d concealed. Only Pandor, the elephant, neglected to
give the Hairy Men a wide berth when several were together--Pandor, who
feared no creature that walked or flew or wriggled.

The shaggy-coated males moved steadily ahead, their objective a group of
low mountains far to the east, the upper portions of which were clearly
discernible on the few occasions the band crossed a clearing of any
consequence.

At noon they halted on the reed-covered banks of a shallow river; and
while Urb and Tolb hunted game, the others rested beneath the broad
boughs of a jungle patriarch.

Soon the two hunters returned, bearing between them the still warm
carcass of Muta, the wild boar. Each of the six hacked off a juicy
portion and devoured it raw, blood matting the hair of face and chest.

After drinking at the river's brink, the brute-men stretched out beneath
the trees, covered their faces with huge fronds of a palm tree and slept
until mid-afternoon. Urb roused them, then, and once more the savage
band took up their march.

Darkness was near when the six passed through a fringe of jungle and
paused at the foot of a lofty cliff. Urb, deciding too little daylight
remained for them to attempt scaling the vertical slope, ordered the
Neanderthals back into the forest.

Here they supped on flesh of the boar killed earlier in the day, then
sought couches among the tree branches. During daylight it was all very
well to sleep in comfort on the jungle floor; but during the night it
was safer aloft. The great cats usually laid up during the day,
digesting the previous night's kill; but once Uda, the moon, made an
appearance, the forest abounded with hungry carnivora.

* * * * *

With the first rays of the morning sun the six men began the perilous
climb. Slow-moving and awkward, they made hard going of the ascent, but
their tremendous strength aided them where lesser muscles would have
failed altogether, and finally the crest was reached.

Here they stood at the edge of a great tableland, clothed with primeval
forest from which, in the distance, loomed four low mountain peaks.
Game seemed plentiful; as they watched, a herd of antelope grazing to
their left caught their scent and bounded away across a narrow ribbon of
grassland which lay between the forest and the plateau's edge. A band of
monkeys chattered and scolded at them from the safety of middle
terraces, while a cloud of raucous-voiced birds rose with