Part 21 (1/2)

”Into the jungle,” was the calroup at the le, over thes, and directly before the, one-storied building of gray stone, weather-stained and unkempt

”That must be the place, Jotan,” said one of the ave us”

Jotan nodded ”They must still be in there Othere should have met this Meltor on his way back If only we have arrived in time

”We must spread out, then coo with Tale's fringe that you may not be seen from the house The rest of us will close in from this side You have five ed by None of the four appeared to feel an urge to talk A heavy silence had fallen on the jungle about theaily-colored birds, the chattering e tenseness that precedes a tropical stor over theh Co, spread fan-wise, and headed for the building,at a half-trot

The door was closed In absolute silence they stepped over the heap of bones that once had been Rydob, mounted the steps and halted there

Carefully Jotan closed his fingers about the latch The heavy planks swung inward enough to satisfy him that there was no bar in place

Suddenly Jotan drew back and drove his shoulder against the ith all his weight behind it The door flew open and the fourinto the room, knives of stone held in readiness

That ht a chorus of astonished exclamations from their lips

Flat on his back in the center of the room, partially hidden behind an overturned table, lay Meltor of Sephar From his left breast stood the hilt of a stone knife, its blade buried deep He was quite dead

The girl was gone

CHAPTER X

The Hairy Men

For several moons now, Urb, the Neanderthal, and his tribe had found it increasingly difficult to locate gahborhood of the family caves The reason could be any one of several: a nearby water-hole dried up until the rainy season caain; a family of lions holed up close by; an absence of adequate pasturage

Urb sat crouched near the foot of a lofty escarpment that contained the tribal caves His deep-sunk button eyes, beneath beetling brows, indifferently watched the young ones of the tribe playing about the clearing between jungle and cliff Below a flattened, shapeless wedge of nose, his thick pendulous lips worked in and out in worried and laborious thought As leader of his tribe, Urb was concerned about the lack of game

It had been conear, the sun's direct rays began to penetrate the thick growth of black coarse hair hich Urb's gross body was almost entirely covered

And so he rose at last and, like the great bull ape he so closely resembled, clambered aardly but quickly to one of the caves

Just inside the entrance he squatted his two hundred and fifty pounds on a boulder and fell to watching Gorb, his eldest son, put final touches to a flint spear head After heating the bit of rock in a small fire for several minutes, Gorb would withdraw it, hastily touch a spot near the edge with a drop of water which caused a tiny bit of the flint to scale away, then repeat the entire process It was a long and tedious task; but Gorb had that untiring patience given to those for who Eventually, his perseverance would reward him with a fine weapon

Urb was secretly proud of his son Even as a boy, Gorb had shown no interest in hunting or in war Beneath his sharply receding forehead was the brain and soul of a true artist--a soul that found its expression by the creation of implements of the chase and of battle No other member of Urb's tribe could even approach the artistry Gorb put into his work; no other could fashi+on a spear so true in balance; none could produce a flint knife so keen-edged and well-formed