Tales of Space and Time

Tales of Space and Time Page 5

by H. G. Wells

  A STORY OF THE STONE AGE

  I--UGH-LOMI AND UYA

  This story is of a time beyond the memory of man, before the beginningof history, a time when one might have walked dryshod from France (as wecall it now) to England, and when a broad and sluggish Thames flowedthrough its marshes to meet its father Rhine, flowing through a wide andlevel country that is under water in these latter days, and which weknow by the name of the North Sea. In that remote age the valley whichruns along the foot of the Downs did not exist, and the south of Surreywas a range of hills, fir-clad on the middle slopes, and snow-capped forthe better part of the year. The cores of its summits still remain asLeith Hill, and Pitch Hill, and Hindhead. On the lower slopes of therange, below the grassy spaces where the wild horses grazed, wereforests of yew and sweet-chestnut and elm, and the thickets and darkplaces hid the grizzly bear and the hyaena, and the grey apes clamberedthrough the branches. And still lower amidst the woodland and marsh andopen grass along the Wey did this little drama play itself out to theend that I have to tell. Fifty thousand years ago it was, fifty thousandyears--if the reckoning of geologists is correct.

  And in those days the spring-time was as joyful as it is now, and sentthe blood coursing in just the same fashion. The afternoon sky was bluewith piled white clouds sailing through it, and the southwest wind camelike a soft caress. The new-come swallows drove to and fro. The reachesof the river were spangled with white ranunculus, the marshy places werestarred with lady's-smock and lit with marsh-mallow wherever theregiments of the sedges lowered their swords, and the northward-movinghippopotami, shiny black monsters, sporting clumsily, came flounderingand blundering through it all, rejoicing dimly and possessed with oneclear idea, to splash the river muddy.

  Up the river and well in sight of the hippopotami, a number of littlebuff-coloured animals dabbled in the water. There was no fear, norivalry, and no enmity between them and the hippopotami. As the greatbulks came crashing through the reeds and smashed the mirror of thewater into silvery splashes, these little creatures shouted andgesticulated with glee. It was the surest sign of high spring. "Boloo!"they cried. "Baayah. Boloo!" They were the children of the men folk, thesmoke of whose encampment rose from the knoll at the river's bend.Wild-eyed youngsters they were, with matted hair and little broad-nosedimpish faces, covered (as some children are covered even nowadays) witha delicate down of hair. They were narrow in the loins and long in thearms. And their ears had no lobes, and had little pointed tips, a thingthat still, in rare instances, survives. Stark-naked vivid littlegipsies, as active as monkeys and as full of chatter, though a littlewanting in words.

  Their elders were hidden from the wallowing hippopotami by the crest ofthe knoll. The human squatting-place was a trampled area among the deadbrown fronds of Royal Fern, through which the crosiers of this year'sgrowth were unrolling to the light and warmth. The fire was asmouldering heap of char, light grey and black, replenished by the oldwomen from time to time with brown leaves. Most of the men wereasleep--they slept sitting with their foreheads on their knees. They hadkilled that morning a good quarry, enough for all, a deer that had beenwounded by hunting dogs; so that there had been no quarrelling amongthem, and some of the women were still gnawing the bones that layscattered about. Others were making a heap of leaves and sticks to feedBrother Fire when the darkness came again, that he might grow strong andtall therewith, and guard them against the beasts. And two were pilingflints that they brought, an armful at a time, from the bend of theriver where the children were at play.

  None of these buff-skinned savages were clothed, but some wore abouttheir hips rude girdles of adder-skin or crackling undressed hide, fromwhich depended little bags, not made, but torn from the paws of beasts,and carrying the rudely-dressed flints that were men's chief weapons andtools. And one woman, the mate of Uya the Cunning Man, wore a wonderfulnecklace of perforated fossils--that others had worn before her. Besidesome of the sleeping men lay the big antlers of the elk, with the tineschipped to sharp edges, and long sticks, hacked at the ends with flintsinto sharp points. There was little else save these things and thesmouldering fire to mark these human beings off from the wild animalsthat ranged the country. But Uya the Cunning did not sleep, but sat witha bone in his hand and scraped busily thereon with a flint, a thing noanimal would do. He was the oldest man in the tribe, beetle-browed,prognathous, lank-armed; he had a beard and his cheeks were hairy, andhis chest and arms were black with thick hair. And by virtue both of hisstrength and cunning he was master of the tribe, and his share wasalways the most and the best.

  Eudena had hidden herself among the alders, because she was afraid ofUya. She was still a girl, and her eyes were bright and her smilepleasant to see. He had given her a piece of the liver, a man's piece,and a wonderful treat for a girl to get; but as she took it the otherwoman with the necklace had looked at her, an evil glance, and Ugh-lomihad made a noise in his throat. At that, Uya had looked at him long andsteadfastly, and Ugh-lomi's face had fallen. And then Uya had looked ather. She was frightened and she had stolen away, while the feeding wasstill going on, and Uya was busy with the marrow of a bone. Afterwardshe had wandered about as if looking for her. And now she crouched amongthe alders, wondering mightily what Uya might be doing with the flintand the bone. And Ugh-lomi was not to be seen.

  Presently a squirrel came leaping through the alders, and she lay soquiet the little man was within six feet of her before he saw her.Whereupon he dashed up a stem in a hurry and began to chatter and scoldher. "What are you doing here," he asked, "away from the other menbeasts?" "Peace," said Eudena, but he only chattered more, and then shebegan to break off the little black cones to throw at him. He dodged anddefied her, and she grew excited and rose up to throw better, and thenshe saw Uya coming down the knoll. He had seen the movement of her palearm amidst the thicket--he was very keen-eyed.

  At that she forgot the squirrel and set off through the alders and reedsas fast as she could go. She did not care where she went so long as sheescaped Uya. She splashed nearly knee-deep through a swampy place, andsaw in front of her a slope of ferns--growing more slender and green asthey passed up out of the light into the shade of the young chestnuts.She was soon amidst the trees--she was very fleet of foot, and she ranon and on until the forest was old and the vales great, and the vinesabout their stems where the light came were thick as young trees, andthe ropes of ivy stout and tight. On she went, and she doubled anddoubled again, and then at last lay down amidst some ferns in a hollowplace near a thicket, and listened with her heart beating in her ears.

  She heard footsteps presently rustling among the dead leaves, far off,and they died away and everything was still again, except thescandalising of the midges--for the evening was drawing on--and theincessant whisper of the leaves. She laughed silently to think thecunning Uya should go by her. She was not frightened. Sometimes, playingwith the other girls and lads, she had fled into the wood, though neverso far as this. It was pleasant to be hidden and alone.

  She lay a long time there, glad of her escape, and then she sat uplistening.

  It was a rapid pattering growing louder and coming towards her, and in alittle while she could hear grunting noises and the snapping of twigs.It was a drove of lean grisly wild swine. She turned about her, for aboar is an ill fellow to pass too closely, on account of the sidewayslash of his tusks, and she made off slantingly through the trees. Butthe patter came nearer, they were not feeding as they wandered, butgoing fast--or else they would not overtake her--and she caught the limbof a tree, swung on to it, and ran up the stem with something of theagility of a monkey.

  Down below the sharp bristling backs of the swine were already passingwhen she looked. And she knew the short, sharp grunts they made meantfear. What were they afraid of? A man? They were in a great hurry forjust a man.

  And then, so suddenly it made her grip on the branch tighteninvoluntarily, a fawn started in the brake and rushed after the swine.Something else went by, low and grey, with a long body; she
did not knowwhat it was, indeed she saw it only momentarily through the intersticesof the young leaves; and then there came a pause.

  She remained stiff and expectant, as rigid almost as though she was apart of the tree she clung to, peering down.

  Then, far away among the trees, clear for a moment, then hidden, thenvisible knee-deep in ferns, then gone again, ran a man. She knew it wasyoung Ugh-lomi by the fair colour of his hair, and there was red uponhis face. Somehow his frantic flight and that scarlet mark made her feelsick. And then nearer, running heavily and breathing hard, came anotherman. At first she could not see, and then she saw, foreshortened andclear to her, Uya, running with great strides and his eyes staring. Hewas not going after Ugh-lomi. His face was white. It was Uya--_afraid_!He passed, and was still loud hearing, when something else, somethinglarge and with grizzled fur, swinging along with soft swift strides,came rushing in pursuit of him.

  Eudena suddenly became rigid, ceased to breathe, her clutch convulsive,and her eyes starting.

  She had never seen the thing before, she did not even see him clearlynow, but she knew at once it was the Terror of the Woodshade. His namewas a legend, the children would frighten one another, frighten eventhemselves with his name, and run screaming to the squatting-place. Noman had ever killed any of his kind. Even the mighty mammoth feared hisanger. It was the grizzly bear, the lord of the world as the world wentthen.

  As he ran he made a continuous growling grumble. "Men in my very lair!Fighting and blood. At the very mouth of my lair. Men, men, men.Fighting and blood." For he was the lord of the wood and of the caves.

  Long after he had passed she remained, a girl of stone, staring downthrough the branches. All her power of action had gone from her. Shegripped by instinct with hands and knees and feet. It was some timebefore she could think, and then only one thing was clear in her mind,that the Terror was between her and the tribe--that it would beimpossible to descend.

  Presently when her fear was a little abated she clambered into a morecomfortable position, where a great branch forked. The trees rose abouther, so that she could see nothing of Brother Fire, who is black by day.Birds began to stir, and things that had gone into hiding for fear ofher movements crept out....

  After a time the taller branches flamed out at the touch of the sunset.High overhead the rooks, who were wiser than men, went cawing home totheir squatting-places among the elms. Looking down, things were clearerand darker. Eudena thought of going back to the squatting-place; she letherself down some way, and then the fear of the Terror of the Woodshadecame again. While she hesitated a rabbit squealed dismally, and shedared not descend farther.

  The shadows gathered, and the deeps of the forest began stirring. Eudenawent up the tree again to be nearer the light. Down below the shadowscame out of their hiding-places and walked abroad. Overhead the bluedeepened. A dreadful stillness came, and then the leaves beganwhispering.

  Eudena shivered and thought of Brother Fire.

  The shadows now were gathering in the trees, they sat on the branchesand watched her. Branches and leaves were turned to ominous, quiet blackshapes that would spring on her if she stirred. Then the white owl,flitting silently, came ghostly through the shades. Darker grew theworld and darker, until the leaves and twigs against the sky were black,and the ground was hidden.

  She remained there all night, an age-long vigil, straining her ears forthe things that went on below in the darkness, and keeping motionlesslest some stealthy beast should discover her. Man in those days wasnever alone in the dark, save for such rare accidents as this. Age afterage he had learnt the lesson of its terror--a lesson we poor children ofhis have nowadays painfully to unlearn. Eudena, though in age a woman,was in heart like a little child. She kept as still, poor little animal,as a hare before it is started.

  The stars gathered and watched her--her one grain of comfort. In onebright one she fancied there was something like Ugh-lomi. Then shefancied it _was_ Ugh-lomi. And near him, red and duller, was Uya, and asthe night passed Ugh-lomi fled before him up the sky.

  She tried to see Brother Fire, who guarded the squatting-place frombeasts, but he was not in sight. And far away she heard the mammothstrumpeting as they went down to the drinking-place, and once some hugebulk with heavy paces hurried along, making a noise like a calf, butwhat it was she could not see. But she thought from the voice it wasYaaa the rhinoceros, who stabs with his nose, goes always alone, andrages without cause.

  At last the little stars began to hide, and then the larger ones. It waslike all the animals vanishing before the Terror. The Sun was coming,lord of the sky, as the grizzly was lord of the forest. Eudena wonderedwhat would happen if one star stayed behind. And then the sky paled tothe dawn.

  When the daylight came the fear of lurking things passed, and she coulddescend. She was stiff, but not so stiff as you would have been, dearyoung lady (by virtue of your upbringing), and as she had not beentrained to eat at least once in three hours, but instead had oftenfasted three days, she did not feel uncomfortably hungry. She crept downthe tree very cautiously, and went her way stealthily through the wood,and not a squirrel sprang or deer started but the terror of the grizzlybear froze her marrow.

  Her desire was now to find her people again. Her dread of Uya theCunning was consumed by a greater dread of loneliness. But she had losther direction. She had run heedlessly overnight, and she could not tellwhether the squatting-place was sunward or where it lay. Ever and againshe stopped and listened, and at last, very far away, she heard ameasured chinking. It was so faint even in the morning stillness thatshe could tell it must be far away. But she knew the sound was that of aman sharpening a flint.

  Presently the trees began to thin out, and then came a regiment ofnettles barring the way. She turned aside, and then she came to a fallentree that she knew, with a noise of bees about it. And so presently shewas in sight of the knoll, very far off, and the river under it, and thechildren and the hippopotami just as they had been yesterday, and thethin spire of smoke swaying in the morning breeze. Far away by theriver was the cluster of alders where she had hidden. And at the sightof that the fear of Uya returned, and she crept into a thicket ofbracken, out of which a rabbit scuttled, and lay awhile to watch thesquatting-place.

