head was
the brain and soul of a true artist--a soul that found its expression by
the creation of implements of the chase and of battle. No other member
of Urb's tribe could even approach the artistry Gorb put into his work;
no other could fashion a spear so true in balance; none could produce a
flint knife so keen-edged and well-formed.

The half-finished spear head reminded Urb of his own immediate problem.

"Gorb," he said, "only two kills have our men made in the past five
suns, although all have gone forth each day to hunt. It is not because
Narjok or Bana or Muta run away before we can kill them. We cannot find
them at all; only twice in those five suns have we come upon the spoor
of any one of them."

Gorb paused at his work and drew a hairy forearm across his sweaty face.
"Last night," he said, "long after Dyta had found his lair, I heard Sadu
roaring and growling among the trees. It was the noise of a hungry Sadu;
he, too, was angry because there is no meat."

Urb grunted. Since the day before, he had been turning an idea over in
his slow-moving mind, and now he sought to put it into words.

"Tomorrow," he said, "when Dyta first awakens, some of us will look for
caves far from here. I will go; Boz and Kor and Tolb and you, Gorb, will
go with me. There are many hills; there will be many caves in them, and
much meat in grasslands nearby. When we find a good place we will come
back for the others of our tribe."

"Good!" approved Gorb, turning back to his labors. "It has been many
suns since I have eaten all the meat I can hold. I will go with you,
Urb."

* * * * *

Early the next morning a little band of Neanderthal men descended the
escarpment and set out toward the rising sun. They were six; besides
those named by Urb, Mog, the sullen, had been taken. All were armed with
huge flint-studded hardwood clubs, so heavy that only an arm of great
strength might wield one; rude knives of flint and short-shafted spears
completed their armament.

They moved along with the curious shuffling gait peculiar to their kind
alone. Their passage seemed to diffuse an atmosphere of terror and
dread, striking dumb the countless denizens of the teeming jungle. Urb
was in the lead, his small black eyes darting about for the first sign
of danger, ears and nose alert lest Sadu or Jalok or Tarlok find him and
his fellows unprepared. But if any of the more formidable beasts were
near, they remaine