Caves That Time Forgot

by Gilbert L. Morris

  Dave came back and put his hand on Tor’s shoulder. “Sorry ’bout that, Tor—I did the best I could.”

  “Yes, you did, Dave,” Jake said. “Like a fellow once said, if somebody don’t want to do something, you can’t make him.”

  Lom butchered both the goat and the kid, and the tribe ate.

  Later on, after the meal, Eena came over and sat down close to Dave. “I wish Lom no kill goat.” She sighed. “Now we no have milk for bread.”

  “Don’t worry.” Without thinking, he reached over and patted her hand. “We’ll go catch another goat. I don’t think it’ll be too hard. Then I’ll give it to you. It’ll be yours to do with what you want.”

  Eena looked up at him, and a smile came over her face. Then she looked down at his hand on hers and slowly lay her other hand over his, capturing it. “I like you much,” she said. “You good.”

  Dave felt his face flush. And then he glanced up to see that Lom was watching. He pulled his hand back quickly and tried to laugh. “Where I come from, guys don’t give girls goats as presents—but I guess this is a special kind of place.”

  7

  A Case of Hero Worship

  You know, Wash, it don’t seem like we’ve been here as long as we have,” Reb said. “How long has it been now? Three weeks?”

  Wash looked up from the mass of small vines that he was weaving together. “It seems like longer than that to me. I’m tired of nothing but meat all the time. What I wouldn’t give for a good mess of turnip greens and some corn on the cob!”

  “Yeah, the grub’s not much,” Reb agreed, “but it’s been fun.” He picked up the long vine rope that Wash had woven for him. It was thicker than he liked, but it was good and strong. “Where’d you learn to weave stuff like this?”

  “I don’t know.” Wash shrugged. “We always made stuff like this where I come from—baskets and things like that.”

  Jake looked at what Wash was doing. “Do you think that thing will work?”

  Wash looked up at him with indignation. “When I make a thing,” he said firmly, “it works.”

  “Well, I don’t see how you could ever catch a fish in that, but I sure could use a good plateful of nice, fresh fish.”

  Wash stood and picked up one end of the affair he had been working on. “It’s real easy,” he said. He held it up and demonstrated as he talked. “You see, this is the big part of the net—the main part of the trap. Up here—” he pointed “—you got a little opening with a kind of a tunnel, getting smaller as it goes in. What happens is, you put some bait in there. The fish go in this little tunnel and get the bait, but they ain’t got sense enough to get out such a small opening. So they just swim around. You pull up the trap, and that’s it!” He looked at Jake and Reb scornfully. “I thought everybody knew how to make a fish trap.”

  “Well, not everybody can do that, and not everybody can lasso like I can.” Reb grinned. “Let’s go try the thing.”

  The three boys passed Chief Clag, sitting with his back against a tree. “Chief,” Wash said, “I’m going to show you how to catch a fish.”

  Clag looked up and smiled. “You always show something.”

  But he looked at the mass of vines curiously. He had shown interest in the projects of the young people. Most of them he approved of since they made life easier. Now he looked at the object that the small black boy held and shook his head. “Fish good. Hard to catch.”

  As a matter of fact, the tribe had almost no method for catching fish although the river was full of them. The Sleepers had no more wire for hooks, and Wash had come up with the idea of a fish trap.

  Clag got to his feet and wandered down to the stream with the boys. As they walked, he examined the braided vine rope in Reb’s hands. “What that?”

  “I’ll show you.” He made a loop with the vine rope and said, “Jake, make a run for it.”

  Jake grinned and took off running. When he was ten feet away, Reb expertly tossed the loop. It sailed through the air and fell over Jake. He pulled it tight, bringing up the boy to a dead halt. “That’s what it’s for,” he said.

  Clag looked amused but said, “Why you want catch boy?”

  “I don’t know.” Reb shrugged. “We used to catch cows.” Then a thought came to him, and he said, “I bet I could catch one of those wild deer—or maybe even a goat.”

  The idea interested Clag, and Reb talked about the possibilities until they got to the river. There Reb and the chief sat down to watch as Wash put a bit of meat inside the trap. He tied a long, strong vine rope to the end of the trap and said, “I’ve found us a good deep spot. There’s bound to be fish down there.”

