CHAPTER I_In the Morning of Time

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

at https://www.pgdp.net

IN THE MORNING OF TIME

CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS

Author of "The Kindred of the Wild," etc.

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

PUBLISHERS

Frederick A. Stokes Company

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I The World Without Man 1

II The King of the Triple Horn 20

III The Finding of Fire 41

IV The Children of the Shining One 70

V The Puller-Down of Trees 97

VI The Battle of the Brands 123

VII The Rescue of A-ya 149

VIII The Bending of the Bow 174

IX The Destroying Splendor 198

X The Terrors of the Dark 219

XI The Feasting of the Cave Folk 243

XII On the Face of the Waters 259

XIII The Fear 278

XIV The Lake of Long Sleep 295

IN THE MORNING OF TIME

CHAPTER I

THE WORLD WITHOUT MAN

It lay apparently afloat on the sluggish, faintly discolored tide--a

placid, horse-faced, shovel-nosed head, with bumpy holes for ears and

immense round eyes of a somewhat anxious mildness.

The anxiety in the great eyes was not without reason, for their owner

had just arrived in the tepid and teeming waters of this estuary, and

the creatures which he had already seen about him were both unknown

and menacing. But the inshore shallows were full of water-weeds of a

rankness and succulence far beyond anything he had enjoyed in his old

habitat, and he was determined to secure himself a place here.

From time to time, as some new monster came in sight, the ungainly

head would shoot up amazingly to a distance of five or ten, or even

fifteen feet, on a swaying pillar of a neck, in order to get a better

view of the stranger. Then it would slowly sink back again to its

repose on the water.

The water at this point was almost fresh, because the estuary, though

fully two miles wide, was filled with the tide of the great river

rolling slowly down from the heart of the continent. The further shore

was so flat that nothing could be seen of it but an endless, pale

green forest of giant reeds. But the nearer shore was skirted, at a

distance of perhaps half a mile from the water, by a rampart of

abrupt, bright, rust-red cliffs. The flat land between the waterside

and the cliffs, except for the wide strip of beach, was clothed with

an enormous and riotous growth of calamaries, tree-ferns, cane and

palm, which rocked and crashed in places as if some colossal wayfarers

were pushing through them. Here and there along the edge of the cliffs

sat tall beings with prodigious, saw-toothed beaks, like some species

of bird conceived in a nightmare.

Far out across the water one of these creatures was flapping slowly in

from the sea. Its wings--eighteen feet across from tip to tip--were

not the wings of a bird, but of a bat or a hobgoblin. It had dreadful,

hand-like claws on its wing-elbows; and its feet were those of a

lizard.

As this startling shape came flapping shoreward, the head afloat upon

the water eyed it with interest, but not, as it seemed, with any great

apprehension. Yet it certainly looked formidable enough to excite

misgivings in most creatures. Its flight was not the steady, even

winging of a bird, but spasmodic and violent. It came on at a height

of perhaps twenty feet above the sluggish tide, and its immense,

circular eyes appeared to take no notice of the strange head that

watched it from the water's surface. It seemed about to pass a little

to one side, when suddenly, with a hoarse, hooting cry, it swerved and

swooped, and struck at the floating head with open jaws.

Swift as was that unexpected attack, the assailant struck nothing but

a spot of foam where the head had disappeared. Simultaneously with the

lightning disappearance, there was a sudden boiling of the water some

eighty-odd feet away. But the great bird-lizard was either too furious

to notice this phenomenon or not sagacious enough to interpret it.

Flopping into the air again, and gnashing his beak-like jaws with

rage, he kept circling about the spot in heavy zigzags, expecting the

harmless looking head to reappear.

All at once his expectations were more than realized. The head not

only reappeared, but on a towering leather-colored column of a neck it

shot straight into the air to a height of twenty feet. The big, placid

eyes were now sparkling with anger. The flat, shovel jaws were gaping

open. They seized the swooping foe by the root of the tail, and, in

spite of screeches and wild flappings, plucked him down backwards. At

the surface of the water there was a convulsive struggle, and the wide

wings were drawn clean under.

