THE CHILDREN OF THE SHINING ONE
I
From the lip of the narrow volcanic fissure, which ran diagonally
two-thirds of the way across the mouth of the valley, the line of fire
waved and flickered against the gathering dark. Sometimes only a few
inches high, sometimes sinking suddenly out of sight, and then again
as suddenly leaping up to a height of five or six feet, the thin,
gaseous flames danced elvishly. Now clear yellow, now fiery orange,
now of an almost invisible violet, they shifted, and bowed their
crests, and thrust out shooting tongues, till Grom, sitting on his
haunches and staring with fascinated eyes, had no choice but to
believe that they were live things like himself. The girl, curled up
at his side like a cat, paid little attention to the marvel of the
flames. Her big, dark eyes, wild and furtive under the dark, tangled
masses of her hair, kept wandering back and forth between the man's
brooding face and the obscure black thickets which filled the valley
behind him. The dancing flames she did not understand, but she
understood the ponderous crashing, and growls, and savage cries which
came from those black thickets and slopes of tumbled rocks. The man
being absorbed in watching the wonders of the flames, and apparently
all-forgetful of the perils prowling back there in the dark, it was
plainly her duty to keep watch.
From time to time Grom would drag his eyes away from their contemplation
of the flames to study intently the charred spots on his club and the
burned, blackened end of his spear. He looked down at the lithe figure of
the watching girl, and laid a great, hairy hand on her shoulder in a musing
caress, as if appraising her, and delighting in her, and finding in her
a mate altogether to his desire, although but a child to his inmost
thoughts. But those sounds of menace from the darkness behind him he
affected not to hear at all. He could see from the girl's eyes that the
menace was not yet close at hand; and since he had learned the power of the
fire, and his own mastery over that power, he felt himself suddenly little
less than a god. The fire was surely something of a god; and if he had
any measure of control over the fire, so as to make it serve him surely,
then still more of the god was there in his own intelligence. His heart
swelled with a pride such as he had never before conceived, and his
brain seethed with vague but splendid possibilities. Never before had
he, though at heart the bravest of his brave clan, been able to listen
to the terrible voices of the cave-bear, the cave-hyena, or the
saber-tooth without fear, without the knowledge that his own safety lay in
flight. Now he feared them not at all.
A louder roaring came out of the shadows, closer than before, and he
saw A-ya's eyes dilate as she clutched at his knee. A slow smile
spread across his bony face, and he turned about, rising to his feet
as he did so, and lifting the girl with him.
With a new, strange warmth at his heart he realized how fully the girl
trusted him, how cool and steady was her courage. For there, along the
edge of the lighted space, glaring forth from the fringes of the
thickets, were the monstrous beasts whom man had most cause to dread.
Nearest, his whole tawny length emerging from the brush, crouched a
giant saber-tooth with the daggers of his tusks, ten inches long,
agleam in the light of the dancing flames. He was not more than thirty
or forty paces distant, and his tail twitched heavily from side to
side as if he were trying to nerve himself up to a closer approach to
the fire. Some twenty paces further along the fringe of mingled light
and shadow, their bodies thrust half way forth from the undergrowth,
stood a pair of huge, ruddy cave-bears, their monstrous heads held low
and swaying surlily from side to side as they eyed the prey which they
dared not rush in and seize. The man-animal they had hitherto regarded
as easy prey, and they were filled with rage at the temerity of these
two humans in remaining so near the dreaded flames. Intent upon them,
they paid no heed to their great enemy, the saber-toothed, with whom
they were at endless and deadly feud. Away off to the left, quite
clear of the woods, but safely remote from the fire, a pack of huge
cave-hyenas sat up on their haunches, their long, red tongues hanging
out. With jaws powerful enough to crack the thigh-bones of the urus,
they nevertheless hesitated to obtrude themselves on the notice either
of the crouching saber-tooth or of the two giant bears.
