Part 10

As the sunset afterglow faded out of the western sky, the Cave-men sought comfortable positions beneath the shelter and made ready for their night’s rest. The prisoner was forced to lie upon the ground and his captors then arranged themselves about him so that any move on his part would be quickly observed. Pic submitted without a protest—not that he had become resigned to his fate—but he deemed it wise to assume a passive attitude and thereby dull any suspicions that might be entertained of what was passing in his mind. His hands were tied behind him—so tightly that his fingers were numbed and swollen; but his legs remained unbound. None seemed to think it necessary to deprive him of the use of his legs; nor did he feel it his duty to remind them. He heaved a deep sigh, closed his eyes and in a few moments was—to all appearances—sound asleep.

All was now quiet in the camp except for the hard breathing of weary men and the distant cries of night-roving creatures. One of the sleepers stirred and raised himself on one elbow. It was Pic. His chance had come. He gathered his legs under him and crouched low on bent knees. A twig cracked beneath him. A shoulder moved. Its owner’s head arose and sniffed the night air. Without a sound, Pic settled down again upon his face and stomach and lay still. The voice of the old hag now fell like death upon his ears.

“Up, fools,” she croaked with all the cunning of an unbalanced mind. “Would you permit your next meal to be lost forever? The Ape Boy may untie his bonds and escape. Some of you must lie awake and watch:” then as nobody answered, she shook the man nearest her until the teeth rattled in his head.

“Ugh! Be quiet mother,” protested the one thus roughly handled. “Tired and starved bodies must have rest. I will not lie awake even though to-night be my last sleep.”

“Nor I; and I,” grumbled several others. “Do the work yourself if you feel that it must be done;” and with that they rolled over again and breathed loudly.

The old hag foamed with rage.

“May you rot, every one of you, and find your night’s rest in hyena’s stomachs,” she cried. “This Ape Boy shall not escape. I will kill him now, even though it bring the lions upon us.”

As she groped about in the darkness for an ax wherewith to carry out her threat, two of the men leaped to their feet and seized her arms.

“Hold,” said one of them. “Would you call upon the wild beasts to destroy us? He is secure enough and sleeps soundly. Look and see for yourself.”

Pic’s eyes were closed. His mouth was wide open and he breathed noisily as the three bent low and peered into his face. But even his wit was overmatched by the old hag’s malevolent and uncanny craft.

“Fools! dullards!” she croaked. “Cannot you see that with all of our noise, he should now be wide awake? He but makes a pretense of sleep. An end to your trickery,” and she cuffed the prisoner’s ears.

Pic made a clumsy effort to appear as one suddenly aroused from his slumbers. His savage tormentor looked closely into his face.

“You sleep soundly for one who has so short a time to live,” she sneered. “But now that you are awake, we three will keep you company and watch over every hair of your body.”

Her two companions became impatient at the thought of losing their night’s rest but at the same time they hesitated to trust the old woman alone with the prisoner.

“Much good that will do us,” one of them growled. “Let someone else watch while you lie down and sleep before the limit of our patience is reached.”

An idea came suddenly to the wretched old creature’s mind.

“Arrah! I have it,” she said, climbing over those about her to one of the sleepers who lay on the outside of the group. “Here is one who can and shall do this night’s vigil. Those who stay at home and lie around, need no rest. Get up and follow me.”

A slim figure rose quickly to its feet and followed along in the darkness behind its fierce mentor. In a moment, the pair were standing over the prisoner.

“Keep your eye on this tidbit,” directed the old hag, indicating the captive with a well-aimed kick. “Watch him closely, for your own life will depend upon the watching. Do you hear?”

“Yes, I hear.” Until this moment, the slim figure had made no sign. The voice was that of the girl.

“Take care that you do not fall asleep and permit him to escape us,” warned the old witch. “If you do and he is not here in the morning, you must take his place on the butcher-block.”

“Let us hope he will find wings and fly away,” growled a voice. “Of the two, I can easily make my choice.”

