ed closely, eager to speed more
arrows, but evidently the carnivora had taken temporary alarm and would
not come too near lest the flying death reach them again. Roka cut fresh
pieces from the buffalo and roasted them over one of the fires.

"Eat," he said to his comrades. "It is as wearing to watch and wait as
it is to march and fight. Eat, even if you are not hungry, that your
strength may be preserved."

Will, who at any other time would have found the meat of the bull too
tough before pounding, ate, and he ate, too, with an appetite, Roka and
Pehansan joining with vigor.

The odor of the cooking steak penetrated the darkness about them and
they heard the fierce growling of bears and the screaming of great cats.
Will was growing so much used to these terrible noises, he felt so much
confidence in their ring of fire that he laughed, and his laugh had a
light trace of mockery.

"Wouldn't they be glad to get at us?" he said, "and wouldn't they like
to sink their teeth in the giant bull here? Why, there's enough of him
to feed a whole gang of 'em!"

"But he'll feed our people down in the village," said Pehansan, who was
also in good spirits. "Still the wild beasts are coming nearer. It is
great luck that we have so much wood for the fires."

He and Will built the fires higher, while Roka sent two or three arrows
at the green or yellow eyes in the dark. The roars or fierce yells
showed that he had hit, and they heard the sound of heavy bodies being
threshed about in the dusk.

"We are not eaten but some of our enemies are," said Will. "It would be
a good plan, wouldn't it, to slay them whenever we can in order that
they may be food for one another?"

"It is wisely spoken," said Roka. "We will shoot whenever we see a
target, but we will never neglect the fires because they are more
important even than the arrows."

All through that dark, primordial night, in which they were carried
back, in effect, at least ten thousand years, they never relaxed the
watch for a moment. Now and then they sent arrows into the dusk,
sometimes missing and sometimes hitting, and the growling of the bears
and wolves and the screaming of the great cats was almost continuous.
The darkness seemed eternal, but at length, with infinite joy, they saw
the first pale streak of dawn over the eastern mountains.

"Now the fierce animals will withdraw farther into the forest," said
Roka. "Beyond the reach of our arrows they will be, but they wil