Caves That Time Forgot

by Gilbert L. Morris

  “Don’t listen to him, Chief,” Dave said desperately. “The Dark Lord—he’s out there in our world too, and he always brings death and terror. But the way of Goél brings peace and light.”

  “Show us Goél,” Clag demanded.

  “Well,” Dave said lamely, “we can’t do that. But he’s always nearby, and he’s good.” But he saw the chief’s eyes were on the witch doctor, and he knew that he had failed.

  8

  Sarah’s Admirer

  Dave was working with Beno on a secret project. He did not tell any of the Sleepers what they were doing, but every day he managed to get to the small cave Beno used for a workshop.

  Today, as usual, Beno beamed up at him. “What you make today?”

  Dave thought for a moment, then said, “You and I are going to make something that will turn the world upside down. This world, anyway.”

  Beno stared at him. “We stand on head?”

  Dave laughed. “No, no. I have an idea, but I’ll need your help.”

  Beno nodded eagerly. “Yes, Beno help. You show.”

  Dave pulled a pencil and a small piece of paper from his pocket and began sketching.

  Beno seemed fascinated. He watched carefully, and, when Dave had finished, he looked at the paper. “You want Beno make this?”

  “Yes, exactly that size. Can you do it?”

  Beno shrugged. “I make. Easy.” He looked again at the sketch. “What it for?”

  “It’s called an arrowhead. Don’t tell anybody. I want it to be a surprise, but I’ll show you how it works. You put this on one end of a straight, round stick. Then you put feathers on the other end. It’s called an arrow.”

  “How long stick?”

  Dave spread his hands to show him.

  “Not big enough for spear. Ax head too little.”

  “It’s not an ax head—it’s an arrow. Look, what we’ll do is—I’ll go find the right kind of wood and cut a piece of it—whittle it down. Then we’ll tie it like this.” He sketched carefully. “When you put the back of the arrow on this piece of vine and pull it back and let go, it goes through the air. It flies. You can be far away from something and kill it without getting close.” He took some time to explain the principle, and then Beno brightened. “That be good! You make bow. I make arrowhead.”

  Dave clapped him on the shoulder. “Make as many as you can while I do the rest of it.”

  He left Beno’s work cave and spent the rest of the morning searching for wood that would do for a bow. He had been interested in archery back in Oldworld. He had even made a bow or two. I’ll make do, he said to himself. This invention will turn this whole tribe around!

  He gathered enough wood to make several shafts and wondered what he would use for feathers. “We’ll just have to trap some birds. There’s plenty of them around.” He glanced up even then and saw the leathery form of a pterodactyl flapping lazily across the sky. “No feathers on that thing!” He grinned. “Looks like maybe he’d be good to make a catcher’s mitt.”

  He returned to the big cave, piled the sticks in the little corner reserved for himself, and covered them with his blanket. Everyone else was out, so he grew curious and went to find them.

  He heard shouting coming from far off and followed the sound until he found Reb riding Pretty Boy, as usual. The sight always entertained the tribespeople and amused the seven Sleepers as well.

  Reb drew Pretty Boy to a halt, pulled his Stetson off, and waved it. “Hey, Dave! You want to ride?”

  “I guess not,” Dave called back with a smile. “I had a hard enough time staying on a horse and—”

  Just then a woman screamed.

  Dave looked up to see a terrible sight. A ferocious-looking dinosaur was emerging from the trees!

  He had always thought dinosaurs were huge, ponderous beasts. This one seemed not much more than six feet tall, but it had frightful-looking spurs on the back of its feet that could rip open the toughest hide. It also had fierce, sharp teeth.

  The men grabbed their clubs and positioned themselves, Clag at the point and Lom beside him. The women and children ran screaming up the path toward the cave.

  Dave wanted to join them but was ashamed to. He saw that Josh had picked up a club from somewhere and was advancing to stand beside Lom.

  I can’t let Josh do it without me! Not seeing a club, he seized a rock and took his place in the line. Clag looked over at him and nodded, but his face was serious. Dave knew the chief had had experience with these swift beasts before.