  The men were mostly out of sight, saving Wau, the flint-chopper; and atthat she felt safer. They were away hunting food, no doubt. Some of thewomen, too, were down in the stream, stooping intent, seeking mussels,crayfish, and water-snails, and at the sight of their occupation Eudenafelt hungry. She rose, and ran through the fern, designing to join them.As she went she heard a voice among the bracken calling softly. Shestopped. Then suddenly she heard a rustle behind her, and turning, sawUgh-lomi rising out of the fern. There were streaks of brown blood anddirt on his face, and his eyes were fierce, and the white stone of Uya,the white Fire Stone, that none but Uya dared to touch, was in his hand.In a stride he was beside her, and gripped her arm. He swung her about,and thrust her before him towards the woods. "Uya," he said, and wavedhis arms about. She heard a cry, looked back, and saw all the womenstanding up, and two wading out of the stream. Then came a nearerhowling, and the old woman with the beard, who watched the fire on theknoll, was waving her arms, and Wau, the man who had been chipping theflint, was getting to his feet. The little children too were hurryingand shouting.

  "Come!" said Ugh-lomi, and dragged her by the arm.

  She still did not understand.

  "Uya has called the death word," said Ugh-lomi, and she glanced back atthe screaming curve of figures, and understood.

  Wau and all the women and children were coming towards them, a scatteredarray of buff shock-headed figures, howling, leaping, and crying. Overthe knoll two youths hurried. Down among the ferns to the right came aman, heading them off from the wood. Ugh-lomi left her arm, and the twobegan running side by side, leaping the bracken and stepping clear andwide. Eudena, knowing her fleetness and the fleetness of Ugh-lomi,laughed aloud at the unequal chase. They were an exceptionallys
traight-limbed couple for those days.

  They soon cleared the open, and drew near the wood of chestnut-treesagain--neither afraid now because neither was alone. They slackenedtheir pace, already not excessive. And suddenly Eudena cried and swervedaside, pointing, and looking up through the tree-stems. Ugh-lomi sawthe feet and legs of men running towards him. Eudena was already runningoff at a tangent. And as he too turned to follow her they heard thevoice of Uya coming through the trees, and roaring out his rage at them.

  Then terror came in their hearts, not the terror that numbs, but theterror that makes one silent and swift. They were cut off now on twosides. They were in a sort of corner of pursuit. On the right hand, andnear by them, came the men swift and heavy, with bearded Uya, antler inhand, leading them; and on the left, scattered as one scatters corn,yellow dashes among the fern and grass, ran Wau and the women; and eventhe little children from the shallow had joined the chase. The twoparties converged upon them. Off they went, with Eudena ahead.

  They knew there was no mercy for them. There was no hunting so sweet tothese ancient men as the hunting of men. Once the fierce passion of thechase was lit, the feeble beginnings of humanity in them were thrown tothe winds. And Uya in the night had marked Ugh-lomi with the death word.Ugh-lomi was the day's quarry, the appointed feast.

  They ran straight--it was their only chance--taking whatever ground camein the way--a spread of stinging nettles, an open glade, a clump ofgrass out of which a hyaena fled snarling. Then woods again, longstretches of shady leaf-mould and moss under the green trunks. Then astiff slope, tree-clad, and long vistas of trees, a glade, a succulentgreen area of black mud, a wide open space again, and then a clump oflacerating brambles, with beast tracks through it. Behind them the chasetrailed out and scattered, with Uya ever at their heels. Eudena kept thefirst place, running light and with her breath easy, for Ugh-lomicarried the Fire Stone in his hand.

  It told on his pace--not at first, but after a time. His footstepsbehind her suddenly grew remote. Glancing over her shoulder as theycrossed another open space, Eudena saw that Ugh-lomi was many yardsbehind her, and Uya close upon him, with antler already raised in theair to strike him down. Wau and the others were but just emerging fromthe shadow of the woods.

  Seeing Ugh-lomi in peril, Eudena ran sideways, looking back, threw upher arms and cried aloud, just as the antler flew. And young Ugh-lomi,expecting this and understanding her cry, ducked his head, so that themissile merely struck his scalp lightly, making but a trivial wound, andflew over him. He turned forthwith, the quartzite Fire Stone in bothhands, and hurled it straight at Uya's body as he ran loose from thethrow. Uya shouted, but could not dodge it. It took him under the ribs,heavy and flat, and he reeled and went down without a cry. Ugh-lomicaught up the antler--one tine of it was tipped with his own blood--andcame running on again with a red trickle just coming out of his hair.

  Uya rolled over twice, and lay a moment before he got up, and then hedid not run fast. The colour of his face was changed. Wau overtook him,and then others, and he coughed and laboured in his breath. But he kepton.

  At last the two fugitives gained the bank of the river, where the streamran deep and narrow, and they still had fifty yards in hand of Wau, theforemost pursuer, the man who made the smiting-stones. He carried one, alarge flint, the shape of an oyster and double the size, chipped to achisel edge, in either hand.

  They sprang down the steep bank into the stream, rushed through thewater, swam the deep current in two or three strokes, and came outwading again, dripping and refreshed, to clamber up the farther bank.It was undermined, and with willows growing thickly therefrom, so thatit needed clambering. And while Eudena was still among the silverybranches and Ugh-lomi still in the water--for the antler had encumberedhim--Wau came up against the sky on the opposite bank, and thesmiting-stone, thrown cunningly, took the side of Eudena's knee. Shestruggled to the top and fell.

  They heard the pursuers shout to one another, and Ugh-lomi climbing toher and moving jerkily to mar Wau's aim, felt the second smiting-stonegraze his ear, and heard the water splash below him.

  Then it was Ugh-lomi, the stripling, proved himself to have come toman's estate. For running on, he found Eudena fell behind, limping, andat that he turned, and crying savagely and with a face terrible withsudden wrath and trickling blood, ran swiftly past her back to the bank,whirling the antler round his head. And Eudena kept on, running stoutlystill, though she must needs limp at every step, and the pain wasalready sharp.

  So that Wau, rising over the edge and clutching the straight willowbranches, saw Ugh-lomi towering over him, gigantic against the blue;saw his whole body swing round, and the grip of his hands upon theantler. The edge of the antler came sweeping through the air, and he sawno more. The water under the osiers whirled and eddied and went crimsonsix feet down the stream. Uya following stopped knee-high across thestream, and the man who was swimming turned about.

  The other men who trailed after--they were none of them very mighty men(for Uya was more cunning than strong, brooking no sturdyrivals)--slackened momentarily at the sight of Ugh-lomi standing thereabove the willows, bloody and terrible, between them and the haltinggirl, with the huge antler waving in his hand. It seemed as though hehad gone into the water a youth, and come out of it a man full grown.

  He knew what there was behind him. A broad stretch of grass, and then athicket, and in that Eudena could hide. That was clear in his mind,though his thinking powers were too feeble to see what should happenthereafter. Uya stood knee-deep, undecided and unarmed. His heavy mouthhung open, showing his canine teeth, and he panted heavily. His side wasflushed and bruised under the hair. The other man beside him carried asharpened stick. The rest of the hunters came up one by one to the topof the bank, hairy, long-armed men clutching flints and sticks. Two ranoff along the bank down stream, and then clambered to the water, whereWau had come to the surface struggling weakly. Before they could reachhim he went under again. Two others threatened Ugh-lomi from the bank.

  He answered back, shouts, vague insults, gestures. Then Uya, who hadbeen hesitating, roared with rage, and whirling his fists plunged intothe water. His followers splashed after him.

  Ugh-lomi glanced over his shoulder and found Eudena already vanishedinto the thicket. He would perhaps have waited for Uya, but Uyapreferred to spar in the water below him until the others were besidehim. Human tactics in those days, in all serious fighting, were thetactics of the pack. Prey that turned at bay they gathered around andrushed. Ugh-lomi felt the rush coming, and hurling the antler at Uya,turned about and fled.

  When he halted to look back from the shadow of the thicket, he foundonly three of his pursuers had followed him across the river, and theywere going back again. Uya, with a bleeding mouth, was on the fartherside of the stream again, but lower down, and holding his hand to hisside. The others were in the river dragging something to shore. For atime at least the chase was intermitted.

  Ugh-lomi stood watching for a space, and snarled at the sight of Uya.Then he turned and plunged into the thicket.

  In a minute, Eudena came hastening to join him, and they went on hand inhand. He dimly perceived the pain she suffered from the cut and bruisedknee, and chose the easier ways. But they went on all that day, mileafter mile, through wood and thicket, until at last they came to thechalkland, open grass with rare woods of beech, and the birch growingnear water, and they saw the Wealden mountains nearer, and groups ofhorses grazing together. They went circumspectly, keeping always nearthicket and cover, for this was a strange region--even its ways werestrange. Steadily the ground rose, until the chestnut forests spreadwide and blue below them, and the Thames marshes shone silvery, high andfar. They saw no men, for in those days men were still only just comeinto this part of the world, and were moving but slowly along theriver-ways. Towards evening they came on the river again, but now it ranin a gorge, between high cliffs of white chalk that sometimes overhungit. Down the cliffs was a scrub of birches and there were many birdsthere.
And high up the cliff was a little shelf by a tree, whereon theyclambered to pass the night.

  They had had scarcely any food; it was not the time of year for berries,and they had no time to go aside to snare or waylay. They tramped in ahungry weary silence, gnawing at twigs and leaves. But over the surfaceof the cliffs were a multitude of snails, and in a bush were the freshlylaid eggs of a little bird, and then Ugh-lomi threw at and killed asquirrel in a beech-tree, so that at last they fed well. Ugh-lomiwatched during the night, his chin on his knees; and he heard youngfoxes crying hard by, and the noise of mammoths down the gorge, and thehyaenas yelling and laughing far away. It was chilly, but they dared notlight a fire. Whenever he dozed, his spirit went abroad, and straightwaymet with the spirit of Uya, and they fought. And always Ugh-lomi wasparalysed so that he could not smite nor run, and then he would awakesuddenly. Eudena, too, dreamt evil things of Uya, so that they bothawoke with the fear of him in their hearts, and by the light of the dawnthey saw a woolly rhinoceros go blundering down the valley.

  During the day they caressed one another and were glad of the sunshine,and Eudena's leg was so stiff she sat on the ledge all day. Ugh-lomifound great flints sticking out of the cliff face, greater than any hehad seen, and he dragged some to the ledge and began chipping, so as tobe armed against Uya when he came again. And at one he laughed heartily,and Eudena laughed, and they threw it about in derision. It had a holein it. They stuck their fingers through it, it was very funny indeed.Then they peeped at one another through it. Afterwards, Ugh-lomi gothimself a stick, and thrusting by chance at this foolish flint, thestick went in and stuck there. He had rammed it in too tightly towithdraw it. That was still stranger--scarcely funny, terrible almost,and for a time Ugh-lomi did not greatly care to touch the thing. It wasas if the flint had bit and held with its teeth. But then he gotfamiliar with the odd combination. He swung it about, and perceived thatthe stick with the heavy stone on the end struck a better blow thananything he knew. He went to and fro swinging it, and striking with it;but later he tired of it and threw it aside. In the afternoon he wentup over the brow of the white cliff, and lay watching by a rabbit-warrenuntil the rabbits came out to play. There were no men thereabouts, andthe rabbits were heedless. He threw a smiting-stone he had made and gota kill.

  That night they made a fire from flint sparks and bracken fronds, andtalked and caressed by it. And in their sleep Uya's spirit came again,and suddenly, while Ugh-lomi was trying to fight vainly, the foolishflint on the stick came into his hand, and he struck Uya with it, andbehold! it killed him. But afterwards came other dreams of Uya--forspirits take a lot of killing, and he had to be killed again. Then afterthat the stone would not keep on the stick. He awoke tired and rathergloomy, and was sulky all the forenoon, in spite of Eudena's kindliness,and instead of hunting he sat chipping a sharp edge to the singularflint, and looking strangely at her. Then he bound the perforated flinton to the stick with strips of rabbit skin. And afterwards he walked upand down the ledge, striking with it, and muttering to himself, andthinking of Uya. It felt very fine and heavy in the hand.

  Several days, more than there was any counting in those days, five days,it may be, or six, did Ugh-lomi and Eudena stay on that shelf in thegorge of the river, and they lost all fear of men, and their fire burntredly of a night. And they were very merry together; there was foodevery day, sweet water, and no enemies. Eudena's knee was well in acouple of days, for those ancient savages had quick-healing flesh.Indeed, they were very happy.

  On one of those days Ugh-lomi dropped a chunk of flint over the cliff.He saw it fall, and go bounding across the river bank into the river,and after laughing and thinking it over a little he tried another. Thissmashed a bush of hazel in the most interesting way. They spent all themorning dropping stones from the ledge, and in the afternoon theydiscovered this new and interesting pastime was also possible from thecliffbrow. The next day they had forgotten this delight. Or at least, itseemed they had forgotten.

