conquered the fire and never invoked it again, had not the
supply of stones in the vicinity given out, or those he had used grown
too hot to handle; for he stayed the advancing flame at one side. But
the other side was creeping on, and he used dry branches, dropping to
his hands and knees to pound the fire, fighting bravely, crying out
with pain as he burned himself, and forced to drop stick after stick
which caught fire. Soon it grew too hot to remain near, and he stood
off and launched fuel at it, which resulted in a fair-sized bonfire;
then, in desperation and fear, he hurled the dead pig--the cause of the
trouble--at the terrible monster, and fled.

Looking back through the trees to see if he was pursued, he noticed
that the strange enemy had taken new shape and color; it was reaching
up into the air, black and cloud-like. Frightened, tired mentally and
physically, and suffering keenly from his burns, he turned his back on
the half-solved problem and endeavored to satisfy his hunger. But he
was on strange territory and found little of his accustomed food; the
chafing and abrading contact of bushes and twigs irritated his sore
spots, preventing investigation and rapid progress, and at the end of
three hours, still hungry, and exasperated by his torment into a
reckless, fighting mood, he picked up stones and returned savagely to
battle again with the enemy. But the enemy was dead. The grass had
burned to where it met dry earth, and the central fire was now a
black-and-white pile of still warm ashes, on which lay the charred and
denuded pig, giving forth a savory odor. Cautiously approaching, he
studied the situation, then, yielding to an irresistible impulse,
seized the pig and ran through the woods to the wall and down to his
cave.

Two hours later he was writhing on the ground with a violent
stomach-ache. It was forty-eight hours after when he ate again, and
then of his old food--nuts and berries. But the craving returned in a
week, and he again killed a pig, but was compelled to forego eating it
for lack of fire.

Though he had discovered fire and cooked food, his only conception of
the process, so far, was that the mysterious enemy was too powerful for
him to kill, that it would eat sticks and grass but did not like
stones, and that a dead pig could kill it, and in the conflict be made
eatable. It was only after months of playing with flints and sparks
that he recognized the part borne by dry grass or moss, an