CHAPTER VIII
THE BENDING OF THE BOW
Before the Caves of the Pointed Hills the fires of the tribe burnedbrightly. Within the caves reigned plenty and an unheard-of security;for since the conquest of fire those monstrous beasts and giganticcarnivorous, running birds, which had been Man's ceaseless menace eversince he swung down out of the tree-tops to walk the earth erect, hadbeen held at a distance through awe of the licking flames. Though thegreat battle which had hurled back the invading hosts of the Bow-legshad cost the tribe more than half its warriors, the Caves wereswarming with vigorous children. To Bawr, the Chief, and to Grom, hisRight Hand and Councilor, the future of the tribe looked secure.
So sharp had been the lessons lately administered to the prowlingbeasts--the terrible saber-tooth, the giant red bear of the caves, theproud black lion, and the bone-crushing cave hyena--that even thestretch of bumpy plain outside the circle of the fires, to a distanceof several hundred paces, was considered a safe playground for thechildren of the tribe. On the outermost skirts of this playground, tobe sure, just where the reedy pools and the dense bamboo thicketsbegan, there was a fire kept burning. But this was more as a reminderthan as an actual defense. When a bear or a saber-tooth had once had ablazing brand thrust in his face, he acquired a measure of discretion.Moreover, the activities of the tribe had driven all the game animalsto some distance up the valley; and it was seldom that anything moreformidable than a jackal or a civet-cat cared to come within ahalf-mile of the fires.
It was now two years since the rescue of A-ya from her captivity amongthe Bow-legs. Her child by Grom was a straight-limbed, fair-skinnedlad of somewhere between four and five years. She sat cross-leggednear the sentinel fire, some fifty yards or so from the edge of thethickets, and played with the lad, whose eyes were alight with eagerintelligence. Behind her sprawled, playing contentedly with its toesand sucking a banana, a fat brown flat-nosed baby of some fourteen orfifteen months.
Both A-ya and the boy were interested in a new toy. It was, perhaps,the first whip. The boy had succeeded in tying a thin strip of greenhide, something over three feet in length, to one end of a stick whichwas several inches longer. The uses of a whip came to him by unerringinsight, and he began applying it to his mother's shoulders. Thenovelty of it delighted them both. A-ya, moreover, chuckled slyly atthe thought that the procedure might, on some future occasion, bereversed, not without advantage to the cause of discipline.
At last the lithe lash, so enthusiastically wielded, stung too hardfor even A-ya, with all her stoicism, to find it amusing. She snatchedthe toy away and began playing with it herself. The lash, at its freeend, chanced to be slit almost to the tip, forming a loop. The butt ofthe handle was formed by a jagged knot, where it had been broken fromthe parent stem. Idly but firmly, with her strong hands she bent thestick, and slipped the loop over the jagged knot, where it held.
Interested, but with no hint of comprehension in her bright eyes, shelooked upon the first bow--the stupendous product of a child and awoman playing.
The child, displeased at this new, useless thing, and wanting his whipback, tried to snatch the bow from his mother's hands. But she pushedhim off. She liked this new toy. It looked, somehow, as if it invitedher to do something with it. Presently she pulled the cord, and let itgo again. Tightly strung, it made a pleasant little humming sound.This she repeated many times, holding it up to her ear and laughingwith pleasure. The boy grew interested thereupon, and wanted to trythe new game for himself. But A-ya was too absorbed. She would not lethim touch it. "Go get another stick," she commanded impatiently; butquite forgot to see her command obeyed.
As she was twanging the strange implement which had so happilyfashioned itself under her hands, Grom came up behind her. He steppedcarefully over the sprawling brown baby. He was about to pull herheavy hair affectionately; but his eyes fell upon the thing in herhands, and he checked himself.
For minute after minute he stood there motionless, watching andstudying the new toy. His eyes narrowed, his brows drew themselvesdown broodingly. The thing seemed to him to suggest dim, cloudy, vastpossibilities; and he groped in his brain for some hint of the natureof these possibilities. Yet as far as he could see it was good fornothing but to make a faintly pleasant twang for the amusement ofwomen and children. At last he could keep his hands off it no longer."Give it to me," said he suddenly, laying hold of A-ya's wrist.
