mptuous chief. Those on the ground
scrambled eagerly to their feet, and with shrill, bestial yells the
whole horde charged up the slope.

As the leaping and hideous forms approached the top the pent-up fury
of the Hillmen, in spite of all the Chief could do, broke loose, and
with a roar the foremost ranks bounded forth to meet them. At the
first crash of contact the enemy were crushed back, the stone-headed
clubs and flint-tipped spears working havoc in the reeking masses.
But, as the Chief had foreseen it would be, that forward rush was a
mistake, exposing the flanks; and sheer weight of numbers presently
forced the Hillmen back till their front was once more level with the
jaws of the pass. Here, however, with their flanks protected, they
were solid as a wall of granite.

Upon this narrow wall the yelling wave of the attack surged and
recoiled, and surged again, and made no impression. The clumsy weapons
of the enemy were no match for the pounding swing of the stone clubs,
the long, lightning thrust of the flint-headed spears. But the
Bow-legs, their little pig-eyes red with lust for their prey, fought
with a sort of frenzy, diving in headlong and clutching at the legs of
the Hillmen with their ape-like, sinewy arms, dragging them down and
tearing then with crooked, clawlike fingers.

Many of the Hillmen, and some women died in this way. But no woman was
dragged away alive; for if this fate threatened her, and rescue was
impossible, she was instantly speared from her own ranks to save her
from a fate which would have dishonored the tribe. And the women
indeed, in this battle were no less formidable than the men
themselves, for they fought with the swift venom of the she-wolf, the
cunning fury of the mad heifer, intuitive and implacable. Their
instincts of motherhood, the safeguard of the future, made them loathe
with a blind, unspeakable hate these filthy and bestial males who
threatened to father their children.

The center of the Hillmen's front was securely held by the great
Chief, whose massive club, wielded with the art acquired in many
battles, kept a space cleared before him across which no foe could
pass alive. As his followers went down on either side, others from the
ranks behind stepped eagerly into the gaps. At the extreme left, where
the walls of the pass, lower and less abrupt than on the right,
invited an attack as fierce as that upon the center, the defense was
led by a warrior named Grom, who see