Loud grunts greeted this sally, showing that even these starving men were not entirely lacking in humor. Gradually their merriment subsided, the old hag stretched herself full length upon the ground and Pic was left to the tender mercies of his newly-chosen guard.

He opened his eyes. The light of the rising moon reflected in the sky, showed him the form of the girl seated by his side. Her features were obscure. Her face was turned away, watching not him but the encircling sleepers and in particular the old hag who rolled and tumbled about as though in a torment of fanciful dreams.

Pic groaned inwardly. Would his jailer never weary of her task? The girl was wide awake and alert as he could see from her attitude and poise of head. Time was passing. If he could but free his hands, he might strike her down, leap clear of the group and escape.

As he strained the muscles of his arms to rid himself of his torturing bonds, a hand touched his shoulder. He ceased further effort and lay still. The girl was bending over him. Her face brushed his elbow. He could feel her warm breath gliding downward towards his wrists. Something tugged at the rawhide thong—something that sniffed and panted warm, moist respiration upon his palms. The girl was untying the knot with her teeth.

Little by little, the green leather relaxed and the blood circulated once more through Pic’s numbed hands. The wrappings were quickly removed. He was free. Not a word was spoken. He raised himself to a squatting position. An ax—the blade of Ach Eul—was placed within his grasp, then a hand patted his back and a voice whispered in his ear, one word: “Go.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, he arose to his feet and with body bent low, stepped among the sleeping men. Accidentally he touched one of them who stirred and half awoke, whereupon the fugitive sank quickly and silently to the ground and lay still. The moon was now climbing rapidly above the heights, flooding the heavens with its brilliant light. Pic became alarmed. The lifting darkness enabled him to see more clearly but it permitted others to see as well and thereby lessened his chances of escape. He allowed himself a brief period of inaction so that the one he had disturbed might become quiet; then rose again and glided forward with ax held aloft to brain the first who might awake and give the alarm. Had a single eye opened, it might easily have seen his dark form outlined against the sky. But no eye opened, not a sleeper stirred and he passed among them without let or hindrance.

As he stepped clear of the last prone figure, she whom he had left behind, remained silent, watching him steal slowly away. As he passed into the shadow of the cliff wall, she sighed deeply and her head fell forward upon her breast. Had Pic looked back, he might have seen the slim figure sitting upright with head bowed like a lamb amid a pack of blood-thirsty wolves. But he neither looked back nor saw, for already he had rounded a bend in the wall and was gone.

XVII

Once clear of the Rock-shelter and its sleeping inmates, Pic cast about him for the best route to complete his escape. The meadows lay before him to the north and east—broad and free of all obstacles; therefore the easiest way. He started toward them but as he emerged from the cliff shadows and stood a conspicuous object in the brilliant moonlight, he stopped.

“They will soon learn of my escape,” he thought. “I can be seen and followed across the meadow.” No, the easiest route was not the best. He glanced up at the cliff behind him. It could be scaled—by such as he. The plateau with its rocks and underbrush was a labyrinth where he could hide with little fear of being discovered. At the worst, his pursuers would be obliged to separate into groups of two or three to ferret him out and he could then deal with them separately. Even a dozen half-starved men would find him no easy prey, armed as he was with the blade of Ach Eul.

He retraced his steps to the shadow of the rock-wall and glided along its base to a point where the cliff arose almost straight upward and without overhang. Here he climbed. At such work, Pic excelled. His flexible hands and feet took advantage of every break in the limestone to anchor him firmly while he pulled himself upwards with his muscular arms and shoulders. He was a human fly crawling up an almost perpendicular wall. A single slip of hand or feet, even a mis-shift of balance, would have sent him crashing to the ground below. A stone dislodged and tumbling noisily down would have betrayed him in an instant. But his head was clear, his heart strong and his iron muscles stood him in good stead. With jaws clenched on the haft of his ax, he forged steadily upward without a mishap and reached the summit.