But A-ya was not yet done with it. She held it away from him, andtwanged it with redoubled vigor. Without further argument, and withoutviolence, Grom reached out a long arm, and found the bow in his grasp.A-ya was surprised that such a trifle should seem of such importancein her lord's eyes; but her faith was great. She shook the wild maneof hair back from her face, silenced the boy's importunings with animperative gesture, and gathered herself with her arms about bothknees to watch what Grom would do with the plaything.
First he examined it minutely, and then he fastened the thong moresecurely at either end. He twanged it as A-ya had done. He bent it toits limit and eased it slowly back again, studying the new forceimprisoned in the changing curve. At last he asked who had made it.
"I did," answered A-ya, very proud of her achievement now that shefound it taken so seriously by one being to whom her adventurousspirit really deferred.
"No, _I_ did!" piped the boy, with an injured air.
The mother laughed indulgently. "Yes, he tied one end, and beat mewith it," said she. "Then I took it from him, and bent the stick andtied the other end."
"It is very good!" said Grom, nodding his approval musingly. Hesquatted down a few feet away, and began experimenting.
Picking up a small stone, he held it upon the cord, bent the bow alittle way, and let go. The stone flew up and hit him with amazingenergy in the mouth.
"_Oh!_" murmured A-ya, sympathetically, as the bright blood ran downhis beard. But the child, thinking that his father had done it onpurpose, laughed with hearty appreciation. Somewhat annoyed, Grom gotup, moved a few paces farther away, and sat down again with his backto the family circle.
As to the force that lurked in this slender little implement he wasnow fully satisfied. But he was not satisfied with the direction inwhich it exerted itself. He continued his experiments, but was carefulto draw the bow lightly.
For a long time he found it impossible to guess beforehand thedirection which the pebbles, or the bits of stick or bark, would takein their surprising leaps from the loosed bow-string. But at length adim idea of aim occurred to him. He lifted the bow--his left fistgrasping its middle--to the level of his eyes, at arm's length. He gotthe cord accurately in the center of the pebble, and drew toward hisnose. This effort was so successful that the stone went perfectlystraight--and caught him fair on the thumb-knuckle.
The blow was so sharp that he dropped the bow with an angryexclamation. Glancing quickly over his shoulder to see if A-ya hadnoticed the incident, he observed that her face was buried between herknees and quite hidden by her hair. But her shoulders were heavingspasmodically. He suspected that she was laughing at him; and for amoment, as his knuckle was aching fiercely, he considered theadvisability of giving her a beating. He had never done such a thingto her, however, though all the other Cave Men, including Bawrhimself, were wont to beat their women on occasion. In his heart hehated the idea of hurting her; and it would hardly be worth while tobeat her without hurting her. The idea, therefore, was promptlydismissed. He eyed the shaking shoulders gloomily for some seconds;and then, as the throbbing in the outraged knuckle subsided, a grin ofsympathetic comprehension spread over his own face. He picked up thebow, sprang to his feet, and strolled over to the edge of a thicket ofyoung cane.
The girl, lifting her head, peered at him cautiously through her hair.Her laughter was forgotten on the instant, because she guessed thathis fertile brain was on the trail of some new experiment.
Arriving at the cane-thicket, Grom broke himself half a dozenwell-hardened, tapering stems, from two to three feet in length, andabou
t as thick at their smaller ends as A-ya's little finger.
These seemed to suggest to him the possibility of better results thananything he could get from those erratic pebbles.
By this time quite a number of curious spectators--women and childrenmostly, the majority of the men being away hunting, and the rest tooproud to show their curiosity--had gathered to watch Grom'sexperiments. They were puzzled to make out what it was he was busyinghimself with. But as he was a great chief, and held in deeper awe thaneven Bawr himself, they did not presume to come very near; and theyhad therefore not perceived, or at least they had not apprehended,those two trifling mishaps of his. As for Grom, he paid his audienceno attention whatever. Now that he had possessed himself of thoseslender straight shafts of cane, all else was forgotten. He felt, ashe looked at them and poised them, that in some vital way theybelonged to this fascinating implement which A-ya had invented forhim.
Selecting one of the shafts, he slowly applied the bigger end of it tothe bow-string, and stood for a long time pondering it, drawing it alittle way and easing it back without releasing it. Then he called tomind that his spears always threw better when they were hurled heavyend first. So he turned the little shaft and applied the small end tothe bow-string. Then he pulled the string tentatively, and let it go.The arrow, all unguided, shot straight up into the air, turned over,fell sharply, and buried its head in a bit of soft ground. Grom feltthat this was progress. The spectators opened their mouths in wonder,but durst not venture any comment when Grom was at his mysteries.