  But Uya came in dreams to spoil the paradise. Three nights he camefighting Ugh-lomi. In the morning after these dreams Ugh-lomi would walkup and down, threatening him and swinging the axe, and at last came thenight after Ugh-lomi brained the otter, and they had feasted. Uya wenttoo far. Ugh-lomi awoke, scowling under his heavy brows, and he took hisaxe, and extending his hand towards Eudena he bade her wait for himupon the ledge. Then he clambered down the white declivity, glanced uponce from the foot of it and flourished his axe, and without lookingback again went striding along the river bank until the overhangingcliff at the bend hid him.

  Two days and nights did Eudena sit alone by the fire on the ledgewaiting, and in the night the beasts howled over the cliffs and down thevalley, and on the cliff over against her the hunched hyaenas prowledblack against the sky. But no evil thing came near her save fear. Once,far away, she heard the roaring of a lion, following the horses as theycame northward over the grass lands with the spring. All that time shewaited--the waiting that is pain.

  And the third day Ugh-lomi came back, up the river. The plumes of araven were in his hair. The first axe was red-stained, and had long darkhairs upon it, and he carried the necklace that had marked the favouriteof Uya in his hand. He walked in the soft places, giving no heed to histrail. Save a raw cut below his jaw there was not a wound upon him."Uya!" cried Ugh-lomi exultant, and Eudena saw it was well. He put thenecklace on Eudena, and they ate and drank together. And after eating hebegan to rehearse the whole story from the beginning, when Uya had casthis eyes on Eudena, and Uya and Ugh-lomi, fighting in the forest, hadbeen chased by the bear, eking out his scanty words with abundantpantomime, springing to his feet and whirling the stone axe round whenit came to the fighting. The last fight was a mighty one, stamping andshouting, and once a blow at the fire that sent a torrent of sparks upinto the night. And Eudena sat red in the light of the fire, gloating onhim, her face flushed and her eyes shining, and the necklace Uya hadmade about her neck. It was a splendid time, and the stars that lookdown on us looked down on her, our ancestor--who has been dead now thesefifty thousand years.

  II--THE CAVE BEAR

  In the days when Eudena and Ugh-lomi fled from the people of Uya towardsthe fir-clad mountains of the Weald, across the forests of sweetchestnut and the grass-clad chalkland, and hid themselves at last in thegorge of the river between the chalk cliffs, men were few and theirsquatting-places far between. The nearest men to them were those of thetribe, a full day's journey down the river, and up the mountains therewere none. Man was indeed a newcomer to this part of the world in thatancient time, coming slowly along the rivers, generation aftergeneration, from one squatting-place to another, from thesouth-westward. And the animals that held the land, the hippopotamus andrhinoceros of the river valleys, the horses of the grass plains, thedeer and swine of the woods, the grey apes in the branches, the cattleof the uplands, feared him but little--let alone the mammoths in themountains and the elephants that came through the land in thesummer-time out of the south. For why should they fear him, with but therough, chipped flints that he had not learnt to haft and which he threwbut ill, and the poor spear of sharpened wood, as all the weapons he hadagainst hoof and horn, tooth and claw?

  Andoo, the huge cave bear, who lived in the cave up the gorge, had nevereven seen a man in all his wise and respectable life, until midwaythrough one night, as he was prowling down the gorge along the cliffedge, he saw the glare of Eudena's fire upon the ledge, and Eudena redand shining, and Ugh-lomi, with a gigantic shadow mocking him upon thewhite cliff, going to and fro, shaking his mane of hair, and waving theaxe of stone--the first axe of stone--while he chanted of the killingof Uya. The cave bear was far up the gorge, and he saw the thingslanting-ways and far off. He was so surprised he stood quite still uponthe edge, sniffing the novel odour of burning bracken, and wonderingwhether the dawn was coming up in the wrong place.

  He was the lord of the rocks and caves, was the cave bear, as hisslighter brother, the grizzly, was lord of the thick woods below, and
asthe dappled lion--the lion of those days was dappled--was lord of thethorn-thickets, reed-beds, and open plains. He was the greatest of allmeat-eaters; he knew no fear, none preyed on him, and none gave himbattle; only the rhinoceros was beyond his strength. Even the mammothshunned his country. This invasion perplexed him. He noticed these newbeasts were shaped like monkeys, and sparsely hairy like young pigs."Monkey and young pig," said the cave bear. "It might not be so bad. Butthat red thing that jumps, and the black thing jumping with it yonder!Never in my life have I seen such things before!"

  He came slowly along the brow of the cliff towards them, stopping thriceto sniff and peer, and the reek of the fire grew stronger. A couple ofhyaenas also were so intent upon the thing below that Andoo, coming softand easy, was close upon them before they knew of him or he of them.They started guiltily and went lurching off. Coming round in a wheel, ahundred yards off, they began yelling and calling him names to revengethemselves for the start they had had. "Ya-ha!" they cried. "Who can'tgrub his own burrow? Who eats roots like a pig?... Ya-ha!" for even inthose days the hyaena's manners were just as offensive as they are now.

  "Who answers the hyaena?" growled Andoo, peering through the midnightdimness at them, and then going to look at the cliff edge.

  There was Ugh-lomi still telling his story, and the fire getting low,and the scent of the burning hot and strong.

  Andoo stood on the edge of the chalk cliff for some time, shifting hisvast weight from foot to foot, and swaying his head to and fro, with hismouth open, his ears erect and twitching, and the nostrils of his big,black muzzle sniffing. He was very curious, was the cave bear, morecurious than any of the bears that live now, and the flickering fire andthe incomprehensible movements of the man, let alone the intrusion intohis indisputable province, stirred him with a sense of strange newhappenings. He had been after red deer fawn that night, for the cavebear was a miscellaneous hunter, but this quite turned him from thatenterprise.

  "Ya-ha!" yelled the hyaenas behind. "Ya-ha-ha!"

  Peering through the starlight, Andoo saw there were now three or fourgoing to and fro against the grey hillside. "They will hang about me nowall the night ... until I kill," said Andoo. "Filth of the world!" Andmainly to annoy them, he resolved to watch the red flicker in the gorgeuntil the dawn came to drive the hyaena scum home. And after a time theyvanished, and he heard their voices, like a party of Cockneybeanfeasters, away in the beechwoods. Then they came slinking nearagain. Andoo yawned and went on along the cliff, and they followed. Thenhe stopped and went back.

  It was a splendid night, beset with shining constellations, the samestars, but not the same constellations we know, for since those days allthe stars have had time to move into new places. Far away across theopen space beyond where the heavy-shouldered, lean-bodied hyaenasblundered and howled, was a beechwood, and the mountain slopes rosebeyond, a dim mystery, until their snow-capped summits came out whiteand cold and clear, touched by the first rays of the yet unseen moon. Itwas a vast silence, save when the yell of the hyaenas flung a vanishingdiscordance across its peace, or when from down the hills the trumpetingof the new-come elephants came faintly on the faint breeze. And belownow, the red flicker had dwindled and was steady, and shone a deeperred, and Ugh-lomi had finished his story and was preparing to sleep, andEudena sat and listened to the strange voices of unknown beasts, andwatched the dark eastern sky growing deeply luminous at the advent ofthe moon. Down below, the river talked to itself, and things unseen wentto and fro.

  After a time the bear went away, but in an hour he was back again. Then,as if struck by a thought, he turned, and went up the gorge....

  The night passed, and Ugh-lomi slept on. The waning moon rose and litthe gaunt white cliff overhead with a light that was pale and vague. Thegorge remained in a deeper shadow and seemed all the darker. Then byimperceptible degrees, the day came stealing in the wake of themoonlight. Eudena's eyes wandered to the cliff brow overhead once, andthen again. Each time the line was sharp and clear against the sky, andyet she had a dim perception of something lurking there. The red of thefire grew deeper and deeper, grey scales spread upon it, its verticalcolumn of smoke became more and more visible, and up and down the gorgethings that had been unseen grew clear in a colourless illumination. Shemay have dozed.

  Suddenly she started up from her squatting position, erect and alert,scrutinising the cliff up and down.

  She made the faintest sound, and Ugh-lomi too, light-sleeping like ananimal, was instantly awake. He caught up his axe and came noiselesslyto her side.

  The light was still dim, the world now all in black and dark grey, andone sickly star still lingered overhead. The ledge they were on was alittle grassy space, six feet wide, perhaps, and twenty feet long,sloping outwardly, and with a handful of St. John's wort growing nearthe edge. Below it the soft, white rock fell away in a steep slope ofnearly fifty feet to the thick bush of hazel that fringed the river.Down the river this slope increased, until some way off a thin grassheld its own right up to the crest of the cliff. Overhead, forty orfifty feet of rock bulged into the great masses characteristic ofchalk, but at the end of the ledge a gully, a precipitous groove ofdiscoloured rock, slashed the face of the cliff, and gave a footing to ascrubby growth, by which Eudena and Ugh-lomi went up and down.

  They stood as noiseless as startled deer, with every sense expectant.For a minute they heard nothing, and then came a faint rattling of dustdown the gully, and the creaking of twigs.

  Ugh-lomi gripped his axe, and went to the edge of the ledge, for thebulge of the chalk overhead had hidden the upper part of the gully. Andforthwith, with a sudden contraction of the heart, he saw the cave bearhalf-way down from the brow, and making a gingerly backward step withhis flat hind-foot. His hind-quarters were towards Ugh-lomi, and heclawed at the rocks and bushes so that he seemed flattened against thecliff. He looked none the less for that. From his shining snout to hisstumpy tail he was a lion and a half, the length of two tall men. Helooked over his shoulder, and his huge mouth was open with the exertionof holding up his great carcase, and his tongue lay out....

  He got his footing, and came down slowly, a yard nearer.

  "Bear," said Ugh-lomi, looking round with his face white.

  But Eudena, with terror in her eyes, was pointing down the cliff.

  Ugh-lomi's mouth fell open. For down below, with her big fore-feetagainst the rock, stood another big brown-grey bulk--the she-bear. Shewas not so big as Andoo, but she was big enough for all that.

  Then suddenly Ugh-lomi gave a cry, and catching up a handful of thelitter of ferns that lay scattered on the ledge, he thrust it into thepallid ash of the fire. "Brother Fire!" he cried, "Brother Fire!" AndEudena, starting into activity, did likewise. "Brother Fire! Help, help!Brother Fire!"

  Brother Fire was still red in his heart, but he turned to grey as theyscattered him. "Brother Fire!" they screamed. But he whispered andpassed, and there was nothing but ashes. Then Ugh-lomi danced with angerand struck the ashes with his fist. But Eudena began to hammer thefirestone against a flint. And the eyes of each were turning ever andagain towards the gully by which Andoo was climbing down. Brother Fire!

  Suddenly the huge furry hind-quarters of the bear came into view,beneath the bulge of the chalk that had hidden him. He was stillclambering gingerly down the nearly vertical surface. His head was yetout of sight, but they could hear him talking to himself. "Pig andmonkey," said the cave bear. "It ought to be good."

  Eudena struck a spark and blew at it; it twinkled brighter andthen--went out. At that she cast down flint and firestone and staredblankly. Then she sprang to her feet and scrambled a yard or so up thecliff above the ledge. How she hung on even for a moment I do not know,for the chalk was vertical and without grip for a monkey. In a couple ofseconds she had slid back to the ledge again with bleeding hands.

  Ugh-lomi was making frantic rushes about the ledge--now he would go tothe edge, now to the gully. He did not know what to do, he could notthink. The she-bear looked
smaller than her mate--much. If they rusheddown on her together, _one_ might live. "Ugh?" said the cave bear, andUgh-lomi turned again and saw his little eyes peering under the bulge ofthe chalk.

  Eudena, cowering at the end of the ledge, began to scream like a grippedrabbit.

  At that a sort of madness came upon Ugh-lomi. With a mighty cry, hecaught up his axe and ran towards Andoo. The monster gave a grunt ofsurprise. In a moment Ugh-lomi was clinging to a bush right underneaththe bear, and in another he was hanging to its back half buried in fur,with one fist clutched in the hair under its jaw. The bear was tooastonished at this fantastic attack to do more than cling passive. Andthen the axe, the first of all axes, rang on its skull.

  The bear's head twisted from side to side, and he began a petulantscolding growl. The axe bit within an inch of the left eye, and the hotblood blinded that side. At that the brute roared with surprise andanger, and his teeth gnashed six inches from Ugh-lomi's face. Then theaxe, clubbed close, came down heavily on the corner of the jaw.

  The next blow blinded the right side and called forth a roar, this timeof pain. Eudena saw the huge, flat feet slipping and sliding, andsuddenly the bear gave a clumsy leap sideways, as if for the ledge. Theneverything vanished, and the hazels smashed, and a roar of pain and atumult of shouts and growls came up from far below.

  Eudena screamed and ran to the edge and peered over. For a moment, manand bears were a heap together, Ugh-lomi uppermost; and then he hadsprung clear and was scaling the gully again, with the bears rolling andstriking at one another among the hazels. But he had left his axe below,and three knob-ended streaks of carmine were shooting down his thigh."Up!" he cried, and in a moment Eudena was leading the way to the top ofthe cliff.