  The dinosaur plowed into the line, bowling over Clag and narrowly missing him with one of its vicious spurs. Lom swung his ax mightily and caught the brute on the side of the neck.

  The blow stopped the creature for a moment, but then the snakelike head whirled around toward Lom. It was only because several members of the tribe were hacking at the reptile that Lom did not receive the terrible claws in his chest.

  The battle raged on. Several men were down with gaping wounds. Others continued wielding their axes. Reb picked up a stout pole and brought it down with both hands over the animal’s back.

  But at last the collective assault won out, and Clag struck the beast a final blow on the head. With a groan the dinosaur slowly collapsed.

  Dave looked around at the wounded men. “It’s a good thing there weren’t two dinosaurs,” he said.

  Clag gave a nod of agreement.

  Lom was breathing hard. All he said was, “We eat tonight.”

  For the next two hours the men were busy hauling the dinosaur carcass back to the cave, looking over their shoulders constantly for a mate. As usual, they butchered the creature immediately and made preparations for a feast.

  Several men were cut up badly, and Sarah cleansed many wounds. One of those she treated was the hunter Raddy—the one who followed her around and stared at her curiously.

  The fire burned high in the cave that night. The smell of burned meat was in the air. Dave was sitting close to his blanket, thinking how to best make the bow and the arrows, when Raddy walked over to him.

  Raddy was a short, squat individual with quick, dark eyes and a mass of black hair that fell continually over those eyes. “You, Chief, I talk you.”

  Dave blinked in surprise. Chief? The idea seemed strange, and yet had not Goél put him in charge? He said, “What is it, Raddy?”

  Raddy grinned. He was missing several teeth, which gave him a rather comical appearance. He nodded toward Sarah and said, “Me have her.”

  “What do you mean, you ‘have her’?”

  “Raddy no have mate. He take her.”

  Reb covered a broad grin with his hand and shook with silent laughter.

  Dave noticed but knew this was no laughing matter. “Raddy, we don’t do things like that where we come from.” He tried to explain that it was impossible for Sarah to become his mate.

  But Raddy was determined. “Raddy good hunter. Make good mate,” he insisted.

  Dave felt the eyes of the chief on him. “Clag, you understand that as a chief I can do some things but not other things.”

  “Give him girl,” Clag said. “He good man.”

  Dave cleared his throat but shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, but we can’t do that.”

  Raddy continued to argue but finally grew sullen and walked away, kicking at a rock as he went. He sat down across the cave, his back against the wall, and glowered at Dave.

  “You’re not making many friends, are you, Dave?” Jake said. “What if he insists on it?”

  “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Jake!” Sarah said quickly. “It’s just silly.”

  “Not to him it isn’t.” Jake shrugged. “I guess he’s paid you a pretty high compliment, Sarah.”

  “We’ve got to be careful,” Josh said. “Can’t think of any way to get in a bigger mess than to get mixed up with a thing like this. You’ll have to make it clear to him, Dave.”

  Dave was edgy and snapped back. “I suppose you could do better!”

  Jos
h put up his hands. “I wasn’t criticizing, but you can see how serious it is.”

  But Dave grew withdrawn and moody.

  The next morning, he took his knife and his wood and went out to a place he thought was far enough away to work on his bow and arrows.

  He had worked for quite a while when suddenly a noise to his right startled him. He jumped up, gripping the knife. “Who’s that?”

  “Me—Eena.” She stepped from behind a tree and sat down beside him. She looked at his work. “What you make?”

  “Oh, just something I think might help the tribe.”

  That obviously satisfied her. Then she said, “Why you no give Sarah to Raddy? He good hunter.”

  “Well, in our country,” Dave said slowly, “we don’t give people away. What happens is, a young man sees a young woman, and if he likes her—and she likes him— they begin to go places together.”

  “Go what places?”

  Dave thought of the difficulty of explaining a McDonald’s or a movie or a baseball game. “Oh, just to look at pretty things like the trees and the river and—just to be together. After a while, if he likes her enough, he asks her to be his mate. And if she likes him, she says yes.”

