The Cave Twins Part 6

Hawk-Eye spread the fire in a long line across the land side of the rock. He built a sort of wall of sticks and branches to feed it, and all night long it blazed and smouldered. They spread their skins on the rock and slept peacefully in its warm glow.

The next morning dawned bright and clear, and the whole family got up with the birds. They had more venison for breakfast, and when that was out of the way, Hawk-Eye said: "We'd better get across the other river early. There's no telling how far we may have to go to-day, or what we may find on the way."

"I hate to leave this place," cried Firefly, "it's so beautiful, and I am sure there is lots of game here."

"I hate to leave the doe-skin behind," said Limberleg, "but of course I can't dry and stretch and cure it while we are travelling."

"We can carry enough meat to last us all day," said Hawk-Eye, "and that will save lots of time. We won't have to stop to hunt for our dinner."

He tied a great piece of meat over the shoulders of Firetop and Firefly and Limberleg, and took the biggest piece on his own back, and off they started.

Three.

It would take too long to tell you all about what a time they had getting across the river. It was deeper than the first one they crossed, and if it hadn't been for a lucky accident, they might never have got across at all. When they came to the water's edge, Firetop saw some turtles sunning themselves on a log a little way down the stream.

The log had floated down the river and had caught against a dead branch that stuck out of the water. They were not so afraid of the water now they had really been in it.

Firetop thought it would be great fun to catch a turtle. He pointed them out to Firefly. "Come on," was all he said, but she knew what it meant, and at once the two children waded quietly out toward the log.

Wading in was altogether different from having to tumble in, anyway.

The turtles saw them coming, and just as the Twins reached the log, they slid off into the water. One of them found one of Firetop's big toes in the mud, and bit it.

Firetop screamed and tried to get away. Firefly didn't know what was the matter, but she screamed too on general principles, and they both grabbed at the log and tried to climb on to it. The log rolled over and got loose from the branch that held it and started down-stream, with both children clinging to it and yelling. They couldn't get up on it because it kept turning over, but they held on because it was the only thing there was to hold on to, and Firetop kept kicking with all his might to get away from the turtle. Firefly did some kicking, too, because she was trying to find the bottom with her feet and there wasn't any bottom there. The current was not very swift at this point, and though they didn't know it, the children were really swimming with their legs, and they made the log go toward the other sh.o.r.e.

While all of this was happening, where do you suppose Hawk-Eye and Limberleg were? They were chasing after them as fast as they could go, but the children had quite a start and got farther away every minute.

The water was almost over Limberleg's head, and you know how hard it is to walk in deep water. Besides, they had the meat. The meat that the Twins were carrying got loose in their struggles and fell off in the water. Perhaps the turtle saw it and decided that it was better eating than Firetop's toe, or maybe he got homesick. I can't tell about that, but anyway he let go. The Twins kept on reaching for the bottom and kicking with all their might and screaming, too, and before long the log ran its nose into the farther bank and they seized the branches of a willow tree that hung over the water and pulled themselves up on the sh.o.r.e.

In a moment Hawk-Eye and Limberleg came tearing up the river-bank to them. They had come straight across the river, while the children had been carried some distance by the current. You can just think how glad they all were when they found that they were across and not a single one of them had been drowned.

When Firetop told about the turtle, Hawk-Eye laughed and laughed.

Limberleg laughed a little, too. Firetop felt pretty sorry for himself, but he wasn't really hurt, and in half an hour he had forgotten to limp.

The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE TREE CLAN.

They walked a little way along the bank, looking for a good place to cross the flat, green meadow that lay between the river and the forest.

Soon they came to a sort of path which led back into the woods.

Hawk-Eye looked at it very carefully. He even got down and examined the wet ground at the water's edge. In the mud there were foot-prints.

"Isn't it a drinking-place for the wild creatures?" asked Limberleg.

Hawk-Eye grunted. "Like ourselves," he answered briefly. "There are people living in these woods. That's the print of a man's foot."

Limberleg looked just as she would have looked if he had said, "There's a pack of hyenas living in those woods." There was reason for it in those days. The different groups of people in the forests had nothing to do with one another, and when they met, they were much more likely to fight than to be friendly.

"Can't we go up the river-bank and not go into the woods at all?" asked Limberleg. For answer Hawk-Eye pointed down the river. Far away in the green meadow they saw two mammoths feeding. Even at that distance they looked like giant rocks looming out of the gra.s.s. Their long ivory tusks gleamed in the sun.

"We can't go that way," said Limberleg, "and it's no use to go back."

"We'll go up the path to the edge of the wood, then follow the river,"

said Hawk-Eye. "Maybe no one will see us. It's the best we can do. Be quiet and be quick."

He set off at a swift trot, his spear in his hand. The two children followed with their mother.