  In half a minute they were at the crest, their hearts pumping noisily,with Andoo and his wife far and safe below them. Andoo was sitting onhis haunches, both paws at work, trying with quick exasperated movementsto wipe the blindness out of his eyes, and the she-bear stood onall-fours a little way off, ruffled in appearance and growling angrily.Ugh-lomi flung himself flat on the grass, and lay panting and bleedingwith his face on his arms.

  For a second Eudena regarded the bears, then she came and sat besidehim, looking at him....

  Presently she put forth her hand timidly and touched him, and made theguttural sound that was his name. He turned over and raised himself onhis arm. His face was pale, like the face of one who is afraid. Helooked at her steadfastly for a moment, and then suddenly he laughed."Waugh!" he said exultantly.

  "Waugh!" said she--a simple but expressive conversation.

  Then Ugh-lomi came and knelt beside her, and on hands and knees peeredover the brow and examined the gorge. His breath was steady now, and theblood on his leg had ceased to flow, though the scratches the she-bearhad made were open and wide. He squatted up and sat staring at thefootmarks of the great bear as they came to the gully--they were as wideas his head and twice as long. Then he jumped up and went along thecliff face until the ledge was visible. Here he sat down for some timethinking, while Eudena watched him. Presently she saw the bears hadgone.

  At last Ugh-lomi rose, as one whose mind is made up. He returned towardsthe gully, Eudena keeping close by him, and together they clambered tothe ledge. They took the firestone and a flint, and then Ugh-lomi wentdown to the foot of the cliff very cautiously, and found his axe. Theyreturned to the cliff as quietly as they could, and set off at a briskwalk. The ledge was a home no longer, with such callers in theneighbourhood. Ugh-lomi carried the axe and Eudena the firestone. Sosimple was a Palaeolithic removal.

  They went up-stream, although it might lead to the very lair of thecave bear, because there was no other way to go. Down the stream was thetribe, and had not Ugh-lomi killed Uya and Wau? By the stream they hadto keep--because of drinking.

  So they marched through beech trees, with the gorge deepening until theriver flowed, a frothing rapid, five hundred feet below them. Of all thechangeful things in this world of change, the courses of rivers in deepvalleys change least. It was the river Wey, the river we know to-day,and they marched over the very spots where nowadays stand littleGuildford and Godalming--the first human beings to come into the land.Once a grey ape chattered and vanished, and all along the cliff edge,vast and even, ran the spoor of the great cave bear.

  And then the spoor of the bear fell away from the cliff, showing,Ugh-lomi thought, that he came from some place to the left, and keepingto the cliff's edge, they presently came to an end. They foundthemselves looking down on a great semi-circular space caused by thecollapse of the cliff. It had smashed right across the gorge, bankingthe up-stream water back in a pool which overflowed in a rapid. The sliphad happened long ago. It was grassed over, but the face of the cliffsthat stood about the semicircle was still almost fresh-looking and whiteas on the day when the rock must have broken and slid down. Starklyexposed and black under the foot of these cliffs were the mouths ofseveral caves. And as they stood there, looking at the space, anddisinclined to skirt it, because they thought the bears' lair laysomewhere on the left in the direction they must needs take, they sawsuddenly first one bear and then two coming up the grass slope to theright and going across the amphitheatre towards the caves. Andoo wasfirst; he dropped a little on his fore-foot and his mien was despondent,and the she-bear came shuffling behind.

  Eudena and Ugh-lomi stepped back from the cliff until they could justsee the bears over the verge. Then Ugh-lomi stopped. Eudena pulled hisarm, but he turned with a forbidding gesture, and her hand dropped.Ugh-lomi stood watching the bears, with his axe in his hand, until theyhad vanished into the cave. He growled softly, and shook the axe at theshe-bear's receding quarters. Then to Eudena's terror, instead ofcreeping off with her, he lay flat down and crawled forward into such aposition that he could just see the cave. It was bears--and he did itas calmly as if it had been rabbits he was watching!

  He lay still, like a barked log, sun-dappled, in the shadow of thetrees. He was thinking. And Eudena had learnt, even when a little girl,that when Ugh-lomi became still like that, jaw-bone on fist, novelthings presently began to happen.

  It was an hour before the thinking was over; it was noon when the twolittle savages had found their way to the cliff brow that overhung thebears' cave. And all the long afternoon they fought desperately with agreat boulder of chalk; trundling it, with nothing but their unaidedsturdy muscles, from the gully where it had hung like a loose tooth,towards the cliff top. It was full two yards about, it stood as high asEudena's waist, it was obtuse-angled and toothed with flints. And whenthe sun set it was poised, three inches from the edge, above the cave ofthe great cave bear.

  In the cave conversation languished during that afternoon. The she-bearsnoozed sulkily in her corner--for she was fond of pig and monkey--andAndoo was busy licking the side of his paw and smearing his face to coolthe smart and inflammation of his wounds. Afterwards he went and satjust within the mouth of the cave, blinking out at the afternoon sunwith his uninjured eye, and thinking.

  "I never was so startled in my life," he said at last. "They are themost extraordinary beasts. Attacking _me_!"

  "I don't like them," said the she-bear, out of the darkness behind.

  "A feebler sort of beast I _never_ saw. I can't think what the world iscoming to. Scraggy, weedy legs.... Wonder how they keep warm in winter?"

  "Very likely they don't," said the she-bear.

  "I suppose it's a sort of monkey gone wrong."

  "It's a change," said the she-bear.

  A pause.

  "The advantage he had was merely accidental," said Andoo. "These things_will_ happen at times."

  "_I_ can't understand why you let go," said the she-bear.

  That matter had been discussed before, and settled. So Andoo, being abear of experience, remained silent for a space. Then he resumed upon adifferent aspect of the matter. "He has a sort of claw--a long claw thathe seemed to have first on one paw and then on the other. Just one claw.They're very odd things. The brigh
t thing, too, they seemed tohave--like that glare that comes in the sky in daytime--only it jumpsabout--it's really worth seeing. It's a thing with a root, too--likegrass when it is windy."

  "Does it bite?" asked the she-bear. "If it bites it can't be a plant."

  "No----I don't know," said Andoo. "But it's curious, anyhow."

  "I wonder if they _are_ good eating?" said the she-bear.

  "They look it," said Andoo, with appetite--for the cave bear, like thepolar bear, was an incurable carnivore--no roots or honey for _him_.

  The two bears fell into a meditation for a space. Then Andoo resumed hissimple attentions to his eye. The sunlight up the green slope before thecave mouth grew warmer in tone and warmer, until it was a ruddy amber.

  "Curious sort of thing--day," said the cave bear. "Lot too much of it, Ithink. Quite unsuitable for hunting. Dazzles me always. I can't smellnearly so well by day."

  The she-bear did not answer, but there came a measured crunching soundout of the darkness. She had turned up a bone. Andoo yawned. "Well," hesaid. He strolled to the cave mouth and stood with his head projecting,surveying the amphitheatre. He found he had to turn his head completelyround to see objects on his right-hand side. No doubt that eye would beall right to-morrow.

  He yawned again. There was a tap overhead, and a big mass of chalk flewout from the cliff face, dropped a yard in front of his nose, andstarred into a dozen unequal fragments. It startled him extremely.

  When he had recovered a little from his shock, he went and sniffedcuriously at the representative pieces of the fallen projectile. Theyhad a distinctive flavour, oddly reminiscent of the two drab animals ofthe ledge. He sat up and pawed the larger lump, and walked round itseveral times, trying to find a man about it somewhere....

  When night had come he went off down the river gorge to see if he couldcut off either of the ledge's occupants. The ledge was empty, there wereno signs of the red thing, but as he was rather hungry he did not loiterlong that night, but pushed on to pick up a red deer fawn. He forgotabout the drab animals. He found a fawn, but the doe was close by andmade an ugly fight for her young. Andoo had to leave the fawn, but asher blood was up she stuck to the attack, and at last he got in a blowof his paw on her nose, and so got hold of her. More meat but lessdelicacy, and the she-bear, following, had her share. The nextafternoon, curiously enough, the very fellow of the first white rockfell, and smashed precisely according to precedent.

  The aim of the third, that fell the night after, however, was better. Ithit Andoo's unspeculative skull with a crack that echoed up the cliff,and the white fragments went dancing to all the points of the compass.The she-bear coming after him and sniffing curiously at him, found himlying in an odd sort of attitude, with his head wet and all out ofshape. She was a young she-bear, and inexperienced, and having sniffedabout him for some time and licked him a little, and so forth, shedecided to leave him until the odd mood had passed, and went on herhunting alone.

  She looked up the fawn of the red doe they had killed two nights ago,and found it. But it was lonely hunting without Andoo, and she returnedcaveward before dawn. The sky was grey and overcast, the trees up thegorge were black and unfamiliar, and into her ursine mind came a dimsense of strange and dreary happenings. She lifted up her voice andcalled Andoo by name. The sides of the gorge re-echoed her.

  As she approached the caves she saw in the half light, and heard acouple of jackals scuttle off, and immediately after a hyaena howled anda dozen clumsy bulks went lumbering up the slope, and stopped and yelledderision. "Lord of the rocks and caves--ya-ha!" came down the wind. Thedismal feeling in the she-bear's mind became suddenly acute. Sheshuffled across the amphitheatre.

  "Ya-ha!" said the hyaenas, retreating. "Ya-ha!"

  The cave bear was not lying quite in the same attitude, because thehyaenas had been busy, and in one place his ribs showed white. Dottedover the turf about him lay the smashed fragments of the three greatlumps of chalk. And the air was full of the scent of death.

  The she-bear stopped dead. Even now, that the great and wonderful Andoowas killed was beyond her believing. Then she heard far overhead asound, a queer sound, a little like the shout of a hyaena but fuller andlower in pitch. She looked up, her little dawn-blinded eyes seeinglittle, her nostrils quivering. And there, on the cliff edge, far aboveher against the bright pink of dawn, were two little shaggy round darkthings, the heads of Eudena and Ugh-lomi, as they shouted derision ather. But though she could not see them very distinctly she could hear,and dimly she began to apprehend. A novel feeling as of imminent strangeevils came into her heart.

  She began to examine the smashed fragments of chalk that lay aboutAndoo. For a space she stood still, looking about her and making a lowcontinuous sound that was almost a moan. Then she went backincredulously to Andoo to make one last effort to rouse him.

  III--THE FIRST HORSEMAN

  In the days before Ugh-lomi there was little trouble between the horsesand men. They lived apart--the men in the river swamps and thickets, thehorses on the wide grassy uplands between the chestnuts and the pines.Sometimes a pony would come straying into the clogging marshes to make aflint-hacked meal, and sometimes the tribe would find one, the kill of alion, and drive off the jackals, and feast heartily while the sun washigh. These horses of the old time were clumsy at the fetlock anddun-coloured, with a rough tail and big head. They came everyspring-time north-westward into the country, after the swallows andbefore the hippopotami, as the grass on the wide downland stretchesgrew long. They came only in small bodies thus far, each herd, astallion and two or three mares and a foal or so, having its own stretchof country, and they went again when the chestnut-trees were yellow andthe wolves came down the Wealden mountains.

  It was their custom to graze right out in the open, going into coveronly in the heat of the day. They avoided the long stretches of thornand beechwood, preferring an isolated group of trees void of ambuscade,so that it was hard to come upon them. They were never fighters; theirheels and teeth were for one another, but in the clear country, oncethey were started, no living thing came near them, though perhaps theelephant might have done so had he felt the need. And in those days manseemed a harmless thing enough. No whisper of prophetic intelligencetold the species of the terrible slavery that was to come, of the whipand spur and bearing-rein, the clumsy load and the slippery street, theinsufficient food, and the knacker's yard, that was to replace the widegrass-land and the freedom of the earth.

  Down in the Wey marshes Ugh-lomi and Eudena had never seen the horsesclosely, but now they saw them every day as the two of them raided outfrom their lair on the ledge in the gorge, raiding together in search offood. They had returned to the ledge after the killing of Andoo; for ofthe she-bear they were not afraid. The she-bear had become afraid ofthem, and when she winded them she went aside. The two went togethereverywhere; for since they had left the tribe Eudena was not so muchUgh-lomi's woman as his mate; she learnt to hunt even--as much, that is,as any woman could. She was indeed a marvellous woman. He would lie forhours watching a beast, or planning catches in that shock head of his,and she would stay beside him, with her bright eyes upon him, offeringno irritating suggestions--as still as any man. A wonderful woman!

  At the top of the cliff was an open grassy lawn and then beechwoods, andgoing through the beechwoods one came to the edge of the rolling grassyexpanse, and in sight of the horses. Here, on the edge of the wood andbracken, were the rabbit-burrows, and here among the fronds Eudena andUgh-lomi would lie with their throwing-stones ready, until the littlepeople came out to nibble and play in the sunset. And while Eudena wouldsit, a silent figure of watchfulness, regarding the burrows, Ugh-lomi'seyes were ever away across the greensward at those wonderful grazingstrangers.

