CHAPTER XXV
As the huge form of the chieftain crashed to earth, Ru leaped warily to the farther side of the cave, half expecting Grumgra to rise and return to the attack. But Grumgra did not rise; the great sprawled shape lay stiff and motionless where it had fallen. And as the terrible slow seconds dragged by, there came to the two watchers an appalling realization of what had happened.
"He is dead!" muttered Ru, under his breath.
With spylike caution, he stole over to the prostrate figure, and prodded it with the tip of an arrow. Still Grumgra did not stir. Nor did he make response when Wuff, waxing bold again, came sniffing near with low, contented growls. A slow stream of blood was trickling from beneath his outstretched body—but there was no sign of life.
"He is dead!" Yonyo repeated after Ru, in incredulous tones. And, like one walking in a dream, she slipped across the cave to the smitten chieftain, stood hesitating an instant, then reached down her hand, and timidly touched the shaggy form.
As she did so, a piercing scream burst from her lips. "He is dead, dead!" she cried, as though the knowledge had now come to her for the first time. "Grumgra is dead! The Growling Wolf is dead!"
Then something like an hysterical sobbing racked her frame. "The Growling Wolf is dead, is dead!" she kept repeating, in tones of passionate relief, as if only repetition could lend truth to the incredible words. "Ru has killed the Growling Wolf!"
And, like one in need of every assurance her senses could give her, she reached down once more to touch the lifeless shape. Newly convinced, she seemed filled with a sudden fresh energy. Before Ru could stop her or even understand what she was about, she had gone dashing around the turn in the gallery and through the dark passageway toward the cave entrance.
"My people! My people!" her maddened voice shrilled. "Ru has killed Grumgra! Ru has killed Grumgra!" And again and again her words rang out, fainter and fainter as she recklessly retreated; again and again, and fainter and fainter still, until the cries came back thin and eery amid a chorus of echoes: "Ru has killed Grumgra! He has killed the Growling Wolf, has killed the Growling Wolf!"
After the sound of her calling had died away, Ru stood regarding the corpse of his foe with the startled air of one who has just seen a tree blasted by lightning. "I do not know how I did it. I do not know how," he kept muttering to himself. Reaching down and prodding the body of the fallen leader, he mumbled over and over again: "He is dead! He is dead! He will never strike me now! He will never take Yonyo!"
Then, as by degrees his bewilderment cleared away, there rose in his heart a great joy, a pride in what he had done, mingled with a contempt for the stricken man.
"Grumgra, you were not so strong, after all!" he murmured. "You were not so strong, O Growling Wolf!"
To lend his words emphasis, he picked up Grumgra's club, and violently pounded the unresponsive mass of flesh and bones that had been the chieftain.
Having thus expressed his feelings, he began to pace gleefully about the cavern, gripping the club—though it was far too heavy for him to swing with ease—and repeating to himself: "I am Grumgra now! I am Grumgra!"
It was while he was thus occupied that his attention was caught by a din of excited voices, a confused din borne to him far down the dark galleries. Not at all apprehensive, he paused to listen; rapidly that tumult of voices grew louder, until he thought he could recognize the shrill tones of Yonyo. A moment passed; then Yonyo herself, still wildly agitated, came dashing into view, with a shouting rabble at her heels.
"See! There he is!" she exclaimed, jubilantly. "There he is! I told you! I told you, and you would not believe me! See! Ru has killed Grumgra!"
And triumphantly she pointed to the lifeless body of the chieftain.
"Ru has killed Grumgra!" echoed the awestricken people. And, howling and gibbering, the dusky scores pressed close to view. Directly before the body of the slain one they paused, staring and gaping in horror; then, almost instantly, their amazement and dismay were drowned out by a low ripple of delight. And the uproar of the people was like that of a band of children at some incredible show. Some, to assure themselves that the chieftain was really dead, poked sharp sticks into his neck and back; others gently kicked or pummeled him or pulled at his hair; one, bolder than the rest, lifted the huge form onto its side, until a broken, bloody shaft was observed projecting from between the ribs.
"Ru the Sparrow-Hearted has killed Grumgra! Ru the Sparrow-Hearted has killed Grumgra!" Yonyo kept repeating, as though she could never tire of announcing the marvelous news.
"Ru the Eagle-Hearted!" corrected the slayer.
"Ru the Eagle-Hearted!" the people duly acknowledged, staring at him with a reverential wonder.
"How did Ru the Eagle-Hearted kill Grumgra? How did he kill Grumgra?" came a clamor of inquiries, once the people were convinced of the glorious truth. "He is not a big man! But Grumgra was so strong he could choke a wolf to death!"
"Ru killed Grumgra with his wonder stick!" announced Yonyo, eager to plead the cause of her hero. "He made the stick himself—the gods showed him how. It is stronger than a big club—and Ru can throw it so hard it will hit like lightning."
"He can throw it so hard it will hit like lightning!" repeated the thunderstruck people in chorus, while they began to edge fearfully away from Ru.
"Grumgra was going to kill him, but Ru was not afraid," Yonyo explained, enthusiastically. "He would not be afraid of a whole caveful of Grumgras. He just took his wonder stick, and threw it hard at Grumgra. And Grumgra fell down—and he was dead!"
"Grumgra fell down—and he was dead!" echoed the mob, unable to find any other words to voice their amazement.
"See how I use my wonder stick!" illustrated Ru. And before anyone realized what he intended, he had slipped an arrow into his bow and sent it crashing against the cave wall.
