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 gr