ulate.

But when, after an hour's sullen tramping, they suddenly grew merry at
their task, and fell to marching with a child-like cheer under their
repulsive and groaning burden, he was surprised, and made inquiry as
to the reason for this sudden complaisance. It turned out that one of
the warriors, accounted more discerning than his fellows, had
suggested that the captive was to be nursed back to health in order
that he might be made an acceptable sacrifice to the Shining One. As
this notion seemed to meet with such hearty approval, the wise Chief
did not think it worth while to cast any doubt upon it. In fact, as he
thought, such a solution might very well arrive, in the end, in case
Grom's design should fail to come up to his expectations.

To the presence of the hideous and repulsive stranger in her dwelling,
A-ya, as was natural, raised warm objection. But when Grom had
explained his purpose to her, and the imminence of the peril that
threatened, she yielded readily enough, the dread of Mawg being yet
vivid in her imagination. She lent herself cheerfully to the duty of
caring for the captive's wounds and of helping Grom to teach him the
simple speech of the tribe.

As for the captive, for some days he was possessed by a morose
anticipation of being brained at any moment--an anticipation, however,
which did not seem to interfere with his appetite. He would clutch
eagerly all the food offered him, and crouch, huddled over it, with
his face to the rock-wall, while he devoured it with frantic haste and
bestial noises. But as he found himself treated with invariable
kindness, he began to develop an anxious gratitude and docility. On
A-ya's tall form his little round eyes, shy and fierce at the same
time, came to rest with an adoring awe. The smell of him being
extremely offensive to all this cleanly tribe, and especially to A-ya
and Grom, who were more fastidious than their fellows, A-ya had taken
advantage of her office as priestess of the Shining One to establish a
little fire within the precincts of her own dwelling, and by the
judicious use of aromatic barks upon the blaze she was able to scent
the place to her taste. And the Bow-leg, seeing her mastery of the
mysterious and dreadful scarlet tongues which licked upwards from the
hollow on their rocky pedestal, regarded her less as a woman than as a
goddess--a being who, for her own unknown reasons, chose to be
beneficent toward him, but who plainly could become d