THE CLANSMEN
It was dark, absolutely dark, and I could hear no sound. I could not
remember who I was nor where I was, and there came upon me something
like a feeling of alarm, though I felt that to be afraid of anything
was most unlike me. Furthermore, I was in pain; there was a hurt in
my breast and, instinctively, I clutched at the place with my hand.
Ah! I knew what it must be--a protruding arrow-head--and I strove to
get such a hold upon it that I could pull it forth in the hope that so
relief would come, but I could not get my grasp upon the thing. What
had become of it? My mind wandered in a search for all about me and an
understanding of it. I had a dreamy vision in my mind of some rocky
gorge, of enemies coming up from a sloping river bank, of a desperate
struggle there, and of my own part therein, which seemed to end with
a murderous bowshot from behind, driving a shaft through my body; but
what had happened afterward? Where had they carried me and how could I
be living after such fearful hurt? I fumbled still at my breast seeking
the arrow-head, and found at last what I had mistaken for it. It was
but a jagged piece of flint which had slipped in between my flesh and
the rough skin coat I wore and which, as I had borne upon it, turning
in my sleep, had pricked me sharply and awakened me. There was no
arrow-head nor trace of wound. I could not understand it, but I no
longer feared; I only realized that I was cold. I felt about me in
the darkness and my hands fell upon what I recognized as the skins of
animals, and I drew them together and over me from head to foot and was
warm and slept again. When I awoke the darkness was not so dense; light
came in through an opening not far away and I could distinguish objects
about me.
I lay upon the floor in a sort of niche in a cave. Weapons, as I judged
them to be, leaned against the wall opposite, and away beyond them,
close to the wall, lay a gray heap over which I puzzled. I studied it
at first dreamily and then curiously, as the light grew stronger from
the narrow arched entrance, then started half upright, for the gray
thing seemed alive. It heaved uneasily and I forgot my own perplexity
as to who I was or where I was in watching the mysterious thing. All at
once the mystery was solved. The mass separated, part of it upheaved,
and then I understood. There had been a man sleeping there, like me,
beneath a heap of wolf skins. As he arose he turned his face toward me
and called out hoarsely but cheerily enough: “Oo-ee! Scar!”
“Oo-ee,” I answered back instinctively. I knew that his call was but
to learn if I were awake and I knew, too, that I was his friend and
comrade. I became instantly another being from the one lying dazed
and dreaming the moment before. The thought of all that dim vision of
some fight at a ford and my own awful hurt there, passed as the smoke
goes when the wind sweeps over a fire, and swift, keen memory of all
that related to my present relations and surroundings returned to me
at once. Why, there we were in our cave, Six Toes and I, and it was
morning. I called out to him:
“I am hungry, Six Toes; let us eat.”
He grinned, went over to the back of the cave, drew forth strips of
dried meat from a store heaped up there, and I, getting to my feet at
the same time, took from the weapons by the wall our two stone axes. We
sat down together, hacked away fragments of the cold, hard meat, and
ate as ravenously as two wild animals.
It was all simple enough. Why had I so awakened still dreaming of a
river and a fight in a region warm and pleasant? Certainly in such
a country I had never lived, though dreams of it had come to me
before and I was in no such country now. Here was I with Six Toes, at
murderous odds with others of our kind and with a prospect ahead of us
as dangerous as uncertain. Not that it worried us much. We were only
less reckless of what was to come than the prowling creatures of the
swift, ever-fearing grass-eaters of the plains.
Six Toes was tall and strong, and so, indeed, was I, though not so
great of bulk as he. He was a huge man, though springy as the reindeer,
and the crush of his hairy arms was something to be feared in any
grapple. We were garbed nearly alike, each in a single garment made of
skin reaching from neck to knee, with holes for the arms and belted
at the waist with a thong of rawhide. The garment of Six Toes was of
a single bearskin; mine of wolfskin well stitched together with long
sinews. In each of our belts whenever we left the cave was a stone
axe, and each bore as well his bow and arrows, and sometimes his
flint-headed spear. In a skin pouch hanging from the belt in front
we carried the smaller things--the stone, skinning and cutting knife,
and, it might be, dried meat. Our arrows we carried in skin quivers
slung across our backs. We had no other clothing or weapons or gear of
any kind, but our axes and our arrow-heads and knives were sharp and
polished and our bows were strong. The Cave men everywhere had learned
many things.