With neither the bears nor the great hyenas did Grom anticipate any
trouble. But he felt it barely possible that the saber-tooth might
dare a rush in. Snatching up a dry branch, and leading the girl with
him by the wrist, he backed slowly nearer the flames. Terrified at
their dancing and the scorching of their breath, the girl sank down on
her naked knees and covered her face with her hair. Smiling at her
terror, Grom thrust the branch into the flames. When it was all ablaze
he raised it above his head, and, carrying his spear in his right
hand, he rushed at the saber-tooth. For a few seconds the monster
faced his approach, but Grom saw the shrinking in his furious eyes,
and came on fearlessly. At last the beast whipped about with a
screeching snarl, and raced back into the woods. Then Grom turned to
the bears, but they had not stayed to receive his attentions. The
sight of the flames bursting, as it seemed, from the man's shaggy head
as he ran, was too much for them, and they had slunk back discreetly
into the shadows.
Grom threw the blazing stick on the ground, laid several more branches
upon it, and presently had a fine fire of his own going. He seized a
small branch and hurled it at the hyenas, sending them off with their
tails between their legs to their hiding-places on the ragged slopes.
Then he fed his fire with more dry wood till the fierce heat of it
drove him back. Returning to the side of the wondering girl, he sat
down, and contemplated his handiwork with swelling pride. When the
flames died down he piled on more branches till they blazed again to
the height of the nearest tree-tops. This he repeated, thoughtfully,
several times, till he had assured himself of his power to make this
bright, devouring god great or little at his pleasure.
This stupendous fact established clearly, Grom brought an armful of
grass and foliage, and made the girl take her sleep. He himself
continued for an hour or two his experiments with the fire, building
small ones in a circle about him, discovering that green branches
would not burn well, and brooding with knit brows over each new center
of light and heat which he created.
Then, seated on his haunches beside the sleeping A-ya, he pondered on
the future of his tribe, on the change in its fortunes which this
mysterious new creature was bound to bring about. At last, when the
night was half worn through, he awakened the girl, bade her keep sharp
watch, and threw himself down to sleep, indifferent to the roars, and
snarls, and dreadful cries which came from the darkness of the upper
valley.
The valley looked straight into the east. When the sun rose, its
unclouded, level rays paled the dancing barrier of flames almost to
invisibility. Refreshed by their few hours' sleep in the vital warmth,
Grom and the girl stood erect in the flooding light and scanned the
strange landscape. Grom's sagacious eyes noted the fertility of the
level lands at a distance from the fire, and of the clefts, ledges and
lower slopes of the tumbled volcanic hills. Here and there he made out
the openings of caves, half overgrown with vines and bush. And he was
satisfied that this was the land for his tribe to occupy.
That it was infested with all those monstrous beasts which were Man's
deadliest foes seemed to him no longer a fact worth considering. The
bright god which he had conquered should be made to conquer them. Some
inkling of his purposes he confided to the girl, who stood looking up
at him with eyes of dog-like devotion from under the matted splendor
of her hair. If he was still the man she loved, her mate and lover,
yet was he also now a sort of demi-god, since she had seen him play at
his ease with the flames, and drive the hyena, the saber-tooth and the
terrible red bear before him.
When the two started on their journey back to the Country of the
Little Hills, Grom carried with him a bundle of blazing brands. He had
conceived the idea of keeping the bright god alive by feeding him
continually as they went, and of renewing his might from time to time
by stopping to build a big fire.
The undertaking proved a troublesome one from the first. The brand
kept the great beasts at a distance, time and again the red coals
almost died out, and Grom had anxious and laborious moments nursing
them again into activity; and the care of the mysterious things made
progress slow. Grom learned much, and rapidly, in these anxious
efforts. He discovered once, just at a critical moment, the remarkable
efficacy of dry grass. A bear as big as an ox came rushing upon them,
just when the flames were flickering out along the bundle of brands.
A-ya started to run, but Grom's nerve was of steel.
Ordering her to stop, he flung the brands to the ground, and snatched
a double handful of grass to feed the dying flame. Luckily, the grass
was dry. It flared up on the sudden. The bear stopped short. Grom
piled on more grass, shouted arrogantly, and rushed at the beast with
a blazing handful. It was a light and harmless flame, almost instantly
extinguished. But it was too mysterious for the monster to face.
Grom was wise enough not to follow up his victory. Returning to the
fire he fed it to a safe volume. And the girl, flinging herself down
in a passion of relief and adoration, embraced his knees.