Plucking the shaft from the earth, Grom once more laid it to thebow-string. As he pulled the string, the shaft wobbled crazily. With agrowl of impatience, he clapped the fore-finger of his left hand overit, holding it in place, and pulled it through the guide thus formed.A light flashed upon his brooding intelligence. Slightly crooking hisfinger, so that the shaft could move freely, he drew the stringbackward and forward, with deep deliberation, over and over again. Tohis delight, he found that the shaft was no longer eccentricallyrebellious, but as docile as he could wish. At last, lifting the bowabove his head, he drew it strongly, and shot the shaft into the air.He shouted as it slipped smoothly through the guiding crook of hisfinger and went soaring skyward as if it would never stop. The eyes ofthe spectators followed its flight with awe, and A-ya, suddenlycomprehending, caught her breath and snatched the boy to her heart ina transport. Her alert mind had grasped, though dimly, the wonder ofher man's achievement.
Now, though Grom had pointed his shaft skyward, he had taken nothought whatever as to its direction, or the distance it might travel.As a matter of fact, he had shot towards the Caves. He had shotstrongly; and that first bow was a stiff one. Most of the folk whosquatted before the Caves were watching; but there were some who weretoo indifferent or too stupid to take an interest in anything lessarresting than a thump on the head. Among these was a fat old woman,who, with her back to all the excitement, was bending herself doubleto grub in the litter of sticks and bones for some tit-bit which shehad dropped. Grom's shaft, turning gracefully against the blue camedarting downward on a long slope, and buried its point in thatupturned fat and grimy thigh. With a yell the old woman whipped round,tore out the shaft, dashed it upon the ground, stared at it in horroras if she thought it some kind of snake, and waddled, wildlyjabbering, into the nearest cave.
An outburst of startled cries arose from all the spectators, but ithushed itself almost in the same breath. It was Grom who had done thissingular thing, smiting unawares from very far off. The old woman musthave done something to make Grom angry. They were all afraid; andseveral, whose consciences were not quite at ease, followed the oldwoman's example and slipped into the Caves.
As for Grom, his feelings were a mixture of embarrassment and elation.He was sorry to have hurt the old woman. He had a ridiculous dislikeof hurting any one unnecessarily; and when he looked back and saw A-yarocking herself to and fro in heartless mirth, he felt like asking herhow she would have liked it herself, if she had been in the place ofthe fat old woman. On the other hand, he knew that he had made a greatdiscovery, second only to the conquest of the fire. He had found a newweapon, of unheard-of, unimagined powers, able to kill swiftly andsilently and at a great distance. All he had to do was to perfect theweapon and learn to control it.
He strode haughtily up to the cave mouth to recover his shaft. Thepeople, even the mightiest of the warriors, looked anxious anddeprecating at his approach; but he gave them never a glance. It wouldnot have done to let them think he had wounded the old woman byaccident. He picked up the shaft and examined its bloodstained point,frowning fiercely. Then he glared into the cave where the unluckyvictim of his experiments had taken refuge. He refitted the shaft tothe bow-string, and made as if to follow up his stroke with furtherchastisement. Instantly there came from the dark interior a chorus ofshrill feminine entreaties. He hesitated, seemed to relent, put theshaft into the bundle under his arm, and strode back to rejoin A-ya.He had done enough for the moment. His next step required deep thoughtand preparation.
An hour or two later, Grom set out from the Caves alone in spite ofA-ya's pleadings. He wanted complete solitude with his new weapon.Besides a generous bundle of canes, of varying lengths and sizes, hecarried some strips of raw meat, a bunch of plantains, his spear andclub, and a sort of rude basket, without handle, formed by tyingtogether the ends of a roll of green bark.
This basket was a device of A-ya's, which had added greatly to herprestige in the tribe, and caused the women to regard her withredoubled jealousy. By lining it thickly with wet clay, she was ableto carry fire in it so securely and simply that Grom had adopted it atonce, throwing away his uncertain and always troublesome fire-tubes ofhollow bamboo.