  In a dim way he appreciated their grace and their supple nimbleness. Asthe sun declined in the evening-time, and the heat of the day passed,they would become active, would start chasing one another, neighing,dodging, shaking their manes, coming round in great curves
, sometimes soclose that the pounding of the turf sounded like hurried thunder. Itlooked so fine that Ugh-lomi wanted to join in badly. And sometimes onewould roll over on the turf, kicking four hoofs heavenward, which seemedformidable and was certainly much less alluring.

  Dim imaginings ran through Ugh-lomi's mind as he watched--by virtue ofwhich two rabbits lived the longer. And sleeping, his brains wereclearer and bolder--for that was the way in those days. He came near thehorses, he dreamt, and fought, smiting-stone against hoof, but then thehorses changed to men, or, at least, to men with horses' heads, and heawoke in a cold sweat of terror.

  Yet the next day in the morning, as the horses were grazing, one of themares whinnied, and they saw Ugh-lomi coming up the wind. They allstopped their eating and watched him. Ugh-lomi was not coming towardsthem, but strolling obliquely across the open, looking at anything inthe world but horses. He had stuck three fern-fronds into the mat of hishair, giving him a remarkable appearance, and he walked very slowly."What's up now?" said the Master Horse, who was capable, butinexperienced.

  "It looks more like the first half of an animal than anything else inthe world," he said. "Fore-legs and no hind."

  "It's only one of those pink monkey things," said the Eldest Mare."They're a sort of river monkey. They're quite common on the plains."

  Ugh-lomi continued his oblique advance. The Eldest Mare was struck withthe want of motive in his proceedings.

  "Fool!" said the Eldest Mare, in a quick conclusive way she had. Sheresumed her grazing. The Master Horse and the Second Mare followed suit.

  "Look! he's nearer," said the Foal with a stripe.

  One of the younger foals made uneasy movements. Ugh-lomi squatted down,and sat regarding the horses fixedly. In a little while he wassatisfied that they meant neither flight nor hostilities. He began toconsider his next procedure. He did not feel anxious to kill, but he hadhis axe with him, and the spirit of sport was upon him. How would onekill one of these creatures?--these great beautiful creatures!

  Eudena, watching him with a fearful admiration from the cover of thebracken, saw him presently go on all fours, and so proceed again. Butthe horses preferred him a biped to a quadruped, and the Master Horsethrew up his head and gave the word to move. Ugh-lomi thought they wereoff for good, but after a minute's gallop they came round in a widecurve, and stood winding him. Then, as a rise in the ground hid him,they tailed out, the Master Horse leading, and approached him spirally.

  He was as ignorant of the possibilities of a horse as they were of his.And at this stage it would seem he funked. He knew this kind of stalkingwould make red deer or buffalo charge, if it were persisted in. At anyrate Eudena saw him jump up and come walking towards her with the fernplumes held in his hand.

  She stood up, and he grinned to show that the whole thing was an immenselark, and that what he had done was just what he had planned to do fromthe very beginning. So that incident ended. But he was very thoughtfulall that day.

  The next day this foolish drab creature with the leonine mane, insteadof going about the grazing or hunting he was made for, was prowlinground the horses again. The Eldest Mare was all for silent contempt. "Isuppose he wants to learn something from us," she said, and "_Let_ him."The next day he was at it again. The Master Horse decided he meantabsolutely nothing. But as a matter of fact, Ugh-lomi, the first of mento feel that curious spell of the horse that binds us even to this day,meant a great deal. He admired them unreservedly. There was a rudimentof the snob in him, I am afraid, and he wanted to be near thesebeautifully-curved animals. Then there were vague conceptions of a kill.If only they would let him come near them! But they drew the line, hefound, at fifty yards. If he came nearer than that they moved off--withdignity. I suppose it was the way he had blinded Andoo that made himthink of leaping on the back of one of them. But though Eudena after atime came out in the open too, and they did some unobtrusive stalking,things stopped there.

  Then one memorable day a new idea came to Ugh-lomi. The horse looks downand level, but he does not look up. No animals look up--they have toomuch common-sense. It was only that fantastic creature, man, could wastehis wits skyward. Ugh-lomi made no philosophical deductions, but heperceived the thing was so. So he spent a weary day in a beech thatstood in the open, while Eudena stalked. Usually the horses went intothe shade in the heat of the afternoon, but that day the sky wasovercast, and they would not, in spite of Eudena's solicitude.

  It was two days after that that Ugh-lomi had his desire. The day wasblazing hot, and the multiplying flies asserted themselves. The horsesstopped grazing before midday, and came into the shadow below him, andstood in couples nose to tail, flapping.

  The Master Horse, by virtue of his heels, came closest to the tree. Andsuddenly there was a rustle and a creak, a _thud_.... Then a sharpchipped flint bit him on the cheek. The Master Horse stumbled, came onone knee, rose to his feet, and was off like the wind. The air was fullof the whirl of limbs, the prance of hoofs, and snorts of alarm.Ugh-lomi was pitched a foot in the air, came down again, up again, hisstomach was hit violently, and then his knees got a grip of somethingbetween them. He found himself clutching with knees, feet, and hands,careering violently with extraordinary oscillation through the air--hisaxe gone heaven knows whither. "Hold tight," said Mother Instinct, andhe did.

  He was aware of a lot of coarse hair in his face, some of it between histeeth, and of green turf streaming past in front of his eyes. He saw theshoulder of the Master Horse, vast and sleek, with the muscles flowingswiftly under the skin. He perceived that his arms were round the neck,and that the violent jerkings he experienced had a sort of rhythm.

  Then he was in the midst of a wild rush of tree-stems, and then therewere fronds of bracken about, and then more open turf. Then a stream ofpebbles rushing past, little pebbles flying sideways athwart the streamfrom the blow of the swift hoofs. Ugh-lomi began to feel frightfullysick and giddy, but he was not the stuff to leave go simply because hewas uncomfortable.

  He dared not leave his grip, but he tried to make himself morecomfortable. He released his hug on the neck, gripping the maneinstead. He slipped his knees forward, and pushing back, came into asitting position where the quarters broaden. It was nervous work, but hemanaged it, and at last he was fairly seated astride, breathless indeed,and uncertain, but with that frightful pounding of his body at any raterelieved.

  Slowly the fragments of Ugh-lomi's mind got into order again. The paceseemed to him terrific, but a kind of exultation was beginning to ousthis first frantic terror. The air rushed by, sweet and wonderful, therhythm of the hoofs changed and broke up and returned into itself again.They were on turf now, a wide glade--the beech-trees a hundred yardsaway on either side, and a succulent band of green starred with pinkblossom and shot with silver water here and there, meandered down themiddle. Far off was a glimpse of blue valley--far away. The exultationgrew. It was man's first taste of pace.

  Then came a wide space dappled with flying fallow deer scattering thisway and that, and then a couple of jackals, mistaking Ugh-lomi for alion, came hurrying after him. And when they saw it was not a lion theystill came on out of curiosity. On galloped the horse, with his oneidea of escape, and after him the jackals, with pricked ears andquickly-barked remarks. "Which kills which?" said the first jackal."It's the horse being killed," said the second. They gave the howl offollowing, and the horse answered to it as a horse answers nowadays tothe spur.

  On they rushed, a little tornado through the quiet day, putting upstartled birds, sending a dozen unexpected things darting to cover,raising a myriad of indignant dung-flies, smashing little blossoms,flowering complacently, back into their parental turf. Trees again, andthen splash, splash across a torrent; then a hare shot out of a tuft ofgrass under the very hoofs of the Master Horse, and the jackals leftthem incontinently. So presently they broke into the open again, a wideexpanse of turfy hillside--the very grassy downs that fall northwardnowadays from the Epsom Stand.

  The first hot bolt of the Master Hor
se was long since over. He wasfalling into a measured trot, and Ugh-lomi, albeit bruised exceedinglyand quite uncertain of the future, was in a state of glorious enjoyment.And now came a new development. The pace broke again, the Master Horsecame round on a short curve, and stopped dead....

  Ugh-lomi became alert. He wished he had a flint, but the throwing-flinthe had carried in a thong about his waist was--like the axe--heavenknows where. The Master Horse turned his head, and Ugh-lomi became awareof an eye and teeth. He whipped his leg into a position of security, andhit at the cheek with his fist. Then the head went down somewhere out ofexistence apparently, and the back he was sitting on flew up into adome. Ugh-lomi became a thing of instinct again--strictly prehensile; heheld by knees and feet, and his head seemed sliding towards the turf.His fingers were twisted into the shock of mane, and the rough hair ofthe horse saved him. The gradient he was on lowered again, andthen--"Whup!" said Ugh-lomi astonished, and the slant was the other wayup. But Ugh-lomi was a thousand generations nearer the primordial thanman: no monkey could have held on better. And the lion had been trainingthe horse for countless generations against the tactics of rolling andrearing back. But he kicked like a master, and buck-jumped ratherneatly. In five minutes Ugh-lomi lived a lifetime. If he came off thehorse would kill him, he felt assured.

  Then the Master Horse decided to stick to his old tactics again, andsuddenly went off at a gallop. He headed down the slope, taking thesteep places at a rush, swerving neither to the right nor to the left,and, as they rode down, the wide expanse of valley sank out of sightbehind the approaching skirmishers of oak and hawthorn. They skirted asudden hollow with the pool of a spring, rank weeds and silver bushes.The ground grew softer and the grass taller, and on the right-hand sideand the left came scattered bushes of May--still splashed with belatedblossom. Presently the bushes thickened until they lashed the passingrider, and little flashes and gouts of blood came out on horse and man.Then the way opened again.

  And then came a wonderful adventure. A sudden squeal of unreasonableanger rose amidst the bushes, the squeal of some creature bitterlywronged. And crashing after them appeared a big, grey-blue shape. It wasYaaa the big-horned rhinoceros, in one of those fits of fury of his,charging full tilt, after the manner of his kind. He had been startledat his feeding, and someone, it did not matter who, was to be ripped andtrampled therefore. He was bearing down on them from the left, with hiswicked little eye red, his great horn down and his tail like ajury-mast behind him. For a minute Ugh-lomi was minded to slip off anddodge, and then behold! the staccato of the hoofs grew swifter, and therhinoceros and his stumpy hurrying little legs seemed to slide out atthe back corner of Ugh-lomi's eye. In two minutes they were through thebushes of May, and out in the open, going fast. For a space he couldhear the ponderous paces in pursuit receding behind him, and then it wasjust as if Yaaa had not lost his temper, as if Yaaa had never existed.

  The pace never faltered, on they rode and on.

  Ugh-lomi was now all exultation. To exult in those days was to insult."Ya-ha! big nose!" he said, trying to crane back and see some remotespeck of a pursuer. "Why don't you carry your smiting-stone in yourfist?" he ended with a frantic whoop.

  But that whoop was unfortunate, for coming close to the ear of thehorse, and being quite unexpected, it startled the stallion extremely.He shied violently. Ugh-lomi suddenly found himself uncomfortable again.He was hanging on to the horse, he found, by one arm and one knee.

  The rest of the ride was honourable but unpleasant. The view waschiefly of blue sky, and that was combined with the most unpleasantphysical sensations. Finally, a bush of thorn lashed him and he let go.

  He hit the ground with his cheek and shoulder, and then, after acomplicated and extraordinarily rapid movement, hit it again with theend of his backbone. He saw splashes and sparks of light and colour. Theground seemed bouncing about just like the horse had done. Then he foundhe was sitting on turf, six yards beyond the bush. In front of him was aspace of grass, growing greener and greener, and a number of humanbeings in the distance, and the horse was going round at a smart gallopquite a long way off to the right.

  The human beings were on the opposite side of the river, some still inthe water, but they were all running away as hard as they could go. Theadvent of a monster that took to pieces was not the sort of novelty theycared for. For quite a minute Ugh-lomi sat regarding them in a purelyspectacular spirit. The bend of the river, the knoll among the reeds androyal ferns, the thin streams of smoke going up to Heaven, were allperfectly familiar to him. It was the squatting-place of the Sons ofUya, of Uya from whom he had fled with Eudena, and whom he had waylaidin the chestnut woods and killed with the First Axe.

  He rose to his feet, still dazed from his fall, and as he did so thescattering fugitives turned and regarded him. Some pointed to thereceding horse and chattered. He walked slowly towards them, staring. Heforgot the horse, he forgot his own bruises, in the growing interest ofthis encounter. There were fewer of them than there had been--hesupposed the others must have hid--the heap of fern for the night firewas not so high. By the flint heaps should have sat Wau--but then heremembered he had killed Wau. Suddenly brought back to this familiarscene, the gorge and the bears and Eudena seemed things remote, thingsdreamt of.

  He stopped at the bank and stood regarding the tribe. His mathematicalabilities were of the slightest, but it was certain there were fewer.The men might be away, but there were fewer women and children. He gavethe shout of home-coming. His quarrel had been with Uya and Wau--notwith the others. "Children of Uya!" he cried. They answered with hisname, a little fearfully because of the strange way he had come.

