I
Totan, hetman of the northern Spanish cave-folk, sat upon the
threshold of Castillo, watching a party of men coming toward him up
the mountainside. His people, to the number of eighty or more, were
behind him gathered about a roaring fire. All were clad in the skins of
beasts and armed with wooden clubs and javelins. They stared down at the
newcomers with hungry wolfish eyes.
Those approaching from below were short, thick-set men with hairy bodies
and bent limbs—gaunt, hollow-cheeked and beast-like, and yet men. They
clambered up to the cavern threshold where Totan and his band awaited
them.
In the van strode Gonch the Muskman. All greeted him in sullen silence,
for it was plain to be seen that neither he nor his companions brought
food of any kind. Totan rose to his feet livid with rage. He was a
giant in strength, a grotesque and misshapen Hercules, bandy-legged and
short-armed. His head was apparently without neck, so closely did it set
upon his brawny shoulders. His low forehead sloped to a pair of heavily
bone-ribbed eyes and thick aquiline nose. His big bull-teeth gleamed from
his protruding muzzle. His bushy brows were drawn down in a terrible
scowl.
“No food!” he roared. “Again our hunters return empty-handed. We must
eat. _Who_ shall it be?” He glared fiercely from one man to another. All
cringed before him like beaten curs. He was about to vent his wrath upon
Gonch, the leader of the party, when his eyes lifted with astonishment at
sight of something in the Muskman’s right hand.
“Where—where did you get that?” he stammered.
A look of triumph came over Gonch’s face. He opened his hand and held it
palm upward so that all could see. There lay a superb flint-blade; large,
well-formed and keen-edged. It was the finest stone weapon that the
Castillans had ever seen.
“A marvelous flint,” said Gonch. “It was made by the Mammoth Man.”
Totan emitted an astonished grunt. His head may have been as dense as his
muscles, but he could tell a fine blade when he saw one. Speech was a
laborious process at best and now he could find no words to say.
“It was in the low country,” Gonch said, pointing eastward to the
rock-strewn plains bordering the River Pas. “We found a man.”
He paused impressively. Not a sound broke the stillness. All held their
breaths and waited in suspense for his next words.
“He was a strange man,” Gonch continued. “He lay upon his back. The flesh
was wasted from his bones. He gave me this flint hoping thereby to escape
death. I questioned him to learn how it came into his possession. He said
that it was the work of the Mammoth Man.”
Totan began to find the use of his tongue.
“The Mammoth Man? Who is he?”
“Hetman of a far-off tribe,” Gonch replied. “Leader of skilled hunters
who have prospered mightily because of him. He makes flints like this one
and supplies them to his men.”
Totan sneered incredulously. “Their leader a flint-worker? That is hard
to believe.”
“The man said so,” Gonch maintained stoutly; “and I believe he told the
truth as to the flints. He also told lies. Because of them I killed him.”
“Good food gone to waste,” Totan growled. “You should have brought his
carcass here.”
Gonch rubbed his stomach with one open hand all the time grinning like a
hyena. Gone to waste? Hardly. Gonch was never guilty of such carelessness
as that. He was a prince of cannibals and his body so reeked with the
stench of his man-feasting that he smelled like a flesh-eating beast. For
that reason men called him the Muskman.
“The stranger lied about the Mammoth Man; a giant mightier than the Hairy
Elephant; one who has made the beasts his slaves; his home, a lion’s
den; and yet a man who will neither hunt nor fight.”
“Coward,” sneered the hetman.
“No doubt,” Gonch agreed. “And yet he must be a flint-worker of
extraordinary skill. This blade proves that; and he who made it can make
more. If he made them for us, our hunting would be a very different
matter. We would have all we wanted of meat and hides.”
“Aye, that’s true,” said Totan with a sigh.
“What a pity he is not here to make us the fine blades. Does he live so
very far away?”
“Very, very far,” replied Gonch, gazing to the northeast. “His is a tribe
of big strong men who live in a broad valley near a river winding between
walls of stone. All are armed with these weapons and know how to use
them.”
The hetman looked at the ground and shook his head. “So far away and the
men are big and strong. Our warriors would not have much chance fighting
them with sticks. I fear that we cannot secure the fine weapons.”
“Um-m, I am not so sure about that,” said Gonch craftily. “Even though it
be a long journey and strong men to contend with, I believe that I can do
it.”
The crowd of cave-men stared and gasped. Totan only sneered:
“You? Be careful with your boasting or you will be the choice for our
next meal.”
Gonch shuddered. He feared the giant Totan. Had it not been for the
latter, he would not long have contented himself with second place among
the Castillan cave-men. It was his brain against the hetman’s brawn and
so far, brawn had the best of it.
“It is not a question of strength,” he said. “If I go to the Mammoth
Man’s country, I will be only a fox among wolves. In no other way can I
finally secure the blades.”
“Ugh!” Totan grunted. “And so you intend to steal them. You will get only
a cracked head for your pains.”
Gonch laughed scornfully.
“Steal them? No indeed. I know of a much better way than that. I will go
to the far-off country and see the Mammoth Man. When I return, I will
bring with me——”
“The flints?” growled Totan.
“No, the Mammoth Man himself. Flints without him would in time be lost or
broken, but with him, when they are lost or broken, he can make more.”