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This basket was a device of A-ya's, which had added greatly to her prestige in the tribe, and caused the women to regard her with redoubled jealousy. By lining it thickly with wet clay, she was able to carry fire in it so securely and simply that Grôm had adopted it at once, throwing away his uncertain and always troublesome fire-tubes of hollow bamboo.
He broke its neck with a blow and laid the prize at A-ya's feet. "I wish we had fire with us, to cook it with," said she. "On the new raft, as I will make it," said Grôm, "that may very well be. Our journey will be safe and easy, and the good fire we will have always with us." The People of the Caves were beginning to dread their good fortune.
A-ya's bow was bent as swiftly as Loob's, and the two arrows sped together, both into the monster's gaping gullet. Amazed at this reception it shut its jaws with a loud snap, halted and came on again. Then a stab of Grôm's great spear caught it full in the eye, and this wound struck fear into its dull mind. It rolled back hastily into the water and sank, leaving a foamy wake of blood behind it.
As he brooded this in silence, with that deep, inward look in his eyes which always kept A-ya from breaking in upon his vision, he came to the idea of a formal raft, and a formal paddle. And to this he added, with a full sense of its value, A-ya's suggestion that this new structure might very well be pushed along, in shallow water, with a pole.
It was A-ya's young brother, Mô, Grôm's favorite follower and hunting mate; and he had come at speed, being very swift of foot, in answer to Grôm's signal. Breathing quickly, he stood at Grôm's side, and looked down with wonder and dislike upon the crouching woman. Briefly Grôm explained, and then pointed to the inexplicable wounds.
At this amazing apparition, the mob paused irresolute; but the Black Chief came on like a mad buffalo. Grôm hurled one of his two spears. He hurled it with a loathing fury; but he was compelled to throw high, to clear A-ya's head. The Chief saw it coming, and cunningly flung himself forward on his face.
The fellow snatched it, and hid it behind him, being too hungry to refuse it, but too savage to eat it under his captor's eye. Grôm smiled slowly, and fell to playing with a heavy strand of A-ya's hair which had fallen over his arm. But to this caress the girl paid no attention. She was puzzled and outraged at Grôm's action in protecting his rival.
Mawg was sitting on the next branch, a good spear's length distant, and glowering at A-ya's lithe shapeliness with eyes of savage greed. Grôm knit his brows, and significantly passed an arm about the girl's shoulders. Mawg shifted his attention to him. "What do you want of me?" he demanded, in a thick, guttural voice. "I thought you ran as if you did not want the lions to eat you," answered Grôm.
Her laughter was forgotten on the instant, because she guessed that his fertile brain was on the trail of some new experiment. Arriving at the cane-thicket, Grôm broke himself half a dozen well-hardened, tapering stems, from two to three feet in length, and about as thick at their smaller ends as A-ya's little finger.
Noting the supreme success of A-ya's experiment, the spectators rushed in, dragged the carcase once more from the fire, and fell to hacking off suitable morsels, each for himself. In a few minutes every one who could get hold of a long arrow, or a spear, or a pointed stick, was busy learning to cook.
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