  He put a rock in the bottom of the trap and tossed it into the water, where it sank at once. Then he tied the free end of the vine rope to a branch. “Pretty soon we’ll catch us a fish, I bet.”

  While they waited, Reb was interested in Clag’s weapon—the stone ax. It was the only kind of weapon The People had. “You know, Chief. I’ve been thinking about a better kind of weapon for you.”

  “Better than ax?”

  “Well, in some ways. I’m surprised nobody’s thought of it. It’s called a spear.” He explained how a spear works, and Clag at once saw the advantage of it.

  “We get Beno make stone for end.” He nodded, and a light of unexpected humor gleamed in his face. He was a very intelligent man, Reb had found, although tremendously superstitious. “Better stand off far and kill tiger than get close with ax. Get hurt that way.”

  “You mean to tell me you’ve killed a tiger with that ax of yours!” Jake exclaimed.

  Clag pulled aside his fur garment, and they saw a wicked, ragged scar down his side. “Big tiger. Almost kill me, but I get him.”

  “Wow,” said Wash almost reverently. “Think of that—a tiger with a stone ax.”

  They sat beside the stream talking until, about an hour later, Wash said, “I think I’ll see if we’ve got anything.” He untied the vine and started pulling in the fish trap. “It’s heavy!” he yelled. “And I feel it move. Come and give me a hand.”

  Clag leaped to help and began to pull on the vine. His powerful muscles rolled, and soon the trap was up. Inside were the silver bodies of fish thrashing wildly, and Clag let out a yell. “Fish!” he screamed. He pulled the basket to shore and stood staring at it. He looked at Wash as if the boy were a magician. “How you know this?”

  “Oh, it’s something we did in our country, Chief. I bet they’re good to eat.”

  “I see.” Clag reached into the trap and pulled out a long fish. To Reb’s horror he opened his mouth and tore off a section of the fish’s body with his teeth. He chomped hard, bones and all, then looked at the boys. “Good!”

  Reb said hastily, “Hey, Chief! I bet I can show you a better way to eat fish.”

  “How?”

  That led to their making their way back up to the cave where Jake managed to teach The People how to cook the fish—in a way. They tried to fry some, but there was no grease, so it was easy to burn them.

  “I guess they’d call these ‘blackened fish,’” Josh said. “They used to eat ’em a lot like that in Louisiana.”

  Dave was picking at his fish carefully. “I wish we had some hushpuppies to go with them.”

  “What hushpuppy?” Eena asked curiously.

  “Oh, just another kind of bread. I’ll show you sometime,” Dave answered quickly.

  After the meal, the Sleepers sat around the fire, and Clag asked questions about where they lived.

  When he finally grew quiet, Dave said, “Chief, tell us something about Greska, the god you serve.”

  But Clag glanced over at Grak, the medicine man, seated against the cave wall, staring, scowling. “You tell,” he said.

  Grak grunted. “Greska strong!” He went ahead to tell how the god Greska could do almost anything.

  When he finished, Dave said, “We serve Goél. He is strong, but he is merciful.” He tried to explain something about mercy and truth and g
entleness.

  Grak snorted. “Bah! Your god weak! Our god strong!”

  “I guess I’m not very good at explaining things,” Dave said afterward. “I wish Goél were here.”

  “I do too,” said Abbie. “I don’t see how we’re ever going to do these people any good. They don’t have any idea at all about treating other people right.”

  “Well, they’ve come up a rough way. It’s kill or be killed around here. We’ll just do the best we can.”

  The next day Josh and the other Sleepers got a surprise. They were down at the river fishing with the fish trap when Jake said, “I wonder where Reb is? He went off a couple of hours ago.”

  “I hope he’s careful. He might run into a T-rex or something else out there,” Sarah muttered. “Those animals give me the willies.”

  “Reb can take care of himself,” Josh said. “He proved that back at Camelot, didn’t he?” He grinned. “I’ll never forget him jousting, knocking those knights off into the dirt. He’s some guy.”

