_The Wonder Stick Strikes_
While the battered remnants of the attacking force were reassembling
before the cave fire, one of the women made her way quietly out of a
wailing group of her sisters, and slipped unnoticed toward the inner
recesses of the cavern. In a moment she had been lost from view among
the shadows. Rounding a turn at the end of the main gallery, she
found herself in a blackness so absolute that her eyes could tell her
nothing and she had to rely absolutely upon her groping fingers. Yet
she took her way, not without assurance, even along the inky corridor,
and her pace, while not rapid, was far from snail-like. It was only a
few minutes before, passing another turn, she could make out a faint
grayish radiance ahead; and toward this she proceeded at increased
speed, while the light, although never approaching brightness, grew
constantly more distinct.
At length, in the vague twilight, she found herself passing a
side-grotto filled with an enormous pile of split and broken bones. At
the base of this gruesome mound, crunching one of the bones with noisy
gusto, crouched a half-grown wolf; but the creature did not deign to
give her so much as the greeting of a growl; and she continued around
still another turn, and entered an enormous chamber illumined by the
sunlight that shone in through a slit in the roof.
At one corner of this gallery, bent industriously above a mass of
broken and denuded tree branches, squatted the slim, short figure of a
man.
Disturbed by the sound of an intrusion, he looked up with a startled
expression.
"Yonyo!" he cried, springing to his feet with every evidence of joy.
"Ru!" she returned, and came to him, and let him fold his arms about
her.
"Why were you away so long?" he demanded, reproachfully, as he released
her. "The sun has gone down, and then gone down again, Yonyo, and the
spirits of darkness have twice taken the world, since you were here
before. And last night--it must have been in a dream--I thought I heard
terrible screams and howlings, as of beasts that fight. Why did you not
come to tell me what befell? There must have been evil winds abroad in
the dark."
"There were evil winds abroad," she assured him. "Our men all went down
to fight the beast-people. And the evil winds blew against us, and many
of our men were lost."
Surprised and dismayed, Ru stood staring resentfully at her. "Why did
you not tell me?" he burst forth. "Why did you not tell me, so that I
might go down with my brothers to fight the beast-men?"
But Yonyo merely shrugged in disdain. "I was not silly enough to tell
you. It would have done no good. Grumgra is very strong. He would
have killed you with his club before you could throw one stone at the
beast-man. You know how you have hidden here ever since Grumgra chased
you. If he learned where you are, you would not live to see the sun go
down again. I alone have found out where you are, for did I not follow
you after Grumgra gave up the chase, and did you not show me where you
were coming to live?"
"I showed only you, Smiling-Eyed! And I shall show only you until the
gods make me as strong as Grumgra!" vowed Ru, hopefully eying the mass
of leafless branches at which he had been working.
"Not even the gods can make you that strong!" sighed Yonyo.
But, disregarding her remark, Ru continued enthusiastically: "I can
live here now as long as I want. I need no one to help me. You remember
that at first, Yonyo, you brought me herbs and meat; but since then I
have found a way to creep into the light through a long dark trail that
leads out between two rocks. And so every day I go out, and Wuff goes
with me, and sometimes he catches little wood creatures, but always I
get many roots and nuts. And also"--here he hesitated, then continued
with emphasis--"I get that which may yet make me stronger than Grumgra!"
The Smiling-Eyed looked at him uncomprehendingly, and he hastily
proceeded: "Have you forgotten, Yonyo, that once, long, long ago, in
our old cave, I told you of a weapon that would strike like lightning
and kill at a distance?"
"I have not forgotten," she replied, without enthusiasm; but in her
manner there was no trace of her former mockery.
"The gods have shown me how to make that weapon!" he announced. "They
have shown me how to make it stronger than any club. Soon I will kill
all the beast-men--and none will dare to come near when I am angry!"
Observing that she still eyed him questioningly, he pointed to some
strips of hide and bits of flint that lay on the ground beside the
denuded branches, and continued with assurance: "I did not use to know
how to make that weapon--but now I have learned, I have learned! See,
Yonyo, I will show you!"
And while Yonyo stood staring at him curiously, Ru picked up a long,
straight shaft of wood, fastened a narrow strip of hide through a hole
at one end, bent it with great difficulty, and strained and struggled
to fasten the strip of hide through a hole at the other end.
"Look how tight it is, Yonyo," he explained, holding it out for her to
feel. "At first I tried to use the stems of plants, but they were not
strong enough and always broke. And so I thought of using this strip of
animal's skin. I cut it with a piece of flint from my robe. It was hard
to make the holes in the wood, but I have a very sharp flint borer--"
"But what is the use of it all?" interrupted Yonyo. "I do not see..."
