CHAPTER IV
THE CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE
I
From the lip of the narrow volcanic fissure, which ran diagonallytwo-thirds of the way across the mouth of the valley, the line of firewaved and flickered against the gathering dark. Sometimes only a fewinches high, sometimes sinking suddenly out of sight, and then againas suddenly 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 theircrests, and thrust out shooting tongues, till Grom, sitting on hishaunches and staring with fascinated eyes, had no choice but tobelieve that they were live things like himself. The girl, curled upat his side like a cat, paid little attention to the marvel of theflames. Her big, dark eyes, wild and furtive under the dark, tangledmasses of her hair, kept wandering back and forth between the man'sbrooding face and the obscure black thickets which filled the valleybehind him. The dancing flames she did not understand, but sheunderstood the ponderous crashing, and growls, and savage cries whichcame from those black thickets and slopes of tumbled rocks. The manbeing absorbed in watching the wonders of the flames, and apparentlyall-forgetful of the perils prowling back there in the dark, it wasplainly her duty to keep watch.
From time to time Grom would drag his eyes away from their contemplationof the flames to study intently the charred spots on his club and theburned, blackened end of his spear. He looked down at the lithe figure ofthe watching girl, and laid a great, hairy hand on her shoulder in a musingcaress, as if appraising her, and delighting in her, and finding in hera mate altogether to his desire, although but a child to his inmostthoughts. But those sounds of menace from the darkness behind him heaffected not to hear at all. He could see from the girl's eyes that themenace was not yet close at hand; and since he had learned the power of thefire, and his own mastery over that power, he felt himself suddenly littleless than a god. The fire was surely something of a god; and if he hadany 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 intelligence. His heartswelled with a pride such as he had never before conceived, and hisbrain seethed with vague but splendid possibilities. Never before hadhe, though at heart the bravest of his brave clan, been able to listento the terrible voices of the cave-bear, the cave-hyena, or thesaber-tooth without fear, without the knowledge that his own safety lay inflight. Now he feared them not at all.
A louder roaring came out of the shadows, closer than before, and hesaw A-ya's eyes dilate as she clutched at his knee. A slow smilespread across his bony face, and he turned about, rising to his feetas he did so, and lifting the girl with him.
With a new, strange warmth at his heart he realized how fully the girltrusted him, how cool and steady was her courage. For there, along theedge of the lighted space, glaring forth from the fringes of thethickets, were the monstrous beasts whom man had most cause to dread.Nearest, his whole tawny length emerging from the brush, crouched agiant saber-tooth with the daggers of his tusks, ten inches long,agleam in the light of the dancing flames. He was not more than thirtyor forty paces distant, and his tail twitched heavily from side toside as if he were trying to nerve himself up to a closer approach tothe fire. Some twenty paces further along the fringe of mingled lightand shadow, their bodies thrust half way forth from the undergrowth,stood a pair of huge, ruddy cave-bears, their monstrous heads held lowand swaying surlily from side to side as they eyed the prey which theydared not rush in and seize. The man-animal they had hitherto regardedas easy prey, and they were filled with rage at the temerity of thesetwo humans in remaining so near the dreaded flames. Intent upon them,they paid no heed to their great enemy, the saber-toothed, with whomthey were at endless and deadly feud. Away off to the left, quiteclear of the woods, but safely remote from the fire, a pack of hugecave-hyenas sat up on their haunches, their long, red tongues hangingout. With jaws powerful enough to crack the thigh-bones of the urus,they nevertheless hesitated to obtrude themselves on the notice eitherof the crouching saber-tooth or of the two giant bears.
With neither the bears nor the great hyenas did Grom anticipate anytrouble. But he felt it barely possible that the saber-tooth mightdare a rush in. Snatching up a dry branch, and leading the girl withhim by the wrist, he backed slowly nearer the flames. Terrified attheir dancing and the scorching of their breath, the girl sank down onher naked knees and covered her face with her hair. Smiling at herterror, Grom thrust the branch into the flames. When it was all ablazehe raised it above his head, and, carrying his spear in his righthand, he rushed at the saber-tooth. For a few seconds the monsterfaced his approach, but Grom saw the shrinking in his furious eyes,and came on fearlessly. At last the beast whipped about with ascreeching snarl, and raced back into the woods. Then Grom turned tothe bears, but they had not stayed to receive his attentions. Thesight of the flames bursting, as it seemed, from the man's shaggy headas he ran, was too much for them, and they had slunk back discreetlyinto the shadows.
