cramped and ape-like life
among the branches? Having ordered the building of a half-circle of
fire around a spur of the jungle, he climbed a tree to reconnoiter.

The river ran but a mile or two distant upon his left. Immediately
before him the fleeing beasts were not numerous, consisting merely of
small herds and terrified stragglers. Further out, however, toward the
hills, the plain was blackened by the fugitives, who were thrust on by
the myriads swimming the river behind them. Assuredly, it was not to
be thought of that he should attempt to lead his people across the
path of that desperate flight. But a point that Grom noted with relief
was that only certain kinds of beasts had ventured the crossing of the
river. He saw no bears, lions or saber-tooths among those streaming
hordes. He saw deer of every kind--good swimmers all of them--with
immense, rolling herds of buffalo and aurochs, and scattered companies
of the terrible siva moose, and some bands of the giant elk, their
antlers topping the mimosa thickets. Here and there, lumbering along
sullenly as if reluctant to retreat before any peril, journeyed a huge
rhinoceros, stopping from time to time for a few hurried mouthfuls of
the rich plains grass. But as yet there was not a mammoth in
sight--whereat Grom wondered, as he thought they would have been among
the first to dare the crossing of the river. Had they kept on up the
other shore, hesitating to trust their colossal bulks to the current,
or had they turned at bay, at last, in uncontrollable indignation, and
gone down before the countless hordes of their ignoble assailants?

The absence of the mammoths, which he dreaded more than all the other
beasts because of the fierce intelligence that gleamed in their eyes,
decided Grom. He would lead his people along to the right, skirting
the swamp and marching parallel to the flight of the beasts,
calculating thus to have the jungle always for a refuge, though not
for a dwelling, until they should come to a region of hills and caves
too difficult for the migrating beasts to traverse.

For several days this plan answered to a marvel. The fugitives nearest
to the swamp-edge were mostly deer of various species, which swerved
away nervously from the line of march, but at the same time afforded
such good hunting that the travelers revelled in abundance and rapidly
recovered their spirits. Once, when a great wave of maddened buffalo
surged over upon them, the whole tribe