  For a space they spoke together. Then an old woman lifted a shrillvoice and answered him. "Our Lord is a Lion."

  Ugh-lomi did not understand that saying. They answered him again severaltogether, "Uya comes again. He comes as a Lion. Our Lord is a Lion. Hecomes at night. He slays whom he will. But none other may slay us,Ugh-lomi, none other may slay us."

  Still Ugh-lomi did not understand.

  "Our Lord is a Lion. He speaks no more to men."

  Ugh-lomi stood regarding them. He had had dreams--he knew that though hehad killed Uya, Uya still existed. And now they told him Uya was a Lion.

  The shrivelled old woman, the mistress of the fire-minders, suddenlyturned and spoke softly to those next to her. She was a very old womanindeed, she had been the first of Uya's wives, and he had let her livebeyond the age to which it is seemly a woman should be permitted tolive. She had been cunning from the first, cunning to please Uya and toget food. And now she was great in counsel. She spoke softly, andUgh-lomi watched her shrivelled form across the river with a curiousdistaste. Then she called aloud, "Come over to us, Ugh-lomi."

  A girl suddenly lifted up her voice. "Come over to us, Ugh-lomi," shesaid. And they all began crying, "Come over to us, Ugh-lomi."

  It was strange how their manner changed after the old woman called.

  He stood quite still watching them all. It was pleasant to be called,and the girl who had called first was a pretty one. But she made himthink of Eudena.

  "Come over to us, Ugh-lomi," they cried, and the voice of the shrivelledold woman rose above them all. At the sound of her voice his hesitationreturned.

  He stood on the river bank, Ugh-lomi--Ugh the Thinker--with his thoughtsslowly taking shape. Presently one and then another paused to see whathe would do. He was minded to go back, he was minded not to. Suddenlyhis fear or his caution got the upper hand. Without answering them heturned, and walked back towards the distant thorn-trees, the way he hadcome. Forthwith the whole tribe started crying to him again veryeagerly. He hesitated and turned, then he went on, then he turned again,and then once again, regarding them with troubled eyes as they called.The last time he took two paces back, before his fear stopped him. Theysaw him stop once more, and suddenly shake his head and vanish amongthe hawthorn-trees.

  Then all the women and children lifted up their voices together, andcalled
to him in one last vain effort.

  Far down the river the reeds were stirring in the breeze, where,convenient for his new sort of feeding, the old lion, who had taken toman-eating, had made his lair.

  The old woman turned her face that way, and pointed to the hawthornthickets. "Uya," she screamed, "there goes thine enemy! There goes thineenemy, Uya! Why do you devour us nightly? We have tried to snare him!There goes thine enemy, Uya!"

  But the lion who preyed upon the tribe was taking his siesta. The crywent unheard. That day he had dined on one of the plumper girls, and hismood was a comfortable placidity. He really did not understand that hewas Uya or that Ugh-lomi was his enemy.

  So it was that Ugh-lomi rode the horse, and heard first of Uya the lion,who had taken the place of Uya the Master, and was eating up the tribe.And as he hurried back to the gorge his mind was no longer full of thehorse, but of the thought that Uya was still alive, to slay or be slain.Over and over again he saw the shrunken band of women and childrencrying that Uya was a lion. Uya was a lion!

  And presently, fearing the twilight might come upon him, Ugh-lomi beganrunning.

  IV--UYA THE LION

  The old lion was in luck. The tribe had a certain pride in their ruler,but that was all the satisfaction they got out of it. He came the verynight that Ugh-lomi killed Uya the Cunning, and so it was they named himUya. It was the old woman, the fire-minder, who first named him Uya. Ashower had lowered the fires to a glow, and made the night dark. And asthey conversed together, and peered at one another in the darkness, andwondered fearfully what Uya would do to them in their dreams now that hewas dead, they heard the mounting reverberations of the lion's roarclose at hand. Then everything was still.

  They held their breath, so that almost the only sounds were the patterof the rain and the hiss of the raindrops in the ashes. And then, afteran interminable time, a crash, and a shriek of fear, and a growling.They sprang to their feet, shouting, screaming, running this way andthat, but brands would not burn, and in a minute the victim was beingdragged away through the ferns. It was Irk, the brother of Wau.

  So the lion came.

  The ferns were still wet from the rain the next night, and he came andtook Click with the red hair. That sufficed for two nights. And then inthe dark between the moons he came three nights, night after night, andthat though they had good fires. He was an old lion with stumpy teeth,but very silent and very cool; he knew of fires before; these were notthe first of mankind that had ministered to his old age. The third nighthe came between the outer fire and the inner, and he leapt the flintheap, and pulled down Irm the son of Irk, who had seemed like to be theleader. That was a dreadful night, because they lit great flares of fernand ran screaming, and the lion missed his hold of Irm. By the glare ofthe fire they saw Irm struggle up, and run a little way towards them,and then the lion in two bounds had him down again. That was the last ofIrm.

  So fear came, and all the delight of spring passed out of their lives.Already there were five gone out of the tribe, and four nights addedthree more to the number. Food-seeking became spiritless, none knew whomight go next, and all day the women toiled, even the favourite women,gathering litter and sticks for the night fires. And the hunters huntedill: in the warm spring-time hunger came again as though it was stillwinter. The tribe might have moved, had they had a leader, but they hadno leader, and none knew where to go that the lion could not followthem. So the old lion waxed fat and thanked heaven for the kindly raceof men. Two of the children and a youth died while the moon was stillnew, and then it was the shrivelled old fire-minder first bethoughtherself in a dream of Eudena and Ugh-lomi, and of the way Uya had beenslain. She had lived in fear of Uya all her days, and now she lived infear of the lion. That Ugh-lomi could kill Uya for good--Ugh-lomi whomshe had seen born--was impossible. It was Uya still seeking his enemy!

  And then came the strange return of Ugh-lomi, a wonderful animal seengalloping far across the river, that suddenly changed into two animals,a horse and a man. Following this portent, the vision of Ugh-lomi on thefarther bank of the river.... Yes, it was all plain to her. Uya waspunishing them, because they had not hunted down Ugh-lomi and Eudena.

  The men came straggling back to the chances of the night while the sunwas still golden in the sky. They were received with the story ofUgh-lomi. She went across the river with them and showed them his spoorhesitating on the farther bank. Siss the Tracker knew the feet forUgh-lomi's. "Uya needs Ugh-lomi," cried the old woman, standing on theleft of the bend, a gesticulating figure of flaring bronze in thesunset. Her cries were strange sounds, flitting to and fro on theborderland of speech, but this was the sense they carried: "The lionneeds Eudena. He comes night after night seeking Eudena and Ugh-lomi.When he cannot find Eudena and Ugh-lomi, he grows angry and he kills.Hunt Eudena and Ugh-lomi, Eudena whom he pursued, and Ugh-lomi for whomhe gave the death-word! Hunt Eudena and Ugh-lomi!"

  She turned to the distant reed-bed, as sometimes she had turned to Uyain his life. "Is it not so, my lord?" she cried. And, as if in answer,the tall reeds bowed before a breath of wind.

  Far into the twilight the sound of hacking was heard from thesquatting-places. It was the men sharpening their ashen spears againstthe hunting of the morrow. And in the night, early before the moonrose, the lion came and took the girl of Siss the Tracker.

  In the morning before the sun had risen, Siss the Tracker, and the ladWau-Hau, who now chipped flints, and One Eye, and Bo, and theSnail-eater, the two red-haired men, and Cat's-skin and Snake, all themen that were left alive of the Sons of Uya, taking their ash spears andtheir smiting-stones, and with throwing-stones in the beast-paw bags,started forth upon the trail of Ugh-lomi through the hawthorn thicketswhere Yaaa the Rhinoceros and his brothers were feeding, and up the baredownland towards the beechwoods.

  That night the fires burnt high and fierce, as the waxing moon set, andthe lion left the crouching women and children in peace.

  And the next day, while the sun was still high, the huntersreturned--all save One Eye, who lay dead with a smashed skull at thefoot of the ledge. (When Ugh-lomi came back that evening from stalkingthe horses, he found the vultures already busy over him.) And with themthe hunters brought Eudena bruised and wounded, but alive. That had beenthe strange order of the shrivelled old woman, that she was to bebrought alive--"She is no kill for us. She is for Uya the Lion." Herhands were tied with thongs, as though she had been a man, and she cameweary and drooping--her hair over her eyes and matted with blood. Theywalked about her, and ever and again the Snail-eater, whose name she hadgiven, would laugh and strike her with his ashen spear. And after he hadstruck her with his spear, he would look over his shoulder like one whohad done an over-bold deed. The others, too, looked over their shouldersever and again, and all were in a hurry save Eudena. When the old womansaw them coming, she cried aloud with joy.

  They made Eudena cross the river with her hands tied, although thecurrent was strong and when she slipped the old woman screamed, firstwith joy and then for fear she might be drowned. And when they haddragged Eudena to shore, she could not stand for a time, albeit theybeat her sore. So they let her sit with her feet touching the water, andher eyes staring before her, and her face set, whatever they might do orsay. All the tribe came down to the squatting-place, even curly littleHaha, who as yet could scarcely toddle, and stood staring at Eudena andthe old woman, as now we should stare at some strange wounded beast andits captor.

  The old woman tore off the necklace of Uya that was about Eudena's neck,and put it on herself--she had been the first to wear it. Then she toreat Eudena's hair, and took a spear from Siss and beat her with all hermight. And when she had vented the warmth of her heart on the girl shelooked closely into her face. Eudena's eyes were closed and her featureswere set, and she lay so still that for a moment the old woman fearedshe was dead. And then her nostrils quivered. At that the old womanslapped her face and laughed and gave the spear to Siss again, and wenta little way off from her and began to talk and jeer at her af
ter hermanner.

  The old woman had more words than any in the tribe. And her talk was aterrible thing to hear. Sometimes she screamed and moaned incoherently,and sometimes the shape of her guttural cries was the mere phantom ofthoughts. But she conveyed to Eudena, nevertheless, much of the thingsthat were yet to come, of the Lion and of the torment he would do her."And Ugh-lomi! Ha, ha! Ugh-lomi is slain?"

  And suddenly Eudena's eyes opened and she sat up again, and her look metthe old woman's fair and level. "No," she said slowly, like one tryingto remember, "I did not see my Ugh-lomi slain. I did not see my Ugh-lomislain."

  "Tell her," cried the old woman. "Tell her--he that killed him. Tell herhow Ugh-lomi was slain."

  She looked, and all the women and children there looked, from man toman.

  None answered her. They stood shame-faced.

  "Tell her," said the old woman. The men looked at one another.

  Eudena's face suddenly lit.

  "Tell her," she said. "Tell her, mighty men! Tell her the killing ofUgh-lomi."

  The old woman rose and struck her sharply across her mouth.

  "We could not find Ugh-lomi," said Siss the Tracker, slowly. "Who huntstwo, kills none."

  Then Eudena's heart leapt, but she kept her face hard. It was as well,for the old woman looked at her sharply, with murder in her eyes.

  Then the old woman turned her tongue upon the men because they hadfeared to go on after Ugh-lomi. She dreaded no one now Uya was slain.She scolded them as one scolds children. And they scowled at her, andbegan to accuse one another. Until suddenly Siss the Tracker raised hisvoice and bade her hold her peace.

  And so when the sun was setting they took Eudena and went--though theirhearts sank within them--along the trail the old lion had made in thereeds. All the men went together. At one place was a group of alders,and here they hastily bound Eudena where the lion might find her when hecame abroad in the twilight, and having done so they hurried back untilthey were near the squatting-place. Then they stopped. Siss stoppedfirst and looked back again at the alders. They could see her head evenfrom the squatting-place, a little black shock under the limb of thelarger tree. That was as well.

  All the women and children stood watching upon the crest of the mound.And the old woman stood and screamed for the lion to take her whom hesought, and counselled him on the torments he might do her.

  Eudena was very weary now, stunned by beatings and fatigue and sorrow,and only the fear of the thing that was still to come upheld her. Thesun was broad and blood-red between the stems of the distant chestnuts,and the west was all on fire; the evening breeze had died to a warmtranquillity. The air was full of midge swarms, the fish in the riverhard by would leap at times, and now and again a cockchafer would dronethrough the air. Out of the corner of her eye Eudena could see a part ofthe squatting-knoll, and little figures standing and staring at her.And--a very little sound but very clear--she could hear the beating ofthe firestone. Dark and near to her and still was the reed-fringedthicket of the lair.

  Presently the firestone ceased. She looked for the sun and found he hadgone, and overhead and growing brighter was the waxing moon. She lookedtowards the thicket of the lair, seeking shapes in the reeds, and thensuddenly she began to wriggle and wriggle, weeping and calling uponUgh-lomi.

  But Ugh-lomi was far away. When they saw her head moving with herstruggles, they shouted together on the knoll, and she desisted and wasstill. And then came the bats, and the star that was like Ugh-lomi creptout of its blue hiding-place in the west. She called to it, but softly,because she feared the lion. And all through the coming of the twilightthe thicket was still.