Grom threw the blazing stick on the ground, laid several more branchesupon it, and presently had a fine fire of his own going. He seized asmall branch and hurled it at the hyenas, sending them off with theirtails 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 itdrove him back. Returning to the side of the wondering girl, he satdown, and contemplated his handiwork with swelling pride. When theflames died down he piled on more branches till they blazed again tothe height of the nearest tree-tops. This he repeated, thoughtfully,several times, till he had assured himself of his power to make thisbright, devouring god great or little at his pleasure.
This stupendous fact established clearly, Grom brought an armful ofgrass and foliage, and made the girl take her sleep. He himselfcontinued for an hour or two his experiments with the fire, buildingsmall ones in a circle about him, discovering that green brancheswould not burn well, and brooding with knit brows over each new centerof light and heat which he created.
Then, seated on his haunches beside the sleeping A-ya, he pondered onthe future of his tribe, on the change in its fortunes which thismysterious new creature was bound to bring about. At last, when thenight was half worn through, he awakened the girl, bade her keep sharpwatch, and threw himself down to sleep, indifferent to the roars, andsnarls, and dreadful cries which came from the darkness of the uppervalley.
The valley looked straight into the east. When the sun rose, itsunclouded, level rays paled the dancing barrier of flames almost toinvisibility. Refreshed by their few hours' sleep in the vital warmth,Grom and the girl stood erect in the flooding light and scanned thestrange landscape. Grom's sagacious eyes noted the fertility of thelevel lands at a distance from the fire, and of the clefts, ledges andlower slopes of the tumbled volcanic hills. Here and there he made outthe openings of caves, half overgrown with vines and bush. And he wassatisfied that this was the land for his tribe to occupy.
That it was infested with all those monstrous beasts which were Man'sdeadliest foes seemed to him no longer a fact worth considering. Thebright god which he had conquered should be made to conquer them. Someinkling of his purposes he confided to the girl, who stood looking upat him with eyes of dog-like devotion from under the matted splendorof 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 athis ease with the flames, and drive the hyena, the saber-tooth and theterrible red bear before him.
When the two started on their journey back to the Country of theLittle Hills, Grom carried with him a bundle of blazing brands. He hadconceived the idea of keeping the bright god alive by feeding himcontinually as they went, and of renewing his might from time to timeby stopping to build a big fire.
The undertaking proved a troublesome one from the first. The brandkept the great beasts at a distance, time and again the red coalsalmost died out, and Grom had anxious and laborious moments nursingthem again into activity; and the ca
re of the mysterious things madeprogress slow. Grom learned much, and rapidly, in these anxiousefforts. He discovered once, just at a critical moment, the remarkableefficacy 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 snatcheda double handful of grass to feed the dying flame. Luckily, the grasswas dry. It flared up on the sudden. The bear stopped short. Grompiled on more grass, shouted arrogantly, and rushed at the beast witha blazing handful. It was a light and harmless flame, almost instantlyextinguished. But it was too mysterious for the monster to face.
Grom was wise enough not to follow up his victory. Returning to thefire he fed it to a safe volume. And the girl, flinging herself downin a passion of relief and adoration, embraced his knees.
After this they journeyed slowly, Grom tending the brands withvigilant care, and striving to break down the girl's terror ofthem. That night he built three fires about the base of a hugetree, gathered a supply of dry wood, taught the girl to feed theflames--which she did with head bowed in awe--and passed the hoursof darkness, once so dreaded, in proud defiance of the great beastswhich prowled and roared beyond the circle of light. He made thegirl sleep, but he himself was too prudent to sleep, lest thesefires of his own creation should prove false when his eye was not uponthem.
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 reviveit, had smothered it with too much fuel. In an agony of fear andremorse, she knelt at Grom's side, awakened him, and showed him whatshe had done. She expected a merciless beating, according to therough-and-ready customs of her tribe. But Grom had always been held alittle peculiar, especially in his aversion to the beating of women,so that certain females of the tribe had even been known to questionhis manhood on that account.
Furthermore, he regarded the girl with a tenderness, an admiration, anappreciation, which he could not but wonder at in himself, seeing thathe had never heard of it as a customary thing that a man should regarda woman in any such manner. At the same time he was in a state ofexaltation over his strange achievements, and hardly open, at themoment, to any common or base brutality of rage.