In a moment, he had scrambled to safety and was peering over the edge to learn what might be going on in the camp below. No sound nor movement there gave indication that his flight was known. He turned away and made off through the underbrush until he was beyond sight or hearing of the cliffs and therefore reasonably secure. His enemies might now awake and follow, for all he cared. Merely to make certain, he continued his way leisurely for some distance, then mounted a rock-pulpit which afforded him a commanding view of the surrounding country. Here he lay down to secure a few moments rest.

It seemed as though he had no more than closed his eyes and drifted into dreamland when he awoke. A faint glow in the eastern sky showed that day was breaking and that the night had reached its close. In the distance from whence he had come, sounded a faint hum—a low, almost inaudible droning as of angry bees. It might be the cries of wild beasts; but the sound came from the direction of the Ferrassie shelter.

Pic yawned, stretched his limbs and chuckled softly to himself. Yes, the Cave-men were wide awake now. They must know by this time that their captive had made his escape. Little good would such knowledge do them. It was amusing to consider that they were probably dashing over the meadows, never dreaming that their prisoner had chosen so cleverly to throw them off the scent.

He was safe. His enemies must find other means to break their fast. There were other means, he suddenly remembered. His blood chilled at the thought. The old hag had threatened and the time had come when she might make her threat good. If the prisoner escaped, his jailer would be held responsible and be compelled to take his place. Pic’s forehead wrinkled in perplexity. Cave-men were not cannibals by nature but they must eat the food nearest their hands or starve. A young woman’s flesh was far preferable to that of a muscular man. The more Pic considered the matter, the more dissatisfaction he felt with his own present security. His enemies would waste little time pursuing him, as long as his hostage remained in their power. The girl was theirs and would answer the purpose even better than he. It was all very disconcerting, this turn of affairs, just when he was congratulating himself that he had managed so well. He paced up and down among the rocks like a caged lion, biting his lips and beating his hands together.

The girl would be killed and eaten by her people, simply because she had permitted him to escape and herself remain behind. She alone could take his place in the morning’s festivities. This last notion was the one which so disturbed his peace of mind; and yet he rebelled at the very idea. Why should this girl cause him so much concern, simply because she had prolonged his useless life at the expense of her own?

“Ugh,” he growled. “She must either starve or be eaten and have to die in either case, so why not let her perish and save the others, just as she has saved me.”

In spite of this apparently sound logic, Pic failed to convince himself of its justice. Then, too, the girl had smiled upon him, he suddenly remembered. It was but the faintest glimmer of a friendly greeting—but she had smiled.

With a yell that could have been heard for miles, he leaped down from the rock-pulpit and went bounding off through brake and thicket, over rock and fallen tree, with the speed of the wind. The sharp rocks and thorns tore his limbs, the vines and branches overhead bruised his head and shoulders; but he heeded none of them. As he sped over the rock-strewn plateau, the one thought in his mind was: would he reach the Ferrassie shelter before it was too late? Dazed, bleeding and so exhausted he could hardly stand, at last he burst into the open and halted on the edge of the cliff overlooking the meadow and Mousterian camp below.

The Cave-folk were all gathered about the butcher-block. Kneeling before it, with head bent low, was a slim figure, the sight of which together with the dark form of a man standing over her with upraised ax, made Pic’s blood run cold.

Putting hands to his mouth, he uttered a piercing cry that carried clear and strong to the group below. All looked up quickly and saw him as he stood outlined against the blue sky. A chorus of wild, unearthly yells arose:

“The Ape Boy; there he stands! Death to him!” And high and shrill above the tumult, rang out the screams of the old hag:

“After him, every one of you if you would live to see the next sunrise. Seize and bring him to the block.”

The Cave-men answered with savage yells and raced to the cliff. In a moment they were swarming upward like a pack of famine-maddened wolves. They held their weapons between closed jaws, leaving their limbs free to cling and climb. High above them, Pic leaned over the edge with arms held out imploringly.

“Faster, faster, clumsy dolts,” he urged the panting men. “Will you lag or must I throw down your next meal upon your heads?”