  So the dark crept upon Eudena, and the moon grew bright, and the shadowsof things that had fled up the hillside and vanished with the eveningcame back to them short and black. And the dark shapes in the thicket ofreeds and alders where the lion lay, gathered, and a faint stir beganthere. But nothing came out therefrom all through the gathering of thedarkness.

  She looked at the squatting-place and saw the fires glowing smoky-red,and the men and women going to and fro. The other way, over the river, awhite mist was rising. Then far away came the whimpering of young foxesand the yell of a hyaena.

  There were long gaps of aching waiting. After a long time some animalsplashed in the water, and seemed to cross the river at the ford beyondthe lair, but what animal it was she could not see. From the distantdrinking-pools she could hear the sound of splashing, and the noise ofelephants--so still was the night.

  The earth was now a colourless arrangement of white reflections andimpenetrable shadows, under the blue sky. The silvery moon was alreadyspotted with the filigree crests of the chestnut woods, and over theshadowy eastward hills the stars were multiplying. The knoll fires werebright red now, and black figures stood waiting against them. They werewaiting for a scream.... Surely it would be soon.

  The night suddenly seemed full of movement. She held her breath. Thingswere passing--one, two, three--subtly sneaking shadows.... Jackals.

  Then a long waiting again.

  Then, asserting itself as real at once over all the sounds her mind hadimagined, came a stir in the thicket, then a vigorous movement. Therewas a snap. The reeds crashed heavily, once, twice, thrice, and theneverything was still save a measured swishing. She heard a low tremulousgrowl, and then everything was still again. The stillnesslengthened--would it never end? She held her breath; she bit her lips tostop screaming. Then something scuttled through the undergrowth. Herscream was involuntary. She did not hear the answering yell from themound.

  Immediately the thicket woke up to vigorous movement again. She saw thegrass stems waving in the light of the setting moon, the alders swaying.She struggled violently--her last struggle. But nothing came towardsher. A dozen monsters seemed rushing about in that little place for acouple of minutes, and then again came silence. The moon sank behind thedistant chestnuts and the night was dark.

  Then an odd sound, a sobbing panting, that grew faster and fainter. Yetanother silence, and then dim sounds and the grunting of some animal.

  Everything was still again. Far away eastwards an elephant trumpeted,and from the woods came a snarling and yelping that died away.

  In the long interval the moon shone out again, between the stems of thetrees on the ridge, sending two great bars of light and a bar ofdarkness across the reedy waste. Then came a steady rustling, a splash,and the reeds swayed wider and wider apart. And at last they broke open,cleft from root to crest.... The end had come.

  She looked to see the thing that had come out of the reeds. For a momentit seemed certainly the great head and jaw she expected, and then itdwindled and changed. It was a dark low thing, that remained silent, butit was not the lion. It became still--everything became still. Shepeered. It was like some gigantic frog, two limbs and a slanting body.Its head moved about searching the shadows....

  A rustle, and it moved clumsily, with a sort of hopping. And as it movedit gave a low groan.

  The blood rushing through her veins was suddenly joy. "_Ugh-lomi!_" shewhispered.

  The thing stopped. "_Eudena_," he answered softly with pain in hisvoice, and peering into the alders.

  He moved again, and came out of the shadow beyond the reeds into themoonlight. All his body was covered with dark smears. She saw he wasdragging his legs, and that he gripped his axe, the first axe, in onehand. In another moment he had struggled into the position of all fours,and had staggered over to her. "The lion," he said in a strange minglingof exultation and anguish. "Wau!--I have slain a lion. With my own hand.Even as I slew the great bear." He moved to emphasise his words, andsuddenly broke off with a faint cry. For a space he did not move.

  "Let me free," whispered Eudena....

  He answered her no words but pulled himself up from his crawlingattitude by means of the alder stem, and hacked at her thongs with thesharp edge of his axe. She heard him sob at each blow. He cut away thethongs about her chest and arms, and then his hand dropped. His cheststruck
against her shoulder and he slipped down beside her and laystill.

  But the rest of her release was easy. Very hastily she freed herself.She made one step from the tree, and her head was spinning. Her lastconscious movement was towards him. She reeled, and dropped. Her handfell upon his thigh. It was soft and wet, and gave way under herpressure; he cried out at her touch, and writhed and lay still again.

  Presently a dark dog-like shape came very softly through the reeds. Thenstopped dead and stood sniffing, hesitated, and at last turned and slunkback into the shadows.

  Long was the time they remained there motionless, with the light of thesetting moon shining on their limbs. Very slowly, as slowly as thesetting of the moon, did the shadow of the reeds towards the mound flowover them. Presently their legs were hidden, and Ugh-lomi was but a bustof silver. The shadow crept to his neck, crept over his face, and so atlast the darkness of the night swallowed them up.

  The shadow became full of instinctive stirrings. There was a patter offeet, and a faint snarling--the sound of a blow.

  * * * * *

  There was little sleep that night for the women and children at thesquatting-place until they heard Eudena scream. But the men were wearyand sat dozing. When Eudena screamed they felt assured of their safety,and hurried to get the nearest places to the fires. The old womanlaughed at the scream, and laughed again because Si, the little friendof Eudena, whimpered. Directly the dawn came they were all alert andlooking towards the alders. They could see that Eudena had been taken.They could not help feeling glad to think that Uya was appeased. Butacross the minds of the men the thought of Ugh-lomi fell like a shadow.They could understand revenge, for the world was old in revenge, butthey did not think of rescue. Suddenly a hyaena fled out of the thicket,and came galloping across the reed space. His muzzle and paws weredark-stained. At that sight all the men shouted and clutched atthrowing-stones and ran towards him, for no animal is so pitiful acoward as the hyaena by day. All men hated the hyaena because he preyed onchildren, and would come and bite when one was sleeping on the edge ofthe squatting-place. And Cat's-skin, throwing fair and straight, hit thebrute shrewdly on the flank, whereat the whole tribe yelled withdelight.

  At the noise they made there came a flapping of wings from the lair ofthe lion, and three white-headed vultures rose slowly and circled andcame to rest amidst the branches of an alder, overlooking the lair. "Ourlord is abroad," said the old woman, pointing. "The vultures have theirshare of Eudena." For a space they remained there, and then first oneand then another dropped back into the thicket.

  Then over the eastern woods, and touching the whole world to life andcolour, poured, with the exaltation of a trumpet blast, the light of therising sun. At the sight of him the children shouted together, andclapped their hands and began to race off towards the water. Only littleSi lagged behind and looked wonderingly at the alders where she had seenthe head of Eudena overnight.

  But Uya, the old lion, was not abroad, but at home, and he lay verystill, and a little on one side. He was not in his lair, but a littleway from it in a place of trampled grass. Under one eye was a littlewound, the feeble little bite of the first axe. But all the groundbeneath his chest was ruddy brown with a vivid streak, and in his chestwas a little hole that had been made by Ugh-lomi's stabbing-spear. Alonghis side and at his neck the vultures had marked their claims. For soUgh-lomi had slain him, lying stricken under his paw and thrustinghaphazard at his chest. He had driven the spear in with all his strengthand stabbed the giant to the heart. So it was the reign of the lion, ofthe second incarnation of Uya the Master, came to an end.

  From the knoll the bustle of preparation grew, the hacking of spears andthrowing-stones. None spake the name of Ugh-lomi for fear that it mightbring him. The men were going to keep together, close together, in thehunting for a day or so. And their hunting was to be Ugh-lomi, lestinstead he should come a-hunting them.

  But Ugh-lomi was lying very still and silent, outside the lion's lair,and Eudena squatted beside him, with the ash spear, all smeared withlion's blood, gripped in her hand.

  V--THE FIGHT IN THE LION'S THICKET

  Ugh-lomi lay still, his back against an alder, and his thigh was a redmass terrible to see. No civilised man could have lived who had been sosorely wounded, but Eudena got him thorns to close his wounds, andsquatted beside him day and night, smiting the flies from him with a fanof reeds by day, and in the night threatening the hyaenas with the firstaxe in her hand; and in a little while he began to heal. It was highsummer, and there was no rain. Little food they had during the first twodays his wounds were open. In the low place where they hid were no rootsnor little beasts, and the stream, with its water-snails and fish, wasin the open a hundred yards away. She could not go abroad by day forfear of the tribe, her brothers and sisters, nor by night for fear ofthe beasts, both on his account and hers. So they shared the lion withthe vultures. But there was a trickle of water near by, and Eudenabrought him plenty in her hands.

  Where Ugh-lomi lay was well hidden from the tribe by a thicket ofalders, and all fenced about with bulrushes and tall reeds. The deadlion he had killed lay near his old lair on a place of trampled reedsfifty yards away, in sight through the reed-stems, and the vulturesfought each other for the choicest pieces and kept the jackals off him.Very soon a cloud of flies that looked like bees hung over him, andUgh-lomi could hear their humming. And when Ugh-lomi's flesh was alreadyhealing--and it was not many days before that began--only a few bones ofthe lion remained scattered and shining white.

  For the most part Ugh-lomi sat still during the day, looking before himat nothing, sometimes he would mutter of the horses and bears and lions,and sometimes he would beat the ground with the first axe and say thenames of the tribe--he seemed to have no fear of bringing the tribe--forhours together. But chiefly he slept, dreaming little because of hisloss of blood and the slightness of his food. During the short summernight both kept awake. All the while the darkness lasted things movedabout them, things they never saw by day. For some nights the hyaenas didnot come, and then one moonless night near a dozen came and fought forwhat was left of the lion. The night was a tumult of growling, andUgh-lomi and Eudena could hear the bones snap in their teeth. But theyknew the hyaena dare not attack any creature alive and awake, and so theywere not greatly afraid.

  Of a daytime Eudena would go along the narrow path the old lion had madein the reeds until she was beyond the bend, and then she would creepinto the thicket and watch the tribe. She would lie close by the alderswhere they had bound her to offer her up to the lion, and thence shecould see them on the knoll by the fire, small and clear, as she hadseen them that night. But she told Ugh-lomi little of what she saw,because she feared to bring them by their names. For so they believed inthose days, that naming called.

  She saw the men prepare stabbing-spears and throwing-stones on themorning after Ugh-lomi had slain the lion, and go out to hunt him,leaving the women and children on the knoll. Little they knew how nearhe was as they tracked off in single file towards the hills, with Sissthe Tracker leading them. And she watched the women and children, afterthe men had gone, gathering fern-fronds and twigs for the night fire,and the boys and girls running and playing together. But the very oldwoman made her feel afraid. Towards noon, when most of the others weredown at the stream by the bend, she came and stood on the hither side ofthe knoll, a gnarled brown figure, and gesticulated so that Eudena couldscarce believe she was not seen. Eudena lay like a hare in its form,with shining eyes fixed on the bent witch away there, and presently shedimly understood it was the lion the old woman was worshipping--the lionUgh-lomi had slain.

  And the next day the hunters came back weary, carrying a fawn, andEudena watched the feast enviously. And then came a strange thing. Shesaw--distinctly she heard--the old woman shrieking and gesticulatingand pointing towards her. She was afraid, and crept like a snake out ofsight again. But presently curiosity overcame her and she was back ather spying-place, and as she pe
ered her heart stopped, for there wereall the men, with their weapons in their hands, walking together towardsher from the knoll.

  She dared not move lest her movement should be seen, but she pressedherself close to the ground. The sun was low and the golden light was inthe faces of the men. She saw they carried a piece of rich red meatthrust through by an ashen stake. Presently they stopped. "Go on!"screamed the old woman. Cat's-skin grumbled, and they came on, searchingthe thicket with sun-dazzled eyes. "Here!" said Siss. And they took theashen stake with the meat upon it and thrust it into the ground. "Uya!"cried Siss, "behold thy portion. And Ugh-lomi we have slain. Of a truthwe have slain Ugh-lomi. This day we slew Ugh-lomi, and to-morrow we willbring his body to you." And the others repeated the words.

  They looked at each other and behind them, and partly turned and begangoing back. At first they walked half turned to the thicket, then facingthe mound they walked faster looking over their shoulders, then faster;soon they ran, it was a race at last, until they were near the knoll.Then Siss who was hindmost was first to slacken his pace.

  The sunset passed and the twilight came, the fires glowed red againstthe hazy blue of the distant chestnut-trees, and the voices over themound were merry. Eudena lay scarcely stirring, looking from the moundto the meat and then to the mound. She was hungry, but she was afraid.At last she crept back to Ugh-lomi.

  He looked round at the little rustle of her approach. His face was inshadow. "Have you got me some food?" he said.

  She said she could find nothing, but that she would seek further, andwent back along the lion's path until she could see the mound again, butshe could not bring herself to take the meat; she had the brute'sinstinct of a snare. She felt very miserable.

  She crept back at last towards Ugh-lomi and heard him stirring andmoaning. She turned back to the mound again; then she saw something inthe darkness near the stake, and peering distinguished a jackal. In aflash she was brave and angry; she sprang up, cried out, and ran towardsthe offering. She stumbled and fell, and heard the growling of thejackal going off.