Mounting the steep hillside behind the Caves, Grom turned into ahigh, winding ravine, and was soon lost to the sight of the tribe.The ravine, the bed of a long-dry torrent, climbed rapidly,bearing around to the eastward, and brought him at length to a highplateau on a shoulder of the mountain. At the back of the plateau themountain rose again, abruptly, to one of those saw-tooth pinnacleswhich characterized this range. At the base of the steep was anarrow fissure in the rock-face, leading into a small grotto whichGrom had discovered on one of his hunting expeditions. He had usedit several times already as a retreat when tired of the hubbub ofthe tribe and anxious to ponder in quiet some of the problems whichfor ever tormented his fruitful brain.
Absorbed in meditations upon his new weapons, Grom set himself tobuild a small fire before the entrance of the grotto. The red coalsfrom his fire-basket he surrounded and covered with dry grass, deadtwigs, and small sticks. Then, getting down upon all fours, he blewlong and steadily into the mass till the smoke which curled up from itwas streaked with thin flames. As the flames curled higher, his earscaught the sound of something stirring within the cave. He looked up,peering between the little coils of smoke, and saw a pair of eyes,very close to the ground, glaring forth at him from the darkness.
With one hand, he coolly but swiftly fed the fire to fuller volume,while with the other he reached for and clutched his club. The eyesdrew back slowly to the depths of the cave. Appearing not to haveobserved them, Grom piled the fire with heavier and heavier fuel, tillit was blazing strongly and full of well-lighted brands. Then he stoodup, seized a brand, and hurled it into the cave. There was a harshsnarl, and the eyes disappeared, the owner of them having apparentlyshrunk off to one side.
A moment or two later the interior was suddenly lighted up with asmoky glare. The brand had fallen on a heap of withered grasswhich had formerly been Grom's couch. Grom set his teeth and swungup his club; and in the same instant there shot forth two immensecave-hyenas, mad with rage and terror.
The great beasts were more afraid of the sudden flare within than ofthe substantial and dangerous fire without. The first swerved just intime to escape the fire, and went by so swiftly that the stroke ofGrom's club caught him only a light, glancing blow on the rump. Butthe second of the pair, the female, was too clos
e behind to swerve intime. She dashed straight through the fire, struck Grom with all herfrantic weight, knocked him flat, and tore off howling down thevalley, leaving a pungent trail of singed fur on the air.
Uninjured save for an ugly scratch, which bled profusely, down oneside of his face, Grom picked himself up in a rage and started afterthe fleeing beasts. But his common sense speedily reasserted itself.He grunted in disgust, turned back to the fire, and was soon absorbedin new experiments with the bow. As for the blaze within the cave, hetroubled himself no more about it. He knew it would soon burn out. Andit would leave the cave well cleansed of pestilential insects.
All that afternoon he experimented with his bundle of shafts, to findwhat length and what weight would give the best results. One of thearrows he shattered completely, by driving it, at short range,straight against the rock-face of the mountain. Two others he lost, byshooting them, far beyond his expectations, over the edge of theplateau and down into the dense thickets below him, where he did notcare to search too closely by reason of the peril of snakes. The bow,as his good luck would have it, though short and clumsy was verystrong, being made of a stick of dry upland hickory. And the cord ofraw hide was well-seasoned, stout and tough; though it had atroublesome trick of stretching, which forced Grom to restring it manytimes before all the stretch was out of it.
Having satisfied himself as to the power of his bow and the range ofhis arrows, Grom set himself next to the problem of marksmanship.Selecting a plant of prickly pear, of about the dimensions of a man,he shot at it, at different ranges, till most of its great fleshyleaves were shredded and shattered. With his straight eye and hisnatural aptitude, he soon grasped the idea of elevation for range, andmade some respectable shooting. He also found that he could guide thearrow without crooking his finger around it. His elation was soextreme that he quite forgot to eat, till the closing in of darknessput an end to his practice. Then, piling high his fire as a warning toprowlers, he squatted in the mouth of the cave and made his meal. Forwater he had to go some little way below the lip of the plateau; butcarrying a blazing balsam-knot he had nothing to fear from the beaststhat lay in ambush about the spring. They slunk away sullenly at theapproach of the waving flame.
