 finger and went soaring skyward as if it would never 
 stop. The eyes of the spectators followed its flight 
 
 i85 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 with awe, and A-ya, suddenly comprehending, 
 caught her breath and snatched the boy to her 
 heart in a transport. Her alert mind had grasped, 
 though dimly, the wonder of her man's achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 Now, though Grom had pointed his shaft sky- 
 ward, he had taken no thought whatever as to its 
 direction, or the distance it might travel. As a 
 matter of fact, he had shot towards the Caves. He 
 had shot strongly ; and that first bow was a stiff 
 one. Most of the folk who squatted before the 
 Caves were watching ; but there were some who 
 were too indifferent or too stupid to take an interest 
 in anything less arresting than a thump on the 
 head. Among these was a fat old woman, who, 
 with her back to all the excitement, was bending 
 herself double to grub in the litter of sticks and 
 bones for some tit-bit which she had dropped. 
 Grom's shaft, turning gracefully against the blue, 
 came darting downward on a long slope, and buried 
 its point in that upturned fat and grimy thigh. 
 With a yell the old woman whipped round, tore 
 out the shaft, dashed it upon the ground, stared at 
 it in horror as if she thought it some kind of snake, 
 and waddled, wildly jabbering, into the nearest 
 cave. 
 
 An outburst of startled cries arose from all the 
 spectators, but it hushed itself almost in the same 
 breath. It was Grom who had done this singular 
 thing, smiting unawares from very far off. The 
 old woman must have done something to make 
 Grom angry. They were all afraid ; and several, 
 
 186 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 whose consciences were not quite at ease, followed 
 the old woman's example and slipped into the 
 Caves. - 
 
 As for Grdm, his feelings were a mixture of em- 
 barrassment and elation. He was sorry to have 
 hurt the old woman. He had a ridiculous dislike 
 of hurting anyone unnecessarily ; and when he 
 looked back and saw A-ya rocking herself to and 
 fro in heartless mirth, he felt like asking her how 
 she would have liked it herself, if she had been in 
 the place of the fat old woman. On the other 
 hand, he knew that he had made a great discovery, 
 second only to the conquest of the fire. He had 
 found a new weapon, of unheard-of, unimagined 
 powers, able to kill swiftly and silently and at a 
 great distance. All he had to do was to perfect 
 the weapon and learn to control it. 
 
 He strode haughtily up to the cave mouth to 
 recover his shaft. The people, even the mightiest 
 of the warriors, looked anxious and deprecating at 
 his approach ; but he gave them never a glance. 
 It would not have done to let them think he had 
 wounded the old woman by accident. He picked 
 up the shaft and examined its blood-stained point, 
 frowning fiercely. Then he glared into the cave 
 where the unlucky victim of his experiments had 
 taken refuge. He refitted the shaft to the bow- 
 string, and made as if to follow up his stroke with 
 further chastisement. Instantly there came from 
 the dark interior a chorus of shrill feminine en- 
 treaties. He hesitated, seemed to relent, put the 
 shaft into the bundle under his arm, and strode 
 
 187 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 back to rejoin A-ya. He had done enough for the 
 moment. His next step required deep thought 
 and preparation. 
 
 An hour or two later, Grom set out from the 
 Caves, alone in spite of A-ya's pleadings. He 
 wanted complete solitude with his new weapon. 
 Besides a generous bundle of canes, of varying 
 lengths and sizes, he carried some strips of raw 
 meat, a bunch of plantains, his spear and club, and 
 a sort of rude basket, without handle, formed by 
 tying together the ends of a roll of green bark. 
 
 This basket was a device of A-ya's, which had 
 added greatly to her prestige in the tribe, and 
 caused the women to regard her with redoubled 
 jealousy. By lining it thickly with wet clay, she 
 was able to carry fire in it so securely and simply 
 that Grom had adopted it at once, throwing away 
 his uncertain and always troublesome fire-tubes 
 of hollow bamboo. 
 
 Mounting the steep hill-side behind the Caves, 
 Grom turned into a high, winding ravine, and was 
 soon lost to the sight of the tribe. The ravine, 
 the bed of a long-dry torrent, climbed rapidly, 
 bearing around to the eastward, and brought him 
 at length to a high plateau on a shoulder of the 
 mountain. At the back of the plateau the moun- 
 tain rose again, abruptly, to one of those saw- 
 tooth pinnacles which characterized this range. 
 At the base of the steep was a narrow fissure in 
 the rock-face, leading into a small grotto which 
 Grom had discovered on one of his hunting expedi- 
 tions. He had used it several times already as a 
 
 188 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 retreat when tired of the hubbub of the tribe and 
 anxious to ponder in quiet some of the problems 
 which for ever tormented his fruitful brain. 
 
 Absorbed in meditations upon his new weapon, 
 Grom set himself to build a small fire before the 
 entrance of the grotto. The red coals from his 
 fire-basket he surrounded and covered with dry 
 grass, dead twigs, and small sticks. Then, getting 
 down upon all fours, he blew long and steadily 
 into the mass till the smoke which curled up from 
 it was streaked with thin flames. As the flames 
 curled higher, his ears caught the sound of some- 
 thing stirring within the cave. He looked up, 
 peering between the little coils of smoke, and saw 
 a pair of eyes, very close to the ground, glaring 
 forth at him from the darkness. 
 
 With one hand, he coolly but swiftly fed the fire 
 to fuller volume, while with the other he reached 
 for and clutched his club. The eyes drew back 
 slowly to the depths of the cave. Appearing not 
 to have observed them, Grom plied the fire with 
 heavier and heavier fuel, till it was blazing strongly 
 and full of well-lighted brands. Then he stood up, 
 seized a brand, and hurled it into the cave. There 
 was a harsh snarl, and the eyes disappeared, the 
 owner of them having apparently shrunk off to 
 one side. 
 
 A moment or two later the interior was suddenly 
 lighted up with a smoky glare. The brand had 
 fallen on a heap of withered grass which had for- 
 merly been Grom's couch. Grom set his teeth and 
 swung up his club ; and in the same instant there 
 
 189 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 shot forth two immense cave-hyenas, mad with 
 rage and terror. 
 
 The great beasts were more afraid of the sudden 
 flare within than of the substantial and dangerous 
 fire without. The first swerved just in time to 
 escape the fire, and went by so swiftly that the 
 stroke of Grom's club caught him only a light, 
 glancing blow on the rump. But the second of 
 the pair, the female, was too close behind to swerve 
 in time. She dashed straight through the fire, 
 struck Grom with all her frantic weight, knocked 
 him flat, and tore off howling down the valley, 
 leaving a pungent trail of singed fur on the air. 
 
 Uninjured save for an ugly scratch, which bled 
 profusely, down one side of his face, Grom picked 
 himself up in a rage and started after the fleeing 
 beasts. But his common sense speedily reasserted 
 itself. He grunted in disgust, turned back to the 
 fire, and was soon absorbed in new experiments 
 with the bow. As for the blaze within the cave, 
 he troubled himself no more about it. He knew 
 it would soon burn out. And it would leave the 
 cave well cleansed of pestilential insects. 
 
 All that afternoon he experimented with his 
 bundle of shafts, to find what length and what 
 weight would give the best results. One of the 
 arrows he shattered completely, by driving it, at 
 short range, straight against the rock-face of the 
 mountain. Two others he lost, by shooting them, 
 far beyond his expectations, over the edge of the 
 plateau and down into the dense thickets below 
 him, where he did not care to search too closely 
 
 190 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 by reason of the peril of snakes. The bow, as his 
 good luck would have it, though short and clumsy 
 was very strong, being made of a stick of dry upland 
 hickory. And the cord of raw hide was well- 
 seasoned, stout and tough ; though it had a trouble- 
 some trick of stretching, which forced Grom to 
 restring it many times before all the stretch was 
 out of it. 
 
 Having satisfied himself as to the power of his 
 bow and the range of his arrows, Grom set himself 
 next to the problem of marksmanship. Selecting a 
 plant of prickly pear, of about the dimensions of 
 a man, he shot at it, at different ranges, till most 
 of its great fleshy leaves were shredded and shat- 
 tered. With his straight eye and his natural 
 aptitude, he soon grasped the idea of elevation for 
 range, and made some respectable shooting. He 
 also found that he could guide the arrow without 
 crooking his finger around it. His elation was so 
 extreme that he quite forgot to eat, till the closing 
 in of darkness put an end to his practice. Then, 
 piling high his fire as a warning to prowlers, he 
 squatted in the mouth of the cave and made his 
 meal. For water he had to go some little way 
 below the lip of the plateau ; but carrying a 
 blazing balsam-knot he had nothing to fear from 
 the beasts that lay in ambush about the spring. 
 They slunk away sullenly at the approach of the 
 waving flame. 
 
 That night Grom slept securely, with three fires 
 before his door. Every hour or two, vigilant woods- 
 man that he was, he would wake up to replenish 
 
 191 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 he fires, and be asleep again even in the act of 
 
 ying down. And when the dawn came red and 
 
 amber around the shoulder of the saw-toothed 
 
 peak, he was up again and out into the chill, sweet 
 
 air with his arrows. 
 
 The difficulty which now confronted him was 
 that of giving his shafts a penetrating point. 
 Being of a very hard-fibred cane, akin to bamboo, 
 they would take a kind of splinter-point of almost 
 needle sharpness. But it was fragile ; and the 
 cane being hollow, the point was necessarily on one 
 side, which affected the accuracy of the flight. 
 There were no flints in the neighbourhood, or slaty 
 rocks, which he could split into edged and pointed 
 fragments. He tried hardening his points in the 
 fire ; but the results were not altogether satis- 
 factory. He thought of tipping some of the shafts 
 with thorns, or with the steely points of the old 
 aloe leaves ; but he could not, at the moment, 
 devise such a method of fixing these formidable 
 weapons in place as would not quite destroy their 
 efficiency. Finally he made up his mind that the 
 thing to use would be bone, ground into a suitable 
 shape between two stones. But this was a matter 
 that would have to await his return to the Caves, 
 and would then call for much careful devising. 
 For the present he would perforce content himself 
 with such points as he had fined down and hardened 
 in the fire. 
 
 This matter settled in his mind, Grdm burned 
 to put his wonderful new weapon to practical 
 test. He descended cautiously the steep slope 
 
 192 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 from the eastern edge of his plateau — a broken 
 region of ledges, sub-tropical thickets, and narrow, 
 grassy glades, with here and there some tree of 
 larger growth rising solitary like a watch-tower. 
 Knowing this was a favourite feeding-hour for 
 many of the grass-eaters, he hid himself in the 
 well-screened crotch of a deodar, overlooking a 
 green glade, and waited. 
 
 He had not long to wait, for the region swarmed 
 with game. Out from a runway some thirty or 
 forty yards up the glade stepped a huge, dun- 
 coloured bull, with horns like scimitars each as 
 long as Grom's arm. His flanks were scarred with 
 long wounds but lately healed, and Grom realized 
 that he was a solitary, beaten and driven out 
 from his herd by some mightier rival. The bull 
 glanced warily about him, and then fell to cropping 
 the grass. 
 
 The beast offered an admirable target. Grom's 
 arrow sped noiselessly between the curtaining 
 branches, and found its mark high up on the bull's 
 fore-shoulder. It penetrated — but not to a depth 
 of more than two or three inches. And Grom, 
 though elated by his good shot, realized that such 
 a wound would be nothing more than an irritant. 
 
 Startled and infuriated, the bull roared and pawed 
 the sod, and glared about him to locate his unseen 
 assailant. He had not the remotest idea of the 
 direction from which the strange attack had come. 
 The galling smart in his shoulder grew momentarily 
 more severe. He lashed back at it savagely with 
 the side of his horn, but the arrow was just out of 
 
 193 13 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 his reach. Then, bewildered and alarmed, \he 
 tried to escape from this new kind of fly with the 
 intolerable sting by galloping furiously up and 
 down the glade. As he passed the deodar, Grom 
 let drive another arrow, at close range. This, too, 
 struck, and stuck. But it did not go deep enough 
 to produce any serious effect. The animal roared 
 again, stared about him as if he thought the place 
 was bewitched, and plunged headlong into the 
 nearest thicket, tearing out both arrows as he 
 went through the close-set stems. Grom heard 
 him crashing onward down the slope, and smiled 
 to think of the surprise in store for any antagonist 
 that might cross the mad brute's path. 
 
 This experiment upon the wild bull had shown 
 Grom one thing clearly. He must arm his arrows 
 with a more penetrating point. Until he could 
 carry out his idea of giving them tips of bone, he 
 must find some shoots of solid, pithless growth to 
 take the place of his light hollow canes. For the 
 next hour or two he searched the jungle carefully 
 and warily, looking for a young growth that might 
 immediately serve his purpose. 
 
 But there in the jungle everything that was 
 hard enough was crooked or gnarled, everything that 
 was straight enough was soft and sappy. It was 
 not till the sun was almost over his head, and the 
 heat was urging him back to the coolness of his 
 grotto, that he came across something worth 
 making a trial of. On a bleak wind-swept knoll, 
 far out on the mountain-side, lay the trunk of an 
 old hickory-tree, which had evidently been shattered 
 
 194 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 by lightning. From the roots, tenacious of life, 
 had sprung up a throng of saplings, ranging from 
 a foot or two in height to the level of Grom's head. 
 They were as straight and slim as the canes. And 
 their hardness was proved to Grom's satisfaction 
 when he tried to break them off. They were 
 tough, too, so that he almost lost his patience over 
 them, before he learned that the best way to deal 
 with them was to strip them down, in the direction 
 of the fibre, where they sprang from the parent 
 trunk or root. Having at length gathered an 
 armful, he returned to his grotto and proceeded 
 to shape the refractory butts in the fire. As he 
 squatted between the cave door and the fire he 
 made his meal of raw flesh and plantains, and 
 gazed out contemplatively over the vast, rankly- 
 green landscape below him, musing upon the 
 savage and monstrous strife which went on beneath 
 that mask of wide-flung calm. And as he pondered, 
 the fire which he had subjugated was quietly 
 doing his work for him. 
 
 The result was beyond his utmost expectations. 
 After judicious charring, the ends being turned 
 continually in the glowing coals, he rubbed away 
 the charred portions between two stones, and 
 found that he could thus work up an evenly- 
 rounded point. The point thus obtained was keen 
 and hard ; and as he balanced this new shaft in 
 his hand he realized that its weight would add 
 vastly to its power of penetration. When he tried 
 a shot with it, he found that it flew farther and 
 straighter. It drove through the tough, fleshy 
 
 195 13* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 leaf of the prickly pear as if it hardly noticed the 
 obstruction. He fashioned himself a half-dozen 
 more of these highly-efficient shafts, and then set 
 out again — this time down the ravine — to seek a 
 living target for his practice. 
 
 The ravine was winding and of irregular width, 
 terraced here and there with broken ledges, here 
 and there cut into by steep little narrow gullies. 
 Its bottom was in part bare rock ; but wherever 
 there was an accumulation of soil, and some tiny 
 spring oozing up through the fissures, there the 
 vegetation grew rank, starred with vivid blooms 
 of canna and hibiscus. In many places the ledges 
 were draped with a dense curtain of the flat- 
 flowered, pink-and-gold mesembryanthemum. It 
 was a region well adapted to the ambuscading 
 beasts ; and Grom moved stealthily as a panther, 
 keeping for the most part along the upper ledges, 
 crouching low to cross the open spots, and slipping 
 into cover every few minutes to listen and peer 
 and sniff. 
 
 Presently he came to a spot which seemed to 
 offer him every advantage as a place of ambush. 
 It was a ledge some twenty feet above the valley 
 level, with a sort of natural parapet behind which 
 he could crouch, and, unseen, keep an eye on all 
 the glades and runways below. Behind him the 
 rock-face was so nearly perpendicular that no 
 enemy could steal upon him from the rear. He 
 laid his club and his spear down beside him, 
 selected one of his best arrows, and hoped that a 
 fat buck would come by, or one of those little, 
 
 196 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 spotted, two-toed horses whose flesh was so prized 
 by the people of the Caves. Such a prize would 
 be a proof to all the tribe of the potency of his 
 new weapon. 
 
 For nearly an hour he waited, moveless, save 
 for his ranging eyes, as the rock on which he 
 leaned. To a hunter like Grom, schooled to in- 
 • finite patience, this was nothing. He knew that, in 
 the woods, if one waits long enough and keeps still 
 enough, he is bound to see something interesting. 
 At last it came. It was neither the fat buck nor 
 the little two-toed horse with dappled hide, but 
 a young cow-buffalo. Grom noticed at once that 
 she was nervous and puzzled. She seemed to sus- 
 pect that she was being followed and was undecided 
 what to do. Once she faced about angrily, staring 
 into the coverts behind her, and made as if to 
 charge. Had she been an old cow, or a bull, she 
 would have charged ; but her inexperience made 
 her irresolute. She snorted, faced about again, 
 and moved on, ears, eyes and wide nostrils one note 
 of wrathful interrogation. She was well within 
 range, and Grom would have tried a shot at her 
 except for his seasoned wariness. He would rather 
 see, before revealing himself, what foe it was that 
 dared to trail so dangerous a quarry. The buffalo 
 moved on slowly out of range, and vanished down 
 a runway ; and immediately afterwards the 
 stealthy pursuer came in view. 
 
 To Grom's amazement, it was neither a lion nor 
 a bear. It was a man, of his own tribe. And then 
 he saw it was none other than the great chief, 
 
 197 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Bawr himself, hunting alone after his haughty 
 and daring fashion. Between Grom and Bawr 
 there was the fullest understanding, and Grom 
 would have whistled that plover-cry, his private 
 signal, but for the risk of interfering with Bawr's 
 chase. Once more, therefore, he held himself 
 in check ; while Bawr, his eyes easily reading the 
 trail, crept on with the soundless step of a wild 
 cat. 
 
 But Grom was not the only hunter lying in 
 ambush in the sun-drenched ravine. Out from a 
 bed of giant, red-blooming canna arose the dia- 
 bolical, grinning head and monstrous shoulders of 
 a sabre-tooth, and stared after Bawr. Then the 
 whole body emerged with a noiseless bound. For 
 a second the gigantic beast stood there, with one 
 paw uplifted, its golden-tawny bulk seeming to 
 quiver in the downpour of intense sunlight. It 
 was a third as tall again at the shoulders as the 
 biggest Himalayan tiger, its head was flat-skulled 
 like a tiger's, and its upper jaw was armed with 
 two long, yellow, sabre-like tusks, projecting down- 
 wards below the lower jaw. This appalling monster 
 started after Bawr with a swift, crouching rush, as 
 silent, for all its weight, as if its feet were shod 
 with thistle-down. 
 
 Grom leapt to his feet with a wild yell of warn- 
 ing, at the same time letting fly an arrow. In 
 his haste the shaft went wide. Bawr, looking 
 over his shoulder, saw the giant beast almost 
 upon him. With a tremendous bound he gained 
 the foot of a tree. Dropping his club and 
 
 198 
 
Its head was flat-skulled like a tiger's, and its upper jaw was armed 
 with two long, yellow sabre-like tusks." 
 
 [page 198. 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 spear, he sprang desperately, caught a branch, 
 and swung himself upward. 
 
 But the sabre-tooth was already at his heels, 
 before he had time to swing quite out of reach. 
 The gigantic brute gathered itself for a spring 
 which would have enabled it to pluck Bawr from 
 his refuge like a ripe fig. But that spring was 
 never delivered. With a roar of rage the monster 
 turned instead, and bit furiously at the shaft of an 
 arrow sticking in its flank. Grom's second shaft 
 had flown true ; and Bawr, greatly marvelling, drew 
 up his legs to a place of safety. 
 
 With the fire of that deep wound in its entrails, 
 the sabre-tooth forgot all about its quarry in the 
 tree. It had caught sight of Grom when he uttered 
 his yell of warning, and it knew instantly whence 
 the strange attack had come. It bit off the pro- 
 truding shaft ; and then, fixing its dreadful eyes 
 on Grom, it ceased its snarling and came charging 
 for the ledge with a rush which seemed likely to 
 carry it clear up the twenty-foot perpendicular of 
 smooth rock. 
 
 Grom, enamoured of the new weapon, forgot 
 the spear which was likely to be far more efficient 
 at these close quarters. Leaning far out over 
 the parapet, he drew his arrow to the head and 
 let drive just as the monster reared itself, open- 
 jawed, at the wall. The pointed hickory went 
 down into the gaping gullet, and stood out some 
 inches at the side of the neck. With a horrible 
 coughing screech the monster recoiled, put its head 
 between its paws, and tried to claw the anguish 
 
 199 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 from its throat. But after a moment, seeming to 
 realize that this was impossible, it backed away, 
 gathered itself together, and sprang for the ledge. 
 It received another of Grom's shafts deep in the 
 chest, without seeming to notice the wound ; and 
 its impetus was so tremendous that it succeeded in 
 getting its fore-paws fixed upon the ledge. Clinging 
 there, its enormous pale-green eyes staring straight 
 into Grom's, it struggled to draw itself up all the 
 way — an effort in which it would doubtless have 
 succeeded at once but for that first arrow in its 
 entrails. The iron claws of its hinder feet rasped 
 noisily on the rock-face. 
 
 Grom dropped his bow beside him and reached 
 for the spear. His hand grasped the club instead ; 
 but there was no time to change. Swinging the 
 stone-head weapon high in air, he brought it 
 down, with a grunt of huge effort, full upon one 
 of those giant paws which clutched the edge of 
 the parapet. Crushed and numbed, the grip of 
 that paw fell away ; but at the same moment one 
 of the hinder paws got over the edge, and clung. 
 And there the monster hung, its body bent in a 
 contorted bow. 
 
 Bawr, meanwhile, seeing Grom's peril, had 
 dropped from his tree, snatched up his spear and 
 club, and rushed in to the rescue. It was courage, 
 this, of the finest, counting no odds ; for down 
 there on the level he would have stood no ghost 
 of a chance had the beast turned back upon him. 
 Grom yelled to him to keep away, and swung up 
 his club for another shattering blow. But in that 
 
 200 
 
THE BENDING OF THE BOW 
 
 same moment the great glaring eyes filmed and 
 rolled upwards ; blood spouted from between the 
 gaping jaws ; and with a spluttering cough the 
 monster lost its hold. It fell, with a soft but 
 jarring thud, upon its back, and slowly rolled over 
 upon its side, pawing the air aimlessly. The arrow 
 in the throat had done its work. 
 
 With fine self-restraint Bawr refrained from 
 striking, that he might seem to usurp no share in 
 Grom's amazing achievement. He stood leaning 
 upon his spear, calmly watching the last feeble 
 paroxysms, till Grom came scrambling down from 
 the ledge and stood beside him. He took the 
 bow and the arrows, and examined them in silence. 
 Then he turned upon Grom with burning eyes. 
 
 " You found the Fire for our people. You saved 
 our people from the hordes of the Bow-legs. You 
 have saved my life now, slaying the monster from 
 very far off with these little sticks which you have 
 made. It is you who should be Chief, not I." 
 