He gave the girl one terrible look, then went and strove silently withthe 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 thatthe flames had fled beyond recovery, he lifted her up, drew her closeto him, and comforted 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 himagain."
And when the girl realized that he had no thought of beating her, butonly wished to comfort and shield her, then she felt quite sure he wasa god, and her heart nearly burst with the passion of her love.
II
It galled Grom's proud heart to find himself now compelled, throughloss 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 treeat 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 thathe was, he forgot no one of his ancient precautions.
They had by this time passed beyond the special haunts of the red bearand the saber-tooth. Twice they had to run before the charge of thegreat wooly rhinoceros, against whose massive hide Grom's spear andclub would have been about as effective as a feather duster. But theyhad fled mockingly, for the clumsy monster was no match for them inspeed. Once, too, they had been treed by a bull urus, a gigantic whitebeast with a seven-foot spread of polished horns.
But his implacable and patient rage they had cunningly evaded bymaking off unseen and unheard, through the upper branches. They cameto earth again half a mile away, and ran on gaily, laughing at thepicture of the furious and foolish beast waiting there at the foot ofthe tree for them to come down. Once a prowling leopard confrontedthem for a moment, only to flee in great leaps before their instantand unhesitating attack. Once a huge bird, nearly nine feet high, andwith a beak over a foot in length, struck at them savagely, with ashrill hissing, through a fringe of reeds, because they hadincautiously come too near its nest. But they killed it, and feastedon its eggs. And so, without further misadventure, they came at lastto the skirts of their own country, and looked once more on therounded, familiar, wind-swept tops of the Little Hills, sacred to thebarrows of their dead.
It was toward sunset, and the long, rosy glow was flooding the littleamphitheater wherein the remnants of the tribe were gathered, whenGrom crossed the brook, and came striding up the slope, with A-yaclose behind him. She had been traveling at his side all through thejourney, but here she respected the etiquette of her tribe, and fellbehind submissively.
Hardly noticing, or not heeding if he noticed that the tribe offeredno vociferous welcome, and seemed sullenly surprised at hisappearance, Grom strode straight to the Chief, whom he saw sitting onthe judgment stone, and threw down spear and club at his feet in signof fealty. But A-ya, following, was keen to note the hostile attitudeof the tribe. Her defiant eyes darted everywhere, and everywhere notedblack looks. She could not understand it, but she divined that therewas some plot afoot against Grom. Her heart swelled with rage, and herdark-maned head went up arrogantly, for she felt as if the strongestand wisest of the tribe were now but children in comparison with herlord. But, though children, they were many, and she closed up behindhim for a guard, grasping more firmly the shaft of her short,serviceable spear. She saw the broad, black, scowling visage of youngMawg, towering over a little group of his kinsfolk, and eyeing herwith mingled greed and rage, and she divined at once that he was atthe back of whatever mischief might be brewing. She answered his lookwith one of mocking scorn, and then turned her attention to the Chief,who was sitting in grim silence, the customary hand of welcomeominously withheld.
A haughty look came over Grom's face, his broad shoulders squaredthemselves, and he met the Chief's eyes sternly.
"I have done the bidding of Bawr the Chief," he said, in a clearvoice, so that all the tribe might hear. "I have found a place wherethe tribe may hold themselves secure against all enemies. And I havecome back, as was agreed, to lead the tribe thither before our enemiesdestroy us. I have done great deeds. I have not spared myself. I havecome quickly. I have deserved well of the people. Why has Bawr theChief no welcome for me?"
A murmur arose from the corner where Mawg and his friends weregrouped, but a glance from the Chief silenced it. With his piercinggaze making relentless inquisition of the eyes that answered his sosteadily, he seemed to ponder Grom's words. Slowly the anger fadedfrom his scarred and massy face, for he knew men; and this man, thoughhis most formidable rival in strength and prestige, he instinctivelytrusted.
"You have been accused," said he at length, slowly, "of deserting thetribe in our weakness--"
A puzzled look had come over Grom's face at the word "accused"; thenhis deep eyes blazed, and he broke in upon the Chief's speech withoutceremony.
"Show me my accusers!" he demanded harshly. The Chief waved his handfor silence.
"In our weakness!" he repeated. "But you have returned to us. So I seethat charge was false. Also, you have been accused of stealing thegirl A-ya. But you have brought her back. I see not what more youraccusers have against you."
