id the rest, as Gral watched in despair; soon there was only
soft melting mud and a gnarled stick that would never slay again.

For a long time Gral crouched there, trying to understand. Dimly he
perceived, but his mind would not reach. He scowled angrily and flung
the useless stick away. There was a thing inside him he did not like, a
strange new thing that gnawed and nagged and brought anger again.

It was anger at being robbed of a priceless thing--but the gnawing went
deeper.

Wearily, he rose. He began his trek back to the great ledge, to make
announcement that his bring this day would be Obe.

* * * * *

Otah came, and Lak and one other, and together they brought Obe back. No
one made remark on the slaying; it was enough that Obe was here! And
when Gral came forward at the gorging to take the bringer's share, he
merely took and retired, disdaining the great show of prowess and
exaggeration which the others used to demonstrate their kill. But he saw
that Gor-wah, the Old One, was pleased. Even Otah the Thrower-of-Stones
looked at him with envy; it was not often they had Obe the Great Bear;
only twice before had it happened, and both times it was Otah who
brought.

Gral gorged voluptuously that night. This too was new to his experience,
and this he liked. But newer still was the thing he did not like, the
thing that continued to gnaw and nag and would not let him sleep.

And next morning, with the valley still gray and murky before the dawn
and damp with bitter cold, Gral was gone in advance of the others. He
clambered down to the river and there he pursued his way--far along
toward the place where it widened into shallows. No thought of bringing
today! Instead he searched. He searched the rocky shallows as the sun
came shafting, and he was still searching later as it climbed high.

He found the place at last, where the stones were plentiful and of
proper size. There he paused; the thing was still angry and prodding
within him; Gral could not have known that this "thing-that-prodded" was
not anger but a churning impatience, a burning nameless need--that he
was in very truth a prototype, the first in the realm of pure research!

But he applied it, knowing remotely what he must do. It was long; it was
irksome; he ached all through with the effort but still he persisted.
Until at last, from all the stones in the shallows, he had gathered a
dozen that pleased him.

These he seiz