In the Morning of Time

DING OF

irds, which had been Man's ceaseless menace ever since he swung down out of the tree-tops to walk the earth erect, had been held at a distance through awe of the licking flames. Though the great battle which had hurled back the

nsidered a safe playground for the children of the tribe. On the outermost skirts of this playground, to be sure, just where the reedy pools and the dense bamboo thickets began, there was a fire kept burning. But this was 175 more as a reminder than as an actual defense. When a bear or a saber-tooth had

our and five years. She sat cross-legged near the sentinel fire, some fifty yards or so from the edge of the thickets, and played with the lad, whose eyes were aligh

, to one end of a stick which was several inches longer. The uses of a whip came to him by unerring insight, and he began applying it to his mother's shoulders. The novelty of it

gan playing with it herself. The lash, at its free end, chanced to be slit almost to the tip, forming a loop. The butt of the handle was formed by a jagged knot,

er bright eyes, she looked upon the first bow––the

something with it. Presently she pulled the cord, and let it go again. Tightly strung, it made a pleasant little humming sound. This she repeated many times, holding it up to her ear and laughing with pleasure. The boy gr

m came up behind her. He stepped carefully over the sprawling brown baby. He was about to pull her 1

est dim, cloudy, vast possibilities; and he groped in his brain for some hint of the nature of these possibilities. Yet as far as he could see it was good for nothing but to make

nd found the bow in his grasp. A-ya was surprised that such a trifle should seem of such importance in her lord's eyes; but her faith was great. She shook the wild mane of hair

He twanged it as A-ya had done. He bent it to its limit and eased it slowly back again, stu

nt now that she found it taken so seriously by one

ed the boy, with

d, and beat me with it," said she. "Then I took it f

is approval musingly. He squatted down

bent the bow a little way, and let go. The stone f

king that his father had done it on purpose, laughed with hearty appreciation. Somewhat annoyed,

satisfied. But he was not satisfied with the direction in which it exerted i

ow-string. But at length a dim idea of aim occurred to him. He lifted the bow––his 179 left fist grasping its middle––to the level of his eyes, at arm's length. He got the cord

, as his knuckle was aching fiercely, he considered the advisability of giving her a beating. He had never done such a thing to her, however, though all the other Cave Men, including Bawr himself, were wont to beat their women on occasion. In his heart he hated the idea of hurting her; and it would hardly be worth while to beat her witho

ir. Her laughter was forgotten on the instant, because she guessed

ll-hardened, tapering stems, from two to three feet in length, a

ibility of better results than anything

mself with. But as he was a great chief, and held in deeper awe than even Bawr himself, they did not presume to come very near; and they had therefore not perceived, or at least they had not apprehended, those two trifling mishaps of his. As for Gr?m, he paid his audienc

lways threw better when they were hurled heavy end first. So he turned the little shaft and applied the small end to the bow-string. 181 Then he pulled the string tentatively, and let it go. The arrow, all unguided, shot straight up

ger, so that the shaft could move freely, he drew the string backward and forward, with deep deliberation, over and over again. To his delight, he found that the shaft was no longer eccentrically rebellious, but as docile as he could wish. At last, lifting the bow above his head, he drew it strongly, and shot the shaft into the air. He shouted as

some who were too indifferent or too stupid to take an interest in anything less arresting than a thump on the head. Among these was a fat old woman, who, with her back to all the excitement, was bending herself double to grub in the litter of sticks and bones for some tit-bit which she had dropped. Gr?m's shaft, turning gra

done this singular thing, smiting unawares from very far off. The old woman must have done something to make Gr?m angry. They wer

rself to and fro in heartless mirth, 183 he felt like asking her how she would have liked it herself, if she had been in the place of the fat old woman. On the other hand, he knew that he had made a great discovery, secon

picked up the shaft and examined its bloodstained point, frowning fiercely. Then he glared into the cave where the unlucky victim of his experiments had taken refuge. He refitted the shaft to the bow-string, and made as if to follow up his stroke with further chastisement. In

eapon. Besides a generous bundle of canes, of varying lengths and sizes, he carried some strips of raw meat, a bunch of 184 plan

rd her with redoubled jealousy. By lining it thickly with wet clay, she was able to carry fire in it so securely and s

high plateau on a shoulder of the mountain. At the back of the plateau the mountain rose again, abruptly, to one of those saw-tooth pinnacles which characterized this range. At the base of the steep was a narrow fissure in the rock-face, leading into a sm

gs, and small sticks. Then, getting down upon all 185 fours, he blew long and steadily into the mass till the smoke which curled up from it was streaked with thin flames. As the flames curled higher, his e

of the cave. Appearing not to have observed them, Gr?m piled the fire with heavier and heavier fuel, till it was blazing strongly and full of well-lighted brands. Then

on a heap of withered grass which had formerly been Gr?m's couch. Gr?m set his teeth and swung up

swiftly that the stroke of Gr?m's club caught him only a light, glancing blow on the rump. But the second of the pair, the female, was too close behind to swerve in time. She dash