Grom turned, and, with a quick, decisive motion, drew A-ya to hisside.
"Bawr the Chief knows that I am his servant, and a true man!" said hesternly. "I did not steal the girl. She followed me, and I had nothought of it."
Angry jeers came from Mawg's corner, but Grom smiled coldly, and wenton:
"Not till near evening of the second day, when she was chased bywolves, did she reveal herself to me. And when I understood why shehad come, I looked on her, and I saw that she was very fair and verybrave. And I took her. So that now she is my woman, a
nd I hold to her,Chief! But I will pay you for her whatsoever is just, for you are theChief. And now let Bawr show me my accusers, that I may have done withthem quickly. For I have much to tell."
"Not so, Grom," said the Chief, stretching out his hand. "I amsatisfied that you are a true man. And for the girl, that will wearrange between us later. But I will not confront you with youraccusers, for there shall be no fighting between ourselves when ourwarriors 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 isto be done."
He got up from his seat, an immense and masterful figure, to lead theway to his own cave, where they might talk in private. But Gromhesitated, fearing lest annoyance should befall A-ya if he left heralone 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 thegaping crowd.
"The girl A-ya," said he in his great voice which thundered over theamphitheater, "is Grom's woman. I have spoken."
And he strode off toward his cave door. Grom picked up his club andspear. And the girl, with a haughty indifference she was far fromfeeling, strolled off toward the cave of certain old women, kinsfolkof the Chief.
But as the meaning of the Chief's words penetrated Mawg's dull witshe gave vent to a great bellow of rage, and snatched up a spear tohurl at Grom. Before he could launch it, however, his kinsmen, whohad no wish to bring down upon themselves both Grom's wrath and thatof the Chief, fell upon him and bore down his arm. Raging blindly,Mawg struggled with them, and, having the strength of a bull, he wasnear to wrenching himself free. But other men of the tribe, seeingfrom the Chief's action that their bitterness against Grom hadbeen unjustified, and remembering his past services, ran up andtook a hand in reducing Mawg to submission. For a few seconds Gromlooked on contemptuously; then he turned on his heel and followedthe Chief, as if he did not hold his rival worth a further thought.Mawg struggled to his feet. Grom had disappeared. But his eyes fellon the figure of A-ya, slim and brown and tall, standing in theentrance of the near-by cave. He made as if to rush upon her, but abunch of men stood in the way, plainly ready to stop him. He looked athis kinsmen, but they hung their heads sullenly. Blind with furythough he was, and slow of wit, he could not but see that the tribeas a whole was now against him. Stuttering with his rage, he shoutedto the girl, "You will see me again!" Snatching up his club andspears, he rushed forth from the amphitheater, darted down the slope,and plunged into the thick woods beyond the brook. His kinsmenwithdrew sullenly into their cave, followed by two young women. Andthe rest of the people looked at each other doubtfully, troubled atthis sudden schism in the weakened tribe.
"One more good warrior gone!" muttered an old man through his bush ofmatted white beard.
That night Grom was too wary to sleep, suspecting that his enemy mightreturn and try to snatch the girl from him under the cover of thedark.
He was not attacked or disturbed, however, but just before dawn,against the gray pallor beyond the mouth of the pass, he marked fourshapes slinking forth. As they did not return, he did not think itworth while to raise the alarm. When day came, it was found that twokinsmen of Mawg, with the two young women who were attached to them,had fled to join the deserter in the bush. The Chief, indignant atthis further weakening of the tribe, declared them outlaws, andordered that all--except the women, who were needed as mothers--shouldbe killed as tribal traitors, at sight.