 Grom laughed and shook his head. " Bawr is 
 the better man of us two," said he positively, " and 
 he is a better chief. He governs the people, while 
 I go away and think new things. And he is my 
 friend. Look, I will teach him now this new 
 thing. And we will make another just like it, 
 that when we return to the Caves Bawr also shall 
 know how to strike from very far off." 
 
 With their rough-edged spear-heads of flint they 
 set themselves to the skinning of the sabre-tooth. 
 Then they went back to the high plateau, where 
 Bawr was taught to shoot a straight shaft. And 
 
 201 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 on the following day they returned to the fires of 
 the tribe, carrying between them, shoulder high, 
 slung upon their two spears, this first trophy of 
 the bow, the monstrous head and hide of the 
 sabre-tooth. 
 
 202 
 
" She fell at Grom's feet, plainly imploring his protection. 1 
 
 \pag9 203. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 TO Grom, hunting farther to the south of the 
 Tribal Fires than he had ever ranged before, 
 came suddenly a woman running, mad with fright, a 
 baby clutched to her bosom. She fell at Grom's 
 feet, gibbering breathlessly, and plainly imploring 
 his protection. Both she and the child were 
 streaming with blood, and covered with strange 
 cup-like wounds, as if the flesh had been gouged out 
 of them with some irresistible circular instrument. 
 
 Grom swiftly fitted an arrow to his bow, and 
 peered through the trees to see what manner of 
 adversary the fugitive was like to bring upon him. 
 At the same time, he gave a piercing cry, which 
 was answered at once from some distance behind 
 him. 
 
 Having satisfied himself (the country being 
 fairly open) that the woman's pursuer, whatever 
 it might be, was not close upon her heels, and 
 that no immediate danger was in view, he turned 
 his attention upon the woman herself. She was 
 
 203 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 not of his race, and he looked down upon her with 
 cold aversion. At first glance he thought she was 
 one of the Bow-legs. But the colour of her skin, 
 where it could be seen for the blood, was different, 
 being rather of a copper-red ; and she was neither 
 so hairy on the body nor of so ape-like proportions. 
 She was sufficiently hideous, however, and of some 
 race plainly inferior to the People of the Caves. The 
 natural instinct of a Cave Man would have been 
 to knock her and her offspring on the head with- 
 out ceremony — an effective method of guarding his 
 more highly developed breed from the mixture of 
 an inferior blood. But Grom, the Chief and the 
 wise man, had many vague impulses moving him 
 at times which were novel to the human play- 
 fellows of Earth's childhood. He disliked hurting 
 a woman or a child. He might, quite conceivably, 
 have refused to concern himself with the suppliant 
 before him, and merely left her and her baby to 
 the chances of the jungle. But the peculiar 
 character of her wounds interested him. She 
 aroused his curiosity. Here was a new mystery 
 for him to investigate. The woman was saved. 
 
 Knowing a few words of the Bow-legs' tongue, 
 which he had learned from his lame slave Ook-ootsk, 
 he addressed the crouching woman, telling her not 
 to fear. The tongue was unintelligible to her, but 
 the tones of his voice seemed to reassure her. She 
 sat up, revealing again the form of the little one, 
 which she had been shielding with her hair and 
 her bosom as if she feared the tall white hunter 
 might dash its brains out ; and Grom noted with 
 
 204 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 keen interest that the child also had one of those 
 terrible, cup-shaped wounds, almost obliterating 
 its fat, copper-coloured shoulder. He saw, also, 
 that the woman's face, though uncomely, was more 
 intelligent and human than the bestial faces of the 
 Bow-legs women. It was a broad face, with very 
 small, deep-set eyes, high cheek-bones, a tiny nose, 
 and a very wide mouth, and it looked as if someone 
 had sat on it hard and pushed it in. The idea 
 made him smile, and the smile completed the 
 woman's reassurance. She poured out a stream 
 of chatter quite unlike the clicks and barkings of 
 the Bow-legs. Then she crept closer to Grom's feet, 
 and proceeded to give her little one the breast. It 
 was twisting uneasily with the pain of its dreadful 
 wound, but it nursed hungrily, and with the prudent 
 stoicism of a wild creature it made no outcry. 
 
 As Grom stood studying the pair, the mother 
 kept throwing glances of horror over her shoulder, 
 as if expecting her assailants to arrive at any 
 moment. Grom followed her eyes, but there was 
 no sign of any pursuit. Then he observed the 
 fugitives' wounds more closely, and noted that 
 the blood upon them was already, in most cases, 
 pretty well coagulated. He noted also certain 
 other wounds, deep, narrow punctures, like stabs. 
 He guessed that they could not be much less than 
 an hour old. The Thing, whatever it was, which 
 had inflicted them — the Thing with so strange a 
 mouth, and so strange a way of using it — had 
 apparently given up the pursuit. Grom's curiosity 
 burned within him, and he was angry at the woman 
 
 205 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 because she could not speak to him in his own 
 language, or at least in that of the Bow-legs. It 
 seemed to him wilful obstinacy on her part to 
 refuse to understand the Bow-legs' tongue. He 
 stooped over her, and roughly examined one of the 
 wounds with his huge fingers. She winced, but 
 made no complaint, only covering her baby with 
 her hair and her arms in terror lest it should suffer 
 a like harsh handling. 
 
 With a qualm of compunction, which rather 
 puzzled him, Grom gave over his investigating, 
 and turned to a tall, slim youth with a great mop 
 of chestnut hair who at this moment came running 
 up to him. It was A-ya's young brother, Mo, 
 Grom's favourite follower and hunting mate ; 
 and he had come at speed, being very swift of foot, 
 in answer to Grom's signal. Breathing quickly, he 
 stood at Grom's side, and looked down with wonder 
 and dislike upon the crouching woman. 
 
 Briefly Grom explained, and then pointed to the 
 inexplicable wounds. The youth, unable to believe 
 that any human creature should be unable to com- 
 prehend plain human speech, such as that of the 
 Cave People, tried his own hand at questioning the 
 woman. He got a flow of chatter in reply, but, 
 being able to make nothing out of it, he imagined 
 it was not speech at all, and turned away angrily, 
 thinking that she mocked him. Grom, smiling 
 at the mistake, explained that the woman was 
 talking her own language, which he intended pre- 
 sently to learn as he had learned that of the 
 Bow-legs. 
 
 206 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 " But now," said he, " we will go and see what 
 it is that has bitten the woman. It is surely some- 
 thing with a strange mouth." 
 
 Mo, who was not only brave to recklessness, 
 but would have followed Grom through the mouth 
 of hell, sprang forward eagerly. Grom, who realized 
 that the mystery before him was a perilous one, 
 and who loved to do dangerous things in a prudent 
 manner, looked to his bow-string and saw that 
 his arrows were handy in his girdle, before he 
 started on the venture. Besides his bow he 
 carried the usual two spears and his inseparable 
 stone-headed club. Though danger was his delight, 
 it was not the danger itself but the thrill of over- 
 coming it that he loved. 
 
 The moment he stepped forward, however, the 
 woman divined his purpose and leapt wildly to 
 her feet. She sprang straight in front of him, 
 screaming and gesticulating. She was plainly 
 horror-stricken at the thought that the two men 
 should venture into the perils from which she had 
 so hardly escaped. To Grom's keen intelligence 
 her gestures were eloquent. She managed to convey 
 to him the idea of great numbers, and the impossi- 
 bility of his dealing with them. When he attempted 
 to pass her, she threw herself down and clung to 
 his feet, shaking with her terror. When she saw 
 that Grom was at last impressed, she stretched 
 herself out as if dead, and then, after a few moments 
 of ghastly rigidity, with fixed, staring eyes, she 
 came to and held up one hand with the fingers 
 outspread. 
 
 207 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 This frantic pantomime Grom could read in no 
 o her way than as an attempt to tell him that 
 the unknown Something had killed five of the 
 woman's companions. The information gave him 
 pause. Adventurous as he was, he had small 
 respect for mere pig-headed recklessness. He was 
 resolved to solve the problem — but after all it 
 could abide his more thorough preparation. 
 
 " Come back," he ordered, turning to the im- 
 petuous Mo. " She says they are too many for 
 us two. They have killed five of her people. We 
 will go back to the Caves, and after three sleeps 
 for good counsel, we will return with fire and find 
 the destroying Thing." 
 
 II 
 
 On their return to the Caves, Grom gave the 
 stranger woman and her baby to his faithful slave 
 Ook-ootsk, who accepted the gift with enthusiasm 
 because, being a Bow-leg, he had not been allowed 
 to take any of the Cave Women to wife. He 
 lavished his attentions upon the unhappy stranger, 
 but he could make no more of her speech than 
 Grom had done. The girl A-ya, however, in a 
 moment of peculiar insight had gathered, or thought 
 she gathered, from the stranger's signs, that the 
 dreadful and destroying Thing was something that 
 flew — therefore, a great flesh-eating bird. But 
 she gathered, also, that it was something which 
 in some way bore a resemblance to fire — for the 
 
 208 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 woman, after getting over her first terror of the 
 dancing flames, kept pointing to them and then to 
 her wounds in a most suggestive way. This, 
 however, as Grom rather scornfully pointed out, 
 was too absurd. There was nothing that could be 
 in the least like fire except fire itself ; and the 
 wounds of the fugitives had no likeness whatever 
 to the corrosive bites of the flame. A-ya took 
 the correction submissively, but held her own 
 thoughts ; and when a day or two later, events 
 proved her to have been right, she discreetly re- 
 frained from calling her lord's attention to the 
 fact — a point upon which Grom was equally 
 reserved. 
 
 With so provocative a mystery waiting to be 
 solved, Grom could not long rest idle. Had she 
 not known well it M^ould be a waste of breath, A-ya 
 would have tried to dissuade him from the perilous, 
 and to her mind profitless, adventure. It was one 
 she shrank from in spite of her tried courage and 
 her unwavering trust in Grom's prowess. The 
 mystery of it daunted her. She feared it in the 
 same way that she feared the dark. But she kept 
 her fears to herself, and claimed her long-established 
 right to go with Grom on the expedition. Grom 
 was willing enough, for there was no one whose 
 readiness and nerve, in a supreme crisis, he could 
 so depend upon, and he wanted her close at hand 
 with her fire-basket. There was nothing to keep 
 her at home, as the children were looked after by 
 Ook-ootsk. 
 
 It was a very little party which started south- 
 209 14 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 ward from the Caves — simply Grom, A-ya, young 
 Mo, and a dwarfish kinsman of Grom's, named 
 Loob, who was the swiftest runner in the tribe 
 and noted for his cunning as a scout. He could go 
 through underbrush like a shadow, and hide where 
 there was apparently no hiding-place, making 
 himself indistinguishable from his surroundings 
 like a squatting partridge. Each one carried a 
 bow, two light spears, and a club — except A-ya, 
 who had no club, and only one spear. The weapon 
 she chiefly relied upon was the bow, which she 
 loved with passion. She considered herself the 
 inventor of it ; and in the accuracy of her shoot- 
 ing she outdid even Grom. In addition to these 
 weapons, each member of the party except the 
 leader himself carried a fire-basket, in which a mass 
 of red coals mixed with punk smouldered in a 
 bed of moist clay. 
 
 The little expedition travelled Indian file, Grom 
 leading the way, with A-ya at his heels, then Loob 
 the Scout, and young Mo bringing up the rear. 
 They had started about dawn, when the first of 
 the morning rose was just beginning to pale the 
 cave-mouth fires. They travelled swiftly, but 
 every two hours or so they would make a brief halt 
 beside a spring to drink and breathe themselves 
 and to look to the precious fires in the fire-baskets. 
 When it wanted perhaps an hour of noon, they came 
 to a little patch of meadow surrounding a solitary 
 Judas-tree covered with bloom. Here they built 
 a fire, for the replenishing of the coals in the fire- 
 baskets, and as a menace to prowling beasts. 
 
 210 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 Then they dined on their sun-dried meat and on 
 ripe plantains gathered during the journey. Having 
 dined, the three younger members of the party 
 stretched themselves out in the shade for their 
 noon sleep, while Grom, whose restless brain never 
 suffered him to sleep by day, kept watch, and 
 pondered the adventure which lay before them. 
 
 As Grom sat there, ten or a dozen paces from the 
 fire, absorbed in thought, his eyes gradually 
 focussed themselves upon a big purple-and-lemon 
 orchid bloom, which glowed forth conspicuously 
 from the rank green jungle-growth fringing the 
 meadow. The gorgeous bloom seemed to rise out 
 of a black, curiously gnarled elbow of branch or 
 trunk which thrust itself out through the leafage. 
 Grom's eyes dwelt for a time, unheeding, upon 
 this piece of misshapen tree trunk. Suddenly he 
 saw the blackness wink. His startled vision 
 cleared itself instantly, and revealed to him the 
 hideous, two-horned mask of a black rhinoceros, 
 peering forth just under the orchid blossom. 
 
 Grom's first impulse was to wake the sleepers 
 with a yell and shepherd them to refuge in the 
 tree — for the gigantic woolly rhinoceros, with his 
 armour of impenetrable hide, was a foe whom Man 
 had not yet learned to handle with any certainty. 
 But a deeper instinct held Grom motionless. He 
 knew that the monster, whose eyesight was always 
 dim and feeble, could not see him distinctly, and 
 was in all probability staring in stupid wonder at 
 the dancing flames of the camp-fire. As long as 
 no smell of man should reach the brute's sensitive 
 
 211 14* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 nostrils to rouse its rage, it was not likely to charge. 
 There was no wind, and the air about him was full 
 of the spicy bitterness of the wood-smoke. Grom 
 decided that the safest thing was to keep perfectly 
 still and wait for the next move in the game to 
 come from the monster. He devoutly trusted 
 that the sleepers behind him were sleeping soundly, 
 and that no one would wake and sit up to attract 
 the monster's attention. 
 
 Grom could now see plainly that it was the fire, 
 and not himself, which the rhinoceros was staring 
 at. The shifting flames, and the smell of the 
 smoke, apparently puzzled it. After a moment 
 or two, it took a step forward, so that half of its # 
 huge, black, shaggy bulk projected from the 
 banked greenery as from a frame. Then it stood 
 motionless, blinking its little malignant eyes, till 
 the silent suspense grew to be a strain even upon 
 Grom's well-seasoned nerves. 
 
 At last a large stick, laid across the fire, burned 
 through and fell apart. The flames leapt upwards 
 with redoubled vigour, preceded by a volley of 
 crackling sparks. Knowing the temper of the 
 rhinoceros, Grom expected it to fly into a fury 
 and charge upon the fire at once. His mouth 
 opened, indeed, for the yell of warning which 
 should wake the sleepers and send them leaping 
 into the tree. But he checked himself in time. 
 The monster, for once in its life, seemed to be 
 abashed. The curling red flames were too elusive 
 a foe for it. With a grunt of uneasiness, it drew 
 back into the leafage ; and in a moment or two Grom 
 
 212 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 heard the giant bulk crashing off through the 
 jungle at a gallop. The unwonted sensation of 
 alarm, once yielded to, had swollen to a panic, and 
 the dull-witted brute fled on for a mile or more 
 before it could forget the cause of its terror. 
 
 That afternoon toward sundown the expedition 
 reached the point where the fugitive had made 
 her appeal to Grom. For fear of giving informa- 
 tion to the unknown enemy, no fires were lighted. 
 The night was passed in a dense and lofty tree- top. 
 For Grom, strung up with excitement, suspense 
 and curiosity, there was little sleep. For the 
 most part he perched on his woven platform with 
 his arms about his knees, listening to the sounds 
 of the night — the occasional sudden rush of a 
 hunting beast, the agonized scream and scuffle, 
 the gurglings and noisy slaverings that told of 
 the unseen tragedies enacted far down in the 
 murderous dark. But there was no sound novel 
 to his own experience. Once there came a scratch- 
 ing of claws and a sniffing at the base of the tree. 
 
 But Grom dropped a live coal from his fire- 
 basket, and chanced to make a lucky shot. With 
 a snarl some heavy body bounced away from 
 the tree. The coal then fell into a tuft of dry 
 grass, which flared up suddenly. Grom had 
 a glimpse of huge shapes and startled, savage 
 eyes backing away from the circle of light. The 
 blaze died down as quickly as it had arisen ; and 
 thereafter the night prowlers kept at a distance 
 from the tree. But the sleepers had all been 
 thoroughly aroused, and till dawn they sat 
 
 213 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 discussing, for the hundredth time, the chances of 
 the morrow's venture. 
 
 Before the sun was clear of the horizon, the 
 little party was again upon the march, but now 
 going with the wariness of a sable. They no 
 longer went Indian file, but flitting singly from tree 
 to tree, from covert to covert, Grom picking up 
 the old trail of the fugitive, the rest of the party 
 keeping him in view and peering ahead for some 
 sign of the unknown Terror. The red woman in 
 her flight had left a sharp trail enough ; but in the 
 lapse of three days it had been so obliterated that 
 all Grom's woodcraft was needed to decipher it, 
 and his progress was slow. He began to be puzzled 
 at the absence of any other trail, of any footsteps 
 of a mysterious, unknown monster. Such tracks 
 as crossed those of the fugitive, however terrible, 
 were all familiar to his eye. 
 
 Suddenly he almost stumbled over, a hideous 
 sight. A low whistle brought his followers closing 
 in upon him. The skeleton of a full-grown man 
 lay outstretched in the grass. The bones were 
 fresh — blood-stained and bright — and a swarm 
 of blood-sucking insects arose from them. They 
 were picked minutely clean, except for a portion 
 of the skull, where the long, strong, densely matted 
 hair seemed to have served as an effective armour. 
 The bones were not pulled about, or crushed for 
 their marrow, as they would have been if the 
 victim had been the prey of any of the great carni- 
 vorous beasts. And there were no tracks about it 
 save those of a few small rat-like creatures. It 
 
 214 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 was clear that the Mystery, whatever it might be, 
 had wings. 
 
 " A bird ! " whispered A-ya, with a gleam of 
 triumph in her eyes, at the same time glancing up 
 into the tree- tops apprehensively. But Grdm did 
 not think so. There were no marks of mighty 
 claws on the turf around the skeleton. 
 
 Grom cast about him an eager but anxious eye. 
 The country was not densely wooded at this point, 
 but studded with low thickets, and set here and 
 there with scattered trees. From a little way 
 ahead came a gleam of calm water through the 
 greenery. It was a scene of peace, and security, 
 and summer loveliness. Its very beauty seemed 
 to Grom an added menace, as if some peculiar 
 treachery must lurk behind it. 
 
 In the centre of an open glade, not far from the 
 skeleton, Grom set his party to building a circle 
 of fires, as likely to afford the surest kind of a 
 refuge. A supply of fuel having been gathered, 
 he directed A-ya and Mo to remain and tend the 
 fires and not to leave the circle unless he should 
 summon them. Loob, the cunning scout, he sent 
 off to the left through the underbrush. He himself 
 followed the trail of the fugitive — now doubled by 
 that of the other fugitive whose skeleton lay there 
 in the sun — down toward that gleam of water 
 through the trees. A-ya gazed after him anxiously 
 as he vanished, half minded to dare his displeasure 
 and follow him. 
 
 Grom was presently able to make out that the 
 water was a wide, reedy lake or the arm of a 
 
 215 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 shallow river. There was no wind, and the surface 
 shone like clear glass. But once and again his 
 eyes were dazzled by a dart of intense radiance, a 
 great flash of rose or violet or blue-green flame, 
 shooting over the surface of the water. A memory 
 of what A-ya had professed to gather from the 
 stranger woman rushed into his mind. Perhaps 
 the Destroying Thing was like a bird, and never- 
 theless, at the same time, something like fire. He 
 felt himself confronted by a mystery which made 
 even his tried nerves creep ; and he hid himself 
 in the densest undergrowth as he stole forward 
 toward the water. He had forgotten, and for- 
 saken, the trail he was following, in his haste to 
 solve the problem of those darting splendours. 
 
 A few moments more and he gained the edge of 
 an open glade which led straight to the water. 
 He paused behind the screening leaves. Out over 
 the water a bar of ruby light, surrounded by a 
 globe of rose-pink mist, shot by and vanished from 
 his narrow field of vision. He was just about to 
 thrust out his head and crane his neck to follow 
 the gorgeous apparition, when a peculiar dry 
 rustling in the air above checked him. He glanced 
 up cautiously, and saw hovering, not more than 
 twenty or thirty yards away, a beautiful and 
 dreadful being. 
 
 In shape it was exactly like a dragon-fly ; but 
 the length of its flaming violet body was greater 
 than that of Grom's longest arrow. The spread of 
 its two pairs of transparent, crystal-shining, colour- 
 less wings was even greater than the length of its 
 
 216 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 body. Its enormous eyes, wells of purple fire 
 which took up the whole of the top and sides of 
 its monstrous head, seemed to see everywhere at 
 once ; and Grom shivered with the feeling that they 
 had spied him out and were peering into his very 
 soul. 
 
 The awful eyes may have seen him, indeed ; but 
 at that moment they spied out something else 
 which apparently concerned them more. With a 
 pounce like a flash of violet lightning — and, indeed, 
 almost as swift — the bright shape swooped to the 
 grass. The four shining wings waved there for a 
 moment, and there seemed to be a mild struggle. 
 Then the giant fly rose again, lightly, into the 
 air, holding in the clutch of its six slender, jointed 
 legs the body of one of those black, rat-like animals 
 which Grom knew so well as infesting the grass of 
 all meadows near the water. The captor flew to 
 a naked branch near the waterside, alighted upon 
 it, and proceeded to make its meal, holding up the 
 body between the end joints of its front pair of 
 legs and turning it over and over deftly while its 
 appalling jaws both crushed and mangled it. The 
 process was amazingly swift. In the space of a 
 couple of minutes all the blood, flesh, and soft 
 material of the rat were squeezed out and sucked 
 down. The remnants were rolled into a hard little 
 ball, perfectly spherical, and scornfully tossed aside. 
 And the monster, leaping into the air with a rustle 
 of its glittering wings, flashed off over the water. 
 
 Almost in the same moment an amazingly loud 
 rustle, like the sweep of a fierce gust of rain upon 
 
 217 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 a rank of palmetto leaves, rilled the air above the 
 glade, and Grom, looking up with a start, saw a 
 great shoal of the radiant shapes storm by, as if 
 with the rainbow entangled in their wings. He 
 wondered upon what foray they were bent ; and 
 now for the first time he realized, with a creeping of 
 the flesh, what it was that had overtaken the man 
 whose skeleton he had found in the grass. The 
 shoal swept out over the lake a little way, and 
 then on down the shore toward the left ; and 
 Grom drew a long breath as he assured himself 
 that their course was taking them far from the 
 fires of A-ya and Mo. 
 