After this they journeyed slowly, Grom tending the brands with
vigilant care, and striving to break down the girl's terror of
them. That night he built three fires about the base of a huge
tree, gathered a supply of dry wood, taught the girl to feed the
flames--which she did with head bowed in awe--and passed the hours
of darkness, once so dreaded, in proud defiance of the great beasts
which prowled and roared beyond the circle of light. He made the
girl sleep, but he himself was too prudent to sleep, lest these
fires of his own creation should prove false when his eye was not upon
them.
The following day, about midday, when he slept heavily in the heat,
the fire went out. It had got low, and the girl, attempting to revive
it, had smothered it with too much fuel. In an agony of fear and
remorse, she knelt at Grom's side, awakened him, and showed him what
she had done. She expected a merciless beating, according to the
rough-and-ready customs of her tribe. But Grom had always been held a
little peculiar, especially in his aversion to the beating of women,
so that certain females of the tribe had even been known to question
his manhood on that account.
Furthermore, he regarded the girl with a tenderness, an admiration, an
appreciation, which he could not but wonder at in himself, seeing that
he had never heard of it as a customary thing that a man should regard
a woman in any such manner. At the same time he was in a state of
exaltation over his strange achievements, and hardly open, at the
moment, to any common or base brutality of rage.
He gave the girl one terrible look, then went and strove silently with
the dead, black embers. The girl crept up to him on her knees,
weeping. For a few seconds he paid her no heed. But when he found that
the flames had fled beyond recovery, he lifted her up, drew her close
to him, and comforted her.
"You have let the Bright One escape," said he. "But do not be afraid.
He lives back there in the valley of the bears, and I will capture him
again."
And when the girl realized that he had no thought of beating her, but
only wished to comfort and shield her, then she felt quite sure he was
a god, and her heart nearly burst with the passion of her love.
II
It galled Grom's proud heart to find himself now compelled, through
loss of the fire, to go warily, to scan the thicket, to keep hidden,
to hold spear and club always in readiness, and to climb into a tree
at night for safety like the apes. But he let no sign of his chagrin,
or of his anxiety, appear. Like the crafty hunter and wise leader that
he was, he forgot no one of his ancient precautions.
They had by this time passed beyond the special haunts of the red bear
and the saber-tooth. Twice they had to run before the charge of the
great wooly rhinoceros, against whose massive hide Grom's spear and
club would have been about as effective as a feather duster. But they
had fled mockingly, for the clumsy monster was no match for them in
speed. Once, too, they had been treed by a bull urus, a gigantic white
beast with a seven-foot spread of polished horns.
But his implacable and patient rage they had cunningly evaded by
making off unseen and unheard, through the upper branches. They came
to earth again half a mile away, and ran on gaily, laughing at the
picture of the furious and foolish beast waiting there at the foot of
the tree for them to come down. Once a prowling leopard confronted
them for a moment, only to flee in great leaps before their instant
and unhesitating attack. Once a huge bird, nearly nine feet high, and
with a beak over a foot in length, struck at them savagely, with a
shrill hissing, through a fringe of reeds, because they had
incautiously come too near its nest. But they killed it, and feasted
on its eggs. And so, without further misadventure, they came at last
to the skirts of their own country, and looked once more on the
rounded, familiar, wind-swept tops of the Little Hills, sacred to the
barrows of their dead.
It was toward sunset, and the long, rosy glow was flooding the little
amphitheater wherein the remnants of the tribe were gathered, when
Grom crossed the brook, and came striding up the slope, with A-ya
close behind him. She had been traveling at his side all through the
journey, but here she respected the etiquette of her tribe, and fell
behind submissively.
Hardly noticing, or not heeding if he noticed that the tribe offered
no vociferous welcome, and seemed sullenly surprised at his
appearance, Grom strode straight to the Chief, whom he saw sitting on
the judgment stone, and threw down spear and club at his feet in sign
of fealty. But A-ya, following, was keen to note the hostile attitude
of the tribe. Her defiant eyes darted everywhere, and everywhere noted
black looks. She could not understand it, but she divined that there
was some plot afoot against Grom. Her heart swelled with rage, and her
dark-maned head went up arrogantly, for she felt as if the strongest
and wisest of the tribe were now but children in comparison with her
lord. But, though children, they were many, and she closed up behind
him for a guard, grasping more firmly the shaft of her short,
serviceable spear. She saw the broad, black, scowling visage of young
Mawg, towering over a little group of his kinsfolk, and eyeing her
with mingled greed and rage, and she divined at once that he was at
the back of whatever mischief might be brewing. She answered his look
with one of mocking scorn, and then turned her attention to the Chief,
who was sitting in grim silence, the customary hand of welcome
ominously withheld.
