way the noise did come the more anigh, and I saw that a Humped
Man did come running from among the trees, and did run beneath that
place where the seven Humped Men did be on the branches. But they made
no sign to the man, to save him; yet truly it was very plain that some
monster pursued the man.

And immediately I saw how this thing was; for the Humped Man upon the
ground, did not run so fast as might be; and I conceived that he did act
to make some creature to come after him, to pass under the men within
the tree. And surely this thing did prove to be; for there came very
quick, a great and ugly thing, that had an ugly way of putting down the
feet, and did have seven feet to each side, which was very strange; and
the back was as that it were horny, and the belly of the thing did seem
to brush heavy upon the earth, and it grunted, as it went, and shook the
earth with the weight of it; so that a monstrous noise came from it,
upon so hasty a journey. And I did wot that it was not such a thing as
did properly pursue after matters of food; but did rather eat of that
which did need little haste, but a monstrous strength, to gain. And that
it did so make after the man, was in truth because that it had been
wounded and made fierce; for, indeed, there came blood from the creature
from great wounds upon the back; but how these were made, I could not
know in that instant.

And it did go under the tree in which I was hid; and in that moment when
it past under the tree, the seven Humped Men did leap out of the
branches, and did catch to the brute by the great horns of the spine;
and I saw that the wounds were in the joints of the spine, as was plain
when the back did work, with the going of the creature. And the seven
Humped Men took the sharp stones from under their arms, and did strike
very brutal in the wounds that were in the joints of the spine; and the
creature roared and cried, and went onward into the trees at a great
speed; and in all the time that it ran, the Humped Men ceased not to
strike with the stones.

And sudden, when it was gone a distance off, it did roll very swift over
upon the back, first to the right, as that it would go that way; so that
the Humped Men did leap off upon the other side. And immediately the
creature rolled to that side; and there ran clear of the brute only four
of the Humped Men; so that I knew that three were slain. And afterwards,
they that lived, ran beyond the beast, and gat up into a