That night Grom slept securely, with three fires before his door.Every hour or two, vigilant woodsman that he was, he would wake up toreplenish the fires, and be asleep again even in the act of lyingdown. And when the dawn came red and amber around the shoulder of thesaw-toothed peak, he was up again and out into the chill, sweet airwith his arrows.
The difficulty which now confronted him was that of giving his shaftsa penetrating point. Being of a very hard-fibered cane, akin tobamboo, they would take a kind of splintering-point of almost needlesharpness. But it was fragile; and the cane being hollow, the pointwas necessarily on one side, which affected the accuracy of theflight. There were no flints in the neighborhood, or slaty rocks,which he could split into edged and pointed fragments. He triedhardening his points in the fire; but the results were not altogethersatisfactory. He thought of tipping some of the shafts with thorns, orwith the steely points of the old aloe leaves; but he could not, atthe moment, devise such a method of fixing these formidable weapons inplace as would not quite destroy their efficiency. Finally he made uphis mind that the thing to use would be bone, ground into a suitableshape between two stones. But this was a matter that would have toawait his return to the Caves, and would then call for much carefuldevising. For the present he would perforce content himself with suchpoints as he had fined down and hardened in the fire.
This matter settled in his mind, Grom burned to put his wonderful newweapon to practical test. He descended cautiously the steep slope fromthe eastern edge of his plateau--a broken region of ledges,subtropical thickets, and narrow, grassy glades, with here and theresome tree of larger growth rising solitary like a watch-tower. Knowingthis was a favorite feeding-hour for many of the grass-eaters, he hidhimself in the well-screened crotch of a deodar, overlooking a greenglade, and waited.
He had not long to wait, for the region swarmed with game. Out from arunway some thirty or forty yards up the glade stepped a huge,dun-colored bull, with horns like scimitars each as long as Grom'sarm. His flanks were scarred with long wounds but lately healed, andGrom realized that he was a solitary, beaten and driven out from hisherd by some mightier rival. The bull glanced warily about him, andthen fell to cropping the grass.
The beast offered an admirable target. Grom's arrow sped noiselesslybetween the curtaining branches, and found its mark high on the bull'sfore-shoulder. It penetrated--but not to a depth of more than two orthree inches. And Grom, though elated by his good shot, realized thatsuch a wound would be nothing more than an irritant.
Startled and infuriated, the bull roared and pawed the sod, and glaredabout him to locate his unseen assailant. He had not the remotest ideaof the direction from which the strange attack had come. The gallingsmart in his shoulder grew momentarily more severe. He lashed back atit savagely with the side of his horn, but the arrow was just out ofhis reach. Then, bewildered and alarmed, he tried to escape from thisnew kind of fly with the intolerable sting by galloping furiously upand down the glade. As he passed the deodar, Grom let drive anotherarrow, at close range. This, too, struck, and stuck. But it did not godeep enough to produce any serious effect. The animal roared again,stared about him as if he thought the place was bewitched, and plungedheadlong into the nearest thicket, tearing out both arrows as he wentthrough the close-set stems. Grom heard him crashing onward down theslope, and smiled to think of the surprise in store for any antagonistthat might cross the mad brute's path.
This experiment upon the wild bull had shown Grom one thing clearly.He must arm his arrows with a more penetrating point. Until he couldcarry out his idea of giving them tips of bones, he must find someshoots of solid, pithless growth to take the place of his light hollowcanes. For the next hour or two he searched the jungle carefully andwarily, looking for a young growth that might immediately serve hispurpose.
But there in the jungle everything that was hard enough was crooked orgnarled, everything that was straight enough was soft and sappy. Itwas not till the sun was almost over his head, and the heat was urginghim back to the coolness of his grotto, that he came across somethingworth making a trial of. On a bleak wind-swept knoll, far out on themountain-side, lay the trunk of an old hickory-tree, which hadevidently been shattered by lightning. From the roots, tenacious oflife, had sprung up a throng of saplings, ranging from a foot or twoin height to the level of Grom's head. They were as straight and slimas the canes. And their hardness was proved to Grom's satisfactionwhen he tried to break them off. They were tough, too, so that healmost lost his patience over them, before he learned that the bestway to deal with them was to strip them down, in the direction of thefiber, where they sprang from the parent trunk or root. Having atlength gathered an armful, he returned to his grotto and proceeded toshape the refractory butts in the fire. As he squatted between thecave door and the fire he made his meal of raw flesh and plantains,and gazed out contemplatively over the vast, rankly-green landscapebelow him, musing upon the savage and monstrous strife which went onbeneath that mask of wide-flung calm. And as he pondered, the firewhich he had subjugated was quietly doing his work for him.