"I see shadows moving in the trees," said Firefly. Both twins wished very much that they were at home with Grannie just at that moment.

"They are following us, higher up on the bluff," Limberleg answered in a low voice.

Hawk-Eye had seen all that they had seen, and more, but he said nothing.

He trotted on. Just then a chunk of mud and dirt came flying through the air and struck Hawk-Eye on the head. Stones, sticks, and all sorts of missiles followed.

"Keep on running," said Hawk-Eye.

They were terribly frightened, but they did as they were told. If they had looked up, they would have seen a terrifying sight. On the edge of the bluff there was a strange group of people. At least we must call them "people," though they looked more like monkeys than like human beings. They were grinning horribly and dancing about and chattering to each other. Their bodies were covered with dark hair. Their arms were long and strong, their legs short. They had little eyes set near together, and almost no forehead at all. Every one of them had something in his hand to throw at the travellers.

Hawk-Eye kept straight on. "Run," he cried. "We can't fight; they are too many."

On, on they ran, panting and breathless. A little way ahead there were some large rocks on the edge of the wood. There they might find a momentary shelter. They had almost reached the rocks, when suddenly a woman of the wild tribe let herself down out of a tree on the edge of the bluff and made a bold dash down the slope. Before they could stop her, she had seized Firefly and dragged her away. She got as far as the first oak tree on the slope and had actually s.n.a.t.c.hed a limb, intending to swing herself and Firefly into it, when Limberleg, screaming with fury, reached the spot. Limberleg seized Firefly by one arm. The wild woman had hold of the other.

They pulled in opposite directions and screamed, and if it had not been for Hawk-Eye, there's no telling what might have become of poor Firefly.

She might have been pulled in two, or she might have been carried off and adopted into the wild clan. But Hawk-Eye was there in almost no time, and though the people on the bluff rained down sticks and stones upon them, Hawk-Eye drove his spear into the woman's arm. With a shriek of pain she let go of Firefly and dashed away into the forest.

"Run for your lives," cried Hawk-Eye, and they started again at top speed for the rocks. They reached them none too soon, for the people on the bluff, infuriated by the injury to the woman, came das.h.i.+ng down the slope after them. Once in the shelter of the rocks, Hawk-Eye turned and faced his pursuers. When they had almost reached his hiding-place he gave a fierce yell and threw his spear. It was a very well made spear with a bone barb on the end, and it struck the leader of the wild tribe in the thigh. With a shriek of pain he fell to the ground. Then he seized the spear and pulled it out of his flesh.

The wild tribe had no weapons but sticks and stones. They were tree-dwellers. They did not even know the secret of fire. They lived upon roots and berries and nuts, and such small game as they could catch with their hands or in snares. Their homes were rude shelters in the trees. When they saw what had happened to their leader, they were terribly frightened. They turned and ran for the trees, leaving the wounded man on the ground.

Hawk-Eye ran out from behind the rock, picked up his spear, and sent it flying after the enemy. It struck another man. Howling with pain and fear, he too dropped in his tracks. His companions ran faster than ever, and when they reached the trees, instantly swung themselves up by the branches and disappeared. Only now and then one could be seen swinging from tree to tree, back into the deep forest, like great monkeys. Hawk-Eye again ran after his spear. This time he pulled it out of the wounded man's flesh himself, and left him rolling on the ground, too much hurt to attack him or defend himself. Then Hawk-Eye ran back to the little group hidden behind the rock.

Everything was now as quiet as if no one lived in the forest at all.

There was not a single tree-dweller in sight except the first wounded man, and he was already crawling as fast as he could up the bluff.

In spite of everything, Hawk-Eye and Limberleg had held on to their meat, and now they felt the need of food. They cut Limberleg's load into four great chunks, and each took one. They ate as they walked.

They ran along past the place where the mammoths were feeding and then turned their backs on the river and plunged into the deep forest toward the east. The ground began to rise a little, and Hawk-Eye said, "If we keep on climbing in the direction of the rising sun, we are bound to reach the blue hills at last."

All that day they journeyed, and that night they spent in a tree. The next morning found them still climbing. At last, about noon of the second day, they reached the crest of the range and climbed out upon the high, bald summit of the highest hill.

No one of their clan had ever been so far from the cave, and no one of them had ever seen what Hawk-Eye and Limberleg and the Twins now saw.

There was the world spread out before them! They looked back far away in the blue distance toward the west, and there they saw a little silver thread. That silver thread was their river. They looked toward the south, and far, far away they saw more water than they had ever dreamed there was in the whole earth. They didn't know what it was. They were not even sure that it was water. They had never heard of the sea. They stood silent and breathless with wonder and gazed at it. At last Hawk-Eye said in an awestruck tone, "It's the end of the world."

"Let's go to the very edge and look over it," said Limberleg. "Maybe we can find out where the sun hides during the darkness."