"Here, I will show you," volunteered Ru. And he took up a second and
shorter shaft of wood, one end of which was conspicuously dented. This
end he applied to the center of the taut strip of hide, straining till
his breath came hard and his eyes began to bulge out of his head. The
bow bent forward many inches; it seemed that either it or the strip of
hide would break. Meanwhile Yonyo gaped dumfounded, as if wondering
what mad spirits had entered Ru's head.
Suddenly the bow snapped back with such force that Ru almost lost his
balance; there came a whizzing sound--and the dented shaft of wood was
to be seen no longer.
"Where did it go?" asked the Smiling-Eyed, more bewildered than ever.
"Let us see. I think we can find it," suggested Ru. And, followed by
Yonyo, he started slowly into the shadows, inspecting the ground with
painstaking care.
"Here it is!" Yonyo at length exclaimed, gleefully picking up the shaft
of wood some twenty or thirty yards from its starting point.
"See! I told you I could make a weapon that would strike at a
distance!" Ru reminded her triumphantly, while Yonyo, now completely
convinced, had no more to say. "I cannot make it strike far enough yet,
but the gods will show me that. And they will show me how to make the
stick sharp and terrible, so that it will kill a man! Then we need not
fear the beast-men any more!"
"Ru the Sparrow-Hearted will be stronger yet than Grumgra!" prophesied
Yonyo, looking up at him with an admiring smile.
"Yonyo the Smiling-Eyed will make him strong," acknowledged Ru. And,
coming close, he began to murmur gentle-sounding words that had no
relation to the fashioning of bows and arrows.
But with a commanding gesture she repelled him. "No, Ru, you must not
say pretty things now," she remonstrated. "First you must finish your
wonder stick. We need that very, very soon. Then you can talk of softer
things. But not before!"
And, despite all his protests, she started back into the dim recesses
of the cavern. "When the sun has gone down and come up once more," she
promised, "I will be here again." With these words for farewell, she
was lost amid the shadows.
Returning to her people, she found that her absence had not been
observed. The women were still wailing and lamenting; the wounded
warriors were muttering and groaning querulously. Mingled with the
oaths and curses of the men and the sobs and sighs of her sisters, she
could hear occasional frightened murmurings about the beast-men. But
no one paid any heed to her inquiries, or even seemed able to answer.
Consequently, she was soon on her way to the cave entrance, to observe
the latest happenings for herself.
It was with difficulty that she crowded her way onto the narrow terrace
that fronted the cave, for dozens had preceded her, gaping speechlessly
at the scene beneath. And how amazingly that scene had changed! Where
yesterday there had been thick clusters of bushes and long stretches
of woods, there was now a blackened waste, with here and there a pile
of brush feebly smoking, here and there the charred and dismantled
trunk of a tree standing as a lonely sign-post of ruin. Down-stream, as
far as one could see, there was only desolation and ashes; up-stream,
however, a chance turn in the wind had spared the woods--and the
contrast between the still green expanses and the flame-swept desert
was ghastly beyond all words.
But the destruction of the forest was not what disturbed the watching
people. That which alarmed them was that the fire had not rid them of
their foe. Many of the beast-men must have been slain, for did not
every returned warrior boast of killing his scores? Yet, to judge from
the throng that collected by the river bank, one would have thought
that the dead had all come to life again. Swarming up-stream from the
devastated areas to the fringe of the remaining woods, the beast-men
had made camp serenely beneath the very eyes of their rivals, although
well beyond range of stones.
It was a doleful tale that Yonyo brought Ru on the following morning.
"The beast-men will not go away," she reported. "We pray and pray to
the fire-god and the gods of the woods, but our foes will not go away.
And so none of us can leave the cave now, for fear of the beast-men's
clubs. We cannot go down to fight them any more, for many of our men
have been lost, and the bad spirits have hurt the others so that they
cannot swing a club. And so what shall we do, Ru? What shall we do?
Our meat gets less and less, and we cannot go out to hunt for more.
Soon there will be none left, and no berries any more, nor even any
roots or nuts; and the women will cry out, and the men will grumble and
complain, and the babes will die. Soon, soon after that, we shall all
die!"
"No! We will not die!" denied Ru, fiercely. "We will not die! The
cave-god will not let us!"
Then, snatching several slender shafts of wood from the ground, he
thrust them before her eyes. "See, Yonyo! See! Our enemies will be the
ones that die! These sticks will kill a man!"
