and that was to get
away, though we could not forbear humoring our curiosity by peeping out
upon the village. For the first time we saw the women and children of
the Fire People. The latter ran for the most part naked, though the
former wore skins of wild animals.

The Fire People, like ourselves, lived in caves. The open space in front
of the caves sloped down to the river, and in the open space burned many
small fires. But whether or not the Fire People cooked their food, I do
not know. Lop-Ear and I did not see them cook. Yet it is my opinion that
they surely must have performed some sort of rude cookery. Like us, they
carried water in gourds from the river. There was much coming and going,
and loud cries made by the women and children. The latter played about
and cut up antics quite in the same way as did the children of the Folk,
and they more nearly resembled the children of the Folk than did the
grown Fire People resemble the grown Folk.

Lop-Ear and I did not linger long. We saw some of the part-grown boys
shooting with bow and arrow, and we sneaked back into the thicker forest
and made our way to the river. And there we found a catamaran, a real
catamaran, one evidently made by some Fire-Man. The two logs were small
and straight, and were lashed together by means of tough roots and
crosspieces of wood.

This time the idea occurred simultaneously to us. We were trying to
escape out of the Fire People's territory. What better way than by
crossing the river on these logs? We climbed on board and shoved off. A
sudden something gripped the catamaran and flung it downstream violently
against the bank. The abrupt stoppage almost whipped us off into the
water. The catamaran was tied to a tree by a rope of twisted roots. This
we untied before shoving off again.

By the time we had paddled well out into the current, we had drifted
so far downstream that we were in full view of the Fire People's
abiding-place. So occupied were we with our paddling, our eyes fixed
upon the other bank, that we knew nothing until aroused by a yell from
the shore. We looked around. There were the Fire People, many of them,
looking at us and pointing at us, and more were crawling out of the
caves. We sat up to watch, and forgot all about paddling. There was a
great hullabaloo on the shore. Some of the Fire-Men discharged their
bows at us, and a few of the arrows fell near us, but the range was too
great.

It was a great day for Lop-Ear