III
As was natural since he was trying to present a totally newconception, with no known analogies save in the lightning and the sun,Grom found it impossible to convey to the Chief's mind any real ideaof the nature of his tremendous discovery. He did succeed, however, inmaking it clear to Bawr that there was a certain mighty Bright One,capable of putting even the saber-tooth and the red bear to instantflight, and that he had somehow managed to subdue this powerful andmysterious being into the service of the tribe. Bawr had examined withdeep musing the strange black bite of the Bright One on Grom's cluband spear. And he realized readily enough that with such an ally thetribe, even in its present state of weakness, would be able to defyany further invasions of the bow-legged beast-men from the east. Therewas a rumor, vague enough but disquieting, of another migration of thebeast-men under way. So there was no time to lose. Bawr gave ordersthat 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 about the fire andGrom's miraculous subjugation of it to his will, had only spreadterror in the tribe. The dread of this unknown Bright One, which wasplainly capable of devouring them all if Grom should lose control ofit, 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, confessedlythe 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 thinkthat the hordes of the Bow-legs were never likely to come that wayagain. 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 preparationfor departure went on as smoothly as if all were of one mind.Packing was no great matter to the People of the Little Hills, therichest of whom could transport all his wealth on the back of thefeeblest of his wives. So it came that before the sun marked noonthe whole tribe was on the march, trailing forth from the neck ofthe amphitheater at the heels of Grom and A-ya, and picking their wayover the bones of their slain enemies which the vultures and thejackals had already polished white. Bawr, the Chief, came last,seeing to it that there were no laggards; and as the tail of thestraggling procession left the pass he climbed swiftly to thenearest pinnacle of rock to take observation. He marked Grom andthe girl, the tribe strung out dejectedly behind them, winding offto 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 eyesto the right. Very far off, in a space of open ground by thebrookside, he marked the movement of confused, living masses, of adull brown on the green. A closer look convinced him that themoving masses were men--new hordes of the beast-men, the gaping-nosedBow-legs.
"Grom is a true man," he muttered, with satisfaction, and went leapinglike a stag down the slope to rejoin the tribe. When news of what hehad seen was passed from mouth to mouth through the tribe every murmurwas hushed, and the sulkiest laggards pushed on feverishly, as ifdreading a rush of the beast-men from every cleft and glade.
The journey proved, for the most part, uneventful. Traveling in acompact mass, only by broad day, their numbers and their air ofconfidence kept the red bear and the saber-tooth, the black lion andthe wolf-pack, from venturing to molest them. By the Chief's ordersthey maintained a noisy chatter, with laughter and shouting, as soonas they felt themselves safely beyond range of the beast-men's ears.For Bawr had observed that even the saber-tooth had a certainuneasiness at the sound of many human voices together. At night--andit was their rule to make camp while the sun was yet several hourshigh--with the aid of their flint spear-heads they would laboriouslycut down the saplings of the long-thorned acacia, and surround thecamp with a barrier which the monsters dared not assail. Even so,however, the nights were trying enough to the stoutest nerves. Halfthe tribe at a time was obliged to stand on guard, and there waslittle sleep to refresh the weariest when the shadows beyond thebarriers were alive with mutterings and prowlings, and terrible,paling, gleaming eyes.
On the fourth day of the journey, however, the tribe met a foe whosedense 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, drippingand mud-streaked from his wallow
in a reedy pool, and came chargingupon the travelers with a roar. No doubt an outcast from the herd, hewas mad with the lust of killing. With shouts of warning and shrieksof fear the tribe scattered in every direction. The nearest warriorshurled their spears as they sprang aside, and several of the weaponswent deep into the monster's flanks, but without checking him. He hadfixed his eyes on one victim, an old man with a conspicuous shock ofsnow-white hair, and him he followed inexorably. The doomed wretchscreamed with despair when he found himself thus hideously selected,and ran, doubling like a rabbit. Just as the monster overtook him hefell, paralyzed with his fright, and one tremendous horn pinned him tothe earth. At this instant the Chief arrived, running up from the rearof the line, and Grom, coming from the front. The Chief, closing infearlessly, swung his club with all his strength across the beast'sfront, blinding one eye, and confusing him for the fraction of amoment. 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, themonster, with a hoarse cough, staggered forward across his victim,fell upon his knees, and slowly sank, while the blood emptied itselfin enormous, smoking jets from the wound.
The incident caused a day's delay in the march; for there was the deadelder to be buried, with heavy stones heaped over his body, accordingto the custom of the tribe, and there was also the meat of the slainbull to be cut up for carrying--a rank food, but sustaining, and notto be despised when one is on a journey with uncertainties ahead. Andthe delay was more than compensated for by the new spirit which nowseized this poor, fugitive remnant of the Tribe of the Little Hills.The speedy and spectacular triumph over a foe so formidable as thegiant bull urus was unanimously accepted as an omen of good fortune.
As they approached the valley whose mouth was guarded by the line ofvolcanic fire, Grom purposely led the tribe by such a path that theyshould get no glimpse of the dancing flames until close upon them.Down behind a long line of woods he led them, with no warning of whatwas to come. Then suddenly around into the open; and there, not ahundred paces distant, was the valley-mouth, and the long, thin lineof flickering scarlet tongues drawn across it.