We two were not in a good way, even as ways went with the Cave men in
that rough land and time. We were outlaws--I, Scar, and Six Toes, a
greater personage than I, and all because of the deadly enmity between
my companion and the head man of our clan. We had been driven from
the great galleried cave in the cliff beside the river a mile above
us where all had sought refuge together for the harsh winter, and,
thus forced to fare alone, had, after some perilous wandering, found
shelter in this smaller and less pleasant and safe abode. We were
cold, but in this respect not so greatly worse off than the body of
the clan who, through rare misfortune, were, temporarily, nearly as
unfortunate as we. The winter was upon us. Long ago, so the legend of
the story-telling old men ran, our people had drifted to the south,
where was a warmer clime, but something had driven them northward again
and they had long lived a roving, sturdy, and fierce community in a
country of rock and plain, fruitful in season, it is true, and with
good hunting, peopled as it was by many grass-eating brutes and furred
beasts of prey, and warm as well, but hard to bear in winter because of
the breath of northern glaciers.
Now, the clan had been for a time in a strait such as was never known
before. Venturing, because of an unaccountable influx of the deer and
the little wild horses, into a ruder country than our ordinary haunts,
we had lost our fire. There were no fire mountains here, and, despite
the finding of the big cave, living had become uncomfortable. We had
not yet learned the art of making fire ourselves, and, when the clan
moved as a body, carried it always with us, moving slowly and making
fires ahead on our way as far as the runners could go with brands. Now,
it had, for once, been neglected by the keepers in the cave and become
lost, and we must half freeze and live on roots and nuts and dried meat
until we should visit some distant clan, or the fire from the sky, as
it sometimes did, should smite some towering dead tree and make it burn
for us. But no such good fortune had come, and those of our own kind of
whom we knew were far removed from us, and sometimes hostile. We must
endure until the warm time came again.
The little cave in which Six Toes and I--he was called Six Toes
because he had, when a youth, left four of his toes in the jaws of
a savage river fish, though the hurt did not impair his strength or
swiftness--were harbouring was close to the edge of a declivity which
overhung the river valley. We were savagely restless and discontented,
and not without great reason. Not only against the bear and wolf and
prowling tiger of the time must we be on guard, but against even the
creatures of our own kind and clan.
The deadly enmity between Six Toes and the chief among the Cave men was
all because of Laugh, the shrewd and swift and always merry daughter
of old Hairy, desired by the huge leader, Wolf, and desired also by
Six Toes, my friend, he who had found me a child abandoned by some
wandering tribe and who had reared me as his younger brother, teaching
me all his craft of field and fight, and making of me one not lightly
to be encountered. With him and beside him in all stress I would always
be. So it had come that we were one in our watchful exile.
There had been harsh action in the great cave. Wolf and Six Toes had
each asked old Hairy for his daughter, and the old man, fearing Wolf
the more, had rather favoured him, while the girl as far as she might
dare, inclined to the other man. The time had come in the history
of the Cave men when a woman could scarcely be taken by force and,
next to Wolf, Six Toes was the most important man among us. Then came
the craft which was our undoing. Wolf and his immediate and obedient
following accused us of a great crime--forever I was counted one with
Six Toes--of having stolen and hidden in the wood for our own use a
store of weapon heads, than which there was no more valued possession
in the community. Of the rarest flint, polished and keen, were these
arrow-heads and spear-heads, fashioned with infinite care and toil
by the men too old for hunting, and counted, rightly, among our best
possessions, for arrows were often lost in the hunt or carried away by
wounded beasts. To steal of these reserves, as they were to be dealt
out fairly from the common store at need, was death. Boldly had Wolf
made the accusation against us--though, as the end proved, he had
hidden the arrows himself--and had so inflamed all the men that we
escaped the stern penalty only by sudden flight. As crafty as he was
fierce and vicious was the big Wolf.
