Chapter III: The Flight to the Hills

What he saw was certainly startling.

There was a break, or cleft, at the bottom of the little hollow, and out of this was sticking a white bone, the top making a bobbing motion.

But this was merely what he had seen at first, and not on the second look. What he had discovered then was a hand grasping the bone, and an arm following the hand up farther out of the cleft. The hand was smaller than a man’s, and was evidently using the flat bone as a kind of shovel to dig away some loose earth. This earth had fallen down into the cleft, which itself looked as if recently broken wider and deeper, most likely by the foot of one of the rushing monsters. Sure-dart dropped on his knees, calling out: “Hop-foot! Hop-foot!” and pulled away the tangle of inside bushes and clutched the extended hand.

Out of the cleft then, with a little starting scramble, climbed Hop-foot. Or he did not exactly climb out, though he started to do so, for Sure-dart gave a mighty pull, and almost at the same moment Big-axe was beside him, with two great hands clapped under the climber’s arms. It seemed as if other hands swarmed over too, and helped, for the boy finally came out into light in the very midst of the jabbering and delighted crowd.

The chief showed the restraint over his feelings frequently observed among savages, for he merely patted the boy once on the head, and then began to ask him questions. How had he come into the hole? What were he and Sure-dart doing here? How did they draw on themselves the fury of the death-beasts?

Hop-foot boldly “faced the music,” though perhaps he was encouraged by the probability that this time there was no whipping in store.

“Sure-dart and I came up to see whether any of the death-beasts had eaten the poisoned meat,” he said. “We found that one had eaten it, and started to go back, but on the way we forgot about the beasts, and the three that were not hurt came around the low ridge and charged us. We started for this safety-hole, but before we could get there--before I could--they overtook us. I jumped one side and threw myself flat, just as you, Big-axe, once told me to do, and the first monster almost went by me. But before I could jump up and get another start he swung around and stooped to grab me. I thought I was as good as between his teeth, but just then the ground under us both began to sink, and he lurched back, and I tumbled through. I didn’t go very far at first, but as I brought up I put my hands out and found a little side-cleft, and I crawled into that. All I thought of then was getting as far away from the death-beast as I could.”

“Lucky that the country just about here has these honey-comb places,” interjected Big-axe.

“The rest of it is this,” concluded Hop-foot: “I stayed in the hole till I heard your voices, and then I started to come out. By that time, I suppose on account of the thrashing about of the heavy creatures, some dirt had fallen into the hole, and a bush had likewise settled down into it. Along with the dirt came down the big, flat bone, and I took that to help in digging out. You know the rest.”

“You should not have left the caves,” said Big-axe, sternly, “and but that I think you have been punished enough I should give you a turn with my belt. Sure-dart, you did wrong likewise; but I think that you, too, have been sufficiently punished. You may tell your mother, therefore, that she need not send you to me to be whipped.”

Sure-dart looked a little sheepish, but he managed to hold up his head (he was helped by the thought of the work he had done with his darts, and knew that his coolness and success would eventually be recognized), and nodded respectfully when the chief had finished.

“Something was the matter with the biggest death-beast when it left,” here observed one of the warriors. “I half thought I saw the shaft of a dart sticking out of his mouth.”

Sure-dart’s eyes lighted, but he merely smiled. The observant chief noticed the look.

“Your darts are all gone. Did you plant one of them in the beast’s mouth?”

“Yes, Big-axe.”

A murmur of admiration ran around. Full well the listeners knew what nerve it took to go close to that awful mouth and drive a dart into the right spot. The neck of the death-beast was supple, and often stretched beyond what could have been guessed, so that more than one confident hunter had been nipped by the great bill, and twitched under the monstrous feet. Or now and then the bill itself, or a few of the outermost teeth, had scraped down a poor fellow’s head, and this had generally cut through skull and brains. Besides admiration for the boy’s skill and pluck, the listeners felt greatly relieved; another death-beast was surely doomed, and thereby a great service done to the valley.

The last bit of harshness faded out of the chief’s look.

“You have done well. After this I shall reckon you as a warrior, and call on you if there is need. But we are losing time. If the Fishers should after all march on us, we should scarcely have time to prepare for them.”

