letion of raw meat in his
stomach was not conducive to protracted thought. Gradually his head
slumped forward and he slept sitting. The other hunters followed his
example, leaving the youths from ten to seventeen to guard the camp,
keep the fires going, and rouse the hunters should need arise.

* * * * *

The night passed slowly without alarms. Womoo, the lion, roared in the
distance, and from near at hand came the coughing laugh of Kena, the
jackal, who always prowled around the camp when the tribe fed on meat.
Gradually the sky grew lighter. One of the children moaned in his sleep
and raised his head. He rose, and with a word to the youth on guard,
trotted off toward the stream which gurgled near the camp. He
disappeared in the darkness. Suddenly there came a sudden scream, shut
off in mid-note. Hardly had the cry ceased than the hunters were on
their feet with spears ready in their hands.

"What is it?" cried Uglik.

"Loda went to the stream to drink," stuttered the guard. "He screamed,
and I saw a gray shape run off into the darkness. It ran like Grup, the
bear, but it was small."

"Bring fire!" cried Anak.

The youth seized a burning brand and led the way toward the stream. By
the light of the torch Anak scrutinized the ground carefully. With a
sudden exclamation, he pointed out to Uglik the print of a long and
narrow, but unmistakably human, foot in the mud by the river bank. Uglik
studied it carefully.

"What think you?" he demanded of Anak.

"It is the mark of man, yet not of our tribe," replied the Chief Hunter.
"Such marks have I never seen."

"Wait until Degar Astok sends the light," directed Uglik. "As soon as
you can trail, the hunters will go in pursuit."

* * * * *

Slowly the light grew brighter. As soon as he could pick out the trail,
Anak led the way, Uglik with the warriors and youths following closely.
The trail led straight up the valley for a half mile before it turned
and followed a branch of the stream which came from a ravine in the
valley wall. The hunters went a hundred yards up the ravine following
Anak. The Chief Hunter paused and held up his hand. He sniffed the air
and then led the way cautiously past a projecting shoulder of rock. On
a ledge, half way up the hillside, sat two monstrous things.

They were manlike and yet hardly man. Their bodies were covered with
stiff, coarse, gray hair which lengthened into a ma