We had found the little cave in which we were now concealed, and in a
way intrenched, for none could force the narrow entrance; had found
good hunting, and so, gloomily but healthily enough, we abode together,
planning, it seemed vainly, some scheme of retribution. We chafed and
raged, thus helpless, like the great wild elk with antlers caught in
the thicket, or the huge bear sometimes imprisoned in a pitfall of the
rocks. The life we led was trying; in some unguarded moment we might
be stolen upon and slain by Wolf and his followers, and, besides, our
little cave was colder than the other. The life was hardly endurable.
Some change must come; upon that we were resolved alike and bitterly.
And, when the change came, it came swiftly--in a single hour--with the
holding of a new power in our hands, something never known before and
bringing great happenings with it. It was a simple thing, but wonderful
and most mysterious.
One somewhat cold but glittering afternoon, having eaten lightly of
our stored raw meat and nuts, we were lounging in front of the cave,
where it was warmer than inside. I was moving about listlessly, noting
the tracks made in the snow by lurking beasts and calling once in a
while to Six Toes, who sat upon a little rock enjoying the sunshine
and fumbling idly with bits of shining stone which he had found beside
him. One of these bits he held for some time in his hand, turning it
carelessly about. It was thin at the edges, roughly oval in shape
and singularly clear. In the centre on each side it rose outward,
smooth and even. It was somewhat like a transparent arrow-head and I
remember that, as I came to the side of Six Toes, I wondered if we
could not put it to some such use. A flake of stone just like it I had
never seen before. Then, as Six Toes turned the stone in his hands,
a darting yellow gleam fell on the snow, and he laughed as he found
that by moving the flake he could shift the shining spot at will. At
last he turned it upon one of his own bare feet and in sheer curious
foolishness held it there in one place steadily. But not for long.
Suddenly he leaped up with a howl and flung the thing away as alarmedly
as if it were one of the little adders we did not like but sometimes
found hidden amid the leaves where the nuts were on the ground.
Something had bitten or burned his foot!
I ran to where the stone had fallen and picked it up and examined it
closely, but could find nothing strange about it except its odd shape
and clearness. How could I know, how could Six Toes know, that he had
stumbled upon the first natural burning-glass that men had ever known,
a flake of tourmaline brought perhaps with a boulder from the far north
in some ancient glacial move--a tourmaline, the only stone which flakes
in such a way!
If we had little wisdom, we had at least unbounded curiosity. We played
with the curious thing and the yellow spot it made, and, finally, I
held the spot upon the stalk of a dry weed. I held it so for quite a
time and then the wonder happened! There came a darkening of the weed’s
fibre, next a faint smoking, and then, suddenly, a flame. We yelled
aloud our amazement and triumph as we danced about. We were beside
ourselves with joy. We had Fire!
We wasted no time then. We gathered armfuls of the stout dry weeds and
laid them carefully upon the one now burning and added such fagots
of dead wood as we could find. Soon we had a bonfire and we kept it
going. Fire, fire in abundance! We could not contain ourselves, for we
knew all that it meant--warmth, always warmth, and the fragrance and
rich taste of cooked flesh. I dashed within the cave and brought out
great slabs of the cold meat, and we sharpened long thick weeds and
thrust the meat into the glowing embers until it curled and browned
and the odour and savour of it were in our nostrils, and then we ate!
We ate as if famished, for never, it seemed to us, had been so great a
feast before. It brought new life and courage.
Gorged at last, we had yet energy to go out among the reeds and gather
more armfuls of them and stack them near at hand for use, and then
we clambered down the precipice at a place not far distant where we
could reach the river bank, and brought up driftwood, and so we worked
furiously until nightfall and until we had a great store of fuel. Then
we made another fire, inside the cave, and warmed it, and there we ate
more meat. In all that region there were no others so fortunate as
we. We were boastfully merry. Outside, we renewed our fire upon the
very edge of the precipice--for that we had a reason--and throughout
the night we fed it in turn, one while the other slept, and the light
leaped high in the darkness, a flaming defiance to our enemies. What
would they think of it, they in the great cave? It was not long before
we learned.
