3
They had been walking, now, for five years. Kalvar Dard still led, theheavy rifle cradled in the crook of his left arm and a sack of bombsslung from his shoulder, his eyes forever shifting to right and leftsearching for hidden danger. The clothes in which he had jumped from therocket-boat were patched and ragged; his shoes had been replaced by highlaced buskins of smoke-tanned hide. He was bearded, now, and his hairhad been roughly trimmed with the edge of his dagger.
Analea still walked beside him, but her carbine was slung, and shecarried three spears with chipped flint heads; one heavy weapon, to bethrown by hand or used for stabbing, and two light javelins to be thrownwith the aid of the hooked throwing-stick Glav had invented. Beside hertrudged a four-year old boy, hers and Dard's, and on her back, in afur-lined net bag, she carried their six-month-old baby.
In the rear, Glav still kept his place with the other big-game gun, andOlva walked beside him with carbine and spears; in front of them, theirthree-year-old daughter toddled. Between vanguard and rearguard, therest of the party walked: Varnis, carrying her baby on her back, andDorita, carrying a baby and leading two other children. The baby on herback had cost the life of Kyna in childbirth; one of the others had beenleft motherless when Eldra had been killed by the Hairy People.
* * * * *
That had been two years ago, in the winter when they had used one oftheir two demolition-bombs to blast open a cavern in the mountains. Ithad been a hard winter; two children had died, then--Kyna's firstborn,and the little son of Kalvar Dard and Dorita. It had been their firstencounter with the Hairy People, too.
Eldra had gone outside the cave with one of the skin water-bags, to fillit at the spring. It had been after sunset, but she had carried herpistol, and no one had thought of danger until they heard the two quickshots, and the scream. They had all rushed out, to find four shaggy,manlike things tearing at Eldra with hands and teeth, another lyingdead, and a sixth huddled at one side, clutching its abdomen andwhimpering. There had been a quick flurry of shots that had felled allfour of the assailants, and Seldar Glav had finished the woundedcreature with his dagger, but Eldra was dead. They had built a cairn ofstones over her body, as they had done over the bodies of the twochildren killed by the cold. But, after an examination to see what sortof things they were, they had tumbled the bodies of the Hairy Peopleover the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted humandead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game.
Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and whenthey met with them, they killed them without mercy. These were greatshambling parodies of humanity, long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavyas men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy bone-crushing jaws. Theymay have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts on the verythreshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on thisplanet, Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million orso years, they might evolve into something like humanity. Already, theHairy ones had learned the use of fire, and of chipped crude stoneimplements--mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in the hand,without helves.
Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them--once whilethey were on the march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beatenoff without loss to themselves, but at cost of precious ammunition. Oncethey had caught a band of ten of them swimming a river on logs; they hadpicked them all off from the bank with their carbines. Once, when KalvarDard and Analea had been scouting alone, they had come upon a dozen ofthem huddled around a fire and had wiped them out with a single grenade.Once, a large band of Hairy People hunted them for two days, but onlytwice had they come close, and both times, a single shot had sent themall scampering. That had been after the bombing of the group around thefire. Dard was convinced that the beings possessed the rudiments of alanguage, enough to communicate a few simple ideas, such as the factthat this little tribe of aliens were dangerous in the extreme.
* * * * *
There were Hairy People about now; for the past five days, movingnorthward through the forest to the open grasslands, the people ofKalvar Dard had found traces of them. Now, as they came out among theseedling growth at the edge of the open plains, everybody was on thealert.
They emerged from the big trees and stopped among the young growth,looking out into the open country. About a mile away, a herd of game wasgrazing slowly westward. In the distance, they looked like the littlehorse-like things, no higher than a man's waist and heavily maned andbearded, that had been one of their most important sources of meat. Forthe ten thousandth time, Dard wished, as he strained his eyes, thatsomebody had thought to secure a pair of binoculars when they hadabandoned the rocket-boat. He studied the grazing herd for a long time.
