In the Morning of Time

ER-DOWN

ings and goings. Only from a distance would they presume to look at the flames directly; and ever as they looked their wonder and their reverence grew. Their trust in the protection of the Shining One came to have no bounds, for night after night would the great red bears return, prowling in the mysterious gloom just beyond the ring of light, with their dreadful eyes turned fixedly upon their former habitation, only to be driven off ignominiously when Gr?m rushed at them with a shout and a flaming torch above his head. And night after night

upon league of fertile plain––was good hunting, along with an abundance of roots, fruits and edible herbs. But in Gr?m's heart burned that spirit of unquenchable expectation which has led the race of Man u

er; or not truly to die, he imagined, but to flee back unseen to its dancing, flickering source at the valley mouth. Other substances he found that it would consume slowly, but pertinaciously. While 99 into yet others, such as dry turf and punk, it would eat its way and hide, maintaining therein for a long time a retired but potent

as a good reason, but he was amazed to find in his heart so deep a desire for her that he was ill-content whenever his eyes could not rest upon her. There was no one in the tribe with whom he could discuss this strange emotion, for no one, not even the wise and subtle-minded Chief, would have comprehended it––romantic love not yet having come openly to these men of the Morning of

ed a substantial burden of strips of meat dried hard in the sun, in case game should prove scarce or elusive in the land beyond the hills. But when they had got well out of sight of th

r feet was naked but for a low growth of flowering herbs and thorn. The pass was too high for the aloe and mesembryanthemum to flourish, and the lava-bed which floored it was yet too new to have clothed itsel

near sunset again when at last the rocks fell away to either side, and the

ees, and laced with full watercourses which lay in spacious loops of blue and silver. Here and there lay broad, i

ight, smoked and smouldered a shallow, saucer-shaped crater from whose broken lower rim a purple

rater, but the only practicable path down the mountain led them away from it, so he w

re. Gr?m hurriedly whirled the smoldering torch into a flame, and from it lighted a couple of resinous brands, one for himself, and one for A-ya to carry. Thus armed, they fearlessly followed the broad trail of bears, w

nquiring spirit. But when early in the forenoon of the fourth day they reached the lowlands, he found that his way would be anything but straight. The imm

nted alike––and of many more which he did not know. But one broad trail in particular arrested his attention. It struck such fear to the heart of the girl, whose ey

turdiest growths were crushed flat as if some huge bowlder from the mountains had been rolled over them. And the monster fo

t manner of giant it might be which moved on such colossal and misshapen 103 m

to pursue this dreadful trail. And the girl, hiding her terror lest it should diminish her credit in

n the broad trail. There were grunting cries, also; and Gr?m understood at once that a herd of pig-tapirs––heavy-f

blazing brands would avail nothing. He clutched the girl by the h

he trail, swerving opportunely, appeared to lead directly towards its foot, and they raced on, the girl now laughing softly with excitement, and forgetting her fear of the unknown because of the known peril behind her.

ht came lumbering a gigantic rhinoceros, his creased and folded hide clothed in matted brown wool and caked with clay. He swung round into the trail, almost blocking it with his bulk,

ted brands convinced him that the rhinoceros was too dense of brain to fear the fire, or even to notice it. Once more clutching the girl's

h, he forced his way into the grass, on the left, shouldering aside the upright stems to make room for the girl to enter. She hurled her b

ilant under foot. Then he thundered forward. But the tough stems of the grass had closed up again. The two fugitives were hidden. He saw the packed herd of the

between the rhinoceros and the maddened herd would be little short of a cataclysm, Gr?m and the girl

onward blindly, foot by foot. Behind them, out in the trail, came a ponderous crash, and, then an appalling explosion of squeals, screams, grunts and roar

st opposite was the tree whose refuge they had been trying to 106 gain. They swam across in half-a-dozen strokes, and drew themselves ashore, and shook themselves like a pair of retrievers. Through all the flight, the fierce effort among the gras

The girl responded, after a second's dismay, with a look of trust and adoration which brought a rush of warmth to Gr?m's heart. He smiled prou

stricken pig-tapirs, met by the charge of the rhinoceros, had been ripped and split by the rooting of his double horn, and hurled to either side as if by so

down the canes and pouring around on either side. Of those that passed over him about one in every three or four got ripped by the tossing horn, and went staggering forward a few paces, only to fall

gether, perhaps, they would have been a match for him. But theirs was a far higher intelligence than his. They knew the almost impenetrable toughness of his h

s bounds through the grass, circling about as if to intercept, in sheer wantonness of slaughter, the remnants of the fleeing herd. At the sight Gr

a piece of water some 108 furlongs further on, where doubtless they hoped to evade

behind the poinsettias arose a gigantic shape unlike anything that Gr?m had ever dreamed of. A

bowed; and its thighs like buttresses. Its fore legs were more arms than legs, of startling length and massive strength, draped in long, stiff hair, and terminated by colossal hands with immense hooked claws for fingers. The whole body was clothed with rusty hair of an amazing coarseness, like matting fiber. The vast head, flat on to

girl, with a little ind

gain to meet and ward off the r

in halves, throwing the awful fragments impatiently from her in order to lose no time in seizing a new victim. A few seconds more and the rush was past; and presently the mad rout was hurling itself with a tremendous splashing into the water. The monster looked around for more victims––and was just in time to see the hideous vision of the rhinoceros charging down upon her. Triumphant from the encounter with the lions, he rushed back to slake his still unsatisfied fury on the pig-tapirs. At any other time he would hav