They had seen the flash of fire, as the night fell, and their amazement
could not be told. Then came a rage. Six Toes and Scar had fire, and
Wolf and all the band had none and were cold and ate raw meat. The
thing was unendurable! The outcasts should yield up their great
possession, and with early dawn half a score of the Cave men, led by
Wolf, would come storming down the valley to kill the outlaws and bring
fire to where it was most needed.
As morning broke we saw them coming, for they could not remain
concealed against the snowy background. We knew their errand well, and
Six Toes laughed loudly, but the laugh was as ugly as the cough of the
lank hyena which cried sometimes in the wastes. We heaped on more fuel
and made the fire blaze merrily, but we saw to it that it was at the
very edge of the shelf of the rock. Six Toes brought out his spear and
I stood beside him with my bow, an arrow clutched on the string.
They came rushing toward us, armed and fierce, and we waited until they
were not two hundred yards away. Then Six Toes, with shoves and sweeps
of his long spear, hurled every particle of fire from off the ledge, to
be utterly quenched in the deep snow of the far depths below. We leaped
for the cave’s shelter and stood inside with notched arrows and drawn
bows. Eager for a sight of them we were, but could not get it. Even
Wolf would not venture fairly in front of that dark, narrow entrance.
Death was waiting to leap out.
We called to them and jeered at them, but there came no answer. Finally
I ventured to peer forth cautiously, and saw our enemies gathered just
out of bowshot. They stood there, baffled and raging, and we came into
sight and howled out insults. We yelled taunting allusions to those who
hungered for the taste of roasted flesh but not for the taste of sharp
arrows from a cave. We gibed and mocked, until maddened, they started
toward us, and then we sought the cave again, only to come forth once
more as they moved, and yelp out things concerning those who had no
fire and must eat raw meat and shiver all the time. They could do
nothing but shake their weapons and threaten, and at last they stalked
away sullenly.
The sun was shining, and later in the day we built a fire outside again
and laid on wet leaves to make a towering smoke which they in the great
cave might see. How they must marvel, we thought, and so we later
learned. Where did we get our fire? Was it possible that Six Toes had
become a wizard--for of such beings there were stories even then--a
medicine man such as had been heard of, one who was familiar with the
strange things in the water and in the forest and, above all, with the
Black Things in the clouds which sometimes made streaks of fire when
the storms came? Yes, it must be so; and there were perplexity and
apprehension. What might not Six Toes do next?
But not for long could such a state of things exist. There were
venturesome men among the hunters, and Wolf did not believe in wizards.
Furthermore, it was in his mind that Laugh was more inclined toward his
rival than to him. He had been too negligent. The fire must be secured
and Six Toes and Scar slain speedily!
Meanwhile our own wrath grew. Was it not enough that we had been driven
from the tribe, wanderers on the waste, lonely as outlying wolves,
without now being hunted down as if we were wolves indeed? As our rage
increased, we devised a plan of vengeance.
As I have told, the slight ledge in which was our cave projected out
upon a narrow shelf which overhung the valley. This tongue of rock held
the cave almost at its very end, the opening extending back but a few
yards, while the walls were of slight thickness. Because of these thin
walls there came to us a great idea. We would cut holes in them and
thus have a view on either side, up or down the valley, and from them,
too, send murderous, unexpected arrows. The stone was soft and the
openings were soon chipped through with our hard flint axes. We hunted
stealthily and at night only, for we feared a possible surprise, and
slew one of the little wild horses and a deer and hacked them apart
and stored away the meat, and ever carefully within the cave we nursed
a slight fire, for the wonderful stone, we had now learned, would not
bring flame in the darkness nor when the sky was dull. So, with food
and warmth provided and weapons at our hands, we awaited with little
patience the time of certain fray. Each day we built our flaunting fire
outside and cooked our meat there. We knew the fight would come. It
came soon and in a way we had not thought of.
I must tell here of what I learned afterward. There was new trouble in
the great cave. Wolf had again demanded Laugh for his wife, and her
father, the aged and feeble Hairy, could not protect her if he would.
She was in a desperate strait, but a most resolute maiden and a daring
one was Laugh, and she at this time resolved swiftly and desperately.
She had watched longingly the distant smoke. She would flee to Six
Toes, who was, at heart, her choice. Besides, had he not fire and roast
meat, and, oh, how good roast meat was!