For several minutes the water seethed and foamed, and little waves ran

clattering up the beach, while the owner of the harmless-looking head

trod his assailant down and crushed him among the weeds of the bottom.

Then the foam slowly crimsoned, and the mauled, battered body of the

great bird-lizard came up again; for the owner of the mysterious head

was a feeder on delicate weeds and succulent green-stuff only, and

would eat no blood-bearing food. The body was still struggling, and

the vast, dark, broken wings spread themselves in feeble spasms on the

surface. But they were not left to struggle long.

The water, in the distance, had been full of eager spectators of

the fight, and now it boiled as they rushed in upon the disabled

prey. Ravenous, cavern-jawed, fishlike beasts, half-porpoise,

half-alligator, swarmed upon the victim, tearing at it and at each

other. Some bore off trailing mouthfuls of dark wing-membrane,

others more substantial booty, while the rest fought madly in the

vortex of discolored foam.

At the beginning of the fray the grim figures perched along the red

ramparts of the cliff had shown signs of excitement, lifting their

high shoulders and half unfolding the stiff drapery of their wings. As

they saw their fellow overwhelmed they launched themselves from their

perch and came hooting hoarsely over the rank, green tops of the palms

and feathery calamaries. Swooping and circling they gathered over the

hideous final struggle, and from time to time one or another would

drop perpendicularly downward to stab the crown or the face of one of

the preoccupied fish-beasts with his trenchant beak. Such of the

fish-beasts as were thus disabled were promptly torn to pieces and

devoured by their companions.

Some fifty feet away, nearer shore, the harmless-looking head which

had been the source and inspirer of all this bloody turmoil lay

watching the scene with discontent in its round, wondering eyes.

Slowly it reared itself once more to a height of eight or ten feet

above the water, as if for better inspection of the combat. Then, as

if not relishing the neighborhood of the fish-beasts, it slowly sank

again and disappeared.

Immediately a heavy swirling, a disturbance that stretched over a

distance of nearly a hundred feet, began to travel shoreward. It

grew heavier and heavier as the water grew shallower. Then a

leather-colored mountain of a back heaved itself up through the

smother and a colossal form, that would make the hugest elephant a

pigmy, came ponderously forth upon the beach.

The body of this amazing being was thrice or four times the bulk of

the mightiest elephant. It stood highest--a good thirteen feet--over

the haunches (which were supported on legs like columns), and sloped

abruptly to the lower and lighter-built fore-shoulders. The neck was

like a giraffe's, but over twenty feet in length to its juncture with

the mild little head, which looked as if Nature had set it there as a

pleasantry at the expense of the titanic body. The tail, enormous at

the base and tapering gradually to a whip-lash, trailed out to a

distance of nearly fifty feet. As its owner came ashore, this

tremendous tail was gathered and curled in a semi-circle at his

side--perhaps lest the delicate tip, if left too distant, might fall a

prey to some significant but agile marauder.

For some minutes the colossus (he was one of the Dinosaurs, or

Terrible Lizards, and known as a Diplodocus) remained on all-fours,

darting his sinuous neck inquiringly in all directions, and

snatching here and there a mouthful of the rank tender herbage which

grew among the trunks of fern and palm. Apparently the spot was to

his liking. Here was a wide beach, sunlit and ample, whereon to bask

at leisure. There were the warm and weed-choked shallows wherein to

pasture, to wallow at will, to hide his giant bulk from his enemies if

there should be found any formidable enough to make hiding advisable.

Swarms of savage insects, to be sure, were giving him a hot

reception--mosquitoes of unimaginable size, and enormous stinging

flies which sought to deposit their eggs in his smooth hide, but with

his giraffe-like neck he could bite himself where he would, and the

lithe lash of his tail could flick off tormentors from any corner

of his anatomy.

Meanwhile, the excitement off-shore had died down. The harsh hootings

of the bird-lizards had ceased to rend the air as the dark wings

hurtled away to seek some remoter or less disturbed hunting-ground.