ently convinced that the little one was quite dead, she brayed again piteously, dropping forward upon all fours, and made off slowly down the trail, walking with grotesque awkwardness on the sides of her feet. For two o

e girl had followed breathlessly these a

ng a discovery. As A-ya showed no inclination whatever to dissent from this stateme

he Shining One. It is not well

tops of the towering grasses had somewhat shaken her nerve. She feared no beasts but the swiftest, and those which might leap into the low

nd rest and sleep in safety," continued Gr?m, "that we ma

girl did not help him, because of the great muscular strength which it required. She lay in a crotch, her hairy but long and shapely legs coile

d; and the leader, who carried a long club, was a man of stature equal to his own. Gr?m's sympathies went out to them, and his impulse was to 112 hasten to their assistance. Glancing further along the trail to learn the cause of their headlong flight, he saw two black lions in pursuit, probably the same two which had been driving the pig-tapirs a couple of hours earl

'll never get here!"

ncern. "The lions will get them.

irl's eyes––or her intuitions––were keener than hi

anes a gigantic hand shot out above their heads and came down upon them, crushing the two together. They had not time for outcry; but it was clear that some sound caught the leader's ears, for he glanced back over his shoulder. He was near 113 enough now for the keen-eyed watchers in the tree to see his face change

hind the grass-screen lurked another such shaggy and monstrous member, waiting to rend them as they would rend an antelope. They shrank, and drew back, snarling angrily. It is poss

The girl came in mad haste after him, but at his sharp command "Stay there!" she contented he

ried. But Gr?m se

rl of fury he hurled his club straight at Gr?m's face, missing him only by a hand's-breadth. But the effort, and the disappointment at finding himself thus

et this inert weight up into the tree. T

leaning down eagerly f

tribe needs him," answered Gr?m, st

ning to recover. Gr

e ordered in a loud, sharp v

d stared with a look of bewilde

m again. "The tre

nimbly as a monkey. Gr?m followed, quickly but coolly. A-ya, who had waited with her eyes watchfully on Mawg, st

sniff, in surly scorn, at the dead, mountainous hulk of the rhinoceros, which lay with one ponderous foot stuck up in the air as if in clumsy protest at Fate. Comprehending readily the manner of its death, they came back and lay d

A-ya's lithe shapeliness with eyes of savage greed. Gr?m knit his brows, and signif

e?" he demanded, in a

ou did not want the lions

hension; and the eyes of the two men, meeting fa

mise of the future; while the youth, 116 low skulled and with his dull but pugnacious eyes set under enormous bony brows, suggested the mere brute from which the race had mounted. His hair was shorter and coarser than Gr?m'

d steadiness, in a dozen seconds Mawg involuntari

he demanded again, as if h

ft. I will take you back to the tr

rom his great yellow dog-teeth in

l me!" said he,

t, and hid it behind him, being too hungry to refuse it, but too savage to eat it under his captor's eye. Gr?m smiled slowly, and fell to playing with a heavy strand of A-ya's hair which had fallen over h

oment they went stalking off the opposite way with an air of haughty indignation, ignoring all the bodies of the slain pig-tapirs. When they had rounded the first turn

cene of battle, she sniffed once more at her mangled young one, and brayed piteously over it. Then turning in an explosive fury upon the body of the rhinoceros, began to tear it l

trove to pull it down. The tree rocked as if struck by a tornado; and Mawg, who had been too slow to notice what was about to happen, gave a yell of horror as he

ing to the next great branch, she ripped that one down also, taking another great strip from the main trunk. Gr?m saw that her purpose obviously was to pull the tree to pieces bit by bit, in order to get at her intended victims. Mawg apparently saw this also, and it was too much for him. Gripping his strip of dried meat between his teeth, he slipped around the trunk till he was sheltered from the monste

ch. The monster brayed vindictively, stretched to her full height, and then shot forth her tremendous muscular red coil of tongue, thinking evidently to lick down her insignificant adversary from his perch. She was within an inch of succeeding. Gr?m just eluded the strange attack by stepping aside nimbly; and quick as thought A-ya's spear slashed the dreadful red tongue as it reached flickering after her lord's ankles. The next moment, s

gue. Then he set himself coolly to the task of completing their shelter for the night. As he wove leafy branches i

are rid of th

killed him!" said

his eyes the fellow was a valuable piece of pro

ed the girl, meeting

their steady depths that her anger faded, her own eyes dropped, and her breast gave a happy, incomprehensible

are the fairest thing, and the most desirable, on earth. All men whose eyes come to rest on you

er anger, and forgave him for

ant night-prowlers, gathering to the unparallelled banquet which the day had spread for them. Only the two black lions, perhaps already glutted, did not come. Wolves, a small pack of self-disciplined wild

the chief place, under the rent, dishevelled tree, and fell to tearing at the mountainous corpse of the megatherium. He was undisturbed

r. Slowly, and with a thunderous grumbling, he moved over to the body of the rhinoceros, pretending that he preferred

when there was feasting so abundant for all. And once a leopard, dodging the paw of a saber-tooth, sprang i

d should fancy to explore their refuge. An hour later, when the first pallor was spre

ked, in a tender voice,

" she answered

ou afraid of

ed, sitting up and shaking the hair from her eyes, and

Am not I your man? And am not I always with you? Man

uch as he would be as straws in my lord's h

gently at her

orward till her rich hair shadowed the rugged, sleeping face, with its calm brows, pondered deeply over his inexplicable forbearance toward his rival. Her instincts all assured her that it was dangerous; but something else within her, something