Little preparation had the girl to make. She wrapped her few belongings
tightly in a skin which she fastened to her back with thongs, and then,
one morning, just as the light was coming and the dangerous creatures
of the night had sought their hiding-places in the hills and forests,
she glided from the cave, at first unnoticed, and began her run. The
sun was shining all over the snow fields and down the valley now, but
she relied upon her swiftness. A fourth of the way she had gained when
Wolf, suspicious concerning her and ever watchful, seeking her early,
found that she was not with her father, and, rushing from the cave, at
once perceived her in the distance. He knew what her flight portended.
He seized his weapons with a bellow, shouted to his immediate
followers, and bounded forth in hot pursuit.
Fleeter of foot than most of the Cave women was Laugh, but the fall of
snow had not been light and she was not as strong and tireless for such
hampered run as were the angry ones pursuing her. They gained upon her
almost from the first, and her flight became more straining, though
she did not falter. Bravely, if even gaspingly, she ran, but when she
attained the slope which led upward to the awaiting shelter the rushing
Wolf was scarce a dozen yards behind, though here on the wind-swept
ascent the snow became lighter and Laugh almost held her own. Then she
did what alone saved her. She yelled as only a Cave woman can yell,
which meant much, and Six Toes, leaping to the porthole, saw it all. He
rushed to the cave entrance, I at his heels.
It was a close finish--there could be no doubt of that. Wolf’s final
swift rush told as they neared the cave, as with outstretched hand he
almost succeeded in clutching the fleeing girl as she dived into the
opening of the cave. Six Toes caught her in his arms as she came, and
I sent an arrow whistling outward, but Six Toes was in my way and Wolf
leaped aside unhurt. Then came a few moments’ pause. Laugh was safe
within the cave. Wolf and his followers, who had by this time joined
him, were gathered just aside from the entrance in noisy council. We
waited alert and hungrily, for we knew that our time of vengeance was
at hand, I guarding the cave opening, Six Toes at the porthole on the
left.
As they conferred excitedly the party of Wolf moved farther to the side
and I crept nearer and nearer to the mouth of the cave. I knew there
would be happenings. Then I heard the voices moving more to the side
and ran back into the cave again and looked over Six Toes’ shoulder.
Suddenly the men outside moved again, and there, now they stood, not
six yards from the point of Six Toes’ arrow, Wolf, with his broad back
to it, waving his arms and commanding violently. Never was fairer mark
offered a Cave man and never a deadly opportunity seized upon more
eagerly. Slowly Six Toes drew the long shaft backward until the stone
head touched the great bow, which creaked and groaned beneath the
strain; then he released it!
There was a tearing thud; Wolf threw up his hands and stood wavering
there with a short length of the knotted wood jutting from his back.
For a moment he swayed and trembled, and then pitched forward as dead
as the deer and the little wild horse stored beside us in the cave.
With a yell of terror his followers started up the valley and I
bounded out from the cave and sent an arrow after them as they ran.
I could hear the “thut” and one of them began to run waveringly and
laggardly. It was a fine shot.
It was good to see Laugh eat. Little cared she what we were doing. The
smell of roasted meat had assailed her, and she was gnawing greedily
at a bone with cooked flesh still upon it as we turned to look upon
her, still flushed from the race. She looked up at Six Toes and laughed
happily. Then he, too, laughed and sat down beside her. They were mated
now, and were content.
So, for a few days, there were no happenings of note. Six Toes and
Laugh were cheerful in their end of the cave, and I only less so in a
little alcove at the side where I slept now dreamlessly. Laugh helped
in the skinning of the game. We brought and cooked the flesh and kept
ever a sharp lookout up and down the valley. Did Laugh become lax in
any of her duties, Six Toes, as a husband should, admonished her with a
strip of hide, but she rarely needed such correction, and his strokes
were light, for were they not newly wed? I alone became, finally,
somewhat restless. I felt that there was more to come, not that I
feared it, but I was curious. The half-freezing tribe would soon be
heard from.
We had not long to wait. Following the death of Wolf there had been
much debate in the great cave. Evidently Six Toes was a wizard, and
evidently a great wizard was a good thing for a clan to have. Besides,
Six Toes was a famous hunter and a man of might, and why not yield to
him?