The result was beyond his utmost expectations. After judiciouscharring, the ends being turned continually in the glowing coals, herubbed away the charred portions between two stones, and found that hecould thus work up an evenly-rounded point. The point thus obtainedwas keen and hard; and as he balanced this new shaft in his hand herealized that its weight would add vastly to its power of penetration.When he tried a shot with it, he found that it flew farther andstraighter. It drove through the tough, fleshy leaf of the pricklypear as if it hardly noticed the obstruction. He fashioned himself ahalf-dozen more of these highly-efficient shafts, and then set outagain--this time down the ravine--to seek a living target for hispractice.
The ravine was winding
and of irregular width, terraced here and therewith broken ledges, here and there cut into by steep little narrowgullies. Its bottom was in part bare rock; but wherever there was anaccumulation of soil, and some tiny spring oozing up through thefissures, there the vegetation grew rank, starred with vivid blooms ofcanna and hibiscus. In many places the ledges were draped with a densecurtain of the flat-flowered, pink-and-gold mesembryanthemum. It was aregion well adapted to the ambuscading beasts; and Grom movedstealthily as a panther, keeping for the most part along the upperledges, crouching low to cross the open spots, and slipping into coverevery few minutes to listen and peer and sniff.
Presently he came to a spot which seemed to offer him every advantageas a place of ambush. It was a ledge some twenty feet above the valleylevel, with a sort of natural parapet behind which he could crouch,and, unseen, keep an eye on all the glades and runways below. Behindhim the rock-face was so nearly perpendicular that no enemy couldsteal upon him from the rear. He laid his club and his spear downbeside him, selected one of his best arrows, and hoped that a fat buckwould come by, or one of those little, spotted, two-toed horses whoseflesh was so prized by the people of the Caves. Such a prize would bea proof to all the tribe of the potency of his new weapon.
For nearly an hour he waited, moveless, save for his ranging eyes, asthe rock on which he leaned. To a hunter like Grom, schooled toinfinite patience, this was nothing. He knew that, in the woods, ifone waits long enough and keeps still enough, he is bound to seesomething interesting. At last it came. It was neither the fat bucknor the little two-toed horse with dapple hide, but a youngcow-buffalo. Grom noticed at once that she was nervous and puzzled.She seemed to suspect that she was being followed and was undecidedwhat to do. Once she faced about angrily, staring into the covertsbehind her, and made as if to charge. Had she been an old cow, or abull, she would have charged; but her inexperience made herirresolute. She snorted, faced about again, and moved on, ears, eyesand wide nostrils one note of wrathful interrogation. She was wellwithin range, and Grom would have tried a shot at her except for hisseasoned wariness. He would rather see, before revealing himself, whatfoe it was that dared to trail so dangerous a quarry. The buffalomoved on slowly out of range, and vanished down a runway; andimmediately afterwards the stealthy pursuer came in view.
To Grom's amazement, it was neither a lion nor a bear. It was a man,of his own tribe. And then he saw it was none other than the greatchief, Bawr himself, hunting alone after his haughty and daringfashion. Between Grom and Bawr there was the fullest understanding,and Grom would have whistled that plover-cry, his private signal, butfor the risk of interfering with Bawr's chase. Once more, therefore,he held himself in check; while Bawr, his eyes easily reading thetrail, crept on with the soundless step of a wild cat.
But Grom was not the only hunter lying in ambush in the sun-drenchedravine. Out from a bed of giant, red-blooming canna arose thediabolical, grinning head and monstrous shoulders of a saber-tooth,and stared after Bawr. Then the whole body emerged with a noiselessbound. For a second the gigantic beast stood there, with one pawuplifted, its golden-tawny bulk seeming to quiver in the downpour ofintense sunlight. It was a third as tall again at the shoulders as thebiggest Himalayan tiger, its head was flat-skulled like a tiger's, andits upper jaw was armed with two long, yellow, saber-like tusks,projecting downwards below the lower jaw. This appalling monsterstarted after Bawr with a swift, crouching rush, as silent, for allits weight, as if its feet were shod with thistledown.