  Sarah was sitting on the grass beside him. She leaned over until her shoulder touched his. “Yes, he is. But he’s not Josh Adams,” she whispered.

  Josh blushed. “Aw, Sarah—!” And then he lifted his head. “What’s that?”

  “Sounds like Reb,” Wash answered. “He’s yelling. Maybe something’s wrong!”

  Josh and the other Sleepers jumped up and ran toward the woods.

  Just then, out from the trees came a sight Josh would never forget. There was Bob Lee Jackson, his light blue eyes fairly blazing, his cowboy hat pulled firmly over his head—riding a dinosaur!

  “Reb!” Dave shouted. “What in the world—”

  But Reb was yelling at the top of his lungs. It was, Josh knew, the old Rebel yell, keen and piercing. And suddenly Reb jerked off his hat and began beating the creature he was riding with it as if he were riding a bucking bronco!

  Jake stared at the beast and said, “That’s a Stegosaurus. At least it’s a lot like one.”

  The dinosaur was not full-grown. When it was, it would be twenty feet high at the shoulder. Now it ambled along on four legs, its long head moving from side to side. Reb had fashioned a bridle of braided vines and put it in its mouth so that he could turn the creature’s head one direction or another. The animal had a long tail with some wicked looking spikes on the end of it.

  “Watch out for the tail,” Reb yelled. “That ain’t no fun to fool with.” He was straddling the upright plates that seemed to protect the creature and was obviously having the time of his life. He yanked back on the harness then, and the creature stopped.

  Reb slipped off, moved quickly to the dinosaur’s head, and put his arm around the long neck. The reptile seemed docile enough, and Reb grinned at his friends, his face alive with excitement. “Ain’t he a caution now?”

  “How’d you get him, Reb?” Dave demanded.

  “Well, there was a whole herd of these things down the way. This little fellow wandered off. I had my rope with me, so I just dropped the noose over him. He didn’t fight at all. Matter of fact, I think he likes me.” He pulled down a tree branch and held out the tender leaves to the animal. “I call him ‘Pretty Boy’ He’s not a bronco, but he’s the closest thing to it.”

  “When he grows up, you won’t be able to handle him,” Josh said.

  “I know, but maybe we can have some fun till then.”

  “Hey! You know what?” Wash said. “I bet we could rig up a plow.” He looked at the dinosaur’s huge legs. “And I bet he could pull one.”

  “Pull a plow? This ain’t no mule. Are you, Pretty Boy?” Reb stroked the smooth nose, and the animal turned his head toward him, seeming to recognize his voice.

  And then the Sleepers were suddenly surrounded. When they heard Reb’s scream, The People must have hidden in the recesses of the big cave. Now they came down, and the men gathered around the dinosaur.

  It was Lom who said, “Good, we eat tonight.”

  But Reb turned and planted his feet. “Not on your life, Lom. I caught Pretty Boy. He’s mine.”

  Lom glared. “We eat!”

  An argument took place, and it looked as though the two would fight until Clag said, “No, he catch. It his.”

  Lom glared again at Reb and stalked off angrily.

  “Looks like Lom’s gonna be hard to get along with,” Reb said with regret. “And that’s too bad. He’s a nice fellow. He’s just one of those that has to prove how tough they are every morning.”

  At mid-morning, after the hunters had gone out to hunt game, Dave decided to try to catch more fish. The other boys had gone with the hunters, so he was alone. As he picked up the trap and started for the river, Eena said, “I go with you.”

  “Sure, come along.”

  But Sarah drew Dave off to one side. “Dave, don’t you think you’re spending too much time with that girl? In the first place, you’re going to make Lom more angry. In the second place … well … it’s just not smart for you to be seeing so much of her.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  Sarah’s face grew thoughtful. “These people are simple, Dave. You know that. Eena’s almost old enough to take a mate. That’s what she’s thinking of, and you know that can’t be you. It may be Lom. But what if she falls in love with you?”

  Dave shook his head. “Oh, that’s crazy, Sarah. You’re just too romantic! I’m just going fishing, and she’s going with me. That’s all there is to it.”

  “Dave, you’re the leader,” Sarah said evenly, her face very serious. “It’s up to you to show wisdom and be careful about how things look. Do you think it’s wise to give that girl encouragement?”