The seedling pines extended almost to the game-herd and would offerconcealment for the approach, but the animals were grazing into thewind, and their scent was much keener than their vision. This wouldpreclude one of their favorite hunting techniques, that of lurking in thehigh grass ahead of the quarry. It had rained heavily in the past fewdays, and the undermat of dead grass was soaked, making a fire-huntimpossible. Kalvar Dard knew that he could stalk to within easycarbine-shot, but he was unwilling to use cartridges on game; and inview of the proximity of Hairy People, he did not want to divide hisband for a drive hunt.
"What's the scheme?" Analea asked him, realizing the problem as well ashe did. "Do we try to take them from behind?"
"We'll take them from an angle," he decided. "We'll start from here andwork in, closing on them at the rear of the herd. Unless the wind shiftson us, we ought to get within spear-cast. You and I will use the spears;Varnis can come along and cover for us with a carbine. Glav, you andOlva and Dorita stay here with the children and the packs. Keep a sharplookout; Hairy People around, somewhere." He unslung his rifle andexchanged it for Olva's spears. "We can only eat about two of thembefore the meat begins to spoil, but kill all you can," he told Analea;"we need the skins."
Then he and the two girls began their slow, cautious, stalk. As long asthe grassland was dotted with young trees, they walked upright, makinggood time, but the last five hundred yards they had to crawl, stoppingoften to check the wind, while the horse-herd drifted slowly by. Thenthey were directly behind the herd, with the wind in their faces, andthey advanced more rapidly.
"Close enough?" Dard whispered to Analea.
"Yes; I'm taking the one that's lagging a little behind."
"I'm taking the one on the left of it." Kalvar Dard fitted a javelin tothe hook of his throwing-stick. "Ready? Now!"
He leaped to his feet, drawing back his right arm and hurling, thethrowing-stick giving added velocity to the spear. Beside him, he wasconscious of Analea rising and propelling her spear. His missile caughtthe little bearded pony in the chest; it stumbled and fell forward toits front knees. He snatched another light spear, set it on the hook ofthe stick and darted it at another horse, which reared, biting at thespear with its teeth. Grabbing the heavy stabbing-spear, he ran forward,finishing it off with a heart-thrust. As he did, Varnis slung hercarbine, snatched a stone-headed throwing axe from her belt, and knockeddown another horse, then ran forward with her dagger to finish it.
By this time, the herd, alarmed, had stampeded and was galloping away,leaving the dead and dying behind. He and Analea had each killed two;with the one Varnis had knocked down, that made five. Using his dagger,he finished off one that was still kicking on the ground, and then beganpulling out the throwing-spears. The girls, shouting in unison, wereannouncing the successful completion of the hunt; Glav, Olva, and Doritawere coming forward with the children.
* * * * *
It was sunset by the time they had finished the work of skinning andcutting up the horses and had carried the hide-wrapped bundles of meatto the little brook where they had intended camping. There was firewoodto be gathered, and the meal to be cooked, and they were all tired.
"We can't do th
is very often, any more," Kalvar Dard told them, "but wemight as well, tonight. Don't bother rubbing sticks for fire; I'll usethe lighter."
He got it from a pouch on his belt--a small, gold-plated, atomiclighter, bearing the crest of his old regiment of the Frontier Guards.It was the last one they had, in working order. Piling a handful of drysplinters under the firewood, he held the lighter to it, pressed theactivator, and watched the fire eat into the wood.
The greatest achievement of man's civilization, the mastery of thebasic, cosmic, power of the atom--being used to kindle a fire of naturalfuel, to cook unseasoned meat killed with stone-tipped spears. Dardlooked sadly at the twinkling little gadget, then slipped it back intoits pouch. Soon it would be worn out, like the other two, and then theywould gain fire only by rubbing dry sticks, or hacking sparks from bitsof flint or pyrites. Soon, too, the last cartridge would be fired, andthen they would perforce depend for protection, as they were alreadydoing for food, upon their spears.
And they were so helpless. Six adults, burdened with seven littlechildren, all of them requiring momently care and watchfulness. If thecartridges could be made to last until they were old enough to fend forthemselves.... If they could avoid collisions with the Hairy People....Some day, they would be numerous enough for effective mutual protectionand support; some day, the ratio of helpless children to able adultswould redress itself. Until then, all that they could do would be tosurvive; day after day, they must follow the game-herds.