A haughty look came over Grom's face, his broad shoulders squared
themselves, and he met the Chief's eyes sternly.
"I have done the bidding of Bawr the Chief," he said, in a clear
voice, so that all the tribe might hear. "I have found a place where
the tribe may hold themselves secure against all enemies. And I have
come back, as was agreed, to lead the tribe thither before our enemies
destroy us. I have done great deeds. I have not spared myself. I have
come quickly. I have deserved well of the people. Why has Bawr the
Chief no welcome for me?"
A murmur arose from the corner where Mawg and his friends were
grouped, but a glance from the Chief silenced it. With his piercing
gaze making relentless inquisition of the eyes that answered his so
steadily, he seemed to ponder Grom's words. Slowly the anger faded
from his scarred and massy face, for he knew men; and this man, though
his most formidable rival in strength and prestige, he instinctively
trusted.
"You have been accused," said he at length, slowly, "of deserting the
tribe in our weakness--"
A puzzled look had come over Grom's face at the word "accused"; then
his deep eyes blazed, and he broke in upon the Chief's speech without
ceremony.
"Show me my accusers!" he demanded harshly. The Chief waved his hand
for silence.
"In our weakness!" he repeated. "But you have returned to us. So I see
that charge was false. Also, you have been accused of stealing the
girl A-ya. But you have brought her back. I see not what more your
accusers have against you."
Grom turned, and, with a quick, decisive motion, drew A-ya to his
side.
"Bawr the Chief knows that I am his servant, and a true man!" said he
sternly. "I did not steal the girl. She followed me, and I had no
thought of it."
Angry jeers came from Mawg's corner, but Grom smiled coldly, and went
on:
"Not till near evening of the second day, when she was chased by
wolves, did she reveal herself to me. And when I understood why she
had come, I looked on her, and I saw that she was very fair and very
brave. And I took her. So that now she is my woman, and I hold to her,
Chief! But I will pay you for her whatsoever is just, for you are the
Chief. And now let Bawr show me my accusers, that I may have done with
them quickly. For I have much to tell."
"Not so, Grom," said the Chief, stretching out his hand. "I am
satisfied that you are a true man. And for the girl, that will we
arrange between us later. But I will not confront you with your
accusers, for there shall be no fighting between ourselves when our
warriors that are left us are so few. And in this I know that you,
being wise, will agree with me. Come, and we two will talk of what is
to be done."
He got up from his seat, an immense and masterful figure, to lead the
way to his own cave, where they might talk in private. But Grom
hesitated, fearing lest annoyance should befall A-ya if he left her
alone with his enemies.
"And the girl, Chief?" said he. "I would not have her troubled."
Bawr turned. He swept a comprehensive and significant glance over the
gaping crowd.
"The girl A-ya," said he in his great voice which thundered over the
amphitheater, "is Grom's woman. I have spoken."
And he strode off toward his cave door. Grom picked up his club and
spear. And the girl, with a haughty indifference she was far from
feeling, strolled off toward the cave of certain old women, kinsfolk
of the Chief.
But as the meaning of the Chief's words penetrated Mawg's dull wits
he gave vent to a great bellow of rage, and snatched up a spear to
hurl at Grom. Before he could launch it, however, his kinsmen, who
had no wish to bring down upon themselves both Grom's wrath and that
of the Chief, fell upon him and bore down his arm. Raging blindly,
Mawg struggled with them, and, having the strength of a bull, he was
near to wrenching himself free. But other men of the tribe, seeing
from the Chief's action that their bitterness against Grom had
been unjustified, and remembering his past services, ran up and
took a hand in reducing Mawg to submission. For a few seconds Grom
looked on contemptuously; then he turned on his heel and followed
the Chief, as if he did not hold his rival worth a further thought.
