it had been a hard, wearisome charge up the steep mountain slope. hairi and wulli wondered how they ever summoned courage to do it. they had never done such a thing before. but the present conditions were extraordinary. pic, their dearest friend, was being set upon by the man-pack and there was no other way to help him. they had returned after their first fright, and hearing the voice of battle about them, had hurried to the rescue. to their horror, they found the ledge a shambles reeking with blood and death. pic was not there. they feared they had come too late. then both jumped back in surprise, for kutnar was looking down upon them. they recognized him at once.
“you here?” wulli gasped. “i am so glad. we have found you at last.”
“i, too, am glad,” said the mammoth. “we have come far to find you. but why should these men destroy each other? i do not see pic and am so afraid. where is he?”
kutnar stared at the huge beast like one not in his right mind. he pointed to the body over which he kneeled and replied in a hollow voice: “here he lies and yet it is not he. the best of him is gone.[211] he tried to save me from these savage men. for that he died;” and the boy rocked back and forth over his father’s body, moaning as though his heart would break.
the mammoth bowed his head, overwhelmed, crushed as the terrible truth drove itself home. “dead?” he groaned dismally. “i too will stay. i will not leave him.”
“nor i,” said the rhinoceros solemnly.
all three remained with heads bent low, paying their last tribute to the mousterian chief. the mammoth was the first to recover himself. he stamped his feet and flapped his ears. his eyes reddened like hot coals. “who killed him?” he screamed. “if one of these men did it, i will trample the life out of every one of them, even though i have to climb over the top of this mountain to do it.”
kutnar was on his feet in an instant. “who killed him? i do not know. but there is one who caused all this, my traitor-friend the hyena man. i heard his voice above us. he must die.” he darted across the ledge and picked up his sling and pebble-pouch which had fallen there during the melee, then leaped down the slope and looked above him. a man was ascending the scarp. kutnar ran to one side of the rock-shelter and began climbing up.
high above his head, gonch was ascending leisurely, feeling comfortable in the thought that totan and pic were no more. he had seen totan’s[212] body and would have relished a glimpse of pic’s but the mammoth and rhinoceros stood on guard below and he dared not descend. however pic was as dead as totan, he felt reasonably certain and now that his enemies were out of the way, he planned to return to castillo and seize the reins of authority. some day, fate permitting, he might even venture into the mousterian country and take pic’s place. the possibilities of his future were unlimited. he might become the foremost potentate in all the world.
he was looking behind him now and then from force of habit. there were none left to pursue him but he had not seen pic’s body and therefore could not feel absolutely sure. as he snatched one of his hurried glances, to his horror, he saw a figure scaling the cliff below him. for an instant he thought that the mousterian chief must have risen from the grave to destroy him, then he breathed a sigh of relief. it was not pic but a much smaller man. one of his own people perhaps. he halted until the other came near enough to be recognized. gonch stared at him in amazement then snarled hatefully, “kutnar! what brings the boy here?”
as if in reply, kutnar shook his fist at the muskman and cried out, “traitor, you shall not escape me this time,” and climbed up as fast as he could.
gonch laughed a loud bitter laugh. the boy carried no ax and he was at a disadvantage, attacking from below. the muskman seized a stone from the wall behind him and raised it above his[213] head in both hands. there he stood howling derision at his pursuer.
kutnar heard but he only climbed the faster. his was a lithe active body. in his brain lurked the inborn gift of clear-headedness and sure-footedness working in perfect harmony. but never had his climbing powers been subjected to so severe a test. in places the wall, for rods at a time appeared so smooth and unbroken that it seemed impossible for a human being to adhere to it; but kutnar not only did adhere but continued upward at an astonishing rate. his toes and fingers found every minute wrinkle and crevice. his legs were the sustaining members, his shoulders the windlass, his arms the tackle of a self-propelling derrick lifting itself in mid-air. kutnar was expending his energy at a lavish rate. he might have rested temporarily on the occasional rock-shelves that marked his route. his enemy was resting and he could have done likewise. in a saner moment he would have so chosen but now he was insane; a maniac bearing a death message to the man whose perfidy had destroyed the one he loved best. the human derrick was strained almost to the breaking point and still it continued to propel itself skyward. not until kutnar reached an unusually deep shelf which gave him more than standing room, did he pause even for a moment; then he halted and looked up. the muskman stood waiting above him. kutnar could see his open red mouth and white teeth. gonch’s face wore an expression of cruel[214] eagerness such as a panther wears when about to spring from the tree branches upon a fawn passing beneath. his back was set against the wall, both hands raised high above his head. he was preparing to hurl the stone.
kutnar braced his legs, secured a firm foothold and whirled his sling. gonch trembled. he could almost feel the pebble striking his skull with deadly precision. he faltered, tossed the stone wildly and fled in a panic up the wall behind him. the boy dodged the stone as it fell but now the muskman was beyond effective throwing range and so kutnar ceased whirling his sling and followed after. “the traitor must die,” repeated itself over and over in his mind and drove out all thought of himself, a stripling pitted against a full-grown man. his breath came in gasps, for what with the struggle below and his exhausting climb, the limit of his endurance was nearly reached. there came over him the fear that gonch might escape after all and so he strove desperately, forcing his shaking legs to carry him on.
gonch was comparatively fresh and perhaps it was just as well for the boy that he had abandoned all thought of fight. the muskman had become obsessed with fear of the magic sling whose deadly accuracy he had become familiar with through long experience. kutnar’s legs would no longer aid him in that heart-breaking ascent. the sling launched its bolt but in his anxiety, he missed his aim. gonch was struggling up the slippery rock[215] when he heard the stone whizz close by his head and click against the wall. the sounds spurred him on but in his over-eagerness he slipped and dropped back several feet. this slip terrified him.
kutnar felt in his pouch and drew forth another pebble—the last. he had but one chance left. he reloaded his weapon but he neither whirled nor threw at his enemy now moving slowly but surely to safety. he was waiting until his heart would ease its pounding and his muscles could be brought under control for the final cast.
gonch had recovered himself and was making progress. no second missile had followed the first to shake his nerves. desperation gave him courage for the supreme effort required. his hands were raised to within a few yards of the crowning pinnacles of the scarp. once ahold of them he could drag himself to the top—and safety.
kutnar saw. his heart had ceased palpitating. he no longer trembled. his body was as cold as ice. “that man must die,” he said for the last time. the thong hissed. every ounce of strength in the guiding muscles followed the stone in its flight and sent it whizzing to the mark.
gonch doubled up. his feet jerked convulsively as the death-messenger crashed into his ribs. his hands had already found anchorage. he might have pulled himself to the top, had not the sling-stone bid him halt. his lower limbs half-paralyzed, dabbed feebly against the smooth wall in a vain effort to relieve the weight of his body,[216] thrown suddenly upon his arms. once, twice, thrice, his feet sought support, then his muscles relaxed, his body straightened out and he hung suspended in mid-air.
beneath him, his destroyer watched and waited, cold and implacable as an avenging fate. the muskman yet clung to the coping fluttering like a wounded bird. slowly his head fell back and turned so that he could see over his right shoulder. his face blanched, his eyes started from their sockets at sight of the vast emptiness beneath him. gradually his grip relaxed. he made a last effort for one more moment of sweet life, then with a despairing screech, down he fell. his body shot along the face of the scarp until it encountered a rugged projection which sent it bounding clear of the rock-wall. down, down it fell, whirling in space, finally crashing to its last resting place at the base of the scarp. the traitor had come into his own at last and his body lay amid those of his comrades who now shared their lot with the true author of their destruction.