  When she arose only the ashen stake lay on the ground, the meat wasgone. So she went back, to fast through the night with Ugh-lomi; andUgh-lomi was angry with her, because she had no food for him; but shetold him nothing of the things she had seen.

  Two days passed and they were near starving, when the tribe slew ahorse. Then came the same ceremony, and a haunch was left on the ashenstake; but this time Eudena did not hesitate.

  By acting and words she made Ugh-lomi understand, but he ate most of thefood before he understood; and then as her meaning passed to him he grewmerry with his food. "I am Uya," he said; "I am the Lion. I am the GreatCave Bear, I who was only Ugh-lomi. I am Wau the Cunning. It is wellthat they should feed me, for presently I will kill them all."

  Then Eudena's heart was light, and she laughed with him; and afterwardsshe ate what he had left of the horseflesh with gladness.

  After that it was he had a dream, and the next day he made Eudena bringhim the lion's teeth and claws--so much of them as she could find--andhack him a club of alder. And he put the teeth and claws very cunninglyinto the wood so that the points were outward. Very long it took him,and he blunted two of the teeth hammering them in, and was very angryand threw the thing away; but afterwards he dragged himself to where hehad thrown it and finished it--a club of a new sort set with teeth. Thatday there was more meat for them both, an offering to the lion from thetribe.

  It was one day--more than a hand's fingers of days, more than anyone hadskill to count--after Ugh-lomi had made the club, that Eudena while hewas asleep was lying in the thicket watching the squatting-place. Therehad been no meat for three days. And the old woman came and worshippedafter her manner. Now while she worshipped, Eudena's little friend Siand another, the child of the first girl Siss had loved, came over theknoll and stood regarding her skinny figure, and presently they began tomock her. Eudena found this entertaining, but suddenly the old womanturned on them quickly and saw them. For a moment she stood and theystood motionless, and then with a shriek of rage, she rushed towardsthem, and all three disappeared over the crest of the knoll.

  Presently the children reappeared among the ferns beyond the shoulder ofthe hill. Little Si ran first, for she was an active girl, and theother child ran squealing with the old woman close upon her. And overthe knoll came Siss with a bone in his hand, and Bo and Cat's-skinobsequiously behind him, each holding a piece of food, and they laughedaloud and shouted to see the old woman so angry. And with a shriek thechild was caught and the old woman set to work slapping and the childscreaming, and it was very good after-dinner fun for them. Little Si ranon a little way and stopped at last between fear and curiosity.

  And suddenly came the mother of the child, with hair streaming, panting,and with a stone in her hand, and the old woman turned about like a wildcat. She was the equal of any woman, was the chief of the fire-minders,in spite of her years; but before she could do anything Siss shouted toher and the clamour rose loud. Other shock heads came into sight. Itseemed the whole tribe was at home and feasting. But the old woman darednot go on wreaking herself on the child Siss befriended.

  Everyone made noises and called names--even little Si. Abruptly the oldwoman let go of the child she had caught and made a swift run at Si forSi had no friends; and Si, realising her danger when it was almost uponher, made off headlong, with a faint cry of terror, not heeding whithershe ran, straight to the lair of the lion. She swerved aside into thereeds presently, realising now whither she went.

  But the old woman was a wonderful old woman, as active as she wasspiteful, and she caught Si by the streaming hair within thirty yards ofEudena. All the tribe now was running down the knoll and shouting andlaughing ready to see the fun.

  Then something stirred in Eudena; something that had never stirred inher before; and, thinking all of little Si and nothing of her fear, shesprang up from her ambush and ran swiftly forward. The old woman did notsee her, for she was busy beating little Si's face with her hand,beating with all her heart, and suddenly something hard and heavy struckher cheek. She went reeling, and saw Eudena with flaming eyes and cheeksbetween her and little Si. She shrieked with astonishment and terror,and little Si, not understanding, set off towards the gaping tribe. Theywere quite close now, for the sight of Eudena had driven their fadingfear of the lion out of their heads.

  In a moment Eudena had turned from the cowering old woman and overtakenSi. "Si!" she cried, "Si!" She caught the child up in her arms as itstopped, pressed the nail-lined face to hers, and turned about to runtowards her lair, the lair of the old lion. The old woman stoodwaist-high in the reeds, and screamed foul things and inarticulate rage,but did not dare to intercept her; and at the bend of the path Eudenalooked back and saw all the men of the tribe crying to one another andSiss coming at a trot along the lion's trail.

  She ran straight along the narrow way through the reeds to the shadyplace where Ugh-lomi sat with his healing thigh, just awakened by theshouting and rubbing his eyes. She came to him, a woman, with little Siin her arms. Her heart throbbed in her throat. "Ugh-lomi!" she cried,"Ugh-lomi, the tribe comes!"

  Ugh-lomi sat staring in stupid astonishment at her and Si.

  She pointed with Si in one arm. She sought among her feeble store ofwords to explain. She could hear the men calling. Apparently they hadstopped outside. She put down Si and caught up the new club with thelion's teeth, and put it into Ugh-lomi's hand, and ran three yards andpicked up the first axe.

  "Ah!" said Ugh-lomi, waving the new club, and suddenly he perceived theoccasion and, rolling over, began to struggle to his feet.

  He stood but clumsily. He supported himself by one hand against thetree, and just touched the ground gingerly with the toe of his woundedleg. In the other hand he gripped the new club. He looked at his healingthigh; and suddenly the reeds began whispering, and ceased and whisperedagain, and coming cautiously along the track, bending down and holdinghis fire-hardened stabbing-stick of ash in
his hand, appeared Siss. Hestopped dead, and his eyes met Ugh-lomi's.

  Ugh-lomi forgot he had a wounded leg. He stood firmly on both feet.Something trickled. He glanced down and saw a little gout of blood hadoozed out along the edge of the healing wound. He rubbed his hand thereto give him the grip of his club, and fixed his eyes again on Siss.

  "Wau!" he cried, and sprang forward, and Siss, still stooping andwatchful, drove his stabbing-stick up very quickly in an ugly thrust. Itripped Ugh-lomi's guarding arm and the club came down in a counter thatSiss was never to understand. He fell, as an ox falls to the pole-axe,at Ugh-lomi's feet.

  To Bo it seemed the strangest thing. He had a comforting sense of tallreeds on either side, and an impregnable rampart, Siss, between him andany danger. Snail-eater was close behind and there was no danger there.He was prepared to shove behind and send Siss to death or victory. Thatwas his place as second man. He saw the butt of the spear Siss carriedleap away from him, and suddenly a dull whack and the broad back fellaway forward, and he looked Ugh-lomi in the face over his prostrateleader. It felt to Bo as if his heart had fallen down a well. He had athrowing-stone in one hand and an ashen stabbing-stick in the other. Hedid not live to the end of his momentary hesitation which to use.

  Snail-eater was a readier man, and besides Bo did not fall forward asSiss had done, but gave at his knees and hips, crumpling up with thetoothed club upon his head. The Snail-eater drove his spear forwardswift and straight, and took Ugh-lomi in the muscle of the shoulder, andthen he drove him hard with the smiting-stone in his other hand,shouting out as he did so. The new club swished ineffectually throughthe reeds. Eudena saw Ugh-lomi come staggering back from the narrow pathinto the open space, tripping over Siss and with a foot of ashen stakesticking out of him over his arm. And then the Snail-eater, whose nameshe had given, had his final injury from her, as his exultant face cameout of the reeds after his spear. For she swung the first axe swift andhigh, and hit him fair and square on the temple; and down he went onSiss at prostrate Ugh-lomi's feet.

  But before Ugh-lomi could get up, the two red-haired men were tumblingout of the reeds, spears and smiting-stones ready, and Snake hard behindthem. One she struck on the neck, but not to fell him, and he blunderedaside and spoilt his brother's blow at Ugh-lomi's head. In a momentUgh-lomi dropped his club and had his assailant by the waist, and hadpitched him sideways sprawling. He snatched at his club again andrecovered it. The man Eudena had hit stabbed at her with his spear as hestumbled from her blow, and involuntarily she gave ground to avoid him.He hesitated between her and Ugh-lomi, half turned, gave a vague cry atfinding Ugh-lomi so near, and in a moment Ugh-lomi had him by thethroat, and the club had its third victim. As he went down Ugh-lomishouted--no words, but an exultant cry.

  The other red-haired man was six feet from her with his back to her, anda darker red streaking his head. He was struggling to his feet. She hadan irrational impulse to stop his rising. She flung the axe at him,missed, saw his face in profile, and he had swerved beyond little Si,and was running through the reeds. She had a transitory vision of Snakestanding in the throat of the path, half turned away from her, and thenshe saw his back. She saw the club whirling through the air, and theshock head of Ugh-lomi, with blood in the hair and blood upon theshoulder, vanishing below the reeds in pursuit. Then she heard Snakescream like a woman.

  She ran past Si to where the handle of the axe stuck out of a clump offern, and turning, found herself panting and alone with three motionlessbodies. The air was full of shouts and screams. For a space she was sickand giddy, and then it came into her head that Ugh-lomi was being killedalong the reed-path, and with an inarticulate cry she leapt over thebody of Bo and hurried after him. Snake's feet lay across the path, andhis head was among the reeds. She followed the path until it bent roundand opened out by the alders, and thence she saw all that was left ofthe tribe in the open, scattering like dead leaves before a gale, andgoing back over the knoll. Ugh-lomi was hard upon Cat's-skin.

  But Cat's-skin was fleet of foot and got away, and so did young Wau-Hauwhen Ugh-lomi turned upon him, and Ugh-lomi pursued Wau-Hau far beyondthe knoll before he desisted. He had the rage of battle on him now, andthe wood thrust through his shoulder stung him like a spur. When she sawhe was in no danger she stopped running and stood panting, watching thedistant active figures run up and vanish one by one over the knoll. In alittle time she was alone again. Everything had happened very swiftly.The smoke of Brother Fire rose straight and steady from thesquatting-place, just as it had done ten minutes ago, when the old womanhad stood yonder worshipping the lion.

  And after a long time, as it seemed, Ugh-lomi reappeared over the knoll,and came back to Eudena, triumphant and breathing heavily. She stood,her hair about her eyes and hot-faced, with the blood-stained axe in herhand, at the place where the tribe had offered her as a sacrifice to thelion. "Wau!" cried Ugh-lomi at the sight of her, his face alight withthe fellowship of battle, and he waved his new club, red now and hairy;and at the sight of his glowing face her tense pose relaxed somewhat,and she stood sobbing and rejoicing.

  Ugh-lomi had a queer unaccountable pang at the sight of her tears; buthe only shouted "Wau!" the louder and shook the axe east and west. Hecalled manfully to her to follow him and turned back, striding, with theclub swinging in his hand, towards the squatting-place, as if he hadnever left the tribe; and she ceased her weeping and followed quickly asa woman should.

  So Ugh-lomi and Eudena came back to the squatting-place from which theyhad fled many days before from the face of Uya; and by thesquatting-place lay a deer half eaten, just as there had been beforeUgh-lomi was man or Eudena woman. So Ugh-lomi sat down to eat, andEudena beside him like a man, and the rest of the tribe watched themfrom safe hiding-places. And after a time one of the elder girls cameback timorously, carrying little Si in her arms, and Eudena called tothem by name, and offered them food. But the elder girl was afraid andwould not come, though Si struggled to come to Eudena. Afterwards, whenUgh-lomi had eaten, he sat dozing, and at last he slept, and slowly theothers came out of the hiding-places and drew near. And when Ugh-lomiwoke, save that there were no men to be seen, it seemed as though he hadnever left the tribe.

  Now, there is a thing strange but true: that all through this fightUgh-lomi forgot that he was lame, and was not lame, and after he hadrested behold! he was a lame man; and he remained a lame man to the endof his days.

  Cat's-skin and the second red-haired man and Wau-Hau, who chipped flintscunningly, as his father had done before him, fled from the face ofUgh-lomi, and none knew where they hid. But two days after they came andsquatted a good way off from the knoll among the bracken under thechestnuts and watched. Ugh-lomi's rage had gone, he moved to go againstthem and did not, and at sundown they went away. That day, too, theyfound the old woman among the ferns, where Ugh-lomi had blundered uponher when he had pursued Wau-Hau. She was dead and more ugly than ever,but whole. The jackals and vultures had tried her and left her;--she wasever a wonderful old woman.

  The next day the three men came again and squatted nearer, and Wau-Hauhad two rabbits to hold up, and the red-haired man a wood-pigeon, andUgh-lomi stood before the women and mocked them.

  The next day they sat again nearer--without stones or sticks, and withthe same offerings, and Cat's-skin had a trout. It was rare men caughtfish in those days, but Cat's-skin would stand silently in the water forhours and catch them with his hand. And the fourth day Ugh-lomi sufferedthese three to come to the squatting-place in peace, with the food theyhad with them. Ugh-lomi ate the trout. Thereafter for many moonsUgh-lomi was master and had his will in peace. And on the fulness oftime he was killed and eaten even as Uya had been slain.

 

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