He made a sign, the whole band fell in behind him, and all started at a sharp trot down the hill.

Meanwhile their families, left behind, had grown anxious, and all but the very infirm and a few of the small children had left the caves, and come as far as the foot of the hill. A shouting and piping up of relief broke out as they saw the whole unharmed party coming down, and there was a rush to meet them. As soon as everything was told there was another tumult of rejoicing, and Hop-foot came in for congratulations and Sure-dart for praise. His foster mother, Scar-face (so called because of a great scar down one cheek, the work of a terror-bird), held her head high with pride, and Gentle-hand, the young wife of the chief, and mother of Hop-foot, admiringly clapped him on the back. Even Bull-head, the son of Big-axe by his former wife, and a cross-grained, surly fellow, condescended to contribute an approving grunt. Little One-ear, the only child of Scar-face, and who was the remaining member of her family, wormed his way to where Sure-dart stood, and in silent pride and admiration gripped one of his fingers.

Sure-dart relaxed a little of the gravity with which he had received the compliments, and smiled down at the boy. The little fellow was a pet of his, and was in fact a bright, lovable child, but physically was below the standard of the ordinary cave-children. He was small and rather delicate, and his head was too large for his thin body. He had lost one of his ears, too (from a grazing blow from the same great-toothed bill that had disfigured his mother), and this added to his rather queer and unusual look. He was now ten, but no larger than most cave-boys of seven. As he was so delicate he wore, besides the ordinary breech-clout, a kind of sleeveless shirt. This, as if in a spirit of vengeance, was made of the skin of one of those ravaging birds. Scar-face herself, fired by revenge, had helped to bring this creature down. From the tree where she had stationed herself she had flung a dart, and it had struck the raging monster squarely in the breast. But Scar-face, like most barbarian women, had been trained to self-reliance, and in her case beyond the common, for she had early lost her husband and her older boy. Both had been killed in the Cane-dwellers’ raid. She was large for one of her race, and, though portly, was both strong and quick. She had the animal-like marks of the men, for a growth of hair ran down her shoulders and arms, and came out in little tufts on the backs of her hands. She was not more than forty, and her black, coarse hair did not show a thread of gray. She was dressed in much the same manner as the men, but a kind of short petticoat (made of the skins of two “scamperers”--what they were will be seen later) was added to the other dress. Her great cataract of hair nearly covered the upper part of her body.

After a few moments the little excitement spent itself, and Big-axe, raising his voice, said that they must be about some important matters; on that they all trooped down, and stopped in front of the chief’s cave. This was their usual gathering-place when anything of importance was to be discussed.

It will take but few words to show what this cave looked like, and it will stand as a sample of all, only it was a little bigger than the others. It was partly natural, and was partly the work of tools. It went back into the hill-slope perhaps forty feet, and at the end was rounded out and enlarged. The room here may have been thirty feet in diameter. The passage leading to it was some six and a half feet high, and not over five feet wide. There was a great, roundish stone just at one side of the outer entrance, and this was for a door. It was to be used in case of particular emergency, such as war, or an invasion of some of the smaller monsters. For several years, however, there had been no trouble from the latter source. The beasts, big and little, had learned that it was well to keep away from these black-haired creatures who walked upright, and could spit out some kind of mysterious death.

For further safety another large stone had been hauled into the passage, and was made to serve as an inner door. This stone was in regular use; for notwithstanding the greater general safety, as compared with former days, it was still the course of prudence to lock one’s inner door. There was nothing that deserved the name of furniture in the cave. In opposite corners were piles of dry rushes that served for the two beds,--one for the chief and his wife, and one for Hop-foot,--and near one wall was a largish, flinty stone, flat on the top, and showing the marks of blows, or a good deal of hard rubbing. This was the food-stone, and was so called not because food was eaten from it, but because the harder kinds of food, including marrow-bones and some sorts of nuts, were cracked on it. This cracking was done with a stone, either large or small, as the case required. Several of these stones, conveniently shaped for the hand, lay about. With the exception of some clumsy flint knives, they completed the entire kitchen outfit. There was no fireplace, for these people had not yet learned to cook their food, and all they knew of fire was the dreaded sight of it when it burst forth from some of the nearer volcanoes, or shot out of the ground in the midst of an up-tearing earthquake.