"The wonder stick is bewitched!" cried one of the people, aghast at this exhibition. And tremblingly he flung himself down before Ru. "O Eagle-Hearted," he begged, "do not hit me with your wonder stick!"
As though on an electrical impulse, the others all followed his example. "O Eagle-Hearted, do not hit us with your wonder stick!" sobbed and resounded through the cavern in a piteous chorus, while scores of shadowy figures groveled before Ru.
"I will not hit you with my wonder stick!" promised the Eagle-Hearted. "Only those who do bad things will be hit by the stick—as Grumgra has been hit. The others will be spared."
But seeing that the people continued to grovel on the cave floor with mumbled entreaties, Ru hastened to add: "The gods did not give me the wonder stick to use against my own tribe—not unless my tribe does evil things. The gods gave me the wonder stick to drive away the beast-men. The wonder stick will kill them all!"
"The wonder stick will kill them all!" chorused the marveling people.
Then, observing the reassuring smile in Ru's face, they rose one by one to their feet, while murmuring hopefully: "The Eagle-Hearted will kill the beast-men! He will save us from our foes!"
Five or six hours later, the body of the chieftain was borne to its final rest. In a dark, secluded corner of the cave, not many yards from the scene of the fatal encounter, a little hollow had been hastily scooped out with flint shovels and cleavers; and hither Grumgra's bulky frame was carried on the shoulders of three tribesmen. At his side, according to the age-old custom of the Umbaddu, his club was conveniently placed, along with a variety of flint implements and a handful of fruits and nuts; while his wolfskin robe was wrapped about him, and the circlet of wolf's fangs fastened about his head. Then, convinced that their chieftain would be equipped with everything necessary when the great wind-spirit came to take him away, the people began to pile earth and stones high above the recumbent form.
Owing to the absence of Zunzun the Marvel-Worker, there was none to lead in the prayers; yet a multitude of voices began to pray simultaneously in a babbling confusion, and each in his own way invoked the gods of the cave, the fire, and the air. Loud and ever louder they clamored, each striving to drown out the voice of his neighbor, until the uproar became like a tumult of madmen. But clearly over all, in a wailing crescendo before which the other voices stopped as if abashed, there rang forth the sobs and lamentations of a woman. And more than one man turned to his companions, and murmured: "It is Mog the Long-Faced! It is Grumgra's first woman!"
Long and bitterly Mog cried out, while beating furiously with her fists against the rocks that were piling up upon the chieftain's vanishing form.
And while she screamed and wept, and the familiar, dreaded figure disappeared beneath the heap of stones, a tardy regret seemed to awaken in the minds of the people. It was as if they now realized for the first time that Grumgra was no longer with them—and as if they found the thought too terrible to endure. "What are we to do now?" they moaned, after the sobs of Mog had begun to die down and they had caught their last glimpse of the black hair of the slain one. "What are we to do now? Who is to be our leader? Who is to tell us what to do? Who is to say when we shall go out on the hunt, and how we shall build our fires, and how we shall share our food? Who is to watch over us and care for us in Grumgra's place? Who? Who? Who?"
"Who but Ru the Eagle-Hearted?" came the eager voice of Yonyo. "Who but him with his wonder stick?"
"Ru the Eagle-Hearted will watch over us!" cried a chorus of voices, responsive to the suggestion. "He will be our leader! He will guide us with his wonder stick!"
And since there was no one to venture a word in dissent, Grumgra's successor had apparently been chosen.
It was not long before Ru commenced to exercise the powers of his newly won office. The last stone was barely in place on the grave of Grumgra when he began to assert himself. Striding to the center of the gathering while his people withdrew awestricken before him, he proclaimed: "The Growling Wolf is dead now—so let us forget him. We have a great and terrible work to do! We must make ready to fight the beast-men!"
Here he paused a second, while regarding his tribesmen speculatively. In a moment his eyes fell with a twinkle upon a certain two, and he continued: "Before we go down to drive the beast-men away, we must be sure they cannot come up here to fight us in our cave. Kuff the Bear-Hunter and Woonoo the Hot-Blooded, you go out on the rock in front of the cave and watch to see that the beast-men do not come. And stay there till I tell you to come in."
Kuff the Bear-Hunter and Woonoo the Hot-Blooded muttered, but did not move.
"Go!" commanded Ru, starting with an imperious gesture toward his former rivals. And menacingly he lifted his bow. "Shall I hit you with my wonder stick?"
"No! No!" protested Kuff and Woonoo, shrinking back as far as the walls would permit. But Ru still strode toward them threateningly; and in another moment they had swung about and fled toward the cave entrance.
"Bru the Scowling-Faced, go and see that they do as I told them!" Ru ordered.
As Bru sullenly left, Ru turned to his people, and announced: "I have only one wonder stick now, but the gods will show me how to make more. First I must say some prayers before the gods, and none of you must listen, for the gods would grow angry and strike you down. But after I have made the wonder sticks, I will show you how to use them, so that you may help me kill the beast-men. Who would like to help?"
For a moment Ru waited. Each man eyed his neighbors fearfully, but no one replied.
"The gods will not let you all help," Ru stated, as though taking their willingness for granted. "Zuno the Wily Fox, you may help; and Kori the Running Deer; and Blab the Big Voice—" And Ru continued until he had named ten of the ablest and most easily managed of his tribesmen.
Several did, indeed, mutter audibly in protest, and one or two even ventured a gesture of defiance; but those who had not been named prodded on the chosen ones; and a few threatening motions with the flint-headed arrows sufficed to silence even the most fractious.