saw the sinews grasp and
tighten.

* * *

Not until the sun was low, at valley's Far End, did he dare reach out
and take his shaft and put it to test. But already he knew! The stone
held, and it held, and would continue to hold after many tries. He had
fashioned a thing and it was wondrous--his own sole possession--a weapon
beyond anything the valley-people had dreamed of--and it was his alone.

A stirring of vague alarm made him pause. He growled deep. The
thing-that-prodded churned in a new way, a cunning way, and once again
Gral was prototype. This thing must be kept secret! Not yet would he
share--not until he became known as Gral-the-Bringer!

_... he could not have known. Could not have known that this thing he
wrought spelled at once Beginning and End: that no such shocking
departure remains long sole-possessed, either shaft or fire or
mushroom-shape: that with each great thing of man's devising comes
question and doubt and challenge and often disaster...._

Or knowing, would not have cared.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

So now he was known as Gral-the-Bringer! He went alone each day, taking
throw-stones which he discarded in favor of his new weapon from its
place of hiding. He brought the wild-dogs for a time, but soon he
disdained them. Three times more he brought Obe the Great Bear, but
would not demonstrate his method of kill. Sometimes he scaled the
valley-rim to the great plain, where he slew the three-toed horses whose
flesh was sweet and different.

And each time at the gorging Otah watched him--watched sometimes sullen
and brooding, sometimes with secret knowing.

And then came a day when _Otah_ brought Obe the Bear. Three times in as
many days he brought Obe, and on the third time he brought back also the
shaft-with-stone, bearing it boldly to make sure that Gral and all the
others saw.

With half snarl and half wail, Gral leaped to seize it. Otah might have
crushed him with a blow, but Otah waited, looking at him fully. Gral's
snarl died in his throat. This was not the weapon he had hidden, but
another! Otah had found and copied.

"See this!" Otah grunted. "I slew Obe with this!" And he demonstrated to
all the tribe. He was still angry, facing Gral, but he gave credit.
"_Gral_ used it first. Gral is greatest among us! But if Gral can use,
Otah can use--we will all use!"

He turned to Gor-wah the Old One, and said in the language of
monos