As the people came in sight of the incomprehensible phenomenon, theystared for a moment, gasping, or uttering low cries; then they fellupon their faces in awe. Grom remained standing, leaning upon hisspear; and A-ya stood with bowed head close behind him. When theChief, shepherding and guarding the rear flanks, emerged around theelbow of woods and saw his people thus prostrate before the shiningwonder, he too was moved to follow their example, for his heart wentcold within him. But not without reason was he Chief, for he couldcontrol himself as well as others. A pallor spread beneath the smokytan of his broad features, but without an instant's hesitation hestrode to the front, and stood like Grom, with unbowed head, leaningcalmly on his great club. His thought was that the Shining One must beindeed a god, and might, indeed, slay him from afar, like thelightning, 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 thevalley, that we may make camp, for there are many great beasts here,and very fierce. And tell them not to approach the Shining One, lesthe smite them, but also not to fear, for he will not come at them."
When the people--trembling, staring with fascinated eyes at thedancing array, and shrinking nervously from the strange warmth--hadall been gathered into the open space between the fire and thethickets, Grom led the Chief up to the flames and hurriedly explainedto him what he had found out as to how they must be managed. Then,leaving him to ponder the miracle, and to experiment, he took A-ya tohelp him build other fires along the edge of the thickets in order tokeep the monsters at bay. And all the while the tribe sat watching,huddled on their haunches, with mouths agape and eyes rolling inamazement.
Bawr the Chief, meanwhile, was revolving many things in his sagaciousbrain, as he alternately lighted and extinguished the little, eatingflames which fixed themselves upon the dry wood when he held it in theblaze. His mind was of a very different order from that of Grom,though, perhaps, not less capacious and capable. Grom was thediscoverer, the initiator, while Bawr was essentially the ruler,concerned to apply all he learned to the extension and securing of hispower. It was his realization of Grom's transparent honesty andindifference to power which made him so free from jealousy of Grom'sprestige. His shrewd perceptions told him that Grom would far rathersee him rule the tribe, so long as he ruled it effectually, than betroubled with the task himself. But there were others in the tribewhom he suspected of being less disinterested--who were capable ofbecoming troublesome if ever he should find his strength failing. Oneof these, in particular, a gigantic, black-browed fellow by the nameof Ne-boo, remotely akin to the deserter Mawg, was now watching himwith eyes more keen and considerate than those of his companions. AsBawr became conscious of this inquiring, crafty gaze, he made a slip,and closed his left hand on a portion of his branch which was stillglowing red. With superb nerve he gave no sign of the hurt. And hethought quickly: he had taken a liberty with the Bright One, and beenbitten by those mysterious, shining teeth which left a scar of black.Well, someone else should be bitten, also. Calmly heating the branchagain till it was a live coal for three-quarters of its length, hecalled the crafty-eyed warrior to him. The man came, uneasy, but fullof interest.
"Take this, and hold it for me," said Bawr, and tossed him the redbrand. With shrinking hands Ne-boo caught it, to drop it instantlywith a yell of pain and terror. It fell, scraping his leg, and hisfoot, and in his fright he threw himself down beside it, begging itnot to smite him again.
"Strange," said Bawr, in a voice for all the tribe to hear, "theShining One will not suffer Ne-boo to touch him." With the air of ahigh 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 lowvoice: "Let none but ourselves attend or touch the Bright One."
Grom, his mind occupied with plans for the settling of the tribe,agreed without asking the reason for this decree. He was thinkingabout getting the tribe housed in the caves which he had noticed inthe steep sides of the valley. He knew well enough that these caveswere the houses of the red bear, the saber-tooth and the bone-crushinghyenas, but, as he explained to the Chief with thrilling elation, theShining One would drive these monsters out, and teach them to keeptheir distance. To Bawr, who had had some experience in his day withthe red bear and the saber-tooth, and who had not yet seen all thatthese dancing tongues of gold and scarlet could do, the enterpriseseemed a formidable one. But he sagaciously 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 thefires, the People of the Little Hills sat or crouched trembling andwondering, while monstrous dim shapes of such bears or tigers as theyhad never imagined in their worst nightmares prowled roaring all aboutthem, held off by nothing more substantial than just those thin anddarting tongues of flame. That the little, bright things could biteterribly they had evidence enough, both in the charred and corrodedwood 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 theTerror with impunity, and the girl A-ya approaching it and serving itfreely, though always with bowed head and every mark of awe.
