. There was no
one in the tribe with whom he could discuss this strange emotion, for
no one, not even the wise and subtle-minded Chief, would have
comprehended it--romantic love not yet having come openly to these men
of the Morning of Time. So Grom gave the lesser reason, which all,
including himself, could understand. As for the girl, she said that
whatever her lord commanded she must needs obey, which she did with a
most seemly readiness. But in her heart she knew that if her man had
commanded her to stay behind, she would have obeyed only so long as he
remained in sight, and would then have followed him.

Like Grom, the girl carried two flint-headed spears. Both wore clumsy
but effective slivers of flint, for knives, in their girdles of
twisted skin. The girl, besides her weapons, carried a substantial
burden of strips of meat dried hard in the sun, in case game should
prove scarce or elusive in the land beyond the hills. But when they
had got well out of sight of the caves, Grom turned, relieved her of
her burdens which, according to tribal conventions, it was her duty to
carry for her man, and gave her instead the light but precious tube of
fire.

As they ascended the ragged slopes, vegetation grew sparse, and when
toward nightfall they gained the pass which Grom was making for--a
deep cleft between two steep red and purple peaks--the rock beneath
their feet was naked but for a low growth of flowering herbs and
thorn. The pass was too high for the aloe and mesembryanthemum to
flourish, and the lava-bed which floored it was yet too new to have
clothed itself in any of the larger mountain-loving trees. Here they
passed the night, in a shallow niche of rock with a fire before it;
and the fire being visible from a long way off, no prowlers cared even
to approach it.

On the following day they traveled swiftly, but the pass was long. It
was near sunset again when at last the rocks fell away to either side,
and they saw spread out below their feet the land which they had come
to explore.

It was a vast, rolling plain, golden-green with rank, cane-like
grasses, dotted with innumerable clumps of trees, and laced with full
watercourses which lay in spacious loops of blue and silver. Here and
there lay broad, irregular patches where the grass did not flourish,
and these were of vivid emerald-green from some unknown growth.

Along the horizon to the north sparkled a great water. And half-way
down the steep, toward the