 When Grom lowered his eyes to earth again he 
 started. On the side of the stump of a fallen tree, 
 out in the glade not more than eight or ten yards 
 distant, clung one of the monsters, scintillating 
 blue-green and amethyst in the full blaze of the 
 sun. Its wings, exquisitely netted and of crystal 
 transparency, were tinged with an ineffable purple 
 iridescence. Its jointed body, slightly longer than 
 Groin's arm, was nearly as thick as his wrist, and 
 ended at the tail with a formidable double claw. 
 Its six legs, arranged in three pairs under the 
 thorax, were armed on the inner sides with power- 
 ful spines, needle-pointed and steel hard, with 
 which to grip and hold its victims. The thorax, 
 from the back of which sprouted the four great 
 wings, was of the thickness of Grom's fore-arm, 
 while its head was as big as Grom's two great fists 
 put together. It was this head which held Grom's 
 fascinated gaze, giving him more of the sensation 
 
 218 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 of cold fear than he had ever known before. More 
 than two-thirds of the head consisted of a pair of 
 huge, globose eyes, without pupil, ethereally 
 transparent, yet unfathomable. From the depths 
 of them flamed a ceaselessly changing radiance of 
 blue-green, purple and violet. Grom found the 
 stare of those blank, pupilless eyes almost in- 
 tolerable. 
 
 It was plainly straight at him, through the 
 ineffectual screen of the leafage, that the dreadful 
 insect was staring. At first it stared with the back 
 of its head. Then, very deliberately, it turned its 
 head completely around, without moving its body 
 a hair's-breadth, till its mouth was in the same 
 plane with its back. This gave Grom a sense of 
 disgust, and his shrinking dread began to give 
 way to a sort of rage. 
 
 Then he took note of the monster's mouth — and 
 understood those great cup-shaped wounds on 
 the woman and the child. The mouth took up the 
 remaining third of the head, and seemed to consist 
 of globular discs working one over the other, so as 
 either to cut cleanly or to grind. They were work- 
 ing, slowly, now — and Grom felt suddenly that he 
 must put a stop to it, that he must put out 
 the awful light in those monstrous devil eyes. 
 Stealthily, almost imperceptibly, he fitted an 
 arrow to his bow, raised it, drew it, and took a long, 
 steady aim. He must not miss. The shaft flew — 
 and the great fly was pinned, through the thorax, 
 to the soft, rotten wood of its perch. 
 
 To Grom's horror that stroke, which to any 
 219 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 beast he knew would have at once been fatal, did 
 not kill the monstrous fly. Its struggles, and the 
 beating of its four great wings, were so violent that 
 the arrow-head was presently wrenched loose from 
 its hold in the wood, and the raging splendour, 
 with the shaft half-way through its thorax, bounded 
 into the air. It darted straight at Grom, who had 
 prudently edged in among a tangle of stems. Its 
 fury carried it through the screen of leafage — 
 but then, its wings impeded by the branches, and 
 the arrow hampering it, it dashed itself to the 
 earth. Instantly Grom was upon it, stamping its 
 slim body, as it lay there blazing and quivering, 
 into the soil. The violet light in the huge, pupilless 
 eyes still stared up at him implacable, from a 
 head turned around squarely over the back. But 
 in a cold fury Grom shattered the gleaming head 
 with his club. Then he trod the silver wings to 
 dust. 
 
 Having slaked his wrath effectually, Grom turned 
 to stare forth again at those destroying splendours 
 darting and glittering above the surface of the 
 lake. To his surprise there were no more of them 
 to be seen. Then far off down the shore he heard 
 the voice of Loob, shouting for help. The shouting 
 changed at once to a scream of terror, and Grom 
 started to the rescue on the full run — taking care, 
 however, to keep within cover of the thickets. 
 But before he had gone a quarter of a mile he heard 
 A-ya's voice calling him, wildly, insistently, 
 mingled with excited yells from Mo. He shouted 
 in reply and dashed madly for the fires. The 
 
 220 
 
p 
 
 He strove to throttle his dreadful assailant. 
 
 [page 221. 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 peril of A-ya put all other considerations out of 
 his mind. 
 
 As he burst forth into the glade of refuge, he 
 saw A-ya and young Mo leaping about frantically 
 among their fires, now trying to stir the fires to a 
 fiercer blaze, now beating upwards with their 
 spears, while above them darted and gleamed and 
 swooped and scintillated, with a horrid dry rustling 
 of their silver wings, shoal upon shoal of the 
 devouring monsters. As he burst into the open, 
 with a great shout of encouragement, something 
 dropped upon him. He felt his head instantly 
 caged by six steel-like legs which gripped like jaws, 
 their spines sinking deep into the flesh of neck 
 and cheek. He reached up his left hand, caught 
 his dreadful assailant just where the head and 
 thorax join, and strove to throttle it. This was 
 impossible, by reason of the insect's armour, but 
 he succeeded in holding off those horrid jaws from 
 his face as he dashed for the circle. Another 
 monster swooped and struck its spines into his 
 back, and bit a great mouthful out of his shoulder. 
 But he gained the fires, and, holding his breath, 
 sprang right through the fiercest flame. The wings 
 of his assailants shrivelled instantly, and the 
 flame, drawn into the mouths of their breathing 
 tubes, sealed them up. Grom tore them off, and 
 slammed the writhing, wingless bodies into the fire. 
 
 Inside the circle, now that the fires were burning 
 high, it was possible to defend oneself effectually, 
 as the bulk of the assailants seemed to realize that 
 the flames were fatal to their frail wings. But 
 
 221 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 there were enough so headlong in their ferocity 
 that both Grom and Mo were kept busy beating 
 them off with spears, while A-ya fed the fires ; 
 and the ground inside the circle was littered with 
 the radiant bodies of the dying insects, which, 
 even in dying, bit like bull-dogs if foot or leg came 
 within reach. Grom noticed that their supply of 
 fuel was all but gone, and his heart sank. He 
 measured with his eyes the distance to the nearest 
 thickets that looked dense enough for a shelter. 
 
 " We'll have to run for those bushes," he said 
 presently. u They can't fly in where the branches 
 are thick. It breaks their wings." 
 
 " Good," said young Mo. But A-ya, whose 
 shapely shoulders and thighs were already covered 
 with hideous wounds, trembled at the prospect. 
 
 At that moment, however, an amazing change 
 came over the scene. A black thunder-cloud passed 
 across the face of the sun. The moment the sun- 
 shine vanished the destroyers seemed to forget 
 their fury. All the life and energy went out of 
 them. They simply flocked to the nearest trees 
 and hung themselves up, gigantic, jewelled blooms, 
 upon the branches. In less than a minute every 
 dreadful wing was stilled. 
 
 " Now is our time. Come ! " commanded Grom, 
 leading the way out of the circle. 
 
 " Let's stop and kill them all ! " pleaded young 
 Mo, his eyes red with rage. 
 
 But Grom pointed to the cloud. " It will pass 
 quickly," said he. " We must be far from here 
 before the sun shows his face again," 
 
 223 
 
THE DESTROYING SPLENDOUR 
 
 He paused, however, to transfix upon his spear- 
 head one of their wounded but still fluttering foes, 
 that he might be able to show the tribe what 
 manner of monster they had had to deal with. 
 Both A-ya and Mo followed his example ; and 
 they all ran off down the glade bearing their 
 strange trophies on their spear-heads. The 
 monsters, clinging sullenly to their perches, rolled 
 baleful eyes of emerald and rose and amethyst 
 upon them as they went, but lifted never a wing 
 to follow them. Ten minutes later the sun came 
 out again. Then the monsters all sprang hurtling 
 into the air, and darted hither and thither above 
 the glade in shoals of iridescent radiance, seeking 
 their prey. But Grom and A-ya and Mo, trium- 
 phant in spite of their wounds, were by this time 
 far away among the inland thickets, where those 
 intolerable eyes could not search them out, nor 
 the clashing wings pursue. 
 
 223 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 FROM the topmost summit of that range of 
 pointed hills which held the caves and the 
 cave-mouth fires of his people, Grom stared north- 
 ward with keen curiosity. To east and south and 
 west he had explored, ever seeking to enlarge the 
 knowledge and strengthen the security of his 
 tribe. But to northward of the Pointed Hills 
 lay league on league of profound jungle — grotesque 
 and enormous growths knitted together impene- 
 trably by a tangle of gigantic, flame-flowered 
 lianas. And in those rank, green glooms, as Grom 
 had reason to believe, there lurked such monsters 
 as even he, with all his resources of fire and novel 
 weapons, had so far shrunk from challenging. 
 
 But beyond the expanse of jungle stretched 
 another line of hills, their summits not saw-toothed 
 like his own, but low and gently rounded, and of 
 a smoky purple against the pure turquoise sky. 
 These hills Grom was thirsting to explore. They 
 might contain caves more roomy than those of 
 
 224 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 his own hills — spacious and suitable to give shelter 
 to his tribe, which was now finding itself some- 
 what cramped. Moreover, it had always seemed 
 to Grom that there might be a mystery behind 
 those hills, and to his restless imagination a 
 mystery was always like a stinging goad. 
 
 In all this neighbourhood the crust of earth 
 was thin, as plainly appeared from the fringe of 
 wavering volcanic flames which, during all the 
 five years since the coming of the tribe, had been 
 dancing from the lip of the narrow fissure across 
 the mouth of their valley. Night and day, now 
 high and vehement, now low and faint, they had 
 danced there, guarding the valley entrance — until 
 just one moon ago. Then had come an earth- 
 quake, shaking the hearts of all the tribe to water. 
 The dancing flames had died. The fissure had 
 closed up, and its place had been taken by a pool 
 of boiling pitch. And one of the caves had fallen 
 in, burying several members of the tribe, who had 
 been too stupefied with panic to flee into the open 
 at the first alarm. For some days after this 
 catastrophe the tribe had camped in the open, 
 huddled about their great fires. Then, but with 
 deep misgivings, they had all crowded back into 
 the remaining caves. 
 
 But now there was not room enough, and Bawr, 
 the wise Chief, had taken frequent counsel upon 
 the matter with Grom, whom, loving him greatly, 
 he called sometimes his Right Hand and some- 
 times the Eye of the People. At last, it had been 
 settled that Grom should lead a party through the 
 
 225 15 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 jungle land to those other hills, to spy out the 
 prospect. And Grom, like the foresighted leader 
 that he was, had spent many hours on the mountain- 
 top, planning his route and studying the luxuriant 
 surface of the jungle outstretched below him, 
 before plunging into its mysterious depths. 
 
 As was his custom when on a perilous venture, 
 Grom would have few followers to share the peril 
 with him. He took A-ya, not only because of her 
 oft-proved courage and resourcefulness, not only 
 because he wanted her always at his side, but, 
 above all, because he knew he could not leave her 
 behind. Had he tried to leave her, she would 
 have disobeyed and followed him by stealth — 
 and perhaps fallen a prey to prowling beasts. He 
 took also A-ya's young brother, the hot-head Mo ; 
 and Loob, the shaggy, little sharp-faced scout, 
 who could run like a hare, hide like a fox, and fight 
 like a cornered weasel. This he would have 
 accounted, ordinarily, a sufficient party. But the 
 present enterprise being one of peculiar difficulty, 
 he decided at the last moment to strengthen his 
 following by the addition of a dark-faced, perpetu- 
 ally-grinning giant named Hobbo, who was slow 
 of wit, but thewed like a bull, and a mighty fighter 
 with the stone-headed club. 
 
 This little but greatly daring band, which Grom, 
 one flaming sunrise, led down into the unknown 
 jungle, was well armed. Besides the spear and 
 the club, each member of the party but Hobbo 
 (who had displayed no aptitude for its use) carried 
 Grom's wonderful invention — the bow. Hobbo, 
 
 226 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 however, because of his immense strength, bore 
 the heavy fire-basket, wherein the smouldering 
 coals were cherished in a bed of clay. As a food 
 reserve, everyone carried a few strips of half-dried 
 meat ; but their main dependence, of course, was 
 to be upon the spoils of their hunting and the fruits 
 that they might gather on their march. 
 
 The forest into whose depths Grom now led the 
 way was in reality a survival from a previous age, 
 into which the forms, both vegetable and animal, 
 of contemporary life had been gradually infiltrating. 
 The soil, of incredible fertility, still poured forth 
 those gigantic tree grasses, and colossal, sappy 
 ferns and pseudo-palms, which had flourished 
 chiefly in the carboniferous period. But here they 
 were mingled with the more enduring hard-wood 
 growths of the later tropical forests ; and only 
 these were strong enough to support the massive, 
 strangling coils of the cable-like lianas, which 
 wound their way up the huge trunks and reached 
 out in aerial, swaying bridges from tree- top to 
 tree-top. On every side, high or low, the deep- 
 green gloom was splashed with colour from the 
 gorgeous orchids and other epiphytes, which 
 flowered out into grotesque or monstrous wing- 
 petalled shapes of vermilion and purple and 
 orange and rose and white, eyed with velvet black 
 or streaked with iridescent bronze. 
 
 To men of to-day this jungle would have been 
 impenetrable, except by the incessant use of axe 
 or machete. But Grom and his party were Cave- 
 Men, and had not yet forgotten all the instincts 
 
 227 15* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and capacities of their tree-dwelling ancestors. 
 Sometimes, where it seemed easiest, they forced 
 their way along the ground, or followed the trodden 
 trail of some great jungle beast, so long as it led 
 in the right direction. But here they had to be 
 ceaselessly on the watch against surprise by 
 creatures whose monstrous tracks were unlike any 
 that they had ever seen before. Whenever possible, 
 therefore, they preferred to journey, after the 
 fashion of their apish ancestors, by way of the 
 high branches and the liana bridges. Hampered 
 as they were by their weapons, their progress by 
 this aerial way was slow. But it was compara- 
 tively secure. And it was also comparatively cool ; 
 while down at the ground-level the steaming heat 
 and the stinging insects were almost beyond 
 endurance. 
 
 Yet before the end of that first day's journey 
 they learned that even in the tree-tops it was 
 necessary to be always on the watch. Once the 
 little hairy scout, Loob, who travelled always on 
 the outskirts of the party, was struck at suddenly 
 by a huge black leopard, which lay ambushed in 
 the crotch of a tree. Loob, however, who was so 
 quick-sighted that he seemed to see things before 
 they actually happened, leapt to a higher branch 
 in time to escape the deadly paw. In the next 
 instant he struck down furiously with his spear, 
 catching his assailant between the shoulder-blades 
 and driving the stroke home with all his strength. 
 With a screech, the beast stiffened out, and then, 
 somewhat slowly, collapsed. As Loob wrenched 
 
 228 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 his weapon free, the great animal slumped limply 
 from its branch. For a moment or two it hung 
 by the fore-paws, coughing and frothing at the 
 mouth. Then this last hold relaxed and it fell, 
 bumping with a curious deliberation from branch 
 to branch. It vanished through a floor of thick 
 leafage, and struck the ground with a dull crash. 
 It must have fallen under the very jaws of an 
 unseen waiting monster ; for there arose at once 
 a strange, hooting roar, followed by the sound of 
 rending flesh and cracking bone. Loob grinned 
 over his feat, and Grom, glancing at A-ya, muttered 
 quietly : " It is better to be up here than down 
 there." As he spoke, and they all peered down- 
 wards, a dreadful head, with the limp body of the 
 leopard gripped like a rat between its long jaws 
 and dripping yellow fangs, thrust itself up through 
 the floor of leafage and stared at them with round 
 eyes as cold and blank as ice. 
 
 Grom itched to shoot an arrow into one of those 
 unwinking, devilish eyes. But arrows were too 
 precious to be wasted. 
 
 That night they slept profoundly on a platform 
 which they wove of branches in one of the tallest 
 and most unscaleable trees. They kept watch, of 
 course, turn and turn about ; but nothing at- 
 tempted to approach them, and they cared little 
 for the sounds of strife, the crashings of pursuit 
 and desperate flight, which came up to them at 
 intervals from the blackness far below. 
 
 On the morrow, however, as they were pursuing 
 their aerial path along the borders of a narrow, 
 
 229 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 sluggish bayou, they were suddenly made to realize 
 that the tree-tops held perils more deadly than 
 that of the lurking leopards. They were all staring 
 down into the water, which swarmed with gigantic 
 crocodiles and boiled immediately beneath them 
 with the turmoil of a life-and-death struggle 
 between two of the brutes, when a harsh jabbering 
 in the branches just across the water made them 
 look up. 
 
 The tree-tops opposite were full of great apes, 
 mowing and gibbering at them with every sign of 
 hate. The beasts were as big and massive as 
 Hobbo himself, and covered thickly with long, 
 blackish fur. Their faces, half human, half dog- 
 like, were hairless and of a bright but bilious blue, 
 with great livid red circles about the small, furious 
 eyes. With derisive gestures they swung them- 
 selves out upon the overhanging branches, till 
 it almost seemed as if they would hurl themselves 
 into the water in their rage against the little knot 
 of human beings. 
 
 The girl A-ya, overcome with loathing horror 
 because the beasts were so hideous a caricature of 
 man, covered her eyes with one hand. Young Mo, 
 his fiery temper stung by their challenge, clapped 
 an arrow to his string and raised his bow to shoot. 
 But Grom checked him sternly, dreading to fix 
 any thirst of vengeance in the minds of the terrible 
 troop. 
 
 " They can't come at us here. Let them forget 
 about us," said he. " Don't take any more notice 
 of them at all." 
 
 230 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 As he led the way once more through the 
 branches along the edge of the bayou, the apes 
 kept pace with them on the other side. But pre- 
 sently the bayou widened, and then swept sharply 
 off to the west. Grom kept on straight to the 
 north, by the route which he had planned. And 
 the mad gibbering died away into the hot, green 
 silence of the tree-tops. 
 
 The adventurers now pushed on with redoubled 
 speed, unwilling to pass another night in the tree- 
 tops when such dangerous antagonists were in the 
 neighbourhood. The hills, however, were still 
 far off when evening came again. Not knowing 
 that the great apes always slept at night, Grom 
 decided to continue the journey in order to lessen 
 the risk of a surprise. When the moon rose, 
 round and huge and honey-coloured, over the 
 sea of foliage, travelling through the tree-tops was 
 almost as easy as by day, while the earth below 
 them, with its prowling and battling monsters, 
 was buried in inky gloom. When day broke, 
 there were the rounded hills startlingly close ahead, 
 as if they had crept forward to meet them in the 
 night. 
 
 And now the hills looked different. Between the 
 nearest — a long, rolling, treeless ridge of down- 
 land — and the edge of the jungle lay an expanse 
 of open, grassy savannah, dotted with ponds, and 
 here and there a curious, solitary, naked tree- 
 trunk, with what looked like a bunch of grass on 
 its top. They were like gigantic green paint- 
 brushes, with yellow-grey handles, stuck up at 
 
 231 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 random. Far off they saw a herd of curious beasts 
 at pasture, and away to the left a giant bird, as 
 tall as the tree by which it stood, seemed to keep 
 watch. A little to the right, where the treeless 
 ridge came abruptly to an end, gleamed a con- 
 siderable stretch of water. It was toward this 
 point, where the water washed the steep-shouldered 
 promontory, that Grom decided to shape his course 
 across the plain. 
 
 By the time the sun was some three hours high 
 they had arrived within a couple of hundred 
 yards of the open. Sick of the oppressive jungle, 
 and eager for the change to a type of country 
 with which they were more familiar, they were 
 swinging on through the tree-tops at a great pace, 
 when that savage, snarling jabber which they so 
 dreaded was heard in the branches behind them. 
 Grom instantly put A-ya in the lead, while he 
 himself dropped to the rear to meet this deadliest 
 of perils. There was no need to urge his party to 
 haste ; but it seemed to them all as if , they were 
 standing still, so swiftly did the clamour of the 
 apes come up upon them. 
 
 " Down to earth," ordered Grom sharply, seeing 
 that they must be overtaken before they could 
 reach the open, and realizing that in the tree-tops 
 they could not hope to match these four-handed 
 dwellers of the trees. 
 
 As they dropped nimbly from branch to branch, 
 the foremost of the apes arrived in sight, set up a 
 screech of triumph, and came swooping down after 
 them in vast, swinging leaps. In the hurry Hobbo 
 
 232 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 dropped his fire-basket, which broke as it fell and 
 scattered the precious coals. Grom, guarding the 
 rear of the flight, made the mistake of keeping his 
 eye too much on the enemy, too little on where 
 he was going. In a moment or two, he found 
 himself cut off, upon a branch from which there 
 was no escape without a drop of twenty feet to a 
 most uncertain foothold. Rather than risk it, he 
 ran in upon his nearest assailant at the base of 
 the branch, thrusting at the blue-faced beast with 
 his spear. But his position being so insecure, his 
 thrust lacked force and precision. The great ape 
 caught it deftly ; and Grom, to preserve his 
 balance, had to let the spear be wrenched from 
 his hand. At the same moment another ape 
 dropped on the branch behind him. 
 
 For just one second Grom thought his hour had 
 come. He crouched to steady himself, then 
 darted forward and hurled his club straight at 
 his foe's protruding and shaggy paunch. Again 
 the beast caught the missile in its lightning clutch ; 
 but in the next instant it threw up its long arms, 
 without a sound, and fell backwards out of the 
 tree. A-ya, who had been the first to reach the 
 ground, had drawn her bow and shot upwards 
 with sure aim. The shaft had caught the great 
 ape under the centre of the jaw, far back at the 
 throat, and pierced straight up to the brain. 
 
 Surprised at seeing their leader fall with so 
 little apparent reason, the other apes halted for 
 a moment in their onset, chattering noisily. In 
 that moment Grom swung himself to the ground. 
 
 233 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 As he reached it both Mo and Loob discharged 
 their arrows. Another ape fell from his perch, but 
 caught himself on a lower branch and hung there 
 writhing ; while a third, with a shaft half buried 
 in his paunch, fled back yelling into the tree-top. 
 Then the adventurers snatched up their fallen 
 weapons from the ground and made for the open 
 as fast as they could run. And the apes, with 
 hellish uproar of barks and screams, came swarm- 
 ing after them through the lower branches. 
 
 At this point, fortunately for the travellers, 
 the jungle was already thinning, and they had a 
 chance to show their speed. The raging blue- 
 faces were speedily distanced, and the fugitives 
 ran out breathless upon the sunny savannah. 
 Here, feeling themselves safe, they halted to look 
 back. The lower branches all along the edge of 
 the grass were thronged with leaping brown forms, 
 and gnashing blue masks, and red-rimmed, devilish 
 eyes. But not one of the great beasts, for all their 
 rage, seemed willing to venture forth into the open. 
 
 " There must be something out here that they 
 fear greatly," commented Grom, peering warily 
 about him. But there was nothing in sight to 
 suggest any danger, and he led the way onward 
 through the rank grass at a long, leisurely trot. 
 
 II 
 
 For the most part the grass grew hardly waist 
 high ; but here and there were patches, perhaps 
 
 234 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 an acre or so in extent, where it was more cane 
 than grass and rose to a height of twelve or fifteen 
 feet. To such patches, which might serve as 
 lurking-places to unknown monsters, Grom gave 
 a wide berth. He had a vivid remembrance of 
 that colossal head, with the awful dead eyes, which 
 had reared itself through the leafage to stare up 
 at him. 
 
