ollowed him across the river, and they
were going back again. Uya, with a bleeding mouth, was on the farther
side of the stream again, but lower down, and holding his hand to his
side. The others were in the river dragging something to shore. For a
time at least the chase was intermitted.

Ugh-lomi stood watching for a space, and snarled at the sight of Uya.
Then he turned and plunged into the thicket.

In a minute, Eudena came hastening to join him, and they went on hand in
hand. He dimly perceived the pain she suffered from the cut and bruised
knee, and chose the easier ways. But they went on all that day, mile
after mile, through wood and thicket, until at last they came to the
chalkland, open grass with rare woods of beech, and the birch growing
near water, and they saw the Wealden mountains nearer, and groups of
horses grazing together. They went circumspectly, keeping always near
thicket and cover, for this was a strange region--even its ways were
strange. Steadily the ground rose, until the chestnut forests spread
wide and blue below them, and the Thames marshes shone silvery, high and
far. They saw no men, for in those days men were still only just come
into this part of the world, and were moving but slowly along the
river-ways. Towards evening they came on the river again, but now it ran
in a gorge, between high cliffs of white chalk that sometimes overhung
it. Down the cliffs was a scrub of birches and there were many birds
there. And high up the cliff was a little shelf by a tree, whereon they
clambered to pass the night.

They had had scarcely any food; it was not the time of year for berries,
and they had no time to go aside to snare or waylay. They tramped in a
hungry weary silence, gnawing at twigs and leaves. But over the surface
of the cliffs were a multitude of snails, and in a bush were the freshly
laid eggs of a little bird, and then Ugh-lomi threw at and killed a
squirrel in a beech-tree, so that at last they fed well. Ugh-lomi
watched during the night, his chin on his knees; and he heard young
foxes crying hard by, and the noise of mammoths down the gorge, and the
hyaenas yelling and laughing far away. It was chilly, but they dared not
light a fire. Whenever he dozed, his spirit went abroad, and straightway
met with the spirit of Uya, and they fought. And always Ugh-lomi was
paralysed so that he could not smite nor run, and then he would awake
suddenly. Eudena, too, dreamt evil things of Uya, so