They came, one day, a straggling group, including even the older
men, and I, who guessed their mission as I saw them in the distance,
conferred swiftly with Six Toes and advised him earnestly. They halted
at a distance from the cave and yelled forth the nature of their visit
and then, assured of safety, laid down their weapons and came forward.
Six Toes, I standing beside him, received them somewhat gruffly. They
said that they were cold and that he could make fire for them; as they
were leaderless, too, would he not return to them?
Six Toes was stern but not unfriendly. He said that they were right.
He was a wizard and could make fire. They were leaderless, because he
had slain Wolf. He could slay others. He had been driven forth from the
band, he and his brother Scar, but he would not remain angry with them
if they would take him as a wizard and as the head of the clan and so
obey him. If they disobeyed, well, he could burn all enemies. The sun
was shining and he drew forth the fire-stone from his pouch and set
into flame the bundle of dry reeds I brought. The sight startled and
appalled them, and some of the old men even grovelled at his feet. All
yielded wildly and blindly and, the young men carrying our belongings,
Six Toes and Laugh and I in the lead, we took our way to the great
cave of many galleries where the remainder of the band received us
with mingled fear and joy. Then Six Toes made fire outside and lighted
from it, other fires soon blazed within the great cave’s chambers, and
meat was roasting everywhere, and there were warmth and feasting and
rejoicing.
There were hosts of wild things for the hunting, the band had stores
of nuts and roots, there were fire and warmth, and the winter passed
in comfort for the Cave man. There came the spring and summer and the
brown autumn, and in all our wanderings with Six Toes as our head we
had fire at need, and the clan flourished beyond the ordinary lot of
the wild man of that time. Next to Six Toes, I was the strongest and
starkest man among them, and it came to me that, like him, I would
take a wife. There was a girl, Black Eye they called her, who was most
holding of desire to look upon. She I resolved to take, and I knew,
from the looks she sometimes gave me, that she would come willingly. I
was content in those days.
None other of all the band was so soft of foot as I when need came.
I could thread the wood without the crackling of a twig. I could
creep as silently as the forest cats which caught the birds upon the
ground; I could steal so close to any creature that, if it saw me not,
nor smelled me, I could come to stand beside it and impale it with a
close driven arrow or even with my spear. So I wanted no clumsy-footed
companion with me to mar the outcome when I hunted, and, save when we
sought the fiercer creatures, rarely went forth other than alone.
One day it chanced that I was creeping upon a flock of ptarmigan
feeding in a thicket where were many berries. Already, in another place
I had killed a number of them, and cared little whether I shot more of
them or not. Glancing about as I so crept along, I saw what interested
me. Upon one of the bushes with a foliage darkly green hung great
clusters of berries not scarlet, like those the birds ate and which
we ate ourselves, but of a purple such as I have never seen before.
They were wonderful. Surely, I thought, they must be better than the
smaller red things, richer and more luscious. I tasted them and found
them sweet and musky and fragrant, and, yielding, I gorged myself from
their abundance, and then lay down upon the dry grass in a little open
space, to rest and dream, and, it might be, sleep, for there came a
sort of languor over me and sleep seemed good. I lay there dozing when
I heard a fluttering of birds about me and reached for my bow and tried
to rise, but could not. My legs refused to aid me and my arms seemed
heavy. There came a doubt upon me. We had learned that there were
poison things, though never had I known them in this region, and surely
berries so luscious could not be harmful. But I cared not. I seemed
in another world. What to me that fruit I had eaten was of the deadly
things?
I lay there helpless, but in no pain. The drowsiness which deepened
brought curious scenes and fancies. Then the visions dimmed and I
drifted deeper into the sleep from which I might not waken. Steadily
all faded. It was done. Not for me was it to hunt or fight with Six
Toes to the end. Not for me to take my mate and live the full Cave
man’s life; not for me to be with the brave clan as it waxed in numbers
and in strength until it became the greatest in all that changing
region of what men call the Dardogne Valley, where our spear and
arrow-heads are sometimes dug from deep in the earth, and where little
children prattle in the vineyards.