 In spite of the strange and enormous trails which 
 crossed their path at times ; in spite of occasional 
 massive swayings and crashings in the deep beds 
 of cane, the adventurous party accomplished the 
 journey across the savannah without encountering 
 a single foe. The mid-noon blaze of the sun upon 
 the windless grass, which was almost more than 
 they could endure, was probably keeping the 
 monsters to their lairs ; and the only living things 
 to be seen, besides the insects and a high-wheeling 
 vulture or two, were a few shy troops of a kind of 
 small antelope, incredibly swift of foot. 
 
 Grom drew a breath of relief as they reached 
 the foot of the hills. But just here it was im- 
 possible to climb them. A range of high lime- 
 stone downs, they were fringed at this point by 
 an unbroken line of cliff, perpendicular and at 
 times overhanging, from forty or fifty to perhaps a 
 couple of hundred feet in height, and so smooth 
 that even these goat-footed cave-folk could not 
 scale them. The rich plain-land at their feet had 
 once been a shallow, inland sea, and now its grasses 
 washed along their base in a gold-green, scented 
 foam. 
 
 235 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Turning to the right, Grom led the way close 
 along the cliff-foot toward the water, which glowed 
 like brass about a mile ahead. Along the right 
 of their path the ground sloped off gently to a belt 
 of that high cane-like growth which Grom regarded 
 with such suspicion. Before they had gone many 
 hundred yards his suspicion was more than 
 justified. 
 
 From a little way behind them there arose all 
 at once a chorus of explosive gruntings, mixed 
 with a huge crashing of the canes. Glancing over 
 their shoulders, they saw a great rust-red animal, 
 about the size of a rhinoceros, which burst forth 
 from the canes and stood staring after them. Its 
 hideous head was larger than that of any rhinoceros 
 they had ever seen, and armed with a pair of 
 enormous conical horns, each more than a foot 
 in diameter at the base and tapering to a keen 
 point. Set side by side, at a moderate angle, upon 
 the bridge of the snout, they were far more terrible 
 than the horns of any rhinoceros. Their bearer 
 lowered them menacingly, and charged down upon 
 Grom's party with a sound that was something 
 between the grunting of a hog and the braying of 
 an ass. Immediately upon his massive heels a 
 whole herd of the red monsters surged forth from 
 the canes, and came charging after their leader at 
 a ponderous gallop which seemed literally to shake 
 the earth. 
 
 For a moment or two Grom's party had paused, 
 confident in their own fleetness of foot, and wonder- 
 ing at that pair of amazing horns on the monster's 
 
 236 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 snout. But when the rest of the terrific herd 
 came thundering down upon them, they fled in 
 all haste. To their amazement, they found that 
 their speed was none too great for their need. The 
 red monsters, in spite of their bulk, were dis- 
 concertingly swift. 
 
 As he neared the steep promontory which ter- 
 minated the range of downs, Grom began to fear 
 that he and his followers would have to take refuge 
 in the water. This water, as it chanced, was the 
 brackish estuary of a river which, sweeping down 
 from the east, here made its way to the sea through 
 a long, slanting break in the limestone hills. It 
 was now near low tide, and there opened before 
 the hard-pressed fugitives, as they approached 
 the shore, a strip of damp beach running around 
 the base of the bluff. As they left the grass and 
 ran out upon the beach they were astonished to 
 find that the thundering pursuit had stopped short. 
 Just at the turn of the cliff they halted and stared 
 back wonderingly. Their pursuers, though swing- 
 ing their great horns and braying with rage, were 
 evidently unwilling to venture so near the water- 
 side. They drew back, indeed, as if they feared 
 it, and at last went crashing away into the canes. 
 The fugitives, glad of an opportunity to rest their 
 labouring lungs, squatted down with their backs 
 against the cliff and congratulated themselves on 
 having got rid of such perilous attentions. But 
 Grom's sagacious eyes searched the cliff face 
 anxiously, without neglecting to watch the un- 
 ruffled water. If that water was so dreaded that 
 
 237 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 even the mighty herd of their pursuers durst not 
 approach it, surely its smiling surface must hide 
 some peril of surpassing horror. 
 
 For the next few hundred yards, till it vanished 
 around the curve, the strip of naked beach was not 
 more than twenty or thirty feet in width. Not 
 without some apprehensions, Grom decided to 
 push forward. There seemed nothing else to do, 
 indeed, seeing that the cane-beds behind them were 
 occupied by that irresistible red herd. Somewhere 
 ahead, he argued, there must be a break in the 
 cliff which would give access to the rolling downs 
 above, where they might travel in safety. Dis- 
 guising his uneasiness that he might not discourage 
 his followers — who were now full of elation at 
 having reached the foot of the hills — he led on 
 again in haste, though there seemed to be no need 
 of haste. Both Hobbo and young Mo, indeed, 
 were for staying a while and sleeping in the shade 
 of an overhanging rock. But A-ya, who sensed 
 through sympathy her lord's disquietude, and the 
 little scout Loob, who was always, on principle, 
 ill at ease in any spot where there was no tree to 
 climb, were as eager as their chief to push ahead ; 
 and the others would never have dared, in any case, 
 to question Grom's decision. 
 
 As they rounded the next bend of the cliff, how- 
 ever, a clamour of excited satisfaction arose from 
 all the party. Straight ahead, and not fifty paces 
 distant, there opened before them a spacious cave- 
 mouth, with a somewhat wider strip of beach 
 before it. Immediately beyond the cave the strip 
 
 238 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 of beach came sharply to an end, and the tide 
 lapped softly against the foot of the cliff. 
 
 But just then, in the moment of their elation, a 
 terrifying thing happened. As if aroused by their 
 voices, the still surface a few yards from shore boiled 
 up, and was lashed to foam by the strokes of a 
 gigantic tail. 
 
 " Run ! " yelled Grom ; and they all dashed for- 
 ward, there being no chance to go back. In the 
 same instant, an appalling head — like that of a 
 thrice magnified and distorted crocodile, with vast, 
 round, painted eyes — was upthrust from the water 
 and came rushing after them at a pace which sent 
 up a curving wave before it. 
 
 Quick as thought, Grom drew his bow and shot 
 at the appalling head. The arrow drove straight 
 into the gaping throat, eliciting a thunderous 
 bellow of rage, but producing no other effect. 
 Then Grom sprang after his fleeing companions, and 
 raced for his life toward the cave mouth. The cave 
 might be nothing more than a death-trap for them 
 all ; but it seemed to offer the one possibility of 
 escape. 
 
 As they dashed into the cave the awful, gaping 
 head was close behind them. They had a flashed 
 glimpse, through the gloom, of high-arched distance 
 melting into blackness, of a strip of black water 
 along the right, and to left a gentle ascent of 
 smooth white sand, whose end was out of sight. 
 
 Up this slope they raced, with the clashing of 
 monstrous fangs close behind them. But they had 
 not gone a dozen strides when the slope quivered, 
 
 239 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and heaved upwards shudderingly beneath them ; 
 and they all fell forward flat upon their faces. 
 From all but Grom there went up a shriek so 
 piercing that in their own ears it disguised the 
 stupendous rending roar which at that moment 
 seemed to stun the air. The mighty arch of the 
 cave mouth had slipped and crashed down, com- 
 pletely jamming the entrance, and opening up a 
 gash of blue heaven above their heads. 
 
 To Grom's unshaken wits, it was clear on the 
 instant what had happened. He staggered to his 
 feet and looked back through a rain of falling rock- 
 splinters. He had a vision of their colossal pursuer, 
 its jaws stretched to their utmost width, the vast 
 globes of its eyes protruding from their armoured 
 sockets, its ponderous, bowed fore-legs pawing the 
 air aimlessly in the final convulsion. The falling 
 rock-mass had caught it on the middle of the back, 
 crushing its mighty frame like an egg-shell. 
 
 For a second or two, Grom stood there rigid, 
 staring, his gnarled fingers clenched upon his 
 weapons. Then a second earthquake tremor be- 
 neath his feet warned him. With an unerring 
 instinct, he sprang on up the slope after his com- 
 panions, who had fled as soon as they could pick 
 themselves up. And in the next moment the rock 
 above his head, fissured deep by the rains, slipped 
 again. With a growling screech, as if torn from 
 the bowels of the mountain, it settled slowly down, 
 and sealed the mouth of the cave to utter black- 
 ness. 
 
 Grom stopped short, having no mind to dash 
 240 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 out his brains against the rock. There was stillness 
 at last, and silence save for the faint, humming 
 moan of the earthquake which seemed to come 
 from vast depths beneath his feet. Profoundly 
 awed, but master of his spirit, 'he stood leaning 
 upon his spear in the thick dark till the last of 
 that strange humming note had died away. Then, 
 through a silence so thick it seemed to choke him, 
 he called aloud : 
 
 " A-ya ! where are you ? " 
 
 " Grotn ! " came the girl's answer, a sobbing cry 
 of relief and joy, from almost, as it seemed, beneath 
 his outstretched hand. 
 
 M We are all here," came the voices of the three 
 men. 
 
 They had fallen headlong at the second shock, 
 as at the first ; and in the darkness they had not 
 dared to rise again, but lay waiting for their leader 
 to tell them what to do. In half a dozen cautious, 
 groping steps he was among them, and sank down 
 by A-ya's side, clutching her to him to stop her 
 trembling. 
 
 " What are we to do now ? " asked the girl, after 
 a long silence. Without Gr6m, they would probably 
 have died where they were, not daring to stir in 
 the darkness. But their faith in their chief kept 
 them cheerful even in this desperate plight. 
 
 " We must find a way out," answered Grom, with 
 resolute confidence. 
 
 "If Hobbo had not dropped the fire ! " said 
 young Mo bitterly. 
 
 The giant groaned in self-abasement, and beat 
 241 16 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 his chest with his great fists. But Grom, who 
 would allow no dissensions in his following, answered 
 sternly : 
 
 " Be silent. You might have done no better 
 yourself." 
 
 Then for a time there was no more said, while 
 Grom, sitting there in the dark with the girl's face 
 buried in his great shaggy chest, thought out his 
 plans. It was plain to him, from what he had seen 
 in that last instant of daylight, that the entrance 
 was blocked impregnably. Moreover, he judged that 
 any attempt to work an opening in that direction 
 would be likely, for the present, to bring more rocks 
 down upon them. It would be better, first, to 
 feel their way on into the cave in the hope of finding 
 another exit. He was not afraid of getting lost, 
 no matter how absolute the dark, because he 
 possessed that sixth sense, so long ago vanished 
 from modern man's equipment — the sense of 
 direction. He knew that, as a matter of course, 
 he could find his way back to this starting-point 
 whenever he would. 
 
 " Come on ! " he ordered at last, lifting A-ya 
 and holding her hand in his grasp. Reaching out 
 with his spear, he kept tapping the ground before 
 him as he went, and occasionally the wall upon 
 his left. Sometimes, too, he would reach upwards 
 to assure himself that there was no lowering of the 
 rocky ceiling. A spear's length to the right, more 
 or less, he got always a splash of water. 
 
 With their fine senses intensely alert, they were 
 able to make fair progress, even though unaided by 
 
 242 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 their eyes. But suddenly Grom checked his 
 advance abruptly. He had a perception of some 
 obstacle before him. He reached out his spear as 
 far as he could. It touched a soft object. The 
 object, whatever it was, surged violently beneath 
 the touch. His flesh crept, and the shaggy hair 
 uplifted on his neck. " Back ! " he hissed, thrust- 
 ing A-ya off to arm's length and bracing his spear 
 point before him to receive the expected attack. 
 A pair of faintly phosphorescent eyes, small, but 
 so wide apart as to show that their owner's head 
 must have been enormous, flashed round upon them. 
 There was a hoarse squeal of alarm, and a heavy 
 body went floundering off into the water. They 
 could hear it swimming away in hot haste. 
 
 Every one drew a long breath. Then, after a 
 few moments, A-ya laughed softly : 
 
 " It's good to find something at last that runs 
 away from us instead of after us ! " said she. 
 
 A little further on the cave wall turned to the 
 left. A few steps, and their path came to an end. 
 There was water ahead of them, and on both sides. 
 Grom's exploring spear assured them that it was 
 deep water. 
 
 " We must swim," said he. " Leave your clubs 
 behind." And leading the way down into the 
 unknown tide, he struck out straight ahead. 
 
 It was nerve-testing work swimming thus through 
 that unseen water to an unguessed goal ; but Grom 
 was unhesitating, and his companions rested upon 
 his steady will. The water was of a summer 
 warmth, and slightly salt, which convinced him 
 
 243 16* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 that it had free communication with the sunlit 
 tides outside. Several times he came within 
 touch of the rocky walls of the cavern, and found 
 that they went straight down to a depth he could 
 not guess. But he kept on with hope and con- 
 fidence at a leisurely pace, which, in that bland 
 and windless flood, he knew that every member 
 of his party could have maintained for half a 
 day. 
 
 Suddenly there appeared ahead of them a faint, 
 bluish gleam upon the water's surface. It was 
 something elusive and unreal, and vaguely menacing. 
 
 " Daylight ! " exclaimed young M6 eagerly. 
 But Grom said nothing. He did not think it 
 was daylight, and he was apprehensive of some 
 new peril. 
 
 The strange light grew and spread. It was 
 evident now that it arose from the water, and 
 also that it was advancing rapidly to meet the 
 astonished swimmers. After a few moments it 
 was bright enough in its blue pallor to show the 
 swimmers that they were traversing a vast hall of 
 waters, whose roof was lost in darkness. Some 
 fifty yards ahead of them, and a little to the right, 
 a low spit of rock, half awash for the greater part 
 of its length, ran out slantingly from the wall of 
 the stupendous chamber. 
 
 Toward this ledge Grom now led the way, hurling 
 himself through the water on his side at top speed. 
 He could not fathom this mysterious phosphor- 
 escence, and he wished to get his people out upon 
 dry land before it reached them. But fast as the 
 
 244 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 adventurers swam, the ghostly radiance spread 
 faster. Before they got to the ledge, the light was 
 all about them ; but it seemed to be coming from 
 a great depth. 
 
 Nervously they all glanced down, and a low 
 cry of horror broke from their lips. The depths 
 were swarming with monstrous, luminous forms, 
 a moon-bright, crawling, sliding field of claws 
 and feelers, and broad, flat backs, and dreadful, 
 protruding eyes. 
 
 The eyes all stared straight up at them with a 
 fixed malignancy that froze even Grom's blood. 
 They seemed innumerable, and all together they 
 came suddenly floating upwards. 
 
 Already the fugitives were dragging themselves 
 out upon the ledge, in frantic haste, when the 
 diabolical swarm reached the surface. But Hobbo, 
 who was the slowest swimmer, was merely clutch- 
 ing at the rock when the water boiled all about 
 him into a froth of light. A pair of huge, pincer- 
 like claws seized him by the neck, and another 
 pair by one arm, plucking him back. His con- 
 vulsed face stared upward for an instant, and then, 
 with a choked scream, he was dragged under. He 
 disappeared in a swirl of pale blue, frantically 
 waving claws, and eyes, and feelers, and black- 
 fringed, chopping mouths. 
 
 Beside himself with rage and horror, Grom 
 stabbed down wildly into the whirling struggle, 
 and his example was followed at once by Loob and 
 young Mo. Some of their random blows went 
 home, and as one or another of the gigantic crabs 
 
 245 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 turned over in its death-throes, its nearest fellows 
 seized it, tore it to pieces, and devoured it. 
 
 But A-ya, who had taken no part in this ven- 
 geance, now snatched Grom by the arm, shrieking 
 wildly : 
 
 " Look ! They are coming out ! " 
 
 Recovering their senses, the three half-maddened 
 men stared about them. On every side the 
 gigantic crabs — some with claws eight or ten feet 
 long, and eyes upon the ends of long waving stalks 
 — were crawling up upon the ledge. 
 
 The ledge, fortunately, was of some width. At 
 its landward end it rose into a mass of tumbled 
 rocks perhaps twenty or thirty feet above the 
 water. Toward this post of vantage the adven- 
 turers fought their way, striking and thrusting 
 desperately with their spears as the monsters, 
 crowding up from the water on either side, snatched 
 at them with their terrible mailed claws. Over 
 and over again one or another of the party was 
 seized by the foot or the leg ; but his companions 
 would beat the long, jointed limb to fragments, or 
 drive their spear-points deep into the awful, drool- 
 ing mouth, and set him free. 
 
 At last, bleeding from many wounds, they reached 
 the end of the ledge and clambered to the top. 
 Here but three or four of the giant crustaceans 
 tried to follow them. These were easily speared 
 from above, and hurled back disabled among their 
 ravening kin. And the whole swarm, apparently 
 forgetting their intended victims as soon as they 
 were out of reach, fell to fighting hideously among 
 
 246 
 
THE TERRORS OF THE DARK 
 
 themselves over the convulsed bodies of these 
 wounded. The lower portion of the ledge, and 
 the water all about it, was a crawling mass of 
 horror that seemed to froth with blue light. And 
 a confused noise of crackling, snapping and hissing 
 arose *from it. 
 
 Every eye but Grom's was glued in fascination to 
 the baleful scene. But Grom now thought only of 
 using that pervasive light to best advantage while 
 it should last. The wall of the cavern at this 
 point was so broken and fissured that it was not 
 unscaleable ; and a little way off to the right he 
 marked, at some height above the water, what 
 looked like the entrance to a lateral gallery. 
 
 " Come ! While the light lasts," he ordered, 
 setting off over the rocks. The others followed 
 close. Now sidling along knife-like ledges, now 
 clinging by fingers and toes to almost imperceptible 
 projections, they made their way across the face 
 of the steep, and gained the mouth of the gallery. 
 It was spacious, and easy to traverse, its floor 
 sloping upwards somewhat steeply. They plunged 
 into it with confidence. And the blue light of the 
 Hall of Terrors faded out behind them. 
 
 Not many minutes later, another light, as it were 
 a white star, gleamed ahead of them. It grew as 
 they went, and turned to gold. Then a patch of 
 turquoise sky, flecked sweetly with small fleeces 
 of cloud, opened before them, and in a moment 
 more they came out upon a high, blossoming down, 
 blown over by a breeze that smelt of honey and salt. 
 Below them was a lovely, land-locked bay, with a 
 
 247 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 herd of deer pasturing among scattered trees by 
 the shore. Away behind them undulated the 
 gracious line of the downs, inviting their feet. 
 
 "It is a pleasant land," said Grom, " and we 
 will surely come back to it. But I think we must 
 find another way than that by which we came." 
 
 248 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 AT last, and reluctantly, the Folk of the Caves 
 had withdrawn from their earthquake- 
 harassed valley and betaken themselves to the 
 new dwelling-place which Grom had found for 
 them, on the green hill-slope beside the Bitter 
 Waters. They had lost no time, however, in 
 accepting the new conditions ; for these caves in 
 the limestone were ample and secure — it was 
 hard for any invader to come at them save by 
 way of the long, bare ridge of the downs running 
 westward behind the caves ; a sweet-water brook 
 ran almost past their threshold to fall with a 
 pleasant clamour into the bay, — and the surround- 
 ing country was rich in game. The vast basin of 
 marshy plain and colossal jungle, to be sure, which 
 stretched and steamed below the downs to south- 
 ward, was the habitation of strange monsters ; but 
 these, apparently, had no taste for exploring the 
 high, clean, windy downs. 
 
 249 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 On a certain golden morning it chanced that 
 the caves were well-nigh deserted. The men of 
 the tribe, including the chiefs themselves, Bawr 
 and Grom, together with most of the women and 
 the half-grown children, had gone off down the 
 shore to a shallow inlet five or six miles distant 
 to gather shell-fish — great luscious mussels and 
 peculiarly plump and savoury whelks. The girl 
 A-ya, absorbed in her special occupation of fashion- 
 ing bows and arrows for the tribe, had remained, 
 with a half-score of old men and women and Grom's 
 giant slave, the lame Bow-leg, Ook-ootsk, to guard 
 the little children and the tribal fires. As Grom's 
 mate, and his confidential associate in all his 
 greatest ventures, A-ya's prestige in the tribe had 
 come to be only less than that of Bawr and Grom 
 themselves. 
 
 On the open, grassy level before the cave mouth, 
 the two great fires burned steadily in the sun. 
 The giant Ook-ootsk, hideous with his ape-like 
 forehead, his upturned, flaring nostrils, his pro- 
 truding jaw, his shaggy, clay-coloured torso, and 
 his short, massive, grotesquely bowed legs — of 
 which one was twisted so that the toes pointed 
 almost backwards — lay sprawling and chuckling 
 benevolently near the entrance, while a swarm 
 of little ones, A-ya's two among them, clambered 
 over him. The old men and the old women most 
 of them dozed in the shade, save two or three of 
 the most diligent, who occupied their gnarled 
 fingers in twisting thin strips of hide into bow- 
 strings, or lashing slivers of stone into the heads 
 
 250 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 of spears. A-ya sat cross-legged a little apart, 
 beside a tiny fire, laboriously fashioning her bows 
 and arrows by charring the wood in the embers 
 and then rubbing it between two rough stones. 
 With her head bent low over her work, the heavy, 
 tangled masses of her hair fell upon it and got in 
 her way, and from time to time she shook them 
 aside impatiently. It was a picture of primeval 
 peace. 
 
 But peace, in the days when earth was young, 
 was something more precarious than a bubble. 
 
 From around the green shoulder of the hill came 
 a sound, trampling hooves and laboured breathing. 
 A-ya sprang to her feet, snatching up her own 
 well-tried bow and fitting an arrow to the string. 
 At the same time she gave a sharp alarm-cry, at 
 which the lame slave, Ook-ootsk, arose, shaking off 
 the swarm of children, and came hobbling towards 
 her with his weapons in both hands. An old 
 woman pounced upon the startled, wide-eyed child- 
 ren, and in a twinkling had them shepherded into 
 the cave-mouth, out of sight. The old men, 
 springing from their sleep, and blinking, hurried 
 forth into the sunlight, with such spears or clubs 
 as they could lay instant hand upon. 
 
 A breathless moment, while all stood waiting for 
 they knew not what. Then around the corner 
 appeared a tall, wide-antlered elk, its eyes showing 
 the whites with terror, its dilated nostrils spatter- 
 ing bloody froth. A long, raking wound ran 
 scarlet down one flank. Staggering from weari- 
 ness or loss of blood, it came on straight toward 
 
 251 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the cave-mouth, so blinded by its terror that it 
 seemed not to see the human creatures awaiting 
 it, nor even the fires before them. 
 
 A-ya fetched a deep breath of relief when she 
 saw that this was no ravening monster. Her 
 immediate thought was the hunter's thought . 
 She drew her bow to the full length of her shaft, 
 and as the panting beast went by she let drive. 
 The arrow pierced to half its span, just behind the 
 straining fore-shoulder. Blood burst from the 
 animal's nostrils. It fell on its knees, struggled up 
 again, blundered on for half a dozen strides, and 
 dropped half-way across the second fire. 
 