Mawg struggled to his feet. Grom had disappeared. But his eyes fell
on the figure of A-ya, slim and brown and tall, standing in the
entrance of the near-by cave. He made as if to rush upon her, but a
bunch of men stood in the way, plainly ready to stop him. He looked at
his kinsmen, but they hung their heads sullenly. Blind with fury
though he was, and slow of wit, he could not but see that the tribe
as a whole was now against him. Stuttering with his rage, he shouted
to the girl, "You will see me again!" Snatching up his club and
spears, he rushed forth from the amphitheater, darted down the slope,
and plunged into the thick woods beyond the brook. His kinsmen
withdrew sullenly into their cave, followed by two young women. And
the rest of the people looked at each other doubtfully, troubled at
this sudden schism in the weakened tribe.
"One more good warrior gone!" muttered an old man through his bush of
matted white beard.
That night Grom was too wary to sleep, suspecting that his enemy might
return and try to snatch the girl from him under the cover of the
dark.
He was not attacked or disturbed, however, but just before dawn,
against the gray pallor beyond the mouth of the pass, he marked four
shapes slinking forth. As they did not return, he did not think it
worth while to raise the alarm. When day came, it was found that two
kinsmen of Mawg, with the two young women who were attached to them,
had fled to join the deserter in the bush. The Chief, indignant at
this further weakening of the tribe, declared them outlaws, and
ordered that all--except the women, who were needed as mothers--should
be killed as tribal traitors, at sight.
III
As was natural since he was trying to present a totally new
conception, with no known analogies save in the lightning and the sun,
Grom found it impossible to convey to the Chief's mind any real idea
of the nature of his tremendous discovery. He did succeed, however, in
making it clear to Bawr that there was a certain mighty Bright One,
capable of putting even the saber-tooth and the red bear to instant
flight, and that he had somehow managed to subdue this powerful and
mysterious being into the service of the tribe. Bawr had examined with
deep musing the strange black bite of the Bright One on Grom's club
and spear. And he realized readily enough that with such an ally the
tribe, even in its present state of weakness, would be able to defy
any further invasions of the bow-legged beast-men from the east. There
was a rumor, vague enough but disquieting, of another migration of the
beast-men under way. So there was no time to lose. Bawr gave orders
that the tribe should get together their scanty possessions of food,
skins and weapons, and make a start on the morrow for their new home.
The attempts of the girl, meanwhile, to explain about the fire and
Grom's miraculous subjugation of it to his will, had only spread
terror in the tribe. The dread of this unknown Bright One, which was
plainly capable of devouring them all if Grom should lose control of
it, was more nerve-shaking than their dread of the beast-men.
Moreover, there was the natural reluctance to leave the old,
familiar dwellings for an unknown, distrusted land, confessedly
the haunt of those monstrous beasts which they had most cause to fear.
Then, too, there were not a few in the tribe who professed to think
that the hordes of the Bow-legs were never likely to come that way
again. No wonder, therefore, that there was grumbling, and protest,
and shrill lamentation in the caves; but Bawr being in no mood,
since the defection of Mawg and his party, to tolerate any opposition,
and Grom being now regarded as a dangerous wizard, the preparation
for departure went on as smoothly as if all were of one mind.
Packing was no great matter to the People of the Little Hills, the
richest of whom could transport all his wealth on the back of the
feeblest of his wives. So it came that before the sun marked noon
the whole tribe was on the march, trailing forth from the neck of
the amphitheater at the heels of Grom and A-ya, and picking their way
over the bones of their slain enemies which the vultures and the
jackals had already polished white. Bawr, the Chief, came last,
seeing to it that there were no laggards; and as the tail of the
straggling procession left the pass he climbed swiftly to the
nearest pinnacle of rock to take observation. He marked Grom and
the girl, the tribe strung out dejectedly behind them, winding off
to the left along the foot of the bare hills; and a pang of grief,
for an instant, twitched his massive features. Then he turned his eyes
to the right. Very far off, in a space of open ground by the
brookside, he marked the movement of confused, living masses, of a
dull brown on the green. A closer look convinced him that the
moving masses were men--new hordes of the beast-men, the gaping-nosed
Bow-legs.
"Grom is a true man," he muttered, with satisfaction, and went leaping
like a stag down the slope to rejoin the tribe. When news of what he
had seen was passed from mouth to mouth through the tribe every murmur
was hushed, and the sulkiest laggards pushed on feverishly, as if
dreading a rush of the beast-men from every cleft and glade.