Grom leapt to his feet with a wild yell of warning, at the same timeletting fly an arrow. In his haste the shaft went wide. Bawr, lookingover his shoulder, saw the giant beast almost upon him. With atremendous bound he gained the foot of a tree. Dropping his club andspear, he sprang desperately, caught a branch, and swung himselfupward.
But the saber-tooth was already at his heels, before he had time toswing quite out of reach. The gigantic brute gathered itself for aspring which would have enabled it to pluck Bawr from his refuge likea ripe fig. But that spring was never delivered. With a roar of ragethe monster turned instead, and bit furiously at the shaft of an arrowsticking in its flank. Grom's second shaft had flown true; and Bawr,greatly marveling, drew up his legs to a place of safety.
With the fire of that deep wound in its entrails the saber-toothforgot all about its quarry in the tree. It had caught sight of Gromwhen he uttered his yell of warning, and it knew instantly whence thestrange attack had come. It bit off the protruding shaft; and then,fixing its dreadful eyes on Grom, it ceased its snarling and camecharging for the ledge with a rush which seemed likely to carry itclear up the twenty-foot perpendicular of smooth rock.
Grom, enamored of the new weapon, forgot the spear which was likely tobe far more efficient at these close quarters. Leaning far out overthe parapet, he drew his arrow to the head and let drive just as themonster reared itself, open-jawed, at the wall. The pointed hickorywent down into the gaping gullet, and stood out some inches at theside of the neck. With a horrible coughing screech the monsterrecoiled, put its head between its paws, and tried to claw the anguishfrom its throat. But after a moment, seeming to realize that this wasimpossible, it backed away, gathered itself together, and sprang forthe ledge. It received another of Grom's shafts deep in the chest,without seeming to notice the wound; and its impetus was so tremendousthat it succeeded in getting its fore-paws fixed upon the ledge.Clinging there, its enormous pale-green eyes staring straight intoGrom's, it struggled to draw itself up all the way--an effort in whichit would doubtless have succeeded at once but for that first arrow inits entrails. The iron claws of its hinder feet rasped noisily on therock-face.
Grom dropped his bow beside him and reached for the spear. His handgrasped the club instead; but there was no time to change. Swingingthe stone-head weapon in air, he brought it down, with a grunt of hugeeffort, full upon one of those giant paws which clutched the edge ofthe parapet. Crushed and numbed, the grip of that paw fell away; butat the same moment one of the hinder paws got over the edge, andclung. And there the monster hung, its body bent in a contorted bow.
Bawr, meanwhile, seeing Grom's peril, had dropped from his tree,snatched up his spear and club, and rushed in to the rescue. It wascourage, this, of the finest, counting no odds; for down there on thelevel he would have stood no ghost of a chance had the beast turnedback upon him. Grom yelled to him to keep away, and swung up his clubfor another shattering blow. But in that same moment the great glaringeyes filmed and rolled upwards; blood spouted from between the gapingjaws; and with a spluttering cough the monster lost its hold. It fell,with a soft but jarring thud, upon its back, and slowly rolled overupon its side, pawing the air aimlessly. The arrow in the throat haddone its work.
With fine self-restraint Bawr refrained from striking, that he mightseem to usurp no share in Grom's amazing achievement. He stood leaningupon his spear, calmly watching the last feeble paroxysm, till Gromcame scrambling down from the ledge and stood beside him. He took thebow and arrows, and examined them in silence. Then he turned upon Gromwith burning eyes.
"You found the Fire for our people. You saved our people from thehordes of the Bow-legs. You have saved my life now, slaying themonster from very far off with these little sticks which you havemade. It is you who should be Chief, not I."
Grom laughed and shook his head. "Bawr is the better man of us two,"said he positively, "and he is a better chief. He governs the people,while I go away and think new things. And he is my friend. Look, Iwill teach him now this new thing. And we will make another just likeit, that when we return to the Caves Bawr also shall know how tostrike from very far off."
With their rough-edged spear-heads of flint they set themselves to theskinning of the saber-tooth. Then they went back to the high plateau,where Bawr was taught to shoot a straight shaft. And on the followingday they returned to the fires of the tribe, carrying between them,shoulder high, slung upon their two spears, this first trophy of thebow, the monstrous head and hide of the saber-tooth.
In the Morning of Time Page 8