fled back into the jungle,
clambering into the trees, and stabbing down, with angry shouts, at
the nearest of their assailants. But the assault was a blind one. The
buffalo, a black mass that seemed to foam with tossing horns and
rolling eyes, soon passed on to their unknown destination. And the
tribe, dropping down from the branches, quite cheerfully resumed its
march.

On the fifth day of the march they saw the jungle on their right come
to an end. It was succeeded by a vast expanse of shallow mere dotted
with half-drowned, rushy islets, and swarming with crocodiles. After
some hesitation, Grom decided to go on, though he was uneasy about
forsaking the refuge of the trees. Some leagues ahead, however, and a
little toward the left, he could see a low, thick-wooded hill, which
he thought might serve the tribe for a shelter. With many misgivings,
he led the way directly towards it, swerving out across the path of a
vast but straggling horde of sambur deer which seemed almost
exhausted.

To Grom's surprise these stately and beautiful animals showed neither
hostility nor fear toward human beings. According to all his previous
experience, the attitude of every beast toward man was one of fear or
fierce hate. These sambur, on the contrary, seemed rather to welcome
the companionship of the tribe, as if looking to it for some
protection against the strange pursuing peril. His sleepless sagacity
perceiving the value of this great escort as a buffer against the
contact of less kindly hordes, Grom gave strict orders that none of
these beasts should be molested. And the Cave Folk, not without
apprehension, found themselves traveling in the vanguard of an army of
tall, high-antlered beasts which stared at them with mild eyes of
inquiry and appeal.

Marching at their best speed, the Tribe kept easily in the van of the
distressed sambur, and more than once in the next few hours, Grom had
reason to congratulate himself upon his venture into this strange
fellowship. First, for instance, he saw a herd of black buffalo
overtake the sambur host and dash heavily into its rear ranks. The
frightened sambur closed up, instead of scattering, and the impetus of
the buffalo presently spent itself upon the unresisting mass. They
edged their way through to the left leaving swathes of gored and
trodden sambur in their wake, and went thundering off on another line
of retreat, caroming into a herd of aurochs, which fought them off and
punished t