out, and then came a regiment of
nettles barring the way. She turned aside, and then she came to a fallen
tree that she knew, with a noise of bees about it. And so presently she
was in sight of the knoll, very far off, and the river under it, and the
children and the hippopotami just as they had been yesterday, and the
thin spire of smoke swaying in the morning breeze. Far away by the
river was the cluster of alders where she had hidden. And at the sight
of that the fear of Uya returned, and she crept into a thicket of
bracken, out of which a rabbit scuttled, and lay awhile to watch the
squatting-place.

The men were mostly out of sight, saving Wau, the flint-chopper; and at
that she felt safer. They were away hunting food, no doubt. Some of the
women, too, were down in the stream, stooping intent, seeking mussels,
crayfish, and water-snails, and at the sight of their occupation Eudena
felt hungry. She rose, and ran through the fern, designing to join them.
As she went she heard a voice among the bracken calling softly. She
stopped. Then suddenly she heard a rustle behind her, and turning, saw
Ugh-lomi rising out of the fern. There were streaks of brown blood and
dirt on his face, and his eyes were fierce, and the white stone of Uya,
the white Fire Stone, that none but Uya dared to touch, was in his hand.
In a stride he was beside her, and gripped her arm. He swung her about,
and thrust her before him towards the woods. "Uya," he said, and waved
his arms about. She heard a cry, looked back, and saw all the women
standing up, and two wading out of the stream. Then came a nearer
howling, and the old woman with the beard, who watched the fire on the
knoll, was waving her arms, and Wau, the man who had been chipping the
flint, was getting to his feet. The little children too were hurrying
and shouting.

"Come!" said Ugh-lomi, and dragged her by the arm.

She still did not understand.

"Uya has called the death word," said Ugh-lomi, and she glanced back at
the screaming curve of figures, and understood.

Wau and all the women and children were coming towards them, a scattered
array of buff shock-headed figures, howling, leaping, and crying. Over
the knoll two youths hurried. Down among the ferns to the right came a
man, heading them off from the wood. Ugh-lomi left her arm, and the two
began running side by side, leaping the bracken and stepping clear and
wide. Eudena, knowing her fleetness and the fleetness of Ugh-lomi