 There was a chorus of triumphant shouts from 
 the old men and women ; and A-ya started forward 
 with the intention of dragging her prize from the 
 fire. But a look of apprehension and warning in 
 the keen little eyes of Ook-ootsk, who had by this 
 time hobbled to her side, checked her. In a flash 
 the meaning of it came to her. 
 
 " What do you suppose was chasing it, Ook- 
 ootsk ? " she queried ; and whipped about, with- 
 out waiting for his answer, to stare anxiously at 
 the green shoulder of the hillside. 
 
 " Black lion, maybe," said Ook-ootsk, in his 
 harsh, clucking voice, dropping his spear and club 
 beside him and setting a long arrow to the string 
 of his massive bow. 
 
 But the words were hardly out of his throat, 
 when his guess was proved wrong. Around the 
 turn came lumbering, with huge heads hung low 
 and slavering, half-open jaws, a pair of those 
 
 252 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 colossal red bears of the caves which had always 
 been A-ya's peculiar terror. 
 
 " Hide the children ! " she yelled, and then let 
 fly an arrow, almost without aim, at the foremost 
 of the monsters. She was the best shot in the 
 tribe, and the shaft sped even too true. It struck 
 the bear full in the snout, and pierced through the 
 palate and into the throat — a wound which, 
 though likely to prove mortal after a time, only 
 made the beast more dangerous for the moment. 
 It paused, coughing, and tried to paw the torment 
 from its jaws, and then rushed forward, screaming 
 hideously. 
 
 In that pause, however, though it was but for a 
 second or two, the second bear had forged ahead 
 of its companion. It was greeted instantly by an 
 arrow from the massive bow of Ook-ootsk, aimed 
 with cool deliberation. The long shaft of hickory, 
 delivered thus at close range, caught the enemy in 
 the front of the right shoulder and drove clean in 
 to the joint, so that the leg gave way and the 
 gigantic brute almost fell upon its side. With a 
 roar, it bit off the protruding half of the tough 
 hickory, and then came on again, on three legs. 
 From A-ya's nimble bow it got another arrow, 
 which went half-way through its neck ; but to this 
 deadly wound, which sent the blood gushing from 
 its mouth, it seemed to pay no heed whatever. 
 Aya's next shot missed ; and then, screaming for 
 the old men to come into the fray, she snatched 
 up her stone-headed spear and ran around behind 
 the nearest fire, expecting the bears to follow her 
 
 253 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and be led away from the hiding-place of the 
 children. 
 
 But she had forgotten that the slave, Ook-ootsk, 
 with his twisted and shrunken leg, could not run. 
 That valiant savage, blinking his little eyes rapidly 
 and blowing defiantly through his upturned nostrils 
 as he saw his doom rushing upon him, let drive one 
 more of his long shafts into the red, towering bulk, 
 then dropped his bow, sank upon one knee, and 
 held up his spear slantingly before him, with its 
 butt firmly braced upon the ground. As the 
 monster reared itself and fell upon him, the jagged 
 point of the spear was forced deep into its belly, 
 straight up till it reached the backbone. Then the 
 shaft snapped, Ook-ootsk sprawled forward upon 
 his face, and the monster, in the paroxysm of its 
 amazement and agony, leapt onward and plunged 
 right over him, involuntarily hurling him aside 
 and clawing most of the flesh off his back with a 
 kick of one gigantic hind paw. 
 
 He clenched his teeth stoically, shut his eyes, 
 folded his long, hairy arms about his head, and 
 rolled himself into a ball, confidently expecting in 
 the next moment to feel the life crunched out of 
 him. 
 
 But just as the monster, recovering itself, was 
 turning madly to finish off its insignificant but 
 torturing opponent, A-ya came leaping back to 
 the rescue, with a blazing and sparking faggot in 
 each hand, and the old men, some with fire-brands, 
 some with spears, clamouring resolutely behind 
 her. With fearless dexterity, she thrust the fire 
 
 254 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 straight into the monster's eyeballs, totally blinding 
 him. As he wheeled to strike her down, she 
 slipped aside with a mocking laugh, and threw 
 one of the brands between his jaws, where he 
 crunched upon it savagely before he felt the tor- 
 ment of it and spat it out. 
 
 Depending now upon his ears, the monster 
 blundered straight forward in the direction of the 
 shouting voices. He had quite forgotten Ook- 
 ootsk. He raged to come at this last intolerable 
 foe, who had scorched the light from his eyes. 
 He made for her voice straight enough ; but it 
 chanced that exactly in his path lay the second 
 fire — that into which the body of the elk had 
 fallen. Already too maddened with the anguish 
 of his wounds to notice the fire at once, he stumbled 
 upon the body. Here, surely, was one of his foes. 
 He fell to rending the carcase with his claws, and 
 biting it, crawling forward upon it to reach its 
 throat with the fire licking up derisively about 
 his head ; till at length the flames were drawn 
 deep into his labouring lungs, searing them and 
 sealing them so that they could no more perform 
 their office. With a shallow, screeching gasp he 
 threw himself backwards out of the fire, rolled 
 upon the turf, and lay there fighting the air 
 with his paws as he strangled swiftly and convul- 
 sively. 
 
 The second bear, meanwhile, wallowing with 
 astonishing nimbleness on three legs, had charged 
 roaring into the group of old men. In a twinkling 
 he had three or four spears sticking into him ; but 
 
 255 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the arms that hurled the spears were weak, and 
 the monster ramped on unheeding. Several fire- 
 brands fell upon him, scorching his long, red fur, 
 but he shook them off, too maddened to remember 
 his natural dread of the flames. 
 
 The group scattered in all directions. But one 
 brave old grey-beard, who had marked A-ya's 
 success, lingered in the path, and tried to thrust 
 his blazing faggot into the monster's eyes, as she 
 had done. He was not quick enough. The monster 
 threw up its muzzle, dodging the stroke, and the 
 next moment it had struck down its feeble ad- 
 versary and crushed his head between its tremen- 
 dous jaws. 
 
 In its folly, it now forgot its other enemies, and 
 fell to wreaking its madness on the lifeless victim. 
 But in another second or two it was fairly over- 
 whelmed with the red brands descending upon its 
 head. A-ya, with all the force of her strong 
 young arms, drove her short spear half-way through 
 its loins. Then, with one eye blinded and its 
 long fur smouldering, its rage gave way suddenly 
 into panic. Lifting its giant head high into the 
 air, as if thus to escape its fiery assailants, it 
 turned and scuttled back the way it had come, 
 while the old men swarmed after it, belabouring 
 and jabbing its elephantine rump 9 with their live 
 brands. 
 
 A-ya, racing like a deer and screaming with 
 exultation, ran round the pack of old men and 
 stabbed the frantic brute in the neck, with her 
 spear held short in both hands. Shrinking abjectly 
 
 256 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 from this attack, he swerved off toward the left. 
 It was his left eye that was blinded, and the other 
 was full of smoke and ashes. He missed the path, 
 therefore, and plunged squalling over the edge of 
 the bluff, which at this point dropped about a 
 hundred feet, almost perpendicularly, to the beach. 
 Rolling over and over, and bouncing out into 
 space every time he struck the cliff face, he fell 
 to the bottom amid a shower of stones and dust, 
 and lay there as shapeless as a fur rug dropped 
 from an upper window. 
 
 The old men, jabbering in triumph, craned their 
 shaggy grey heads out over the brink to grin down 
 upon him, while A-ya, with a wild light in her 
 eyes and her strong white teeth gleaming savagely, 
 turned back to tend the wounds of her slave, 
 Ook-ootsk. 
 
 ii 
 
 Having assured herself that the hurts of 
 Ook-ootsk, dreadful though they were, were yet 
 not mortal (our sires of Cave and Tree took a lot 
 of killing !), A-ya stepped over to the further fire 
 to see about rescuing the carcase of the slain elk 
 before it should bp, quite burned up. As a matter 
 of fact, there was little of it actually consumed 
 by the fire, but it was amazingly shredded by the 
 clawing of the blinded bear ; and an odour of 
 roasted venison steamed up from it, which seemed 
 rather pleasant to A-ya's nostrils. Under her 
 
 257 *7 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 direction, the old men hauled the body from the 
 fire by the hind-legs, and dragged it over to the 
 edge of the bluff before cutting it up, for con- 
 venience in getting rid of the offal. Everyone 
 followed, to secure their due share of the tit-bits, 
 except Ook-ootsk and one old woman. This old 
 woman sat rocking and keening beside the body 
 of her mate whom the bear had slain ; while 
 Ook-ootsk crawled off into a neighbouring hollow 
 to look for certain healing herbs which should 
 cleanse and astringe his wounds. 
 
 The hide of the elk was too much burnt, too 
 ripped and torn by the claws of the bear, to be of 
 any use except for thongs ; but the old men 
 skinned it off expertly before dividing the flesh. 
 Though their gnarled fingers were feeble, they 
 were amazingly clever in the use of the sharp- 
 edged flakes of stone which served them as knives. 
 A-ya stood by them, watching closely, to see that 
 none of the specially dainty cuts were appro- 
 priated. These delicacies were reserved for her- 
 self and her two children, and for Grom when he 
 should return. She had the right to them, not 
 only because she was the mate of Grom, but because 
 the kill was hers. 
 
 As she stood over the carcase — the fore-part of 
 which had been superficially barbecued in the fire — 
 the smell of the roasted flesh began to appeal to her 
 even more strongly than at first. As she sniffed 
 it, curiously, it began to entice her appetite as 
 nothing had ever tempted it before. She touched 
 a well-browned, fatty morsel, and then put her 
 
 258 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 fingers into her mouth. The flavour seemed to 
 her as delightful as the smell. She cast about for 
 a suitable morsel on which to experiment. 
 
 Now it chanced that the elk's tongue, having 
 lain in the heart of the fire, but enclosed within 
 the half-open jaws, had been cooked to a turn. 
 A-ya possessed herself of this ever-coveted delicacy. 
 It looked so queer, in its cooked state, charred 
 black along the lower edge, that she hesitated to 
 taste it. At last, persuaded by its fragrance, 
 she brought herself to nibble at it. 
 
 A moment more and she was devouring it with 
 a gusto which, had manners been greatly con- 
 sidered in the days when earth was young, might 
 have seemed unbecoming in the wife of a great 
 chief. Never before had she eaten anything that 
 seemed to her half so delicious. It was the food 
 she had all her life been craving. Her two little 
 boys, pulling at her, aroused her from her ecstasy. 
 She gave them each a fragment, which they swal- 
 lowed greedily, demanding more ; and between the 
 three of them the great lump of roast tongue 
 quickly vanished. 
 
 The rest of the crowd meanwhile had been 
 looking on with instinctive disapproval. The 
 portions of the meat which the fire had cooked, or 
 partly cooked, seemed to them spoiled. A-ya 
 might, indeed, like the strange food ; but she was 
 different from the rest of them in so many ways ! 
 When, however, they saw her two boys follow her 
 example, and noted their enthusiasm, several of 
 the old men ventured to try for themselves. They 
 
 259 17* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 were instant converts. Last of all, the old women 
 and the children — always the most conservative 
 in such matters, took the notion that they were 
 losing something, and dared to essay the novel 
 diet. One taste, as a rule, proved enough to van- 
 quish their prejudices. In a very few minutes 
 every shred of the carcase that could claim 
 acquaintance with the fire had been eaten, and 
 all were clamouring for more. Fully three-parts 
 of the carcase remained, indeed, but it was all 
 raw flesh. A-ya looked down upon it with dis- 
 dain. 
 
 ** Take it back and throw it on the fire again ! " 
 she ordered angrily. The generous lump of steak, 
 which she had hacked off for herself from the loin, 
 had proved to be merely scorched on the outside, 
 and she was disappointed. She stood fingering 
 the raw mass with resentful aversion, while the 
 old men and women, chattering gleefully and 
 followed by the horde of children, dragged the 
 mangled carcase back to the fire, lifted it laboriously 
 by all four legs, and managed to deposit it in the 
 very midst of the flames. A shrill shout of triumph 
 went up from the withered old throats at this 
 achievement, and they all drew back to wait for the 
 fire to do its wonderful work. 
 
 But A-ya was impatient, and vaguely dissatisfied 
 as she watched that crude roasting in the process. 
 She stood brooding, eyeing the fire and turning her 
 lump of raw flesh over and over in her hands. 
 The attitude of body was one she had caught from 
 Gr6m, when he was groping for a solution to some 
 
 260 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 problem. And now it seemed as if she had caught 
 his attitude of mind as well. Into her brain, for 
 the moment passive and receptive, flashed an idea, 
 she knew not whence. It was as if it had been 
 whispered to her. She picked up a spear, jabbed 
 its stone head firmly into the lump of meat, and 
 thrust the meat into the edge of the fire, as far as 
 it could go without burning the wood of the spear 
 shaft. 
 
 It took her a very few minutes to realize that 
 her idea was nothing less than an inspiration. 
 Moving the morsel backwards and forwards to keep 
 it from charring, she found that it seemed to do 
 best over a mass of hot coals rather than in a 
 flame ; and being a thin cut, it cooked quickly. 
 When it was done she burnt her fingers with it, 
 and her big red mouth as well ; and her two boys, 
 for whom she had torn off shreds too hot for herself 
 to hold, danced up and down and wept loudly with 
 the smart of it, to be instantly consoled by the 
 savour. 
 
 Noting the supreme success of A-ya's experiment, 
 the spectators rushed in, dragged the carcase once 
 more from the fire, and fell to hacking off suitable 
 morsels, each for himself. In a few minutes every 
 one who could get hold of a long arrow, or a spear, 
 or a pointed stick, was busy learning to cook. 
 Even the wailing old mourner, finding the excite- 
 ment irresistible, forsook the body of her slain 
 mate and came forward to take her share. Only 
 the dead man, lying outstretched in the sun by 
 the cave-door, and the crippled giant Ook-ootsk, 
 
 261 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 away in the green hollow nursing his honourable 
 wounds, had no part in the rejoicing, in this revel 
 of the First Cooked Food. The hot meat juices, 
 modified by the action of the fire, were almost as 
 stimulating as alcohol in the veins of these simple 
 livers, and the revel grew to something like an 
 orgie as the shrivelled nerves of the elders began 
 to thrill with new life. A-ya, seeing the carcase 
 of the elk melt away like new snow under a spring 
 sun, gave orders to skin and cut up the body of 
 the first bear. 
 
 But the old men were too absorbed in their 
 feasting to pay any attention to her orders ; and she 
 herself was too exhilarated and content to make 
 any serious effort to enforce them. Everyone, old 
 and young alike, was sucking burnt fingers 
 and radiating greasy, happy smiles, and she felt 
 dimly that anything like discipline would be 
 unpopular at such a moment. 
 
 During all this excitement the main body of the 
 tribe came straggling back along the beach from 
 their hunting of whelks and mussels. At the foot 
 of the bluff below the cave they found the body 
 of the second bear, and gathered anxiously about 
 it, clamouring over its spear- wounds and the 
 arrows sticking in it, till Bawr and Grom, who were 
 in the rear, came up. It was plain there had been 
 a terrific battle at the Cave. With most of the 
 warriors the two Chiefs dashed on and up the 
 path, to find out how things had gone, while a 
 handful remained behind to skin the bear and cut 
 up the meat. 
 
 262 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 When the anxious warriors arrived before the 
 cave, they were amazed at the hilarity which they 
 found there — and inclined, at first, to resent it, 
 being something to which they had no clue. What 
 were all the old fools doing, dancing and cackling 
 about the fire, and wasting good meat by poking it 
 into the fire on the ends of sticks and spears and 
 arrows ? 
 
 The younger women, coming up behind the 
 warriors, were derisive. They were always critical 
 in their attitude towards A-ya — so far as they 
 dared to be — and now they ran forward to scold 
 and slap their respective children for putting this 
 disgusting burnt meat into their mouths. 
 
 To Grom and Bawr, however, A-ya explained the 
 whole situation in a few pertinent phrases, and 
 followed up her explanation by proffering them 
 each a well-cooked morsel. They both smelled it 
 doubtfully, tasted it, broke into smiles, and 
 devoured it, smacking their bearded lips. 
 
 " Did you do this, girl ? " demanded Grom, 
 beaming upon her proudly and holding out his 
 great hairy hand for another sample. But Bawr 
 strode forward, thrust the old men aside, hacked 
 himself off a generous collop, stuck it on his spear- 
 head, and thrust it into the fire. 
 
 In his impatience, Bawr kept pulling the roast 
 out every minute or two, to taste it and see if 
 it was done enough. His enthusiasm — and that 
 of Grom, who was now following his example — 
 cured the rest of the warriors of their hesitation, 
 so effectually that in five minutes there was 
 
 263 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 nothing more left of the great elk's carcase but 
 antlers, bone and offal. Those who had got 
 nothing fell upon the body of the bear, skinning 
 it and hacking it in greedy haste. The young 
 women, having satisfied convention by slapping 
 their bewildered and protesting brats, soon yielded 
 to curiosity and began surreptitiously to nibble 
 at the greasy cooked morsels which they had 
 confiscated. Then they, too, grabbed up spears 
 and sticks for toasting-forks, and came clamouring 
 shrilly for their portions. And A-ya, standing a 
 little apart with Grom, smiled with comprehending 
 sarcasm at their conversion. 
 
 For the next few hours the fires were surrounded 
 each by a seething and squabbling mob, the inner- 
 most rings engaged in toasting their collops with one 
 hand, while with the other they tried to shield their 
 faces from the heat. As fast as those in the front 
 rank wriggled out with their browned and juicy 
 tit-bits, others battled in to take their places ; 
 and the Tribe of the Cave Men, mindful of nothing 
 but the gratification of this new taste, feasted away 
 the afternoon with such unanimous and improvident 
 rejoicing as they had never known before. At 
 last, radiant with gravy and repletion, they flung 
 themselves down where they would and went to 
 sleep. Bawr and Grom, and two or three others 
 of the older warriors, who had been wise enough 
 to banquet without gorging themselves, thought 
 with some misgiving of what might happen if an 
 enemy should steal upon them at such an hour 
 of torpor. 
 
 264 
 
FEASTING OF THE CAVE FOLK 
 
 But no enemy approached. With the fall of the 
 dew the moon arose over the bay, honey-coloured 
 in a violet sky, and played fantastic tricks with the 
 shifting light of the fires. And from within the 
 cave came softly the voice of A-ya, soothing a 
 restless child. 
 
 265 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 THE People of the Cave were running short 
 of arrows. The supply of young hickory 
 sprouts, on which they had depended for their 
 shafts, was almost exhausted. And within a two 
 days' journey of the Caves there was nothing to 
 be found that would quite take the place of those 
 hickory sprouts. Neither Grom himself nor any 
 other member of his tribe had as yet succeeded in 
 so fixing a tip of bone or flint to a shaft of cane as 
 not to interfere with its penetration. Some growth 
 must be found that was tough, perfectly straight, 
 and tapering, while at the same time so solid and 
 hard of grain that it would take and hold a point, 
 and heavy enough for driving power. All this was 
 difficult to find, and Groin was convinced that it 
 must be sought for far afield. Life had been run- 
 ning uneventfully for months at the Great Caves, 
 and Grom's restless spirit was craving new know- 
 ledge, new adventure. 
 
 On this quest of the arrow Grom took with him 
 266 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 only two companions — his slim, swift-footed mate, 
 A-ya and that cunning little scout, Loob, the 
 Hairy One. 
 
 For the space of three days they journeyed due 
 west from the Caves. Then the range of downland 
 which they had been following swept off sharply 
 to the south. 
 
 Being bent upon exploring to the westward 
 — though he was not very clear as to his reasons 
 for his preference — Grom led the way down from 
 the hills into the rankly wooded plain. For two 
 days more they pushed on through incessant 
 perils, the country swarming with black lions, 
 sabre-tooth, and woolly rhinoceros. As they were 
 not righting, but exploring, the price of safety was 
 a vigilance so unremitting that it soon began to 
 get on their nerves, and they were glad to take a 
 whole day's rest in the spacious security of a banyan 
 top, where nothing could come at them but leopards 
 or pythons. Neither leopards nor pythons gave 
 them any great concern. 
 
 On the second day after quitting their refuge 
 in the banyan top, they emerged from the jungle 
 so suddenly that they nearly fell into a river, 
 whose whitish, turbid flood ran swirling heavily 
 before their feet. It was a mighty stream, a good 
 half-mile in width, and at this point the current 
 was eating away the bank so hungrily that whole 
 ranks of tree and bush had toppled over into the tide. 
 
 The great river barred their way, flowing as it 
 did toward the north-east, and Grom reluctantly 
 turned the course of the expedition southward 
 
 267 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 following up the shore. Swift as was the current, 
 these folk of the Caves might have crossed it by 
 swimming ; but Grom knew that such waters were 
 apt to swarm with giant crocodiles of varying type 
 and unvarying ferocity, as well as with ferocious 
 flesh-eating fish that swarmed in wolfish packs, 
 and were able to tear an aurochs or a mastodon 
 in pieces with their razor-edged teeth. He gazed 
 desirously at the opposite shore, however — which 
 looked to him much more beautiful and more 
 interesting than that on which he stood — and 
 wondered if he should ever be able to devise some 
 way of reaching it other than by swimming. 
 
 Along the river shore the travellers had endless 
 variety to keep them interested, with a less exhaust- 
 ing immanence of peril than in the depths of the 
 jungle. Sometimes great branches, draped and 
 festooned with gorgeous-flowered llianas, thrust 
 themselves far out over the water, affording easy 
 refuge. Sometimes the river was bordered by a 
 strip of grassy level, behind which ran the edge of 
 the jungle in the form of a steep bank of violent 
 green, with here and there a broad splotch of 
 magenta or violet or orange bloom flung over it 
 like a curtain. At times, again, it was necessary 
 to plunge back into the humming and steaming 
 gloom behind this resplendent screen, in order to 
 make a detour around some swampy cove, whose 
 dense growth of sedge, fifteen to twenty feet in 
 height, was traversed by wide trails which showed 
 it to be the abode of unfamiliar monsters. The 
 travellers were curious as to the makers of such 
 
 268 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 colossal trails, but were not tempted to gratify 
 this curiosity by invading their lairs. 
 
 In all this time, and through all difficulties and 
 dangers, neither Grom nor A-ya, nor the unsleep- 
 ing Loob had lost sight of the object of their 
 journey. Every straight and slender sapling and 
 seedling of hard grain they tested, but hitherto 
 they had found nothing that came within measur- 
 able distance of their requirements. 
 
 In the customary order of their going, Grom 
 went first, peering ahead, ever studying, pondering, 
 observing, with his bow and his club swung from 
 his shoulder, his heavy, flint-headed spear always 
 in readiness for use at close quarters. Loob the 
 scout, little and dark and hairy, with the eyes of 
 a weasel and the heart of a bull buffalo, went 
 darting and gliding soundlessly through the under- 
 growth a few paces to the left, guarding against 
 the approach of any attack from the jungle-depths. 
 While A-ya, whose quickness and precision with 
 the bow, her darling weapon, were nothing less 
 than a miracle to all the tribe, covered the rear, 
 lest any prowling monster should be following on 
 their trail. 
 