All paused amazed. They had expected him to turn and flee or at least make some effort to defend himself. He surprised them by doing neither. He had chosen his fate and was prepared to die as he had lived—with a smile upon his lips; and then a strange thing happened.

While Pic was watching the Cave-men swarming up the cliff, he failed to observe a figure approaching from behind him—a four-legged animal with shaggy hide and short, curling horns. This creature was glaring at the man. Its feet were pawing the ground. The shouts and cries infuriated it. They sounded like a challenge to battle.

The animal was a wisent or bison, a lover of meadows and grassy plains. For some reason and by some way unknown, it had strayed unwittingly to the heights above the Ferrassie Rock-shelter. The Bison had become nervous amid its unfamiliar surroundings. At sight of Pic this nervousness increased to vexation. At sound of the other’s cries, its wrath passed all bounds. With a loud snort, it dashed blindly forward in a thunderous charge.

But for the warning snort, Pic would have been overwhelmed in an instant. He glanced quickly behind him and had time only to spring nimbly to one side. The great brute swept by so closely, its streaming locks brushed his shoulder. Unconscious of peril and unable to check its momentum, the doomed beast plunged to the brink of the precipice. Too late, it saw the destruction awaiting it and reared high over the abyss in a last frantic effort to escape death; then with a terrified bellow, down it fell. The forelegs plunged into space and the huge body followed tumbling head over heels in a mad death-whirl to the ground below.

The Cave-men had nearly reached the summit of the cliff when they saw Pic suddenly step back. The next moment, a great hairy body came flying over their heads. A loud crash; and as they gazed below, there lay a full-grown bison quivering in the last agonies of death. All saw and were dumbfounded. They turned to Pic who was leaning forward with arms outstretched like one petrified as he peered down upon the brute whose wrath he had so narrowly escaped. The evidence was clear; he had hurled the bison down. Had he not urged them to hurry and partake of the feast?

For an instant, they stared in awe at the author of their good-fortune, then with one accord, back they scrambled pell-mell the way they had come. As Pic looked down he saw them leap upon the dead bison like a pack of ravenous beasts. They howled, shrieked, screeched with joyful anticipation as they cut and chopped the lifeless animal with their flint-blades. In a jiffy, the hide was ripped and torn off in a dozen gory fragments, permitting the Cave-men to set upon the carcass itself. In the meantime, several of the women with some wits left, ran about shouting to their companions to bring fuel and prepare the fire for the coming feast. In a few moments the Rock-shelter was a hive of buzzing activity. The women made ready the fire, stirring the embers and piling on wood while the men carried great hunks of flesh and severed limbs to the butcher-block, licking the dripping blood and meat-shreds to momentarily ease their hunger until the feast could be prepared and served.

Amid all this excitement and confusion, none thought of Pic. Food, food was the one thing in their minds and naught else mattered. Here it was and plenty of it, suddenly come between them and starvation.

The limbs and body were now dismembered; the head and offal alone remained. The old hag dashed to the fire, waving the bison’s heart sucked dry and bearing the imprints of her teeth. One of the men sprang to the shaggy head and pried open the mouth.

“Stand back,” thundered a voice. “The tongue is mine,” and there stood Pic with ax held threateningly across his shoulder. The man fell to his knees and stretched out his arms.

“Killer of the Bison!” he shrieked in a frenzy of joy. “Tamer of Lions!” his fellows added their exultant yells. “The tongue belongs to him. Out with it. May the sun ever shine upon him who has this day saved us from death.”

In a twinkle, Pic had become the man of the hour. By those who would have rent him asunder, he now was acclaimed. The tongue was torn from the bison head and presented to him, after which the mob hurried to the fire to sear the meat as fast as it could be cut up and passed on from the butcher-block.

Gradually the shouts and yells became hushed as the Cave-men huddled about the now roaring blaze. While some dashed hither and thither like mad things, hunting for wooden poles or spits, others wasted no time but held the gory chunks over the flames in their bare hands. A few, less fortunate in finding space for themselves about the fire and impatient of delay, squatted on the outside of the group and ate their morsels raw.