  But Dave was angered by her words. “You take care of your business, Sarah. I’ll take care of mine.” He turned and said, “Come on, Eena.”

  As the two of them walked off toward the river, Eena asked, “Why you yell at Sarah?”

  “Oh, she just has funny ideas.” Dave grinned. “Women are like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Why, they’re—they’re just funny, that’s all. With a guy I always know where I am. But girls, they’ve got romantic ideas.”

  “What ‘romantic’?”

  Dave set out on a long-winded explanation.

  When he had finally finished explaining romance and courtship, Eena seemed intrigued. “Where you come from, males bring presents to females?”

  “Sure. Flowers and candy and stuff.”

  “What ‘candy’ and what ‘stuff’?”

  Dave laughed. “Well, that’ll take some explaining. Let’s get to fishing.”

  When they got to the river they found that the heavy rains of the night before had turned the placid stream into a swift-flowing torrent. White water was everywhere.

  “I doubt if we’ll catch anything,” Dave said. “The river’s too high. But we’ll try.”

  He baited the net, threw it into the water, and then sat back to wait. The sun was warm, and he dozed off.

  He woke up hearing screams. He sprang to his feet and saw that Eena—had she gone to look at the fish trap?—had fallen into the river.

  “Eena!” he yelled.

  She was being carried off by the swift water, and it was obvious she couldn’t swim.

  Dave kicked off his shoes and took a running dive. The raging water grabbed him, but he was a strong swimmer. He reached Eena, and she clutched at him and pulled him under. He broke her hold, turned her around, kicked to the surface. Holding her head high, he said, “Don’t fight me, Eena. I’ve got you!”

  He dragged her to shore, and the two sat on the riverbank, gasping. She was spitting and coughing but was finally able to say, “I die in river, if you no pull out.”

  “Well, I was a lifeguard at a summer camp …”

  Eena put her hand on his. There were few words in the language of the tribe to express gratitude, but apparently she had heard the Sleepers from time to time say something when they received a favor. Now she leaned toward him and said
, “Thank you.”

  Eena’s face was close to his. She was a very attractive girl. Dave blushed and said, “Oh, that’s all right, Eena. I’m glad I was around. You’ll have to be more careful though. Stay away from the river when it’s high like that.”

  “You good, Dave.”

  Dave was flattered by her attentions, but he knew better than to get in deeper. Jumping up, he pulled her to her feet. “Well, no fish today. Let’s go back.”

  When they returned to camp, Dave said nothing of the incident, but Eena began telling everybody how he had pulled her out of the river and saved her life.

  Reb, who had been riding around on Pretty Boy, teaching him a trick or two, grinned and said, “You’re just a hero, ain’t you, Dave? Trust you to find a pretty girl and save her life. Never seen you to fail.”

  Lom, of course, heard the story.

  That night, as Dave was speaking to Eena, the young warrior confronted him. “You stay away from Eena.” Without warning he doubled up his fist and hit Dave squarely on the jaw. Dave fell flat on his back. Lom stood glowering over him and said, “You fight for her.”

  Dave saw that the chief was watching. His eyes swept around, and he saw that his friends too were waiting to see what he would do. They knew him to have a hot temper, and now they expected him to jump up and fight Lom.

  Instead, he got up slowly and shook his head. “No, we didn’t come to fight you, Lom,” he said seriously. “We came because Goél wants you to have a better life.”

  At that the witch doctor shouted, “No! Last night I have dream.” He began going into what seemed to be a fit. His shoulders shook, and his face twisted. “In darkness, someone come. Strong. Mighty. He say we no follow Goél. He say Goél weak. We no listen to strangers. We follow Dark Lord.”

  At the words “Dark Lord,” all the Sleepers stiffened.

  Dave heard Josh murmur to Sarah. “The Dark Lord! Somehow he’s here—even in this place!”

  “I’m afraid, Josh,” Sarah said. “We know what he can do. He can lead these people into disaster.”

  The wrinkled witch doctor screamed and worked himself into a frenzy. At last he stopped before the chief and said, “We no follow Goél—we follow Greska.”