Yonyo, astonished, observed that the sticks were tipped with little
pointed bits of flint.
"How did you do that, Ru?" she gasped.
"At first I did not know how," explained Ru. "I tried to make the flint
stay on the stick, but it would not stay. Then I split one of the
sticks at the end without meaning to; and I found that I could push the
rock in, and keep it there. And so I have split the other sticks with
my cleaver, and filled them all with flint. If one of them strikes a
man, it will be mightier than Grumgra's club."
"But can you make them hit hard enough?" inquired Yonyo.
"They can hit very hard." And Ru, picking up his bow, sent the arrow
with a sharp thud against the cave wall.
Whereupon, in the sheer exuberance of her joy, Yonyo leaped up and down
and shouted. "You will save us all yet! You will save us all! Your
wonder stick will kill the beast-men!"
"All day I have worked to make the strip of hide tighter," Ru confided,
after Yonyo's wild outburst had died down. "I do not know whether it is
tight enough yet, but it is very tight." He held forth the bow as if
to examine it, and dangled the end of an arrow playfully against the
bowstring.
But suddenly his playful mood gave way to one of intense alertness.
"What is that?" he gasped. "What is that--" Without warning, the hoarse
growling voice of Wuff had sounded from around a bend in the gallery;
then a series of angry snarls, as though Wuff were at bay before some
foe. And, mingled with the mutterings of the wolf, came the familiar
grumbling of a heavy voice.
"Grumgra!" Ru murmured. And before he and the startled Yonyo had had
time to turn and flee, a huge familiar figure shuffled into view,
monstrous against the dark cave wall; and through the shadows a great
club swung threateningly.
For a moment there was silence--a silence of paralyzing terror on the
part of Ru and Yonyo--a silence of evil triumph on the part of Grumgra.
"So you thought to escape me!" the chieftain at length bawled, in tones
of malicious relish. "You, Yonyo the Smiling-Eyed, thought to escape me
to go to him--to him, the Sparrow-Hearted! But you are not wise enough
for me. I watched you--and I followed! And now you cannot get away! I
will take you! You belong to me!"
Leering at Yonyo with eyes that shone bestially in the half-light,
Grumgra lifted his club yet a little higher, and took a step forward.
But he was halted by an unexpected voice.
"She does not belong to you! You shall not take her!" challenged Ru,
with a boldness that startled even himself.
"Does the Sparrow-Hearted then tell me what is mine to take?" bellowed
Grumgra; and the echoes of his wrath sounded weirdly through that dim,
vaulted chamber.
Then, striding forward still another step, he thundered:
"Sparrow-Hearted, you and I have a fight to finish! Let us finish it
now! After that, I will take the Smiling-Eyed!"
The club was lifted to its full height above Grumgra's head; a snort
of defiance came from the lips of the chieftain, mingling with the
shrill scream of Yonyo. Ru, with limbs trembling, pressed back against
the cave wall; he clutched his bow hopelessly, without thought for
its usefulness; all power of action seemed to have deserted him as he
cowered against the rock, waiting for the end....
Then came an instant's precious respite. Wuff, who had been skulking
among the shadows to the rear, sprang with a snarl toward Grumgra.
Grumgra, wheeling about, swung his club not at his human foe but at the
beast. He missed by less than an inch. Frightened by the crash of the
descending cudgel, Wuff went scurrying out of reach as if at the sound
of an explosion; while Grumgra turned once more to the chastisement of
Ru.
But in that swift interval something had happened to the imperiled
man. His quivering limbs had ceased to quiver; his fingers had taken
a steadier grip on the bow; he had remembered how deadly was the
weapon in his hands. Quickly, fiercely, and with something of a savage
delight, he pressed the arrow to the bowstring, forced it far back with
a vehement bending and straining of the heavy shaft, and then--for the
desperate fraction of a second--waited.
Grumgra, gloating in the rout of Wuff, halted for an incalculably
brief period to see Ru confronting him with a pointed stick. But he
took little note of this queer device; striding forward with a roar of
triumph, he lifted his club for the devastating stroke.
That stroke was never taken. As the club prepared to descend, something
smote Grumgra furiously in the chest. Suddenly all things went black
before him; he stopped short, dropped his club, staggered, and clutched
with both hands at a long stick projecting from above his heart. The
blood spouted in a torrent down his side, his black hair was matted
with red, his eyes rolled and twisted crazily, a ferocious howl issued
from his lips; then, almost instantly, he reeled, pitched forward, and
plunged heavily on to the cavern rocks.