The sombre gloom of the camp which had been so suddenly transformed into a bedlam of joy, was again changed to a seething ferment of sizzling, steaming, crackling flesh and slobbering jaws while the smell of blood and seared meat filled the air and rose to heaven through an inferno of black smoke and grease-fed flames.

While the Men of Ferrassie were thus enjoying themselves, gathered about the fire, feasting and revelling, Pic sought her who had saved him and who in her turn had so miraculously escaped death on the butcher-block. While her people hacked and tore the dead bison, she stood aloof and took no part. As they streamed to the great stone with their gory trophies, she stepped back and watched the cutting and pounding with hungry eyes. The last shreds were stripped from the carcass and the men were crowding about the fire, leaving her unnoticed when suddenly a broad, thick-set figure appeared at her side.

“The tongue; see; I have saved it for you. Take and eat, it is yours.”

It was Pic who spoke. He held the reeking morsel in his outstretched hands. The girl eyed it longingly, then glanced towards the fire and hesitated.

“I must wait,” she said timidly. “The men have not yet finished. You see there is no place for me.”

Without a word, Pic turned and forced his way into the group, thrusting the greedy feasters roughly aside to make room. A chorus of wild yells greeted his arrival: “Killer of the Bison! Lion Tamer! Stand back and let him roast his fare.”

Those nearest Pic made way while he held the great tongue over the flames until it was well seared. This operation being completed, he left his place by the fire and strode to the butcher-block. With the blade of his ax, he chopped the tongue in two.

“Sit down,” he said. The girl came forward obediently and seated herself upon the great stone. At a sign from Pic, she seized one of the severed morsels and set upon it with her sharp teeth, all the time moaning softly as she ate.

Pic sat down beside her and looked on. When her most pressing hunger-pangs were satisfied, she stopped suddenly and peered up into his face. “You do not eat. None will dispute your share. You threw the Bison down,” and she smiled upon him.

Pic smiled in return. “But I am not hungry,” he replied. This was a fib, for he had fasted since the previous midday and felt hollow to his toes. The girl was not so easily deceived.

“There is plenty; we can both eat,” she said; whereupon he awaited no second invitation but pitched in with a vim on that half of the tongue which as yet remained untouched. From then on, the two were silent except for the noises that cave-folk were wont to make when rending and chewing their food. For lack of words and empty mouths to speak them, they watched each other from the corners of their eyes.

And thus the last were served. Past winter horrors—cold, hunger and disease—were one and all forgotten, for the Ape Boy had suddenly come upon the Men of Ferrassie with food hurled from the sky. The Rock-shelter was now become a horn of plenty where starving men might laugh at death and gorge themselves to a surfeit after their long fast.

XVIII

Now that Pic was returned to the fold and his position established among the Men of Ferrassie, he gave himself up to all the activities of Mousterian life. With his advent, began a period of successful hunting. Rarely did the hunters return to the rock-shelter empty-handed. What with their never-depleted larder, the Cave-folk became strong of heart and body; the burly chieftain grew burlier and the girl rounded out like a plump partridge. To her Pic devoted such of his time as was not required for his hunting; and thus he cemented their closer acquaintance. For more than a fortnight, Pic gave himself up heart and soul to his new life until another chapter suddenly unfolded itself. One morning he and the men of Ferrassie were creeping along the river bank in search of game when he caught sight of two great creatures coming towards him. He sprang to his feet and waved his arms. At this, the pair came to a sudden halt. For a moment they stood staring at him in wonder, then came galloping along with loud squeals and bellows.

“The Mammoth! the Woolly Rhinoceros!” yelled the Cave-men and away they fled like scared rabbits; all but one of them who seemed to have suddenly lost the use of his legs and was perforce compelled to face the two great beasts alone. Along came the pair amid a great rumbling of feet upon the grassy meadow. Squeals, trumpets, bellows and human shouts rang out over the lowlands to the distant heights and echoed back again as the opposing forces clashed and in a moment the duet was become a trio—the Mammoth, the Rhinoceros and the Ape Boy.