his common sense speedily reasserted itself. He grunted in disgust, turned back to the fire, and was soon absorbed in new experiments with the bow. As for the

e lost, by shooting them, far beyond his expectations, over the edge of the plateau and down into the dense thickets below him, where he did not care to search too closely by reason of the peril of snakes. The bow, as his good luck would have it, though short a

e and his natural aptitude, he soon grasped the idea of elevation for range, and made some respectable shooting. He also found that he could guide the arrow without crooking his finger around it. His elation was so extreme that he quite forgot to eat, till the closing in of darkness put an end to his practice. Then, piling high

would wake up to replenish the fires, and be asleep again even in the act of lying down. And when the dawn came red a

rhood, or slaty rocks, which he could split into edged and pointed fragments. He tried hardening his points in the fire; but the results were not altogether satisfactory. He thought of tipping some of the shafts with thorns, or with the steely points of the old aloe leaves; but he could not, at the moment, devise such a method of fixing these formidable weapons in place as would

lateau––a broken region of ledges, subtropical thickets, and narrow, grassy glades, with here and there some tree of larger growth rising solitary like a watch-tower.

ll, 189 with horns like scimitars each as long as Gr?m's arm. His flanks were scarred with long wounds but lately healed, and Gr?m realized that he

d its mark high on the bull's fore-shoulder. It penetrated––but not to a depth of more than two or three inche

ust out of his reach. Then, bewildered and alarmed, he tried to escape from this new kind of fly with the intolerable sting by galloping furiously up and down the glade. As he passed the deodar, Gr?m let drive another arrow, at close range. This, too, struck, and stuck. But it did not go deep enough to produce any serious effect. The ani

rry out his idea of giving them tips of bones, he must find some shoots of solid, pithless growth to take the place of his light hollow cane

of life, had sprung up a throng of saplings, ranging from a foot or two in height to the level of Gr?m's head. They were as straight and slim as the canes. And their hardness was proved to Gr?m's satisfaction when he tried to break them off. They were tough, too, so that he almost lost his patience over them, before he learned that the best way to deal with them was to strip them down, in the direction of the fiber, where they sprang from the 191 parent trunk or root. Ha

point thus obtained was keen and hard; and as he balanced this new shaft in his hand he realized that its weight would add vastly to its power of penetration. When he tried a shot with it, he found that it flew farther and straighter. It drove throu

ring oozing up 192 through the fissures, there the vegetation grew rank, starred with vivid blooms of canna and hibiscus. In many places the ledges were draped with a dense curtain of the flat-flowered, pink-and-gold mesembryanthemum. It was a r

an eye on all the glades and runways below. Behind him the rock-face was so nearly perpendicular that no enemy could steal upon him from the rear. He laid his club and his spear down beside him, selected one of his best arrow

g cow-buffalo. Gr?m noticed at once that she was nervous and puzzled. She seemed to suspect that she was being followed and was undecided what to do. Once she faced about angrily, staring into the coverts behind her, and made as if to charge. Had she been an old cow, or a bull, she would have charged; but her inexperience made her irresolute. She snorted, faced about again, and moved on, ears,

r his haughty and daring fashion. Between Gr?m and Bawr there was the fullest understanding, and Gr?m would have whistled that plover-cry, his private signal, but for the risk

less bound. For a second the gigantic beast stood there, with one paw uplifted, its golden-tawny bulk seeming to quiver in the downpour of intense sunlight. It was a third as tall again at the shoulders as the biggest Himalayan tiger, its head was flat-skulled like

went wide. Bawr, looking over his shoulder, saw the giant beast almost upon him. With a tremendous bound he gained

e enabled it to pluck Bawr from his refuge like a ripe fig. But that spring was never delivered. With a roar of rage the monster turned instead, and bit furi

his yell of warning, and it knew instantly whence the strange attack had come. It bit off the protruding shaft; and then, fixing its dreadful eyes on Gr?m

orrible coughing screech the monster recoiled, put its head between its paws, and tried to claw the anguish from its throat. But after a moment, seeming to realize that this was impossible, it backed away, gathered itself together, and sprang for the ledge. It received another of Gr?m's shafts deep in the chest, without seeming to notice the wound; and its impetus wa

n in air, he brought it down, with a grunt of huge effort, full upon one of those giant paws which clutched the edge of the parapet. Crushed and numbed, the gri

ost of a chance had the beast turned back upon him. Gr?m yelled to him to keep away, and swung up his club for another shattering blow. But in that same moment the great glaring eyes filmed and rolled upwards; blood spouted from betwe

He stood leaning upon his spear, calmly watching the last feeble paroxysm, till Gr?m came scrambling down from the ledge an

Bow-legs. You have saved my life now, slaying the monster from very far off with

erns the people, while I go away and think new things. And he is my friend. Look, I will teach him now this new thing. And

lateau, where Bawr was taught to shoot a straight shaft. And on the following day they returned to the fires of the tribe, carrying b