Gonch was not dead although a few moments more of Kutnar’s throttling
grip would have made him so beyond question. Some men are hard to kill.
Gonch was of that kind. Even as he lay, to all appearances, stiff and
stark, the life-blaze flickered feebly, gathered fresh strength and
flared up. His chest heaved, he uttered a deep sigh, then groaned and
opened his eyes.
For a moment he was dazed by the position in which he found himself. He
lay sprawling in the snow among the bushes, staring at the sky. Far in
the distance, he could see the peak of Castillo. The sun setting behind
the mountain-top, crowned it with a rubescent halo. The day was nearing
its close.
Gonch gnashed his teeth with terrible rage as he remembered why it was he
lay there. He, warrior and second man of the Castillan tribe, had been
bested by a boy. His humiliation was beyond power to describe. His hate
and fury were even worse. He would have given his last drop of life-blood
for a chance to grapple again with Kutnar but this opportunity was denied
him, for the lad was gone.
[Illustration: “GONCH RECOVERED BY DEGREES”]
Gonch recovered by degrees. He lifted his head and shoulders, supporting
himself in a couchant position upon his elbows. There he rested for a
time gathering renewed vigor from the fresh air with which he now filled
his lungs. He raised himself to a sitting position. The wind sweeping
down upon him from the northeast was biting cold. He shivered. “I will
surely die if I stay here much longer,” he thought as he observed the
sky’s fading light. He must get back to Castillo somehow and it must
be done soon, before sundown. The cave-men might find him, true enough
but not before morning. By that time he would be frozen solid and past
mentioning. He could almost feel the rending teeth as his mates ripped
the flesh from his bones. “Not that—not that!” he whined in an agony of
terror. The fear of being eaten gave him strength. He grit his teeth in
desperation and was soon crawling through the snow on his hands and knees
toward the distant mountain.
It was black dark and the cave-men were snoring out their sleep when the
night fire watcher heard cries coming from far down the mountain side.
He listened and recognized them as those of a human being, so he went
down and found the Muskman crawling upward his laborious way. With the
man’s aid, Gonch was brought to the top where he fell exhausted beside
the fire. This aroused some of the sleepers and they issued from the
cave-entrance to learn what was the matter. At sight of their distressed
comrade, they made so much ado that soon the whole tribe was wide awake
and stirring. The giant hetman came forth and prodded Gonch with his
foot. “You are late,” he grumbled and then looked all about him. “Where
is the boy? He went with you. Where is he now?”
“Gone,” the Muskman moaned feebly.
“Gone?” Totan observed his henchman’s torn throat. He howled vindictively
as the truth dawned upon him. “And your ax; it too seems to have
disappeared. Did boy and ax go together?”
It was in Gonch’s mind to tell a falsehood ascribing his condition to the
fury of some fierce beast, but he was too exhausted to think of aught
but Kutnar’s escape and the necessity for immediate pursuit. “Yes,” he
groaned. “The boy struck me down and escaped. He must be followed and
brought back.”
The hetman scowled and grinned with cruel malice. “In good time,” he
sneered. “He who allows himself to be mauled by a boy, may not give
commands. We are not bats to fly around in the darkness and bump our
heads to no purpose. The boy will not have gone far. At the first sign of
light, we will feast and be on our way to find him.”
“Feast?” inquired one of the men. “On what?”
“This,” replied the hetman digging his toes into Gonch’s ribs. “He
promised to bring us the Mammoth Man and failed. He has lost us our most
expert hunter. Empty boasts are fit only to fill empty stomachs. Tell me,
hungry men, what is the penalty?”
“Death,” growled a voice.
“Death,” echoed from four-score pairs of lungs, and there ensued a great
rattling of clubs. The hetman stilled the tumult with a wave of his hand.
“Tut, tut,” he protested good-naturedly. “The poltroon is all but dead
now. In the morning, I will give you a rare treat—fresh meat with the
blood still dripping from it. We will roast him alive.”
Gonch heard and sickened with deadly fear, but he retained wit enough
to lie quiet and appear as dead as possible. Totan rolled him over with
his foot and peered into his face. The face was that of a corpse. It
looked as though the hetman’s little joke would be spoiled long before
sunrise. He left the body lying there and returned to the cave-entrance.
The others followed and soon all were settled down and asleep once more.
Apparently Gonch’s lucky star had set for the last time, then something
happened to send it soaring to the zenith with renewed brilliancy.
One man remained by the fire as a sentinel to watch and feed the blaze.
Had the Muskman made an effort to escape, this man if wide awake would
have noticed it and given the alarm. However, he fell asleep after a time
as was evidenced by his attitude and the sound of his loud breathing.
Gonch may have been more dead than alive, but the fear of what morning
meant for him was the best tonic in the world for his ailment. Almost
imperceptibly inch by inch he shifted his body away from the fire to
the coping of the ledge and lowered himself noiselessly down. Once out
of sight of wakeful eyes, he crept around the mountain beyond hearing
distance of Castillo and climbed upward. No one would expect him to
venture in that direction; therefore he chose to perform the unexpected.
Up, up he crawled through the darkness, regardless of the pain and
weariness his efforts cost him. Time was precious, for the fire-tender
might awake at any moment and give the alarm.
Gonch reached the mountain crest and lay gasping amid piles of rubble
and jagged boulders. There were plenty of places to hide and as he was
nigh fainting with exhaustion, he chose the remotest recess available and
secured himself snugly within it. In a few moments he was sound asleep.