 It chanced that A-ya dropped back some paces 
 further, without saying anything to Grom. She 
 had marked a slim shaft of a seedling which looked 
 suitable for an arrow ; and in case the discovery 
 should prove a good one, she wanted the credit of 
 it to herself. She stooped to pull the seedling up 
 by the roots, since it seemed too tough to break. 
 It was obstinate. In the effort her naked side 
 
 269 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 and shoulder leaned fully against the trunk of a 
 small tree of which she had taken no notice. In 
 a second it seemed to her as if the tree trunk were 
 made of red-hot coals. The stinging fire of it 
 ran like lightning all over her arms and body. 
 With a piercing scream she sprang away from the 
 tree, and began tearing and beating frantically at 
 her body with both hands. She was covered with 
 furious ants — the great, red, stinging ants whose 
 venom is like drops of liquid flame. 
 
 At the sound of her scream, Grom was back at 
 her side in two leaps, his hair and beard bristling 
 stiffly, his eyes blazing with rage. But there was 
 no assailant in sight on whom to hurl himself. 
 For a second or two he glared about him wildly, 
 with Loob crouched beside him, snarling for 
 vengeance. Then, perceiving the woman's plight, 
 he flung himself upon her, trying to envelop her 
 in one sweeping embrace that should crush all 
 the virulent pests at once. In this he failed 
 signally ; and in an instant the liquid fire was 
 running over his own body. The torture of it, 
 however, was a small thing to him compared with 
 the torture of seeing them sting the woman, and 
 feeling himself impotent to effect her instant 
 succour. He slapped and beat at her with his great 
 hands, while she covered her face with her own 
 hands to protect it from disfigurement. 
 
 Loob came to help, but Grom, his brain keen in 
 every emergency, stopped him. 
 
 M Keep off ! " he ordered. " Keep off ! and keep 
 watch ! " 
 
 270 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 Then he seized A-ya by one arm, rushed her to 
 the edge of the bank, and dragged her with him 
 into the water. 
 
 At this point the water was not much more than 
 three feet deep. They crouched down in it, heads 
 under, for nearly a minute; while Loob, spear in 
 hand, stood over them, his wild little eyes scanning 
 the water depths in front and the jungle depths 
 behind for the approach of any foe. 
 
 When they could hold their breath no longer, 
 they stood up. Their red assailants were floating 
 off on the current ; but the fiery poison remained, 
 and they bathed each other's scarlet and scorch- 
 ing shoulders assiduously, forgetful for the moment 
 of everything besides. At this moment a gigantic 
 water python reared its head from the leafage 
 close by, fixed its flat, lidless, glittering eyes 
 upon them, and drew back to strike. But in the 
 next second Loob's ready spear was thrust clean 
 through its throat, and his yell of warning tore 
 the air. Grom and A-ya whipped up on to the 
 bank like a pair of otters : and the python, mortally 
 stricken, shot out into the water over their heads, 
 carrying Loob's spear with it, gripped tight in the 
 constriction of its throat muscles. 
 
 As the lashing body struck the surface the water 
 boiled about it, suddenly alive with crocodiles. 
 Baulked of their human prey, they fell upon the 
 python. One of the monsters shot straight up, 
 half-way out of the water, with two convulsive 
 coils of the python's tail wrapped crushingly about 
 its jaws ; but the python, with Loob's spear 
 
 271 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 through its throat, could only struggle blindly. A 
 moment more and it was bitten in two, and the 
 crocodiles were fighting monstrously among them- 
 selves for the writhing fragments. 
 
 " You got us out of that just in time," said Grom, 
 grinning upon the little scout with approval. 
 
 A-ya wrung the water out of her heavy hair 
 with both hands, and threw the masses back with 
 an upward toss of her head. 
 
 M I hate ants," she said, shuddering. " Let's 
 get away from here." 
 
 II 
 
 Some two hours after sunrise of the following 
 day they came to a place where a belt of woods, 
 perhaps a hundred to two hundred yards in depth, 
 ran bordering the river, while behind it a broad 
 stretch of grassy plain thrust back the jungle. 
 Along the edge of the plain, skirting the belt of 
 woods, the grass was short and the travelling was 
 easy ; but off to the left the growth was ranker, 
 and interspersed with thickets such as Grom 
 always regarded with suspicion. He had learned 
 by experience that these dense thickets in the grass- 
 land were a favourite lurking-place of the unex- 
 pected — and that the unexpected was almost 
 always, perilous. 
 
 Suddenly from the deeper grass a couple of 
 hundred yards or so to the left rose heavily the 
 menacing bulk of a red Siva moose bull, and stood 
 
 272 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 staring at them with mingled wonder and male- 
 volence in his cruelly vindictive eyes. In stature 
 surpassing the biggest rhinoceros that Grom had 
 ever seen, he gave the impression of combining the 
 terrific power of the rhinoceros with the agile 
 speed and devilish cunning of the buffalo. His 
 ponderous head, with its high-arched, eagle-hooked 
 snout, was armed with two pairs of massive, keen- 
 tipped, broad-bladed horns, that seemed to be a 
 deadly-efficient compromise between the horns of 
 a buffalo and the palmated antlers of a moose. 
 This alarming apparition snorted loudly, and at 
 once from behind him lurched to their feet some 
 i wo score more of his like, and all stood with their 
 eyes fixed upon the little group of travellers by 
 the edge of the wood. 
 
 Grom had heard vague traditions of the im- 
 placable ferocity of these red monsters, but having 
 before never come across them he answered their 
 stare with keen interest. At the same time, 
 edging in closer to the wood, he whispered : 
 
 " Don't run. But if they come we must go up 
 the first tree. They are swift as the wind, these 
 great beasts, and more terrible than the sabre- 
 tooth." 
 
 " Can't go in these trees ! " said Loob, whose 
 piercing eyes had investigated them minutely at 
 the first glimpse of the monster in the grass. 
 
 " Why not ? " demanded Grom, his eyes still 
 fixed upon the monsters. 
 
 " Oh ! The bees ! The terrible bees ! " whis- 
 pered A-ya. " Where can we go ? " 
 
 273 18 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 Grom turned his head and scanned the belt of 
 woodland, his ears now suddenly comprehending a 
 deep, -humming sound which he had hitherto 
 referred solely to the winged foragers in the grass- 
 tops. Scattered at intervals from the branches, 
 in the shadowy green gloom, hung a number of 
 immense, dark, semi-pear-shaped globes. They 
 looked harmless enough, but Grom knew that their 
 inhabitants, the great jungle-bees, were more to 
 be dreaded than sabre-tooth or crocodile. To 
 disturb, or seem to threaten to disturb, one of 
 their nests, meant sure and instant doom. 
 
 " No, we must trust to our running — and they 
 are very swift," said Grom. " But let us go softly 
 now, and perhaps they will not charge upon us." 
 
 The words were hardly out of his mouth when 
 the giant red bull, with a grunt of wrath, lurched 
 forward and charged down at them. And instantly 
 the whole herd, with their ridiculous little tails 
 stuck up stiffly in the air, charged after him. 
 Swift as thought A-ya drew her bow. The arrow 
 buried itself deep in the red giant's muzzle. With 
 a bawl of fury, he paused, to try and root the 
 burning torment out of his nose. The whole herd 
 paused behind him. It was only for a few seconds, 
 and then he came on again, blowing blood and foam 
 from his nostrils ; but they were precious seconds, 
 and the fugitives, running lightly, and stooping 
 low for fear of offending the bees, had gained a 
 start of a hundred yards or more. 
 
 The three were among the swiftest runners of 
 the tribe ; but Grom soon saw that the utmost 
 
 274 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 they could hope was to maintain their distance. 
 And there was the imminent risk that the bees, 
 disturbed by the noise of flight and pursuit, might 
 take umbrage. To lessen this frightful risk, he 
 swerved out till he was some thirty or forty paces 
 distant from the belt of woods. And he noticed, 
 too, that the pursuing herd seemed to have no 
 great anxiety to approach the frontiers of the Bee 
 People. They were following on a slant that gave 
 the woods a wide berth. 
 
 About a mile further on the woods came to an 
 end, and Grom, though he feared the pace might be 
 beginning to tell on A-ya, and though there was 
 no refuge in sight, breathed more freely. He feared 
 the bees more than the yellow monsters, because 
 they were something he could not fight. The 
 grass-land now ran clear to the river's edge, and 
 gave firm footing ; and the fugitives raced on, 
 breathing carefully, and trusting to come to trees 
 again before they should be spent. 
 
 At last a curve of the bank showed them the 
 woods sweeping down again to the water, but 
 three or four miles ahead ! Grom, looking back 
 over his shoulder, realized that their pursuers 
 were now gaining upon them appreciably. With 
 an effort he quickened his pace still further. Loob 
 responded without difficulty. But A-ya's face 
 showed signs of distress, and at this Grom's heart 
 sank. He began to scan the water, weighing the 
 chances of the crocodiles. It looked as if they were 
 trapped beyond escape. 
 
 Perhaps half a mile up the shore a spit of land 
 275 18* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 ran out against the current, and behind its shelter 
 an eddy had collected a mass of uprooted trees 
 and other flood refuse, all matted with green from 
 the growth of wind-borne seeds. It was in reality 
 a great natural raft, built by the eddy and anchored 
 behind the little point. For this Grom headed 
 with new hope. It might be strong enough — parts 
 of it at least — to bear up the three fugitives. But 
 their furious pursuers would surely not venture 
 their giant bulks upon it. 
 
 Approaching the point he slackened his pace, 
 and steadied A-ya with one hand. At the edge of 
 the eddy he stopped, casting an appraising eye 
 over the collection of debris, in order to pick out a 
 stable retreat and also the most secure path to it. 
 In this pause the monsters swept up with a thunder 
 of trampling hooves and windy snortings. They 
 had their victims at last where there was no 
 escape. 
 
 The raging brutes were not more than a dozen 
 paces behind, when Grom led the way out upon 
 the floating mass, picking his steps warily and 
 leaping from trunk to trunk. Loob and A-ya 
 followed with like care. Certain of the trunks 
 gave and sank beneath their feet, but their feet 
 were already away to surer footing. And at the 
 very outermost point of that old collection of debris, 
 where the current and the eddy wavered for 
 mastery, on a toughly interwoven tangle of up- 
 rooted trunks and half-dead vines, they found a 
 refuge which did not yield beneath them. Here, 
 steadying themselves by upthrust branches, they 
 
 276 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 turned and looked back, half apprehensive and 
 half defiant, at their mighty pursuers. 
 
 " They'll never dare to try to follow us here," 
 gasped A-ya. 
 
 But she was wrong. Quite blind with rage 
 through that galling shaft in his muzzle, the giant 
 bull came plunging on, and half a dozen of his 
 closest followers, infected with his madness, came 
 with him. The inner edge of the mass gave way 
 at once beneath them — and the bank at this point 
 was straight up and down. The monsters floun- 
 dered in deep water, snorting and spluttering, 
 while their fellows on the shore checked them- 
 selves violently and drew back bawling with bewil- 
 derment. As the drowning monsters battled to 
 get their front legs up upon the raft, the edges 
 gave way continually beneath them, plunging them 
 again and again beneath the surface, while A-ya 
 stabbed at them vengefully with her spear, and 
 Loob shot arrows into them till Grom stopped 
 him, saying that the arrows were too precious to 
 waste. Thereupon Loob tripped delicately over 
 the surging trunks and smote at the struggling 
 monsters' heads with his light club. 
 
 The anchorage of this natural raft having been 
 broken, the weight of the monsters striving to gain 
 a foothold upon it soon thrust its firm outer portion 
 forth into the grip of the current. In a minute 
 or two more this solid portion was torn away 
 from the rest, and went sailing off slowly down 
 stream with its living freight. The incoherent 
 remnant was left in the eddy, where the snorting 
 
 277 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 monsters struggled and threshed about amongst 
 it, now climbing half-way out upon some great 
 trunk, which forthwith reared on end and slid 
 them off, now vanishing for a moment beneath 
 the beaten stew of leaves and vines. 
 
 A couple of the horned giants, being close to 
 the bank, now seemed to recover their wits suffi- 
 ciently to turn and clamber ashore. But the 
 others were mad with terror. And in a moment 
 more the fascinated watchers on the raft perceived 
 the cause of this madness. All round the scene of 
 the turmoil the water seethed with lashing tails 
 and snapping jaws ; and then one of the monsters, 
 which had struggled out into clear water, was 
 dragged down in a boiling vortex of jaws and 
 bloody foam. A few moments more and the 
 whole eddy became a bubbling hell of slaughter, 
 and great broad washes of crimson streamed out 
 upon the current. The monsters, for all their 
 giant strength, and the pile-driving blows of their 
 huge hoofs, were as helpless as rabbits against 
 their swarming and ravenous assailants ; and the 
 battle — which indeed was no battle at all — soon 
 was over. The eddy had become but a writhing 
 nest of crocodiles. 
 
 " It was hardly worth while wasting arrows, 
 you see ? " said Grom, standing erect on the raft 
 and watching the scene with brooding interest. 
 
 " Do you suppose those swimming beasts with 
 the great jaws can get at us here ? " demanded 
 A-ya with a shudder. 
 
 . " While this thing that carries us holds together, 
 
 278 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 I think we can fight them off," replied Grom. 
 And straightway he set himself to examine how 
 securely the trees were interknit. The trunks 
 had been piled by flood one upon another, and 
 the structure seemed substantial ; but to further 
 strengthen it he set all to work interweaving the 
 free branches and such creepers as the mass con- 
 tained, with the skill that came of much practice 
 in the weaving of tree-top nests. 
 
 When all was done that could be done, the 
 voyagers took time to look about them. They 
 had by now been swept far out into the river, and 
 the shores on either side seemed low and remote. 
 A-ya felt oppressed, the face of the waters seeming 
 to her so vast, inscrutable and menacing. She 
 stole close up to Grom and edged herself under 
 his massive arm for reassurance. The little scout 
 sat like a monkey between two branches, and 
 scratched his hairy arms, and, with an expression 
 of pleased interest, scanned the water for the 
 approach of new foes. As for Grom, he was en- 
 tranced. This, at last, was what he had really 
 come in search of, the stuff for arrows being merely 
 his excuse to himself. This was the utterly new 
 experience, the new achievement. He was travel- 
 ling by water, not in it, but upon it — upborne, dry, 
 a*nd without discomfort, upon its surface. 
 
 For a little while he did not ask whither he was 
 being borne. To his surprise the crocodiles and 
 other formidable water-dwellers, which were quite 
 unknown to him, paid them' no attention what- 
 ever ; and he concluded that they looked upon 
 
 279 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 the raft as nothing more than a mass of floating 
 driftwood containing nothing for them to eat. 
 He could see them everywhere about, swimming 
 with brute snouts half above water or basking on 
 sandy spits of shore. Then he observed that the 
 current was bearing them gradually towards that 
 further shore which he so longed to visit, and he 
 thrilled with new anticipation. But when, after 
 perhaps an hour, the capricious tide blew them 
 again to mid-stream, a new idea took possession of 
 him. He must find some way of influencing the 
 direction of their voyage. He could not long 
 relinquish himself to the blind whim and chance 
 of the current. 
 
 Just as he was beginning to grapple with this 
 problem, A-ya anticipated his thought — as he had 
 noticed that she often did. Looking up at him 
 through her tossed hair, she enquired where they 
 were going. 
 
 " I am just trying to think," he answered, " how 
 to make this thing take us where we want to 
 
 go-" 
 
 " If the water is not too deep, couldn't you 
 push with your long spear ? " suggested the girl. 
 
 Acting at once on the suggestion, Grom leaned 
 over the edge and thrust the spear straight down- 
 wards. But he could find no bottom. 
 
 " It is too deep," said he, " but I'll find a way." 
 
 As he stood near the forward end of the raft 
 he began sweeping the spear in a wide arc through 
 the water, as if it were a paddle, but with the idea 
 merely of testing the resistance of the water. Poor 
 
 280 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 substitute as the spear was for a paddle or an 
 oar, his great strength made up for its inefficiency, 
 and after a few sweeps he was astonished and 
 delighted to notice that the head of the raft had 
 swung away from him, so that it was heading for 
 the shore from which they had come. 
 
 He pondered this in silence for a little, then 
 stepped over to the other side and repeated the 
 experiment. After several vigorous efforts the 
 unwieldy craft yielded. Its head swung straight, 
 and then, very gradually, toward the other side. 
 Yes, there was no doubt about it. He had found 
 a way of influencing their direction. 
 
 " I am going to take you over to the other shore," 
 he announced proudly. 
 
 And now, labouring in a keen excitement, he 
 set himself to carry out his boast. First he so 
 overdid it that he made the raft turn clean about 
 and head up-stream. He puzzled over this for a 
 time, but at length got it once more headed in 
 the direction which he wished it to take. Then he 
 found that he could keep it to this direction — 
 more or less — by taking a few strokes on one side, 
 then hurriedly crossing to take a few strokes on 
 the other. And in this way they began once more 
 to approach the other bank. The process, however, 
 was slow ; and Grom presently concluded that it 
 was wasteful. He hit upon the idea of setting 
 A-ya and Loob together to stroking with their 
 spears on one side, while he, with his great strength, 
 balanced their effort on the other. Whereupon 
 the sluggish craft woke up a little and began to 
 
 281 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 make perceptible progress, on a slant across the 
 current toward shore. 
 
 " I have found it ! " he exclaimed in exultation. 
 " On this thing we can travel over the water where 
 we will." 
 
 " But not against the current," objected A-ya, 
 whose enthusiasm was a little damped by the fact 
 that she did not like the look of that further shore. 
 
 " That will come in time," declared Grom 
 confidently. 
 
 " Here's something coming now," announced 
 Loob, springing to his feet and grabbing his bow. 
 At the same moment the flat, villainous head of a 
 big crocodile shot up over the edge of the raft, 
 and its owner, with enormous jaws half open, 
 started to scramble aboard. 
 
 A-ya's bow was bent as swiftly as Loob's, and 
 the two arrows sped together, both into the 
 monster's gaping gullet. Amazed at this reception, 
 it shut its jaws with a loud snap, halted and came 
 on again. Then a stab of Grom's great spear 
 caught it full in the eye, and this wound struck 
 fear into its dull mind. It rolled back hastily into 
 the water and sank, leaving a foamy wake of blood 
 behind it. 
 
 By this time they were getting nearer the other 
 shore. But on close view, Grom was bound to 
 admit that it was not alluring. It was so low as 
 to be all awash, and fringed deep with towering 
 reeds, which were traversed by narrow lanes of 
 water. Of dry land there was none to be seen. 
 
 " Oh, we don't want to go ashore there ! " pro- 
 282 
 
ON THE FACE OF THE WATERS 
 
 tested A-ya fervently. As she spoke a hideous 
 head, with immense, round, bulging eyes and long, 
 beak-like mouth arose over the sedge tops on a 
 long, swaying neck and stared at them fixedly. 
 
 " No, we don't," said Grom, with decision, making 
 haste to swing the head of the raft once more out 
 into the channel. They were pursued by a dense 
 crowd of mosquitoes, voracious and venomous, 
 which followed them to mid-stream and kept tor- 
 menting them till an up-river gust blew them off. 
 
 Grom made up his mind that the exploration 
 of that unknown shore could await a more con- 
 venient season. He was now deeply absorbed in 
 the complex problem of directing and managing 
 his raft. As he pulled his spear through the 
 water, and noted the additional' effect of its flat 
 head, the conception came to him of something 
 that would get more propulsive grip upon the 
 water than was possible to a round pole. Further- 
 more, he was quick to realize that the immense, 
 shapeless mass of debris on which they were travel- 
 ling might be replaced by something light and 
 manageable which he would make by lashing some 
 trimmed trunks together with lengths of bamboo 
 to give additional buoyancy. As he brooded this 
 in silence, with that deep, inward look in his eyes 
 which always kept A-ya from breaking in upon 
 his vision, he came to the idea of a formal raft, 
 and a formal paddle. And to this he added, with 
 a full sense of its value, A-ya's suggestion that this 
 new structure might very well be pushed along, in 
 shallow water, with a pole. Having thought this 
 
 283 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 out, he drew a deep breath, looked up, and met 
 A-ya's eyes with a smile. His eager desire now 
 was to get back home and put his new scheme into 
 execution. 
 
 " Where are we going now ? " asked A-ya. 
 
 Grom looked about him wildly — at the sky, at 
 the far-off hills on their right, at the course of 
 the stream, which had changed within the past 
 few miles. His sense of direction was unerring. 
 
 " This river," he answered, " flows towards the 
 rising sun, and must empty into the bitter waters 
 not more than a day or a half day from the Caves. 
 We are going home. We will come again to look 
 ior arrows in a new raft which I will make." 
 
 As he spoke, Loob's spear darted down beside 
 he raft, and came up with a big, silvery fish 
 writhing upon it. He broke its neck with a blow 
 and laid the prize at A-ya's feet. 
 
 " I wish we had fire with us, to cook it with," 
 said she. 
 
 " On the new raft, as I will make it," said Grom, 
 " that may very well be. Our journey will be 
 safe and easy, and the good fire we will have always 
 with us." 
 
 284 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE FEAR 
 
 THE People of the Cave were beginning to 
 dread their good fortune. Plenty was being 
 showered upon them with so lavish and sudden a 
 hand that they looked at it askance, distrustful 
 of the unsought-for largess. For a week or more 
 their hunting-grounds had been swarming with 
 game, in amazing and daily increasing numbers, 
 till there was little more of chance or of excitement 
 in the hunt than in plucking a ripe mango from* 
 its branch. It was game of the choicest kinds, 
 too — deer of many varieties, and antelope, and 
 the little wild horse whose flesh they accounted 
 such a delicacy. They slew, and slew, and their 
 cooking-fires were busy night and day, and the 
 flesh they could not devour was dried in the sun 
 in long strips or smoked in the reek of green- 
 wood fires. They feasted greedily, but there was 
 something sinister in the whole matter, something 
 ominous ; and they would stop at times to wonder 
 anxiously what stroke of fate could be hanging 
 over the Caves. 
 
 285 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 During the past day or two, moreover, there had 
 been a disquieting influx of those great and fierce 
 beasts which the Cave Men were by no means 
 anxious to hunt. The giant white and the woolly 
 rhinoceros had arrived by the score in the dense 
 thickets of the steaming savannah which unrolled 
 its green-and-yellow breadths along the southward 
 base of the downs. These half -blind brutes ap- 
 peared to be waging a dreadful and doubtful war 
 with the red herds of those monstrous, cone-horned 
 survivals from an earlier age, the Arsinotheria, 
 who had ruled the reeking savannah for countless 
 cycles. The roar and trampling of the struggle 
 came up from time to time to the dwellers in the 
 Caves, when the hot breeze came up from the 
 southward. 
 
