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beyond the reach of their hands before ever they arrived. Turning for an instant, Nu saw they were not
yet out of reach of the weapons. He reached down with his right hand and picked up a loose bit of rock,
hurling it toward the nearest spear-man. The missile struck its target full upon the forehead, crumpling him
to an inert mass.
Then Nu scrambled upward again, and before the herders could recover from their surprise he had
dragged Gron out of range of the spears. Squatting upon a narrow ledge, the woman at his side, Nu
hurled insulting epithets at their pursuers. These he punctuated with well-timed and equally well-aimed
rocks, until the yelling herders were glad to retreat to a safer distance.
The enemy did not even venture the attempt to follow the fugitives. It was evident that they were no
better climbers than Gron. Nu held them in supreme contempt. Had he but a good ax he would descend
and annihilate the whole crew!
Gron, sitting close beside Nu, was filled with wonder and something more than wonder that this enemy
should have risked so much to save her, for at the bottom of the cliff Nu had evidently forgotten for the
instant that the woman was not of his own breed, able to climb equally as well as he, and had ascended a
short distance before he had discovered that Gron was scrambling futilely for a foothold at the bottom.
Then, in the face of the advancing foemen, he had descended to her side, risking capture and death in the
act, and had hoisted her to a point of safety far up the cliff face. Tur would never have done so much.
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The woman, stealing stealthy glances at the profile of the young giant beside her, felt her sentiments
undergoing a strange metamorphosis. Nu was no longer her enemy. He protected her, and now she
looked to him for protection with greater assurance of receiving it than ever she had looked to Tur for the
same thing. She knew that Nu would forage for her -- upon him she depended for food as well as
protection. She had never looked for more from her mate. Her mate! She stole another half shy glance at
Nu. Ah, what a mate he would have been! And why not? They were alone in the world, separated from
their people, doubtless forever. Gron suddenly realized that she hoped that it was forever. She wondered
what was passing in Nu's mind.
Apparently the man was wholly occupied with the joys of insulting the threatening savages beneath him;
but yet his thoughts were busy with plans for escape. And why? Solely because he yearned for his own
land and his father's people? Far from it. Nu might have been happy upon this island forever had there
been another there in place of Gron. He thought of Nat-ul -- no other woman occupied his mind, and his
plans for escape were solely a means for returning to the mainland and again taking up his search for the
daughter of Tha.
For an hour the herders remained in the clearing near the foot of the cliff, then, evidently tiring of the
fruitless sport, they collected their scattered herd and disappeared in the wood toward the direction from
which they had come. A half hour later Nu ventured down. He had discovered a cave in the face of the
cliff and there he left Gron, telling her that he would fetch food to her, since in case of pursuit he could
escape more easily alone than when burdened with her.
After a short absence he returned with both food and drink, the latter carried in the bladder that always
hung from his gee-string. He had seen nothing of the herders and naught of the hard wood or the
materials for spear and ax heads that he had desired.
"There is an easier way, however," he confided to the woman, as they squatted at the mouth of the cave
and ate. "The drivers of aurochs bore spears and axes and knives. It will be easier to follow them and
take theirs than to make weapons of my own. Stay here, Gron, in safety, and Nu will follow the
strangers, returning shortly with weapons and the flesh of the fattest of the she aurochs. Then we will
return to the coast, fearless of enemies, find the boat and go back to Nu's country. There you will be well
received, for Nu, my father, is chief, and when he learns that you have saved my life he will treat you
well."
So Nu dropped quickly down to the foot of the cliff, crossed the clearing, and a moment later
disappeared from the eyes of Gron into the shadows of the wood.
For a while he could make neither head nor tail to the tangled spoor of the herd, but at last he found the
point where the herders evidently had collected their charges and driven them in a more or less compact
formation toward the opposite side of the forest. Nu went warily, keeping every sense alert against
surprise by savage beast or man. Every living thing that he might encounter could be nothing other than an
enemy. He stopped often, listening and sniffing the air. Twice he was compelled to take to the trees upon
the approach of wandering beasts of prey; but when they had passed on Nu descended and resumed his
trailing.
The trampled path of the herd led to the further edge of the forest, and there Nu saw unfolded below
him as beautiful a scene as had ever broken upon his vision. The western sun hung low over a broad
valley that stretched below him, for the wood ended upon the brow of a gentle slope that dropped
downward to a blue lake sparkling in the midst of green meadows a couple of miles away.
Upon the surface of the lake, apparently floating, were a score or more strange structures. That they
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were man-built Nu was certain, though he never had seen nor dreamed of their like. To himself he
thought of them as "caves," just as he had mentally described the shelters of the Boat Builders, for to Nu
any human habitation was a "cave," and that they were the dwellings of men he had no doubt since he
could see human figures passing back and forth along the narrow causeways that connected the thatched
structures with the shore of the lake. Across these long bridges they were driving aurochs, too, evidently
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