The journey proved, for the most part, uneventful. Traveling in a
compact mass, only by broad day, their numbers and their air of
confidence kept the red bear and the saber-tooth, the black lion and
the wolf-pack, from venturing to molest them. By the Chief's orders
they maintained a noisy chatter, with laughter and shouting, as soon
as they felt themselves safely beyond range of the beast-men's ears.
For Bawr had observed that even the saber-tooth had a certain
uneasiness at the sound of many human voices together. At night--and
it was their rule to make camp while the sun was yet several hours
high--with the aid of their flint spear-heads they would laboriously
cut down the saplings of the long-thorned acacia, and surround the
camp with a barrier which the monsters dared not assail. Even so,
however, the nights were trying enough to the stoutest nerves. Half
the tribe at a time was obliged to stand on guard, and there was
little sleep to refresh the weariest when the shadows beyond the
barriers were alive with mutterings and prowlings, and terrible,
paling, gleaming eyes.
On the fourth day of the journey, however, the tribe met a foe whose
dense brain was quite unimpressed by the menace of the human voice,
and whose rage took no account of their numbers or their confidence.
An enormous bull urus--perhaps the same beast which some days earlier,
had driven Grom and the girl into the tree-tops--burst up, dripping
and mud-streaked from his wallow in a reedy pool, and came charging
upon the travelers with a roar. No doubt an outcast from the herd, he
was mad with the lust of killing. With shouts of warning and shrieks
of fear the tribe scattered in every direction. The nearest warriors
hurled their spears as they sprang aside, and several of the weapons
went deep into the monster's flanks, but without checking him. He had
fixed his eyes on one victim, an old man with a conspicuous shock of
snow-white hair, and him he followed inexorably. The doomed wretch
screamed with despair when he found himself thus hideously selected,
and ran, doubling like a rabbit. Just as the monster overtook him he
fell, paralyzed with his fright, and one tremendous horn pinned him to
the earth. At this instant the Chief arrived, running up from the rear
of the line, and Grom, coming from the front. The Chief, closing in
fearlessly, swung his club with all his strength across the beast's
front, blinding one eye, and confusing him for the fraction of a
moment. And in that moment, Grom, calculating his blow with precision,
drove his spear clean through the massive throat. As he sprang back,
twisting his ragged weapon in the wound and tearing it free, the
monster, with a hoarse cough, staggered forward across his victim,
fell upon his knees, and slowly sank, while the blood emptied itself
in enormous, smoking jets from the wound.
The incident caused a day's delay in the march; for there was the dead
elder to be buried, with heavy stones heaped over his body, according
to the custom of the tribe, and there was also the meat of the slain
bull to be cut up for carrying--a rank food, but sustaining, and not
to be despised when one is on a journey with uncertainties ahead. And
the delay was more than compensated for by the new spirit which now
seized this poor, fugitive remnant of the Tribe of the Little Hills.
The speedy and spectacular triumph over a foe so formidable as the
giant bull urus was unanimously accepted as an omen of good fortune.
As they approached the valley whose mouth was guarded by the line of
volcanic fire, Grom purposely led the tribe by such a path that they
should get no glimpse of the dancing flames until close upon them.
Down behind a long line of woods he led them, with no warning of what
was to come. Then suddenly around into the open; and there, not a
hundred paces distant, was the valley-mouth, and the long, thin line
of flickering scarlet tongues drawn across it.
As the people came in sight of the incomprehensible phenomenon, they
stared for a moment, gasping, or uttering low cries; then they fell
upon their faces in awe. Grom remained standing, leaning upon his
spear; and A-ya stood with bowed head close behind him. When the
Chief, shepherding and guarding the rear flanks, emerged around the
elbow of woods and saw his people thus prostrate before the shining
wonder, he too was moved to follow their example, for his heart went
cold within him. But not without reason was he Chief, for he could
control himself as well as others. A pallor spread beneath the smoky
tan of his broad features, but without an instant's hesitation he
strode to the front, and stood like Grom, with unbowed head, leaning
calmly on his great club. His thought was that the Shining One must be
indeed a god, and might, indeed, slay him from afar, like the
lightning, but it could not make him afraid.