Then across the silence came suddenly a terrific crashing of branches,

mixed with gasping cries. Startled, the diplodocus hoisted himself

upon his hind-quarters, till he sat up like a kangaroo, supported and

steadied by the base of his huge tail. In this position his head,

forty feet above the earth, overlooked the tops of all but the tallest

trees. And what he saw brought the look of anxiety once more into his

round, saucer-eyes.

Hurling itself with desperate, plunging leaps through the rank

growths, and snapping the trunks of the brittle tree-ferns in its path

as if they had been cauliflowers, came a creature not unlike himself,

but of less than half the size, and with neck and tail of only

moderate length. This creature was fleeing in frantic terror from

another and much smaller being, which came leaping after it like a

giant kangaroo. Both were plainly dinosaurs, with the lizard tail and

hind-legs; but the lesser of the two, with its square, powerful head

and tiger-fanged jaws, and the tremendous, rending claws on its short

forearms, was plainly of a different species from the great

herb-eaters of the dinosaurian family. It was one of the smaller

members of that terrible family of carnivorous dinosaurians which

ruled the ancient cycad forests as the black-maned lion rules the

Rhodesian jungles to-day. The massive iguanodon which fled before it

so madly, though of fully thrice its bulk, had reason to fear it as

the fat cow fears a wolf.

A moment more, and the dreadful chase, with a noise of raucous groans

and pantings, burst forth into the open, not fifty feet from where the

colossus stood watching. Almost at the watcher's feet the fugitive was

overtaken. With a horrid leap and a hoot of triumph, the pursuer

sprang upon its neck and bore it to the ground, where it lay bellowing

hoarsely and striking out blunderingly with the massive, horn-tipped

spur which armed its clumsy wrist. The victor tore madly at its throat

with tooth and claw, and presently its bellowing subsided to a

hideous, sobbing gurgle.

The diplodocus, meanwhile, had been looking down upon the scene with

half-bewildered apprehension. These creatures were insignificant in

size, to be sure, as compared with his own colossal stature, but the

smaller one had a swift ferocity which struck terror to his dull

heart.

Suddenly a red wrath mounted to his small and sluggish brain. His

tail, as we have seen, was curled in a half-circle at his side. Now he

bent his body with it. For an instant his whole bulk quivered with the

extraordinary tension. Then, like a bow released, the bent body sprang

back. The tail (and it weighed at least a ton) struck the victor and

the victim together with an annihilating shock, and swept them clean

around beneath the visitor's feet.

Down he came upon them at once, with the crushing effect of a hundred

steam pile-drivers; and for the next few minutes his panicky rage

expended itself in treading the two bodies into a shapeless mass. Then

he slowly backed off down into the water where the weedy growths were

thickest, till once more his whole form was concealed except the

insignificant head. This he reared among the swaying tufts of the

"mares' tails," and waited to see what strange thing would happen

next.

He had not long to wait. That hideous, mangled heap there, sweating

blood in the noon sun, seemed to have some way of making its presence

known. Crashing sounds arose in different parts of the forest, and

presently some half-dozen of the leaping, kangaroo-like flesh-eaters

appeared.

They were of varying sizes, from ten or twelve feet in length to

eighteen or twenty, and they eyed each other with jealous hostility.

But one glance at the weltering heap showed them that here was

feasting abundant for them all. With a chorus of hoarse cries they

came hopping forward and fell upon it.

Presently two vast shadows came overhead, hovering a moment, and a

pair of the great bird-lizards dropped upon the middle of the heap.

Hooting savagely, with wings half uplifted, they struck about them

with their terrible beaks till they had secured room for themselves at

the banquet. Other unbidden guests came leaping from among the

thickets; and in a short time there was nothing left of the carcasses

except two naked skeletons, dragged apart and half dismembered by

mighty teeth. In the final melee one of the smaller revellers was

himself pounced upon and devoured.

Then, as if by consent of a mutual distrust, the throng drew quickly

apart, each eyeing his neighbor warily, and scattered into the woods.