But what made the deepest, the most ineffaceable impression on theminds of the tribe was to see Grom and the Chief, each waving a pairof dead branches all aflame, charge at a pair of giant saber-toothswho had ventured too near, and drive them scurrying like frightenedsheep into the bush. Repeating the tactics which he had previouslyfound so effective, Grom hurled one of his flaming weapons after thefugitives--an example which the Chief, not to be outshone, followedinstantly. The result was startling. The brands chanced to fall wherethere was a great accumulation of dry wood and twigs and leaves. In amoment, as it seemed, the flames had leapt up into f
ull fury, and werechasing the fugitives up the valley with a roar. In the sudden greatglare could be seen saber-tooths stretching out in panic-strickenflight, burly red bear fleeing with their awkward but deadly swiftgallop, huge hyenas scattering to this side and that, and many furtiveunknown creatures driven into a blind and howling rout. Grom himselfwas as thunderstruck as any one at the amazing result of his action,but his quick wits told him to disguise his astonishment, and bearhimself as if it were exactly what he had planned. The Chief copiedhis attitude with scrupulous precision and unfailing nerve, thoughquite prepared to see the red whirlwind suddenly turn back and blothimself, the audacious Grom, and the whole shuddering tribe from theface of the outraged earth. But no such thing happened. The torrent offlame raged straight up the valley, cutting a path some fifty oddpaces in width, and leaving a track of smoldering, winking, red stemsand stumps behind it. And all the beasts hid themselves in theirterror so that not one of them was seen again that night. As for thePeople of the Little Hills, they were now ready to fall down and putdust in their hair in utter abasement, if either Grom or the Chief somuch as looked at them.
Soon after sunrise the next day, the Chief and Grom, bearing lightedbrands, and followed close by A-ya with a bundle of dry faggots, twigsand grass, took possession of two great caves on the southward-facingslope of the valley. The giant bears which occupied one of them fledignominiously at the first threat of the flames, having been scorchedand thoroughly cowed by the conflagration of the previous night. Theother cave had been already vacated by the hyena pack, which had nostomach to face these throwers of flame. Before the mouth of eachcave, at a safe distance, a fire was lighted--a notice to all thebeasts that their rule was at an end. The whole tribe was set to thegathering of a great store of fuel, which was heaped about the mouthsof the caves as a shield against the weather. Then the people began tosettle themselves in their new home, secure in the faith that not eventhe hordes of the Bow-legs, should they chance that way, would havethe temerity to face their new and terrible protector.
When all was ordered to his satisfaction, the Chief called Grom to hisside. The two stood apart, and watched the tall figure of A-ya movingfrom the one fire to the other, and tending them reverently, as oneperforming a rite. Grom's eyes took on a certain illumination at thesight of her, a look which the Chief had never observed in any man'seyes before. But he thought little of it, for his mind was full ofother matters.
"It is well," said he presently, in a low voice, "that the service andunderstanding of the Bright One should not be allowed to the people,but should be kept strictly to ourselves, and to those whom we shallchoose 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 henceforth worship onlythe Bright One, instead of, as heretofore, the Thunder, and the Wind,and the unknown Spirits, which, after all, as far as I can see, havenever been able to do much either for or against us. But this BrightOne is a real god, such as we can be sure of. And you and I shall behis priests. And only we shall be allowed to understand him."
"That is good," agreed Grom, whose brain was busy devising other waysof 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.
"Either the girl must die," said he, eyeing Grom's face, "or she mustbe a priest along with us."
"I think she will be a very good priest," said Grom drily, his eyesresting upon her.
Then the Chief, ascending a rock between the two fires, spoke to thepeople, and decreed as he had said. He told a little about the ShiningOne, just so much as he thought it good for his hearers to know. Hedeclared that the ones he had chosen for the great honor of servingthe fires must tend them by turns, night and day, and guard them withtheir lives; for that, if one or the other should be suffered to dieout, some great disaster would assuredly come upon the tribe.
"And henceforth," he concluded, "you shall not be called the People ofthe Little Hills; for these ridges, indeed, are not such hills asthose whose bald and windy tops are keeping the bones of our fathers.But you shall be known and feared greatly by our enemies as 'TheChildren of the Shining One,' under whose protection I declare you."
In the Morning of Time Page 4