  “And then what?”

  “Why, then they become mates. That’s not your way, I know, but that’s the way Sarah’s used to. It wouldn’t be right to her to do it any other way.”

  Dave picked up the knife and began to work on the bow again. It was pleasant sitting there in the sun, and Eena was good company. For two hours he worked, and she questioned him until he had told her what little he knew about courtship.

  “Here,” she said, “the father give woman to man that he like.”

  “What if she doesn’t like him?”

  That possibility seemed not to have occurred to her. She shrugged. After a long silence she said, “I like better your way.”

  Dave finally had the bow in good shape. “I’ve got to find some real strong vines, very strong and very small. Can you show me some, Eena?”

  “Yes, come.”

  Together they collected vines that could be woven to make a bowstring. Then Dave gathered up his things, wrapped them in the piece of cloth he had brought for that purpose, and they headed back toward the cave.

  Josh met them, wearing a strange expression. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

  Dave realized that what he had done didn’t look good, but he would not admit he was wrong. “I’m doing something very important,” he said. “I needed Eena to help me.”

  Josh looked at him even more severely. “What are you making? What’s going on?”

  Dave hesitated, then said, “I’m making a bow and arrows. See!” He unfolded the cloth and showed Josh the six-foot-long bow that was practically finished and the shafts for the arrows. “All I need is the arrowheads, and Beno’s making those. And we’ll need some feathers. Then we’ll have something to show the tribe.”

  Josh hesitated. “I don’t know, Dave. It’s not always a good idea to rush people. Letting them find their own way sometimes may be best.”

  “What do you mean? You didn’t object to showing them how to make bread.”

  “I know, but this could change the whole balance of things in this world. Can you imagine what would happen if one tribe had bows and arrows and the other had only clubs?”

  “We’re just going to use these to hunt.”

  Josh gave him an impatient glance. “How can you guarantee that? You know better, Dave. Just like in Oldworld when countries began arming up with nuclear weapons. Everybody knew that sooner or later somebody would use them.”

  Dave laughed unpleasantly. “Arrows and nuclear weapons—they’re not the same at all.”

  Josh must have known he was wasting his breath. “Maybe having bows and arrows could be a good thing—but it isn’t good for you to be running around through the woods with Eena all day long, and you know that.”

  If Dave had felt a little less guilty, he might have been more ready to accept Josh’s criticism. Now, though, since he knew he was wrong, he said, “Just keep your mouth shut, Josh. I’m the leader on this trek. I followed you when you were the leader. So let’s have no more criticizing. I know what I’m doing.” He turned around and walked off.

  Eena followed him.

  Josh looked up at the sky in despair. “I wish you were here, Goél. I don’t think things are going too well.”

  9

  Dave’s Scheme Backfires

  Lom led the hunters back to the big cave and was met by practically the whole village. When they saw the large, deerlike creature the men carried, a cry of joy went up. “We eat tonight!”

  As the men cut up the game and the fire was building, Lom walked over to Eena. He held up his club and shook it. His dark eyes gleamed. He was clearly filled with pride over the exploit.

  He began to tell her about how he had killed the deer, and soon most of the Sleepers themselves were gathered around with the tribespeople, listening. Lom was a good storyteller and had the group fascinated with his tale.

  “He doesn’t mind bragging, does he?” Dave murmured to Abbie.

  “I guess it’s a big thing. After all, success in hunting’s the biggest thing in a young man’s life in this culture. It’s life or death to them.”

  “I guess so, but it looks like he could just do it and not brag about it.” Dave was scowling, and Abbie looked at him thoughtfully but said nothing more.

  When the fire blazed high, the whole tribe gathered inside the cavern, and once again the Sleepers observed a feast of the cave people. The women, as usual, impaled small portions of meat on sticks, roasted them over the fire, then handed them out to the men.

  Reb pulled his off the stick and juggled it to keep from burning his fingers. Carefully he bit into it but then cried, “Ouch! Burned my tongue off. Sure wish I had a good bit of possum to go with this.”

