t
dust in their hair in utter abasement, if either Grom or the Chief so
much as looked at them.

Soon after sunrise the next day, the Chief and Grom, bearing lighted
brands, and followed close by A-ya with a bundle of dry faggots, twigs
and grass, took possession of two great caves on the southward-facing
slope of the valley. The giant bears which occupied one of them fled
ignominiously at the first threat of the flames, having been scorched
and thoroughly cowed by the conflagration of the previous night. The
other cave had been already vacated by the hyena pack, which had no
stomach to face these throwers of flame. Before the mouth of each
cave, at a safe distance, a fire was lighted--a notice to all the
beasts that their rule was at an end. The whole tribe was set to the
gathering of a great store of fuel, which was heaped about the mouths
of the caves as a shield against the weather. Then the people began to
settle themselves in their new home, secure in the faith that not even
the hordes of the Bow-legs, should they chance that way, would have
the temerity to face their new and terrible protector.

When all was ordered to his satisfaction, the Chief called Grom to his
side. The two stood apart, and watched the tall figure of A-ya moving
from the one fire to the other, and tending them reverently, as one
performing a rite. Grom's eyes took on a certain illumination at the
sight of her, a look which the Chief had never observed in any man's
eyes before. But he thought little of it, for his mind was full of
other matters.

"It is well," said he presently, in a low voice, "that the service and
understanding of the Bright One should not be allowed to the people,
but should be kept strictly to ourselves, and to those whom we shall
choose to initiate. I shall appoint the two best men of my own kin,
and two others whom you shall select, as servants of the Bright One.
And I will make a law that the people shall henceforth worship only
the Bright One, instead of, as heretofore, the Thunder, and the Wind,
and the unknown Spirits, which, after all, as far as I can see, have
never been able to do much either for or against us. But this Bright
One is a real god, such as we can be sure of. And you and I shall be
his priests. And only we shall be allowed to understand him."

"That is good," agreed Grom, whose brain was busy devising other ways
of making the wild flames serviceable to man. "But," he went on,
"there is A-ya. She