There were a few lizard skins, and a few skins covered with short hair. This remainder of the family wardrobe was hanging on pegs driven into the back wall, and near the grown folks’ bed was a little pile of weapons. These were of the same sort as those already noted. There was nothing in the shape of a bow, for that had not yet been invented.

One other thing remained that ought to be noticed. It was a small, hollow stone, set in a high niche in the wall. It contained only a darkish, rather thick liquid. But they did well to be thus careful of it, for it was a powerful poison, and was the kind often used in dealing with the death-beasts. It was made by mixing the juice of a certain lycopod (a flowerless plant, some species of which secrete an inflammable powder) with the juice of a kind of swamp berry. This compound was rubbed over a freshly killed lizard (one of the big, vegetable-feeding kind), and the bait put where a family of flesh-eating dinosaurs would be likely to find it. In the recent instance the straying of the little herd of death-beasts toward the caves had been reported, and Big-axe had personally prepared and placed the poisoned carcass. He had been called away then by what seemed a greater danger, and had ordered the people left behind to keep close to the caves, and in no case to go in the direction of the westerly ridges. It was disobedience to this order that had come so near costing the two adventurous boys their lives. They were so full of curiosity about the movements of the enemy that they had stolen away, meaning, however, to be careful, and planning not to get far away from the safety-holes. They were now aware that they had still something to learn about these giant foes.

It should be explained, in speaking of this method of dealing with the dinosaurs, that the poison put on the carcass of the lizard was not the same as that used on the darts. The first was a stomach poison, and would not be likely to work effectually in the blood; that used on the darts came from quite another source. It was obtained simply by thrusting the points of the darts into some kind of carrion. A dead lizard, especially of one of the smaller varieties, was as often used as anything.

As to the other caves, smaller, as already stated, than the chief’s, they mainly ran in an irregular line along this low, chalky ridge. That of Bull-head, his oldest son, was twenty paces or so to the south, and Scar-face’s was about the same distance to the north. There was a general slope from the whole tier down to the cove, or small lake, though there were some little ridges, like ploughed ground, and a few masses of outcropping rock.

There were ten or twelve small “dugouts” drawn up on the strip of beach, and this was the entire navy and merchant marine of the tribe. They would hold but two or three persons apiece, and were used only for inshore fishing. The Rock-people were willing to leave to the Fishers the supremacy of the seas. Of these Fishers it might as well be said now that they lived on the south bank of the Great Lake, perhaps fifty miles from the cave-village, and in numbers considerably exceeded the Rock-people. They counted up about three hundred and fifty, and mustered over sixty fighting men. This was double what Big-axe could raise, even reckoning one or two boys, including Sure-dart. The Fishers had skin-covered small boats, similar to what we know of the ancient coracles, a little fleet of fair-sized “dugouts,” the largest capable of holding six men. Long-spear was the headman, or chief, of the Fisher settlement, and he was as tall as Big-axe, and nearly as heavy. He was also younger, being only twenty-four, or twenty-five. Since the Fishers had settled on the lake shore, which was not more than a hundred years before, they had proved troublesome neighbors, and it was seen that they would sooner or later make war on the Rock-people. Under the fierce and ambitious Long-spear it looked as if the time were at hand, and Big-axe and his men had accordingly made their preparations. The recent expedition was a kind of scouting party in force, Big-axe having in mind a possible ambuscade, or perhaps a sudden dash at the enemy. He hoped it might be when the foe was off his guard. He was disappointed in this, for a march of over twenty miles, and some lingering afterwards, had not disclosed a single Fisher. Evidently the crafty Long-spear was not quite ready.

What Big-axe had now in his mind to say was that they must prepare to leave the caves, and retreat to the hills. There, among rocks and cliffs, and in a place that he knew of, they might defy the Fishers. They could take their most valuable belongings, except the canoes, with them, and those they could hide.

As soon as all were quiet he told them this, and his fighting men, some of whom already understood the plan, immediately commended it. This was sufficient, for in that age might alone governed, and women and weaklings were supposed to have nothing to say. In a time so short that a single modern family could scarcely have packed one ordinary trunk the whole village had gathered up its belongings and was on the move.