Only the two grim bird-lizards remained, seeming to have a sort of

understanding or partnership, or possibly being a mated pair. They

pried into the cartilages and between the joints of the skeletons with

the iron wedges of their beaks, till there was not another tit-bit to

be enjoyed. Then, hooting once more with satisfaction, they spread

their batlike vanes and flapped darkly off again to their red

watch-tower on the cliff.

When all was once more quiet the giant visitor fell to pasturing among

the crisp and tender water-weeds. It took a long time to fill his

cavernous paunch by way of that slender neck of his, and when he was

satisfied he went composedly to sleep, his body perfectly concealed

under the water, his head resting on a little islet of matted reeds in

a thicket of "mares' tails." When he woke up again the sun was

half-way down to the west, and the beach glowed hotly in the afternoon

light. Everything was drenched in heavy stillness. The visitor made up

his drowsy mind that he must leave his hiding-place and go and bask in

that delicious warmth.

He was just bestirring himself to carry out his purpose, when once

more a swaying in the rank foliage of the cycads caught his vigilant

eye. Discreetly he drew back into hiding, the place being, as he had

found it, so full of violent surprises.

Suddenly there emerged upon the beach a monster even more extraordinary

in appearance than himself. It was about thirty-five feet in length,

and its ponderous bulk was supported on legs so short and bowed that

it crawled with its belly almost dragging the ground. Its small head,

which it carried close to the earth, was lizard-like, shallow-skulled,

feeble-looking, and its jaws cleft back past the stupid eyes. In

fact, it was an inoffensive-looking head for such an imposing body.

At the base of the head began a system of defensive armor that

looked as if it might be proof against artillery. Up over the

shoulders, over the mighty arch of the back, and down over the haunches

as far as the middle of the ponderous tail, ran a series of immense flat

plates of horn, with pointed tips and sharpened edges. The largest of

these plates, those that covered the center of the back, were each

three feet in height, and almost of an equal breadth. Where the

diminished plates came to an end at the middle of the tail, their

place was taken by eight immense, needle-pointed spines, set in pairs,

of which the chief pair had a length of over two feet. The monster's

hide was set thick with scales and knobs of horn, brilliantly

colored in black, yellow, and green, that his grotesque bulk might

be less noticeable to his foes among the sharp shadows and patchy lights

of the fern jungles where he fed.

The sluggish giant moved nervously, glancing backwards as he came, and

seemed intent upon reaching the water. In a few moments his anxiety

was explained. Leaping in splendid bounds along his broad trail came

two of those same ferocious flesh-eaters whom the great watcher among

the reeds so disliked. They ranged up one on each side of the

stegosaur, who had halted at their approach, stiffened himself, and

drawn his head so far back into the loose skin of his neck that only

the sharp, chopping beak projected from under the first armor-plate.

One of the pair threatened him from the front, as if to engross his

attention, while the other pounced upon one of his massive, bowed

hind-legs, as if seeking to drag it from beneath him and roll him over

on his side.

But at this instant there was a clattering of the plated hide, and

that armed tail lashed out with lightning swiftness, like a

porcupine's. There was a tearing screech from the rash flesh-eater,

and he was plucked back sidewise, all four feet in air, deeply impaled

on three of those gigantic spines. While he clawed and writhed,

struggling to twist himself free, his companion sprang hardily to the

rescue. She hurled herself with all her weight and strength full upon

the stegosaur's now unprotected flank. So tremendous was the impact

that, with a frightened grunt, he was rolled clean over on his side.

But at the same time his sturdy forearms clutched his assailant, and

so crushed, mauled and tore her that she was glad to wrench herself

away.

Coughing and gasping, she bounded backwards out of reach; and then she

saw that her mate, having wriggled off the spines, was dragging

himself up the beach toward the forest, leaving a trail of blood

behind him. She followed sullenly, having had more than enough of the

venture. The triumphant stegosaur rolled himself heavily back upon his

feet, grunted angrily, clattered his armored plates, jerked his

terrible tail from side to side as if to see that it was still in

working order, and went lumbering off to another portion of the wood,

having apparently forgotten his purpose of taking to the water. As he

went, one of the grim bird-lizards from the cliff swooped down and

hovered, hooting over his path, apparently disappointed at his

triumph.