Grom gave him a quick look of approval. "Tell the people," said he,
"to follow us round through the open space yonder, and into the
valley, that we may make camp, for there are many great beasts here,
and very fierce. And tell them not to approach the Shining One, lest
he smite them, but also not to fear, for he will not come at them."
When the people--trembling, staring with fascinated eyes at the
dancing array, and shrinking nervously from the strange warmth--had
all been gathered into the open space between the fire and the
thickets, Grom led the Chief up to the flames and hurriedly explained
to him what he had found out as to how they must be managed. Then,
leaving him to ponder the miracle, and to experiment, he took A-ya to
help him build other fires along the edge of the thickets in order to
keep the monsters at bay. And all the while the tribe sat watching,
huddled on their haunches, with mouths agape and eyes rolling in
amazement.
Bawr the Chief, meanwhile, was revolving many things in his sagacious
brain, as he alternately lighted and extinguished the little, eating
flames which fixed themselves upon the dry wood when he held it in the
blaze. His mind was of a very different order from that of Grom,
though, perhaps, not less capacious and capable. Grom was the
discoverer, the initiator, while Bawr was essentially the ruler,
concerned to apply all he learned to the extension and securing of his
power. It was his realization of Grom's transparent honesty and
indifference to power which made him so free from jealousy of Grom's
prestige. His shrewd perceptions told him that Grom would far rather
see him rule the tribe, so long as he ruled it effectually, than be
troubled with the task himself. But there were others in the tribe
whom he suspected of being less disinterested--who were capable of
becoming troublesome if ever he should find his strength failing. One
of these, in particular, a gigantic, black-browed fellow by the name
of Ne-boo, remotely akin to the deserter Mawg, was now watching him
with eyes more keen and considerate than those of his companions. As
Bawr became conscious of this inquiring, crafty gaze, he made a slip,
and closed his left hand on a portion of his branch which was still
glowing red. With superb nerve he gave no sign of the hurt. And he
thought quickly: he had taken a liberty with the Bright One, and been
bitten by those mysterious, shining teeth which left a scar of black.
Well, someone else should be bitten, also. Calmly heating the branch
again till it was a live coal for three-quarters of its length, he
called the crafty-eyed warrior to him. The man came, uneasy, but full
of interest.
"Take this, and hold it for me," said Bawr, and tossed him the red
brand. With shrinking hands Ne-boo caught it, to drop it instantly
with a yell of pain and terror. It fell, scraping his leg, and his
foot, and in his fright he threw himself down beside it, begging it
not to smite him again.
"Strange," said Bawr, in a voice for all the tribe to hear, "the
Shining One will not suffer Ne-boo to touch him." With the air of a
high priest he picked the brand up, and held it again into the flames.
And Grom returning at this moment to his side, he commanded in a low
voice: "Let none but ourselves attend or touch the Bright One."
Grom, his mind occupied with plans for the settling of the tribe,
agreed without asking the reason for this decree. He was thinking
about getting the tribe housed in the caves which he had noticed in
the steep sides of the valley. He knew well enough that these caves
were the houses of the red bear, the saber-tooth and the bone-crushing
hyenas, but, as he explained to the Chief with thrilling elation, the
Shining One would drive these monsters out, and teach them to keep
their distance. To Bawr, who had had some experience in his day with
the red bear and the saber-tooth, and who had not yet seen all that
these dancing tongues of gold and scarlet could do, the enterprise
seemed a formidable one. But he sagaciously reserved his judgment,
pondering things that he felt sure Grom would not dream of.
That night, when all was thick darkness beyond the magic circle of the
fires, the People of the Little Hills sat or crouched trembling and
wondering, while monstrous dim shapes of such bears or tigers as they
had never imagined in their worst nightmares prowled roaring all about
them, held off by nothing more substantial than just those thin and
darting tongues of flame. That the little, bright things could bite
terribly they had evidence enough, both in the charred and corroded
wood which the flames had licked, and in the angry wounds of Ne-boo.
At the same time they saw their Chief and Grom apparently handling the
Terror with impunity, and the girl A-ya approaching it and serving it
freely, though always with bowed head and every mark of awe.