  “Possum!” Jake said. “How could you eat one of those things? They look like a big rat! I’ll bet they’re greasy too.”

  “Well,” Reb said thoughtfully, “they do slide down pretty good. But I’d sure like to have some. I miss the stuff we used to have—like a Quarter Pounder at McDonald’s maybe.”

  “Now you’re talking!” Jake nodded enthusiastically. “And what wouldn’t I give for a good milkshake from TCBY.”

  The two sat there naming different favorite foods until Josh said, “I wish you two would shut up. You’re making me hungry.”

  “Doesn’t do any good to talk about that anyway,” Dave grumbled. He picked at his meat. “We just have to make the best of what we’ve got.”

  At that point, as usual, there was a time of storytelling. And this evening Lom was the hero of the hunt. He got up and repeated his story, acting it out this time. His strong young body, muscular and lithe, glistened in the firelight as he reenacted the chase.

  Sarah noticed that Lom kept his eyes fixed on Eena, and she leaned over to whisper to Josh. “He’s a fine-looking fellow. He and Eena may be together one of these days.”

  “Well, I feel sorry for Beno,” Josh answered. “Look at him.”

  Sarah looked over at the lame young man, his back against the wall. He sat away from the fire, alone. “He’s a fine-looking guy too. Looks more like a poet than a hunter, though. And he looks lonesome. I think I’ll go over and sit by him.”

  When she sat down beside Beno, he looked at her with surprise. “That was a good story, Beno,” she said. “But he couldn’t have killed that thing without your ax head, could he now?”

  A warm light came into Beno’s brown eyes. But then he looked over sadly at the muscular warrior. “I wish I could hunt,” he said simply.

  Sarah had no answer, but she stayed with Beno, trying to cheer up the young man.

  Meantime Dave grew more and more gloomy. Finally, when Lom sat down, he said to Josh, “I’m going to show them what I’ve got. It’s time this bunch got to be a little bit more scientific.”

  “The bow an
d arrows? I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It could lead to trouble.”

  Dave glared. “Oh, you’re just a worrywart, Josh! It’ll revolutionize this tribe. You’re just old-fashioned.” Then he unwrapped his weapon.

  Holding up the bow and one arrow, he cried out, “Chief, I have a gift for your people!”

  His voice carried throughout the cave, and Clag and all his people looked at him with surprise. Not one of the visitors had ever before taken part in any of the ceremonies at a feast.

  “What this?” Clag demanded.

  “This is a weapon!” Dave lifted up the bow in one hand and the single arrow in the other. “With this you can kill animals from far away.”

  At once Clag showed interest. He stepped forward and peered closely at the bow, but then shook his head. “Too weak. It break.”

  Dave laughed. “No. You don’t hit the animal with it.” He mimicked inflicting a blow as with a club. “I’ll show you tomorrow. We go on a hunt. I’ll kill an animal from as far away as from here to the side of the cave.”

  A murmur went up from the hunters, and there was doubt in every face. On Lom’s face was disgust. “Big talk,” he said.

  Dave glared. “You’ll see. Tomorrow you’ll see.” Then he made the mistake of smiling at Eena and saying, “Princess Eena, tomorrow I’ll bring you a fine meal.”

  She smiled up at him, her face glowing in the firelight.

  Josh glanced at Lom and whispered to Sarah, “That’s two mistakes. He’s making Lom jealous, and that can be downright deadly in this place. Second, I’m not at all sure about teaching them that kind of weaponry. I wish he wouldn’t do it, but he’s stubborn.”

  “It seems he’s gotten that way,” Sarah agreed. “He’s really a sweet boy, but he’s got to do this, I think, to prove himself.” She smiled at Josh. “He’s got a very good leader to beat, Josh.”

  Josh blushed. “This isn’t a popularity contest. I just wish he’d let this thing alone.”

  The next morning the hunters left at dawn.

  Dave said, “Chief, I don’t know how to find game, but if you’ll find me something, I’ll show you how to bring it down without even touching it.”