 What concerned the Cave Folk far more than 
 any near-sighted and blundering rhinoceros, how- 
 ever malignant, was the sudden arrival of the 
 great red bears, the black lions, the grinning and 
 implacable sabre-tooth tigers, and giant black-grey 
 wolves which hunted in small, handy packs of six 
 or seven- in number. All these, the dread foes of 
 Man for as long as tradition could remember, had 
 been mercifully few and scattered. Now, in a 
 night, they had become as common as conies ; 
 and not a child could be allowed to play beyond 
 shelter of the cave-mouth fires, not a woman durst 
 venture to the spring without a brightly blazing 
 fire-brand in her hand. Yet — and this seemed to 
 1he Tribe the most portentous sign of all — these 
 blood-thirsty beasts appeared to have lost much 
 
 286 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 of their ancient hostility to Man. They were 
 all well fed, of course, their accustomed prey being 
 now so abundant that they had little more to do 
 than put forth an armed paw and seize it. But 
 they all seemed uneasy and half-cowed, as if 
 weighed down by a menace which they did not 
 know how to face. When a man confronted them, 
 the fiercest of them made way with a deprecating 
 air, as if to say that they had troubles enough 
 already on their minds. 
 
 Bawr, the Chief, and Grom, his right hand and his 
 counsellor, stood upon the bare green ridge above 
 the Cave-mouth, and stared down anxiously upon 
 the sun-drenched plain. Of old it had taken keen 
 eyes to discern the varied life which populated its 
 bamboo-thickets and cane-choked marshes. Now 
 it was as thronged as the home pastures of a cattle- 
 farm. Here and there a battle raged between such 
 small-brained brutes as the white rhinoceros and 
 the cone-horned monster ; but for the most part 
 there was an apprehensive sort of truce, the different 
 kinds of beasts keeping as far as possible to them- 
 selves. 
 
 Further out in the plain pastured a herd of 
 gigantic creatures such as neither Bawr nor Grom 
 had ever seen before. A pair of rhinoceros looked 
 like pigmies beside them. They were both tall 
 and massive ; of a dark mud-colour, with colossal 
 
 287 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 heads, no necks whatever, huge ears that flapped 
 like wings, immensely long, up-curving tusks of 
 gleaming yellow — mighty enough to carry a bison 
 cradled in their curve — and it seemed to the 
 astonished watchers on the ridge that from the 
 snout of each monster grew a great snake, which 
 reared itself into the air, and waved terribly, and 
 pulled down the tops of trees for the monsters' 
 food. 
 
 It was the Cave Man's first view of the Mammoth 
 — which had not yet developed the shaggy coat it 
 was later to grow on the cold sub- Arc tic plains. 
 
 Recovering at length from his amazement, Bawr 
 remarked : 
 
 " They seem to have two tails, those new beasts — 
 a little tail behind, in the usual place, and a very 
 big tail in front, which they use as a hand. They 
 are very many, and very terrible. Do you think 
 it is they who are driving all these other beasts 
 upon us to overwhelm us ? " 
 
 Grom thought long before replying. 
 
 " No," said he, " they are not flesh-eaters. See ! 
 They do not heed the other beasts. They eat 
 trees. And they, too, seem restless. I think they 
 are themselves driven. But what dreadful beings 
 must be they who can drive them ! " 
 
 " If they are driven over us," muttered Bawr, 
 " they will grind us and our fires into the dust." 
 
 " It must be men," mused Grom aloud, " men 
 far mightier than ourselves and so countless that 
 the hordes of the Tree Men would seem a handful 
 in comparison. Only men, or gods, and swarms 
 
 288 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 like locusts, could so drive all these mighty beasts 
 before them as a child drives rabbits." 
 
 " Before they come," said Bawr, dropping his 
 great craggy chin upon his breast, " the People of 
 the Caves will be trodden out. Whither can we 
 escape from such foes ? We will build great fires 
 before the caves, and we will go down fighting, as 
 befits men." 
 
 He lifted his maned and massive head, and 
 shook his great spear defiantly at the unknown 
 doom that was coming up from the south. But 
 Grom's eyes were sunken deep under his brows 
 in brooding thought. 
 
 " There is one way, perhaps," he said at length. 
 " We have learned to journey on the water. We 
 must build us rafts, many rafts, to carry all the 
 tribe. And when we can no longer hold our fires 
 and our caves we will push out upon the water, 
 and perhaps make our way to that blue shore 
 yonder, where they cannot follow us." 
 
 " The waves, and the monsters of the waves, 
 will swallow us up," suggested Bawr. 
 
 " Some of us, perhaps many of us," agreed Grom. 
 " But many of us will escape, to keep the tribe- 
 fires burning, if the gods be kind upon that day 
 and bind down the winds till we get over. If we 
 stay here we shall all die." 
 
 " It is well," grunted Bawr, turning to hurry 
 down the steep. " We will build rafts. Let us 
 hasten." 
 
 * * * 
 
 289 19 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 On the beach below the Caves the Men of the 
 Tribe worked furiously, dragging the trunks of 
 trees together at the water's edge, lashing them 
 with ropes of vine and cords of hide, and labori- 
 ously lopping some of the more obstructive branches 
 by the combined use of fire and split stones. The 
 women, and the lame slave Ook-ootsk — with the 
 old men, who, though their hearts were still high, 
 were too frail of their hands for such a heavy 
 task as raft-building — remained before the Caves 
 under the command of A-ya, Grom's mate. They 
 had enough to do in feeding the chain of fires, 
 keeping the children out of danger, and fighting 
 back with spear and arrow the ever-encroaching 
 mob of wild-eyed beasts. The beasts feared the 
 fires, and feared the human beings who leaped and 
 screamed and smote from among the fires. But 
 still more they seemed to fear some unknown thing 
 behind them. For a time, however, the crackling 
 flames and the biting shafts proved a sufficient 
 barrier, and the motley but terrifying invaders 
 went sheering off irresolutely to westward over the 
 downs. 
 
 Down by the edge of tide the raft-builders 
 worked under Grom's guidance. The broad water 
 — some four or five miles across — was the tidal 
 estuary of a great river which flowed out of the 
 north-west. Its brimming current bore down 
 from the interior jungles the trunks of many up- 
 rooted trees, which the tides of the estuary hurled 
 back and strewed along the beach. The raft- 
 builders, therefore, had plenty of material to work 
 
 290 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 with. And the fear that lay chill upon their hearts 
 urged them to a diligence that was far from their 
 habit. 
 
 It was rather like working in a nightmare. From 
 time to time would come a rush, a stampede, of 
 deer or tapirs, along the strip of beach between the 
 water and the cliff. The toiling men would draw 
 aside till the rabble went by, then fall to work 
 again. 
 
 Once, however, it was a herd of wild cattle, 
 snorting, and tossing their wide, keen-pointed 
 horns ; and their trampling onrush filled the 
 whole space so that the men had to plunge out 
 into deep water to escape. Several, afraid of the 
 big-mouthed, flesh-eating fish which infested the 
 estuary at high tide, stayed too close in shore, 
 and paid for their irresolution by being gored 
 savagely. 
 
 It was about the full of the moon and the time 
 of the longest days, and the raft-builders toiled 
 feverishly the whole night through. By sunrise 
 Bawr and Grom estimated that there were rafts 
 enough to carry the whole tribe, provided the 
 present calm held on. They decided, however, 
 to construct several more, in case some should 
 prove less buoyant than they hoped. 
 
 But for this most wise provision Fate refused to 
 grant the time. 
 
 A naked slip of a girl, her one scant garment 
 
 of leopard skin caught upon a rock and twitched 
 
 from off her loins as she ran, came fleeing down 
 
 the hill-path, her hair afloat upon the fresh 
 
 /"» 291 19* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 morning air. Straggling far behind her came a 
 crowd of children, and old women carrying babies 
 or bundles of dried meat. 
 
 " They must not come yet. They'll be in the 
 way ! " cried Bawr angrily, waving them back. 
 But they paid no attention — which showed that 
 there was something they feared more even than 
 the iron-fisted Chief. 
 
 " There are none of the young women or the old 
 men, who can fight, among them," said Grom. 
 " A-ya must have sent them, because the time has 
 come. Let us wait for the young girl, who seems 
 to bring a message." 
 
 Breathless, and clutching at her bosom with one 
 hand, the girl fell at Bawr's feet. 
 
 " A-ya says, ' Come quick ! ' " she gasped. 
 " They are too many. They run over the fires 
 and trample us." 
 
 Grom sprang forward with a cry, then stooped 
 and looked at his Chief. 
 
 "Go, you," said Bawr, " and bring them to us. 
 I will stay here and look to the rafts." 
 
 Taking a half-score of the strongest warriors with 
 him, Grom raced up the steep, torn with anxiety 
 for the fate of A-ya and the children. 
 
 It was now about three-quarters tide, and the 
 flood rising strongly. By way of precaution some 
 of the rafts had been kept afloat, let down with 
 ropes of vine to follow the last ebb, and guided 
 carefully back on the returning flood. But most 
 of them were lying where they had been built, or 
 left by the preceding tide, along high-water mark, 
 
 292 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 as hopelessly stranded, for the next two hours, as 
 a birch log after a freshet. As the old women 
 with children arrived, Bawr rushed them down the 
 wet beach to the rafts which were afloat, appoint- 
 ing to each clumsy raft four men, with long, 
 roughly flattened poles, to manage it. For the 
 moment, all these men had to do was hold their 
 charges in place that they might not be swept away 
 by the incoming tide. 
 
 When Grom and his eager handful, passing a 
 stream of trembling fugitives on the way, reached 
 the level ground before the Caves, the sight that 
 greeted them was tremendous and appalling. It 
 looked as if some great country to the southward 
 had gathered together all its beasts and then 
 vomited them forth in one vast torrent, confused 
 and irresistible, to the north. It was a wholesale 
 migration, on such a scale as the modern world has 
 never even dreamed of, but suggested in a feeble 
 way by the torrential drift of the bison across the 
 North American plains half a century ago, or the 
 sudden, inexplicable marches of the lemming 
 myriads out of the Scandinavian barrens that give 
 them birth. 
 
 The shrill cries of the women, fighting like she- 
 wolves in defence of the children and the home- 
 caves, the hoarse shouts of the old men, weak but 
 indomitable, were mingled with an indescribable 
 medley of noises — gruntings, bellowings, howlings, 
 roarings, bleatings and brayings — from the dreadful 
 mob of beasts which besieged the open space 
 behind the fires. Some of the beasts were 
 
 293 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 maddened with their terror, some were in a fighting 
 rage, some only wanted to escape the throng 
 behind them. But all seemed bent upon passing 
 the fires and getting into the Caves, as if they 
 thought there to find refuge from the unknown 
 fear. 
 
 On the extreme right of the line the two farthest 
 fires were already overwhelmed, trodden out by 
 frantic hooves, and three or four old men, with a 
 couple of desperate young women, behind a barrier 
 of slain elk and stags, were fighting like furies to 
 hold back the victorious onrush. Two of the old 
 men were down, trodden out between the fires by 
 blind hooves, and a third, jammed limply against 
 the rocky wall beside the furthest cave, was being 
 worried by a bear — hideously but aimlessly, as if 
 the great beast hardly heeded what it was doing. 
 There was something peculiarly terrifying in the 
 animal's preoccupation. 
 
 At the centre of the line, immediately before 
 the main Cave-mouth — whose yawning entrance 
 seemed to be the objective of the swarming beasts — 
 A-ya was heading the battle, with the lame slave, 
 Ook-ootsk, crouched fighting at her side like a 
 colossal frog gone mad. Here the fires were 
 almost extinguished — but the line of slain beasts 
 formed a tolerable barricade, upon the top of 
 which the women leapt, stabbing with their spears 
 and screeching shrill taunts, while the old men 
 leaned upon the gory pile to save their strength 
 with frugal precision. Here and there among the 
 carcases was the body of a woman or an old man, 
 
 294 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 impaled on the horn of a bull or ripped open by the 
 rending antler of an elk. As Grom and his men 
 came shouting across the level a huge woolly 
 rhinoceros plunged over the barrier, his bloody 
 horn ploughing the carcases, trod down a couple 
 of the defenders without appearing to see them, 
 dashed through the nearest fire, and charged 
 blindly into the Cave-mouth with his matted coat 
 all ablaze. The children and old women who had 
 not already fled down to the beach shrieked in 
 horror. The frantic monster heeded them not at 
 all, but went thundering on into the bowels of the 
 cavern. 
 
 " Go back, all you women ! " yelled Grom above 
 the tumult, as he and his men raced to the barrier. 
 " Get down to the beach with the children. We'll 
 hold the rush back till you get down. Run ! 
 Run ! " 
 
 Sobbing with the fury of the struggle, the women 
 obeyed, darting back and pouncing upon their 
 own little ones — all but A-ya, who remained 
 doggedly at Grom's side. 
 
 " Go," ordered Grom fiercely. " The children 
 need you. Get them all down." 
 
 Sullenly the woman obeyed, seeing he was 
 right, but still lusting for the fight, though her 
 wearied arm could now do little more than lift 
 the spear. 
 
 Under the shock of these fresh fighters, with lion- 
 like heads, masterful eyes, and smashing, irresistible 
 weapons, the front ranks of the animals recoiled, 
 trampling those behind them ; and for a few 
 
 295 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 minutes the pressure was relieved. Grom turned 
 to the old men. 
 
 " You go now," he ordered. 
 
 But they refused. 
 
 " We stay here," cried one, breathless, but with 
 fire in his ancient eyes. " None too much room on 
 the rafts." And they fell again grimly to the 
 fight. 
 
 Grom laughed proudly. With such mettle even 
 in withered veins, the Tribe, he thought, was 
 destined to great things. He turned to the lame 
 slave, whom he had ever favoured for his faith- 
 fulness. 
 
 " You go ! You are lame and cannot run." 
 
 The crouching giant looked up at him with a 
 wide-mouthed grin. 
 
 " I am no woman," said he. "I stay and hold 
 them back when you all go. I kill, and kill. And 
 then I go very far." 
 
 He waved one great gnarled hand, dripping with 
 blood, toward the sun and the high spaces of air. 
 
 Before Grom could answer, from below the 
 southward edge of the plateau there came a mad, 
 high trumpeting, so loud that every other voice 
 in that pandemonium was silenced by it. At that 
 dread sound the rabble of beasts surged forward 
 again upon the barrier, upon the clubs and spears 
 of the defenders. Up over the brow of the slope 
 came a forest of waving trunks, and tossing tusks, 
 and ponderous black foreheads. 
 
 " The Two-Tails are upon us ! " cried Grom, 
 in a voice of awe. And his followers gasped, 
 
 296 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 as the colossal shapes shouldered up into full 
 view. 
 
 Gr6m looked behind him, and saw the last of 
 the women and children, shepherded vehemently 
 by A-ya with the butt of her spear, vanishing down 
 the steep toward the beach. 
 
 " It is time for us to go too," shouted Grom, 
 clutching the lame slave by the arm to drag him 
 off. But Ook-ootsk wrenched himself free. 
 
 " I'll hold them back till you get away," he 
 growled, and drove his great spear into the heart of 
 a bull which came over the barrier at that instant. 
 Grom saw it would be useless now to try and 
 save him. With the rest of his band he ran for 
 paths leading down to the beach. It was well, he 
 thought, that the valiant slave should die for 
 the Tribe. 
 
 The beasts came over the barrier and the fires 
 like a yelling flood. But now, finding all opposi- 
 tion so suddenly withdrawn, the flood divided upon 
 the massive, thrusting figure of Ook-ootsk as upon 
 a black rock in mid-stream. It united again 
 behind him, surging pell-mell for the Cave-mouths, 
 where in the crush the weaker and lighter were 
 savagely torn and trampled underfoot. 
 
 Then the Mammoths came thundering and 
 trumpeting across the plateau, going through and 
 over the lesser beasts like a tidal wave. Grom, 
 having seen the last of his warriors pass down the 
 beach paths, turned for one more glimpse of the 
 monstrous and incredible scene. He had a swift 
 vision of the squatting form of Ook-ootsk thrusting 
 
 297 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 upward with reddened spear at the breast of a 
 black monster which hung over him like a mountain. 
 Then the mountain rolled forward upon him, blot- 
 ting him out, and Grom slipped hurriedly over the 
 brink and down the path. 
 
 At the rafts it was bedlam. A score or more of 
 the women and children, as they were crossing to 
 the water's edge, had been wiped out of existence by 
 the rush of maddened bison along the beach, and 
 the keenings of their relatives rose above the shouts 
 and cries of embarkation. Fully half the rafts 
 were afloat, with their loads, by now, and men 
 grunted heavily in the effort to pry the others free, 
 while women and children crowded into the water 
 around them, waiting to struggle aboard as soon 
 as the men would let them. 
 
 As Grom and his panting band, covered with 
 blood from head to foot, reached the waterside 
 and flung their dripping weapons upon the rafts, 
 a fringe of animals came over the edge of the 
 steep, crowded aside from the caves. Some, being 
 sure-footed, like the lions and bears, made their 
 way with care down the paths. Others, pushed 
 over and struggling frantically, came rolling down- 
 ward, bouncing from rock and ledge, and landing 
 on the beach a mass of broken bones. Then behind 
 them, along the brink, black and gigantic against 
 the blue sky-line, appeared a group of the Mam- 
 
 298 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 moths. They waved their long trunks, and trum- 
 peted piercingly, but hesitated to try the descent. 
 
 " Hurry ! " hurry ! " thundered Bawr, strain- 
 ing at the stranded timbers till the great veins 
 stood out on neck and forehead as if they would 
 burst. 
 
 Under the added efforts of Grom and his band 
 the last of the rafts floated. The children were 
 thrown aboard, the women clambered after 
 them, and the men, wading and guiding, lest the 
 rafts should ground again, began to follow cau- 
 tiously. 
 
 At this moment, along the beach came a new 
 rush of animals — chiefly buffalo, headed by three 
 huge white rhinoceros. These all seemed quite 
 blind with panic. They dashed on straight ahead, 
 paying no heed whatever either to the people on 
 the rafts or to the other beasts coming down the 
 steep. On their heels thundered a second herd of 
 Mammoths, their trunks held high in the air, the 
 red caverns of their mouths wide open. 
 
 As these colossal, rolling bulks came abreast of 
 the rafts, a child shrieked at the terrifying sight. 
 The leader of the herd turned his malignant little 
 eye upon the rafts, seeming to perceive them for 
 the first time. Without pausing in his huge stride 
 he reached down his trunk, whipped it about the 
 waist of Bawr, and swung him aloft, crushing in 
 his ribs with the terrific pressure, and carried 
 him along high in the air above the trumpeting 
 ranks. 
 
 A howl of rage went up from the rafts ; and A-ya, 
 299 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 whose bow was quick as thought, let fly an arrow 
 before Grom could stay her hand. The shaft 
 struck deep in the monster's trunk. Dashing down 
 its lifeless victim among the feet of the herd, 
 the monster tried to turn back to take vengeance 
 for the strange wound. But unable to stem the 
 avalanche behind, it was borne up the beach, 
 screaming with rage. 
 
 Grom, who was now sole chief and master of the 
 tribe, signed every raft to push out into deep water, 
 beyond reach of further attack. With all responsi- 
 bility now upon his shoulders, he had little time 
 to grieve for the death of Bawr, who, after all, had 
 died greatly, as a Chief should. The rafts were now 
 travelling inland at a fair rate, on the last half-hour 
 of the flood ; and, as the estuary narrowed rapidly 
 above their starting-place, he hoped to be able, 
 during the slack of tide, to work the clumsy rafts 
 well over towards the northern shore before getting 
 caught in the full strength of the ebb. As he studied 
 out this problem, and urged the warriors to their 
 utmost effort on the heavy and awkward pole- 
 paddles, he kept puzzling all the time over the 
 great mystery. What was it that swept even 
 the mighty mammoths before its face ? How 
 should he name the Fear ? 
 
 Then all at once, when the rafts were about 
 three or four hundred yards out from shore, he 
 saw. A low cry of wonder broke from his lips, 
 and was re-echoed in chorus from all the burdened 
 rafts. 
 
 Down over the heights where the Cave Folk had 
 300 
 
THE FEAR 
 
 been dwelling, up along the beach from which the 
 rafts had just escaped, in countless ravening, snap- 
 ping swarms, poured hyenas by the myriad — 
 huge hyenas, bigger than the mightiest timber 
 wolves, their deep-jowled heads carried close to 
 the ground. It was clear in a moment that they 
 were mad with hunger, driven by nothing but 
 their own raging appetites. They fled from 
 nothing, but some of them stopped, in struggling 
 masses, to devour the bodies of the beasts which 
 they found slain, while the rest poured on in- 
 satiably, to pull down by sheer weight of numbers 
 and the might of their bone-crushing jaws the 
 mightiest of the monsters which fled before them. 
 Here and there a mammoth cow, maddened by 
 the slaughter of her calf, or an old rhinoceros bull, 
 indignant at being hunted by such vermin, would 
 turn and run amuck through the mass, stamping 
 them out by the hundred. But this made no 
 impression at all, either upon their numbers or 
 the rage of their hunger, and in a few minutes 
 the colossus, its feet half eaten off, would come 
 crashing down, to be swarmed over and disappear 
 like a fat grub in an ant-heap. Here and there, 
 too, a mammoth, more sagacious than its fellows, 
 would wade out belly deep into the water — upon 
 finding its escape cut off — and stand there 
 plucking its foes one by one from the shore to 
 trample them under its feet, screaming shrill 
 triumph. 
 
 Grom turned with a deep breath from the un- 
 speakable spectacle, looked across to the green 
 
 301 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 line of the opposite shore, and thanked his unknown 
 gods that it was so far off. With that great river 
 rolling its flood between, he thought the Tribe 
 might rest secure from these fiends and once more 
 build up its fortunes. 
 
 302 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 DRIVEN from their home beside the Bitter 
 Water by the great migration of the 
 beasts, the Tribe of the Cave Folk, diminished in 
 numbers and stricken in spirit, had escaped on 
 rafts across the broad river-estuary which washed 
 the northern border of their domain. There they 
 had found a breathing-space, but it had proved a 
 perilous one. The whole region north of the estuary 
 was little better than a steaming swamp, infested 
 with poisonous snakes and insects, and with strange 
 monsters, survivals from a still earlier age, whose 
 ferocity drove the Cave Folk back to their ancestral 
 life in the tree-tops. Under these conditions it 
 was all but impossible to keep alight the sacred 
 fires — as precious to the tribe as life itself — which 
 they had brought with them in their flight upon 
 the rafts. And Grom, the Chief, saw his harassed 
 people in danger of sinking back into the degrada- 
 tion from which his discovery and conquest of 
 fire had so wonderfully uplifted them. 
 
