Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 2 — page 58: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

192 be that Tsu-ven’s would do likewise. Still, it was some slight reassurance, and Nan- a-ta hoped that he had outsped the chase. Furthermore, he was far beyond the most distant point where ranged the Little Hairy Men, and within a day’s journey, overland, of the great water. Here the party left the cg@foe, hiding it cleverly among the underbrush a hundred paces from the river, that it might not be seen of any chance passer, and plunged into the forest, carefully blinding their trail at the spot where they left the stream. South and west they traveled, reaching at length a spot of high ground, where Nan- a-ta decided to build shelters for the long cold. That there was still higher ground not very far away he knew from the fact that a spring bubbled up from the earth on the very peak of the knoll he had chosen, but this was high enough,-and the spring “would furnish water. Game was plentiful, for both food and clothing, for signs were common of deer, bear, wildcat, wolf, fox, and lynx, as well as lesser animals, such as otter, weasel, and beaver. The little knoll, some hundred paces across, was, like all that country, heavily wooded, and the first task of Nan-a-ta and his men was to clear away the trees and underbrush that an enclosure mighi i:2 built. With ax and with fire was tne ground cleared, Tah-né working side by side with the men, taking her full share of the labor, for though lightly muscled—by comparison with a warrior—she yet owned a store of nervous energy which made up” for the lack. At length the trees were down and trimmed, and Nan-a-ta then told off Sar- no-m’rai, most skilful of all the trackers of the Ta-an, with Kan-to, also a skilled hun- ter, and Ban, to bring in food. He himself, with L’vu, Sen-va, Su, and Tah-né, took up the task of cutting the felled trees to length and erecting a stockade about the crest of the knoll, weaving branches and. withes in and out among the trunks to form a fence close and strong and high enough to protect those within against the assaults of beasts of prey. While this was going on the hunters were THE ARGOSY. bringing in game in quantities, chiefly deer and bear, but also some beasts that were useful for their fur, though, to be sure, this was not the season for the finest fur; that would come later, during the fiercest of the cold. Still, they would serve. The flesh of the edible beasts was dried over the fire, and the various skins were dressed and stretched over frames of poles thrust into the ground and bound together at the top; some, indeed, were reserved for | garments and for wrappings in which to sleep. Also, the hunters brought in stores of berries and tuberous roots, the former being dried over the fires, the latter buried deep in the ground that they might not freeze. Great piles of wood for the fires were gathered, too, being stored within the enclosure, agaist the stockade. Finally all was complete, and Nan-a-ta surveyed the result with satisfaction, saying to Sar-no-m’rai: “Tt is done; let come the ae cold, we are safe.” Sar-no-m’rai, ever sparing of words, grunted in reply, pointing upward. Nan- a-ta followed the direction of the. older man’s finger, and nodded. ‘You would say it is none too soon?” and Sar-no-m’rai grunted again, for in truth the air was chill and the sky covered with dull, gray clouds. Next morning, ‘when the men crept from their huts of poles and skins, the ground was white with snow, and the great flakes were drifting softly, silently downward in thick clouds that hid the forest from view—scarcely, indeed, could one see across the enclosure. All that day it snowed, that night, and the following day, and when at last the sun shone bright again the snow lay to the height of a man’s waist within the stockade. Sar-no-m’rai, catching the eye of Nan-a-ta, grunted inquiringly, and the leader an- swered the thought: ““ Nore too soon, in very truth!” he said. “Yet are we secure!”? And the words were punctuated by the rending crash of a near-by limb, borne down under its weight of snow, tearing from the parent oak. Food and clothing and warmth assured, Nan-a-ta turned to the thought that was ever present in his mind; to solve the mys- 3 ARGOSY COnmiclboooks C C@