The watcher in the reeds, on the other hand, was encouraged by the

result of the combat. He began to feel a certain dangerous contempt

for those leaping flesh-eaters, in spite of their swiftness and

ferocity. He himself, though but an eater of weeds, had trodden one

into nothingness, and now he had seen two together overthrown and put

to flight. With growing confidence he came forth from his hiding,

stalked up the beach, coiled his interminable tail beside him, and lay

down to bask his dripping sides in the full blaze of the sun.

The colossus was at last beginning to feel at home in his new

surroundings. In spite of the fact that this bit of open beach,

overlooked by the deep green belt of jungle and the rampart of red

cliffs, appeared to be a sort of arena for titanic combats, he began

to have confidence in his own astounding bulk as a defense against all

foes. What matter his slim neck, small head and feeble teeth, when

that awful engine of his tail could sweep his enemies off their feet,

and he could crush them by falling upon them like a mountain! A pair

of the great bird-lizards flapped over him, hooting malignantly and

staring down upon him with their immense, cold eyes, but he hardly

took the trouble to look up at them.

Warmed and well fed, his eyes half-sheathed in their membraneous lids,

he gazed out vacantly across the waving herbage of the shallows,

across the slow, pale tides whose surface boiled from time to time

above the rush of some unseen giant of a shark or ichthyosaur.

In the heavy heat of the afternoon the young world had become very

still. The bird-lizards, all folded in their wings, sat stiff and

motionless along the ramparts of red cliff. The only sounds were the

hiss of those seething rushes far out on the tide, the sudden droning

hum of some great insect darting overhead, or the occasional soft

clatter of the long, crisp cycad leaves as a faint puff of hot air

lifted them.

At the back of the beach, where the tree-ferns and the calamaries grew

rankest, the foliage parted noiselessly at a height of perhaps twenty

feet from the ground, and a dreadful head looked forth. Its jaws were

both long and massive, and armed with immense, curved teeth like

scimitars. Its glaring eyes were overhung by eaves of bony plate, and

from the front of its broad snout rose a single horn, long and sharp.

For some minutes this hideous apparition eyed the unconscious colossus

by the waterside. Then it came forth from the foliage and crept

noiselessly down the beach.

Except for its horned snout and armored eyes, this monster was not

unlike in general type to those other predatory dinosaurs which had

already appeared upon the scene. But it was far larger, approaching

thirty-five feet in length, and more powerfully built in proportion to

its size; and the armory of its jaws was more appalling. With a

stealthy but clumsy-looking waddle, which was nevertheless soundless

as a shadow, and his huge tail curled upwards that it might not drag

and rattle the stones, he crept down until he was within some fifty

feet or more of the drowsing colossus.

Some premonition of peril, at this moment, began to stir in the heavy

brain of the colossus, and he lifted his head apprehensively. In the

same instant the horned giant gathered himself, and hurled himself

forward. In two prodigious leaps he covered the distance that

separated him from his intended prey. The coiled tail of the colossus

lashed out irresistibly, but the assailant cleared it in his spring,

fell upon the victim's shoulders, and buried his fangs in the base of

that columnar neck.

The colossus, for the first time, was overwhelmed with terror. He gave

vent to a shrill, bleating bellow--an absurdly inadequate utterance to

issue from this mountainous frame--writhed his neck in snaky folds,

and lashed out convulsively with the stupendous coils of his tail. But

he could not loosen that deep grip, or the clutch of those iron

claws.

In spite of the many tons weight throttling his neck, he reared

himself aloft, and strove to throw himself over upon his assailant.

But the marauder was agile, and eluded the crushing fall without

loosing his grip. Then, bleating frightfully, till the sounds

re-echoed from the red cliffs and set all the drowsing bird-lizards

lifting their wings, he plunged down into the tide and bore his

dreadful adversary out of sight beneath a smother of ensanguined

foam.

Now, the horned giant was himself a powerful swimmer and quite at home

in the water, but in this respect he was no match for his quarry.

