warm in winter?"

"Very likely they don't," said the she-bear.

"I suppose it's a sort of monkey gone wrong."

"It's a change," said the she-bear.

A pause.

"The advantage he had was merely accidental," said Andoo. "These things
_will_ happen at times."

"_I_ can't understand why you let go," said the she-bear.

That matter had been discussed before, and settled. So Andoo, being a
bear of experience, remained silent for a space. Then he resumed upon a
different aspect of the matter. "He has a sort of claw--a long claw that
he seemed to have first on one paw and then on the other. Just one claw.
They're very odd things. The bright thing, too, they seemed to
have--like that glare that comes in the sky in daytime--only it jumps
about--it's really worth seeing. It's a thing with a root, too--like
grass when it is windy."

"Does it bite?" asked the she-bear. "If it bites it can't be a plant."

"No----I don't know," said Andoo. "But it's curious, anyhow."

"I wonder if they _are_ good eating?" said the she-bear.

"They look it," said Andoo, with appetite--for the cave bear, like the
polar bear, was an incurable carnivore--no roots or honey for _him_.

The two bears fell into a meditation for a space. Then Andoo resumed his
simple attentions to his eye. The sunlight up the green slope before the
cave mouth grew warmer in tone and warmer, until it was a ruddy amber.

"Curious sort of thing--day," said the cave bear. "Lot too much of it, I
think. Quite unsuitable for hunting. Dazzles me always. I can't smell
nearly so well by day."

The she-bear did not answer, but there came a measured crunching sound
out of the darkness. She had turned up a bone. Andoo yawned. "Well," he
said. He strolled to the cave mouth and stood with his head projecting,
surveying the amphitheatre. He found he had to turn his head completely
round to see objects on his right-hand side. No doubt that eye would be
all right to-morrow.

He yawned again. There was a tap overhead, and a big mass of chalk flew
out from the cliff face, dropped a yard in front of his nose, and
starred into a dozen unequal fragments. It startled him extremely.

When he had recovered a little from his shock, he went and sniffed
curiously at the representative pieces of the fallen projectile. They
had a distinctive flavour, oddly reminiscent of the two drab animals of
the ledge. He sat up and pawed the larger lump, and walked round it
several times, trying to find