But what made the deepest, the most ineffaceable impression on the
minds of the tribe was to see Grom and the Chief, each waving a pair
of dead branches all aflame, charge at a pair of giant saber-tooths
who had ventured too near, and drive them scurrying like frightened
sheep into the bush. Repeating the tactics which he had previously
found so effective, Grom hurled one of his flaming weapons after the
fugitives--an example which the Chief, not to be outshone, followed
instantly. The result was startling. The brands chanced to fall where
there was a great accumulation of dry wood and twigs and leaves. In a
moment, as it seemed, the flames had leapt up into full fury, and were
chasing the fugitives up the valley with a roar. In the sudden great
glare could be seen saber-tooths stretching out in panic-stricken
flight, burly red bear fleeing with their awkward but deadly swift
gallop, huge hyenas scattering to this side and that, and many furtive
unknown creatures driven into a blind and howling rout. Grom himself
was as thunderstruck as any one at the amazing result of his action,
but his quick wits told him to disguise his astonishment, and bear
himself as if it were exactly what he had planned. The Chief copied
his attitude with scrupulous precision and unfailing nerve, though
quite prepared to see the red whirlwind suddenly turn back and blot
himself, the audacious Grom, and the whole shuddering tribe from the
face of the outraged earth. But no such thing happened. The torrent of
flame raged straight up the valley, cutting a path some fifty odd
paces in width, and leaving a track of smoldering, winking, red stems
and stumps behind it. And all the beasts hid themselves in their
terror so that not one of them was seen again that night. As for the
People of the Little Hills, they were now ready to fall down and put
dust in their hair in utter abasement, if either Grom or the Chief so
much as looked at them.
Soon after sunrise the next day, the Chief and Grom, bearing lighted
brands, and followed close by A-ya with a bundle of dry faggots, twigs
and grass, took possession of two great caves on the southward-facing
slope of the valley. The giant bears which occupied one of them fled
ignominiously at the first threat of the flames, having been scorched
and thoroughly cowed by the conflagration of the previous night. The
other cave had been already vacated by the hyena pack, which had no
stomach to face these throwers of flame. Before the mouth of each
cave, at a safe distance, a fire was lighted--a notice to all the
beasts that their rule was at an end. The whole tribe was set to the
gathering of a great store of fuel, which was heaped about the mouths
of the caves as a shield against the weather. Then the people began to
settle themselves in their new home, secure in the faith that not even
the hordes of the Bow-legs, should they chance that way, would have
the temerity to face their new and terrible protector.
When all was ordered to his satisfaction, the Chief called Grom to his
side. The two stood apart, and watched the tall figure of A-ya moving
from the one fire to the other, and tending them reverently, as one
performing a rite. Grom's eyes took on a certain illumination at the
sight of her, a look which the Chief had never observed in any man's
eyes before. But he thought little of it, for his mind was full of
other matters.
"It is well," said he presently, in a low voice, "that the service and
understanding of the Bright One should not be allowed to the people,
but should be kept strictly to ourselves, and to those whom we shall
choose to initiate. I shall appoint the two best men of my own kin,
and two others whom you shall select, as servants of the Bright One.
And I will make a law that the people shall henceforth worship only
the Bright One, instead of, as heretofore, the Thunder, and the Wind,
and the unknown Spirits, which, after all, as far as I can see, have
never been able to do much either for or against us. But this Bright
One is a real god, such as we can be sure of. And you and I shall be
his priests. And only we shall be allowed to understand him."
"That is good," agreed Grom, whose brain was busy devising other ways
of making the wild flames serviceable to man. "But," he went on,
"there is A-ya. She knows as much about it as you and I."
The Chief pondered a moment.
"Either the girl must die," said he, eyeing Grom's face, "or she must
be a priest along with us."
"I think she will be a very good priest," said Grom drily, his eyes
resting upon her.
Then the Chief, ascending a rock between the two fires, spoke to the
people, and decreed as he had said. He told a little about the Shining
One, just so much as he thought it good for his hearers to know. He
declared that the ones he had chosen for the great honor of serving
the fires must tend them by turns, night and day, and guard them with
their lives; for that, if one or the other should be suffered to die
out, some great disaster would assuredly come upon the tribe.
"And henceforth," he concluded, "you shall not be called the People of
the Little Hills; for these ridges, indeed, are not such hills as
those whose bald and windy tops are keeping the bones of our fathers.
But you shall be known and feared greatly by our enemies as 'The
Children of the Shining One,' under whose protection I declare you."