 From the top of a solitary jobo tree, which 
 
 303 • 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 towered above the rank surrounding jungle, Grom 
 could make out what looked like a low bank of 
 purple cloud along the western and north-western 
 horizon. As it was always there, whenever he 
 climbed to look at it, he concluded that it was not 
 a cloud-bank, but a line of hills. Where there were 
 hills there might be caves. In any case, the 
 People must have some better place to inhabit 
 than this region of swamps and monsters. The 
 way to that blue line of promise lay across what 
 would surely be the path of the migrating beasts, 
 if they should take it into their heads to swim 
 across the river. The possibility was one from 
 which even his resolute spirit shrank. But he 
 felt that he must face any risk in the hope of win- 
 ning his way to those cloudy hills. Within an hour 
 of his reaching this decision the Tribe of the Cave 
 Folk was once more on the march. 
 
 The first few days of the march were like a 
 nightmare. Grom led the way along the shore of 
 the river, both because that seemed the shortest 
 way to the hills, and because, in case of emergency, 
 the open water afforded a door of escape by raft. 
 Had it been possible to make the journey by raft 
 matters would have been simplified ; but Grom 
 had already proved by experience that his heavy, 
 unwieldy rafts could not be forced upwards against 
 the mighty current of the river. At the last point 
 to which the flood-tides would carry them the rafts 
 had been abandoned — herded together into a quiet 
 cove, and lashed to the shore by twisted vine-ropes 
 against some possible future need. 
 
 304 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 At the head of the dismal march went Grom, 
 with his mate A-ya, and her two children, and the 
 hairy little scout Loob, whose feet were as quick 
 as his eyes and ears and nostrils, and whose sinews 
 were as untiring as those of the grey wolf. Imme- 
 diately behind these came the main body of the 
 warriors, on a wide line so as to guard against 
 surprise on the flank. Then followed the women 
 and children, bunched as closely as possible behind 
 the centre of the line ; and a knot of picked 
 warriors, under young Mo, the brother of A-ya, 
 guarded the rear. There were no old men and 
 women, all these having gone down in the last great 
 battle at the Caves, selling their lives as dearly 
 as possible to cover the retreat. Such of the young 
 women as had no small children to carry bore the 
 heavy burdens of the fire-baskets, or bundles of 
 smoke-dried meat, leaving the warriors free to 
 use their bows and spears. 
 
 In traversing the swamp the march was some- 
 times at ground-level, sometimes high in the tree 
 tops. In the tree-tops it was safer, but the pro- 
 gress was slow and laborious. At ground-level 
 the swarms of stinging insects were always with 
 them, till Grom invented the use of smudges. 
 When every alternate member of the tribe carried 
 a torch of dry grass and half -green bark, the march 
 was enveloped in a cloud of acrid smoke, which 
 the insects found more or less disconcerting. 
 
 Of the grave perils of this weary march to the 
 hills a single instance may suffice. The nights, as 
 a rule, were passed by the whole tribe in the tree- 
 
 305 20 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 tops, both for the greater security, and because 
 there was seldom enough dry ground to sleep 
 upon. But one evening, toward sunset, they came 
 upon a sort of little island in the reeking jungle. 
 Its surface was four or five feet above the level of 
 the swamp. The trees which dotted it were 
 smooth, straight, towering shafts with wide fans of 
 foliage at their far-off tops. And the ground 
 between these clean, symmetrical trunks was un- 
 encumbered, being clothed only with a rich, soft, 
 spicy-scented herbage, akin to the thymes and 
 mints. Such an opportunity for rest and refresh- 
 ment was not to be let slip, and Grom ordered an 
 immediate halt. 
 
 A fat, pig-like water beast, of the nature of the 
 dugong, had been speared that day in a bayou 
 beside the line of march, and with great content- 
 ment the tribe settled themselves down to such 
 a comfortable feasting as they had not known for 
 many days. While the fat dugong was being 
 hacked to pieces and divided under the astute 
 direction of A-ya, Grom made haste to establish the 
 camp-fires in a chain completely encircling the 
 encampment, as a protection against night-prowlers 
 from the surrounding jungle. As darkness fell 
 the flames lit up the soaring trunks, but the roof 
 of over-arching foliage was so high that the smoky 
 illumination was lost in it. 
 
 While the rest of the tribe gave itself up to the 
 feasting, Grom and Loob, and half a dozen of the 
 other warriors, kept vigilant watch whilst they 
 ate, distrusting the black depths of jungle and 
 
 306 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 the deep, reed-fringed pools beyond the circle of 
 light. Suddenly, all along one side of the island 
 there arose a sound of heavy splashing, and out 
 of the darkness came a row of small, malignant 
 eyes, all fixed upon the feasters. Then into the 
 circle of light swam the masks of giant alligators 
 and strange, tusked caymans. Quite unawed by 
 the fires they came ashore with a clumsy rush, 
 open-mouthed. 
 
 While the clamouring women snatched the 
 children away to the other side of the encamp- 
 ment, Grom and the other warriors hurled them- 
 selves upon the hideous invaders as they came 
 waddling with amazing nimbleness in between the 
 fires. But these were no assailants to be met with 
 bow and spear. At Grom's sharp orders each 
 warrior snatched a blazing brand from the fire, 
 and drove it into the gaping throat of his 
 nearest assailant. In their stupid ferocity the 
 monsters invariably bit upon the brand before 
 they realized its nature. Then, bellowing with 
 pain, they wheeled about and scrambled back 
 toward the water, lashing out with their gigantic 
 tails, so that three of the warriors were, knocked 
 over and half a dozen of the fires were scattered. 
 
 The feasters had hardly more than settled down 
 after this startling visitation, when from the dark- 
 ness inland came a hoarse, hooting cry, followed 
 by a succession of crashing thuds, as if a pair of 
 mammoths were playing leap-frog in the jungle. 
 All the men sprang again to their weapons, and 
 stood waiting, in a sudden hush, straining their 
 
 307 20* 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 eyes into the perilous dark. Some of the women 
 herded the children into the very centre of the 
 island, while others fed the fires with feverish haste. 
 The hooting call, and the heavy, leaping thuds, 
 came nearer and nearer at a terrifying speed ; 
 and suddenly, amid the far-off, vaguely-lighted 
 tangle of the tree-trunks appeared a giant form, 
 seven or eight times the height of Grom himself. 
 Leaping upon its mighty hind-legs, and holding 
 its mailed fore-paws before its chest, it came 
 bounding like a colossal kangaroo through the 
 jungle, smashing down the branches and smaller 
 trees as it came, and balancing itself at each spring 
 with its massive, reptilian tail. Its vast head, 
 something like a cross between that of a monstrous 
 horse and that of an alligator, was upborne upon 
 a long, snaky neck, and its eyes, huge and round 
 and lidless, were like two discs of shining and 
 enamelled metal where they caught the flash of the 
 camp-fires. 
 
 This appalling shape had apparently no dread 
 whatever of the flames. When it was within some 
 thirty or forty yards of the line of fire, Grom yelled 
 an order and a swarm of arrows darted from the 
 bows to meet it. But they fell futile from its 
 armoured hide, which gleamed like dull bronze in 
 the fire-light. Grom shouted again, and this time 
 the warriors hurled their spears — and they, too, 
 fell harmless from the monster's armour. Its next 
 crashing bound brought the monster to the edge 
 of the encampment, where one of its ponderous 
 feet obliterated a fire. With a lightning swoop 
 
 308 
 
Leaping upon its mighty hind-legs . . . like a colossal kangaroo." 
 
 [page 308, 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 of its gigantic head it seized the nearest warrior 
 in its jaws and swung him, screaming, high into 
 the air, as a heron might snatch up a sprawling 
 frog. At the same instant A-ya, who was the one 
 unerring archer in the tribe, let fly an arrow which 
 pierced full half its length into the centre of one 
 of those horrifying enamelled eyes ; while Grom, 
 who alone, of all the warriors, had not recoiled 
 in terror, succeeded in driving a spear deep into 
 the unarmoured inner side of the monster's thigh. 
 But both these wounds, dreadful though they were, 
 failed to make the colossus drop its prey. With 
 mighty, braying noises through its nostrils it 
 brushed the spear shaft from its hold like a straw, 
 flopped about, and with the arrow still sticking in 
 its eye, went leaping off again into the darkness 
 to devour its victim. 
 
 For several hours, with the fires trebled in 
 number and stirred to fiercer heat, the tribe waited 
 for the monster to return and claim another victim. 
 But it did not return. At length Grom concluded 
 that his spear-head in its groin and A-ya's arrow 
 in its eye had given it something else to think of. 
 Once more he set the guards, and gradually the 
 tribe, inured to horrors, settled itself down to 
 sleep. It slept out the rest of the night without 
 disturbance — but the following night, and the 
 next two nights thereafter, were spent in the tree- 
 tops. Then, on the fourth day, the harassed 
 travellers emerged from the swamp into a pleasant 
 region of grassy, mimosa-dotted, gently-rolling 
 plain. The hills, now showing green and richly 
 
 309 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 wooded, were not more than a day's march 
 ahead. 
 
 And just here, as the Fates which had of late been 
 pursuing them would have it, the worn travellers 
 found themselves once more in the line of the 
 hordes of migrating beasts. 
 
 Grom's heart sank. To reach the refuge of the 
 hills across the march of those maddened hordes 
 was obviously impossible. Were his people to be 
 forced back into the swamp, to resume the cramped 
 and ape-like life among the branches ? Having 
 ordered the building of a half-circle of fire 
 around a spur of the jungle, he climbed a tree to 
 reconnoitre. 
 
 The river ran but a mile or two distant upon his 
 left. Immediately before him the fleeing beasts 
 were not numerous, consisting merely of small 
 herds and terrified stragglers. Further out, how- 
 ever, toward the hills, the plain was blackened by 
 the fugitives, who were thrust on by the myriads 
 swimming the river behind them. Assuredly, it 
 was not to be thought of that he should attempt to 
 lead his people across the path of that desperate 
 flight. But a point that Grom noted with relief 
 was that only certain kinds of beasts had ventured 
 the crossing of the river. He saw no bears, lions 
 or sabre-tooths among those streaming hordes. 
 He saw deer of every kind — good swimmers all of 
 them — with immense, rolling herds of buffalo and 
 aurochs, and scattered companies of the terrible 
 siva moose, and some bands of the giant elk, their 
 antlers topping the mimosa thickets. Here and 
 
 ^110 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 there, lumbering along sullenly as if reluctant to 
 retreat before any peril, journeyed a huge rhino- 
 ceros, stopping from time to time for a few hurried 
 mouthfuls of the rich plains grass. But as yet 
 there was not a mammoth in sight — whereat Grom 
 wondered, as he thought they would have been 
 among the first to dare the crossing of the river. 
 Had they kept on up the other shore, hesitating to 
 trust their colossal bulks to the current, or had 
 they turned at bay, at last, in uncontrollable indig- 
 nation, and gone down before the countless hordes 
 of their ignoble assailants ? 
 
 The absence of the mammoths, which he dreaded 
 more than all the other beasts because of the fierce 
 intelligence that gleamed in their eyes, decided 
 Grom. He would lead his people along to the 
 right, skirting the swamp and marching parallel 
 to the flight of the beasts, calculating thus to have 
 the jungle always for a refuge, though not for a 
 dwelling, until they should come to a region of hills 
 and caves too difficult for the migrating beasts to 
 traverse. 
 
 For several days this plan answered to a marvel. 
 The fugitives nearest to the swamp-edge were 
 mostly deer of various species, which swerved 
 away nervously from the line of march, but at 
 the same time afforded such good hunting that 
 the travellers revelled in abundance and rapidly 
 recovered their spirits. Once, when a great wave 
 of maddened buffalo surged over upon them, the 
 whole tribe fled back into the jungle, clambering 
 in to the trees, and stabbing down, with angry 
 
 3ii 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 shouts, at the nearest of their assailants. But the 
 assault was a blind one. The buffalo, a black mass 
 that seemed to foam with tossing horns and rolling 
 eyes, soon passed on to their unknown destination. 
 And the tribe, dropping down from the branches, 
 quite cheerfully resumed its march. 
 
 On the fifth day of the march they saw the 
 jungle on their right come to an end. It was 
 succeeded by a vast expanse of shallow mere 
 dotted with half-drowned, rushy islets, and swarm- 
 ing with crocodiles. After some hesitation, Grom 
 decided to go on, though he was uneasy about for- 
 saking the refuge of the trees. Some leagues 
 ahead, however, and a little toward the left, he 
 could see a low, thick-wooded hill, which he 
 thought might serve the tribe for a shelter. With 
 many misgivings, he led the way directly towards 
 it, swerving out across the path of a vast but 
 straggling horde of sambur deer which seemed 
 almost exhausted. 
 
 To Grom's surprise these stately and beautiful 
 animals showed neither hostility nor fear toward 
 human beings. According to all his previous 
 experience, the attitude of every beast toward 
 man was one of fear or fierce hate. These sambur, 
 on the contrary, seemed rather to welcome the 
 companionship of the tribe, as if looking to it for 
 some protection against the strange pursuing peril. 
 His sleepless sagacity perceiving the value of this 
 great escort as a buffer against the contact of less 
 kindly hordes, Grom gave strict orders that none 
 of these beasts should be molested. And the 
 
 312 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 Cave Folk, not without apprehension, found them- 
 selves travelling in the vanguard of an army of tall, 
 high-an tiered beasts which stared at them with 
 mild eyes of inquiry and appeal. 
 
 Marching at their best speed, the Tribe kept 
 easily in the van of the distressed sambur, and 
 more than once in the next few hours, Grom had 
 reason to congratulate himself upon his venture 
 into this strange fellowship. First, for instance, 
 he saw a herd of black buffalo overtake the sambur 
 host and dash heavily into its rear ranks. The 
 frightened sambur closed up, instead of scattering, 
 and the impetus of the buffalo presently spent 
 itself upon the unresisting mass. They edged their 
 way through to the left, leaving swathes of gored 
 and trodden sambur in their wake, and went 
 thundering off on another line of retreat, caroming 
 into a herd of aurochs, which fought them off and 
 punished them murderously. It was obvious to 
 Grom, as he studied the dust-clouds of this last 
 encounter, that the buffalo herd, here in the open, 
 would have rolled over the tribe irresistibly, and 
 trampled it flat. 
 
 Journeying thus at top speed toward that hill 
 of promise before them, the travellers came at 
 length to a wide space of absolutely level ground 
 which presented a most curious appearance. It 
 was as level as a windless lake, and almost without 
 vegetation. The naked surface was of a sort of 
 indeterminate dust-colour, but dotted here and 
 there with tiny patches of vegetation so stunted 
 that it was little more than moss. Grom, with his 
 
 3 J 3 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 inquiring mind, would have liked to stop to in- 
 vestigate this curious surface, unlike anything he 
 had ever seen before. But the hordes of the 
 sambur were behind, pressing the tribe onwards, 
 and straight ahead was the wooded hill, dense with 
 foliage, luring with its promise of safe and con- 
 venient shelter. He led the way, therefore, with- 
 out hesitation, out across the baked and barren 
 waste, sniffing curiously, as he went, at a strange 
 smell, pungent but not unpleasant, which steamed 
 up from the dry, hot surface all about him. 
 
 The first peculiarity that he noticed was a 
 remarkable springiness in the surface upon which 
 he trod. Then he was struck by the fact that 
 the dust-brown surface was seamed and criss- 
 crossed in many places by small cracks — like those 
 in sun-scorched mud, except that the cracks were 
 almost black in colour. These things caused him 
 no misgiving. But presently, to his consternation, 
 he detected a slight but amazing undulation, an 
 immensely long, immensely slow wave rolling 
 across the dry surface before him. He could 
 hardly believe his eyes — for assuredly nothing 
 could look more like good solid land than that 
 stretch of barren plain. He stopped short, rubbing 
 his eyes in wonder. A-ya grabbed him by the arm. 
 " What is it ? " she whispered, staring at the 
 unstable surface in a kind of horror. 
 
 Before he could reply, cries and shouts arose 
 among the tribe behind him, and they all rushed 
 forward, almost sweeping Grom and A-ya from 
 their feet. 
 
 314 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 The surface of the barren, all along the edge of 
 the grass land, had given way beneath the weight 
 of the sambur herds, and the front ranks were 
 being engulfed, with frantic snortings and awful 
 groans, in what looked like a dense, blackish, 
 glistening ooze. The ranks behind were being 
 forced forward to this awful doom, in spite of their 
 panic-stricken struggles to hold back ; and it was 
 the pressure of this battling mass that was creating 
 the horrible, bulging undulation on the plain. 
 
 Grom's quick intelligence took in the situation 
 on the instant. The naked brown surface beneath 
 the feet of the tribe was nothing more than a 
 thin crust overlying a lake of some dense, dark, 
 strange-smelling liquid. 
 
 His first impulse, naturally, was to turn back — 
 and A-ya, with wide eyes of terror, was already 
 dragging fiercely at his elbow. But to turn back 
 was utterly impossible. That way lay the long 
 strip of engulfing pitch, swallowing up insatiably 
 the ranks of the groaning and kicking sambur. 
 There was but one possible way of escape left open, 
 and that was straight ahead. 
 
 But would the crust continue to uphold them ? 
 Already, under the weight of the whole tribe 
 pressing together, it was beginning to sag hid- 
 eously. With furious words and blows he tried 
 to make the tribe scatter to right and left, so as 
 to spread the pressure as widely as possible. Per- 
 ceiving his purpose, A-ya and Loob, and several of 
 the leading warriors, seconded his efforts with 
 frantic vehemence ; till in a few minutes the whole 
 
 3i5 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 tribe, amazed and quaking with awe, was extended 
 like a fan over a front of three or four hundred 
 yards. Seeing that the perilous sagging of the 
 crust was at once relieved, Grom then ordered the 
 tribe to advance cautiously, keeping the same wide- 
 open formation, while he himself brought up the 
 rear. 
 
 But in a few minutes everyone, from Grom 
 downwards, came to a halt irresistibly, in order 
 to watch the monstrous drama unfolding behind 
 them. 
 
 For nearly half a mile to either side of their 
 immediate rear, between the still unbroken surface 
 of the dust-brown expanse and the edge of the 
 trampled grassy plain, stretched a sort of canal, 
 perhaps ten paces wide, of brown-black, glistening 
 pitch, beaten up with thrashing antlers, and 
 tossing heads that whistled despairingly through 
 wide nostrils, and heaving, agonizing bulks that 
 went down slowly to their doom. After several 
 ranks of the herd had been engulfed those next 
 behind turned about in terror and fought madly 
 to force their way back from the fatal brink. But 
 the inexorable masses behind them rolled them 
 on backwards, and slowly they too were thrust 
 down into the pitch, till the canal was filled to the 
 brink, and writhed horribly along its whole length. 
 By this time, however, the alarm had spread 
 through the rest of the sambur ranks. By a 
 desperate effort they got themselves turned, and 
 went surging off to the left in a direction parallel 
 to the edge of the plain of death. 
 
 316 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 Thrilled with the wonder and the horror of it, 
 Grom drew a deep breath and relaxed the tension 
 of his watching. He was just about to turn and 
 order the tribe forward again, when he was arrested 
 by the sight of a vast cloud of dust rolling up 
 swiftly upon the left flank of the retreating sambur. 
 
 A confused cry of alarm went up from the 
 watching tribe, as they saw a forest of waving 
 trunks appear in the front of the dust-cloud. A 
 second or two more and a long array of mammoths 
 emerged along the path of the cloud. Among the 
 mammoths, here and there, raced a black or a 
 white rhinoceros, or a towering, spotted giraffe. 
 Behind this front rank, vague and portentous 
 through the veiling cloud, came further colossal 
 hordes, filling the distance as far as eye could 
 see. 
 
 This advance looked as if nothing on earth, 
 not even the lake of pitch, could ever stop it, and 
 certain of the tribe started to flee. But Grom, 
 after a moment of misgiving and hasty calculation, 
 checked the flight sternly. He must, at all risks, 
 see the incredible thing that was about to happen. 
 And he felt certain that, at this distance out upon 
 the crust of the gulf, the tribe would be secure. 
 
 The stupendous wave of dust and waving trunks 
 and galloping black bulks thundered up at a terrific 
 pace, and fell with irresistible impact upon the 
 flank of the marching sambur. These unhappy 
 beasts went down like grass before it. They 
 were rolled flat, trodden out like a fire in thin 
 grass, annihilated. And the screaming, trumpeting 
 
 317 
 
IN THE MORNING OF TIME 
 
 monsters, hardly aware that there had been an 
 obstacle in their path, arrived at the edge of the 
 canal. 
 
 Here and there an old bull, leading, took alarm, 
 trumpeted wildly, and strove to stop. But the 
 belt of pitch was full to the brink with the packed 
 bodies of the sambur, and did not look to be a very 
 serious barrier to the spacious brown levels beyond 
 it. Moreover, the panic of a long flight was upon 
 them, and the rear ranks were thrusting them on. 
 The trumpeting leaders were overborne in a twink- 
 ling. The ponderous feet of the front rank sank 
 into the mass of bodies and horns and pitch, 
 stumbled forward, belly deep, and strove to clamber 
 out upon the solid-looking further edge. With 
 trunks eagerly outstretched as if seeking to grip 
 something, the huge, bat-eared heads heaved 
 themselves up. The next moment the treacherous 
 crust crumbled away beneath them like an egg- 
 shell, and with screams that tore the heavens they 
 sank into the gulfs of pitch. The next two or 
 three ranks went on over them, trod them deeper 
 down, heaved and surged and battled for some 
 moments along the edge of the crumbling crust. 
 With mad trumpetings, they were themselves 
 swallowed up in that sluggish, implacable flood. 
 Here and there a black trunk, twisting in agony, 
 lingered long, awful moments above the pitch. 
 Here and there the pallid head of a giraffe, tongue 
 protruding and eyes bursting from their sockets, 
 stood up rigid on its long neck and screamed 
 hideously. 
 
 318 
 
THE LAKE OF LONG SLEEP 
 
 As the thick tide closed slowly, slowly over its 
 prey, the hosts in the rear, having taken alarm at 
 the agonized trumpetings, succeeded by a gigantic 
 effort in checking their career. Those nearest 
 the edge of doom reared up and fell back upon 
 those next behind, to be ripped with frantic tusks 
 in the mad confusion. But presently the whole 
 colossal array brought itself to a halt, got itself 
 turned to the left, and went thundering off on the 
 trail of the sambur remnants. 
 
 Grom stood staring for a long time, with wide, 
 brooding eyes, at the still-bubbling and heaving 
 breadths of dark pitch. He was stunned by the 
 sudden engulfing and utter disappearance of such 
 a monstrous horde. He seemed to see the count- 
 less gigantic shapes heaped one upon the other, 
 laid to their long sleep there in the deeps of the 
 pitch. At last he shook himself, passed his shaggy 
 hand over his eyes, and shouted to the tribe that 
 all was well. Then he set himself once more at 
 their head, and led them, slowly and cautiously, 
 onward across the dreadful level, till they gained 
 the shelter of that sweetly wooded and rivulet- 
 watered hill. 
 
 THE END 
 
 3 T 9 
 
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