Refusing to relinquish his hold, he was borne out into deep water; and

there the colossus, becoming all at once agile and swift, succeeded in

rolling over upon him. Forced thus to loose his grip, he gave one

long, ripping lunge with his horn, deep into the victim's flank, and

then writhed himself from under. The breath quite crushed out of him,

he was forced to rise to the surface for air. There he rested,

recovering his self-possession, reluctant to give up the combat, but

even more reluctant to expose himself to another such mauling in the

depths. As he hesitated, about a hundred feet away he saw the mild

little head of the colossus, apparently floating on the tide, and

regarding him anxiously. That decided him. With a crashing bellow of

rage and a sweep of his powerful tail he darted at the inoffensive

head. But it vanished instantly, and a sudden tremendous turmoil,

developing into a wake that lengthened out with the speed of a

torpedo-boat, showed him the hopelessness of pursuit. Turning

abruptly, he swam back to the shore and sulkily withdrew into the

thickets to seek some less unmanageable quarry.

The colossus, so deeply wounded that his trail threw up great clots

and bubbles of red foam, swam onward several miles up the estuary. He

realized now that that patch of sunny beach was just a death-trap. But

in the middle of the estuary, far out from either shore, far removed

from the unseen, lurking horrors of the fern forests, spread acre upon

acre of drowned marsh, overgrown with tall green reeds and feathery

"mares' tails." Through these stretches of marsh he ploughed his way,

half-swimming, half-wading, and felt that here he might find a safe

refuge as well as an unfailing pasturage. But the anguish of his

wounds urged him still onwards.

Beyond the reed-beds he came to a long, narrow islet of wet sand,

naked to the sun. This appeared to him the very refuge he was craving,

a spot where he could lie secure and lick his hurts. He dragged

himself out upon it eagerly. Not until he had gained the very center

of it did he notice how his ponderous feet sank in it at every stride.

As soon as he halted he felt the treacherous sands sucking him down.

In terror he struggled to free himself, to regain the water. But now

the sands had a grip upon him, and his efforts only engulfed him the

more swiftly. He reared upon his hind legs, and immediately found

himself swallowed to the haunches. He fell forward again, and sank to

his shoulder-blades. And then, the convulsive thrashings of his tail

hurling the sands in every direction, he lifted his head and bleated

piteously.

The struggle had already drawn the dreadful eyes of those grim, folded

figures perched along the cliff-tops miles away; and now, as if in

answer to his cry they came fluttering darkly over him. Seeing his

helplessness, they flapped down upon him with hoots of exultation.

Their vast beaks tore at his helpless back, and stabbed at the swiftly

writhing convolutions of his neck. One, more heedless than his

fellows, came within reach of the thrashing tail, and was dashed, half

stunned, to earth, where the sands got him in their hold before he

could recover himself. With dreadful screeches, he was sucked down,

but his fellows paid no attention to his fate. And meanwhile, in a

ring about the islet, not daring to come near for terror of the

quicksand, crocodiles and alligators and ichthyosaurs, with upturned,

gaping snouts, watched the struggle greedily.

As the lower part of his neck was drawn down into the quicksand, the

colossus lost the power to move his head quickly enough to evade the

attacks of his horrid assailants. A moment more, and he was blinded.

Then he felt his head enfolded in the strangling membranes of wings

and borne downwards. Once or twice the convulsions of his neck threw

his enemies off, and the bleeding, sightless head reemerged to view.

But not only his force, but his will to struggle, was fast ebbing

away. Presently, with a thunderous, gasping sob, the last breath left

his mighty lungs, and his head dropped on the sand. It was trodden

under in an instant; and then, afraid of being engulfed themselves,

the hooting revellers abandoned it, to crowd struggling upon the

arched hump of the back. Here they tore and gorged and quarreled till,

some fifteen minutes later, their last foothold sank beneath them.

Then, with dripping beaks and talons, they all flapped back to their

cliffs; and slowly the fluent sand smoothed itself to shining

complacency over the tomb of the diplodocus, hiding and sealing away

the stupendous skeleton for half a million years.