lso, they had me at a disadvantage, and, what
of the scratching and hair-pulling I received, I was glad to retreat. I
slept that night, and for many nights, in the connecting passage of the
double-cave. From my experience it seemed reasonably safe. As the two
Folk had dodged old Saber-Tooth, and as I had dodged Red-Eye, so it
seemed to me that I could dodge the hunting animals by going back and
forth between the two caves.

I had forgotten the wild dogs. They were small enough to go through any
passage that I could squeeze through. One night they nosed me out. Had
they entered both caves at the same time they would have got me. As
it was, followed by some of them through the passage, I dashed out the
mouth of the other cave. Outside were the rest of the wild dogs. They
sprang for me as I sprang for the cliff-wall and began to climb. One
of them, a lean and hungry brute, caught me in mid-leap. His teeth sank
into my thigh-muscles, and he nearly dragged me back. He held on, but I
made no effort to dislodge him, devoting my whole effort to climbing out
of reach of the rest of the brutes.

Not until I was safe from them did I turn my attention to that live
agony on my thigh. And then, a dozen feet above the snapping pack that
leaped and scrambled against the wall and fell back, I got the dog by
the throat and slowly throttled him. I was a long time doing it. He
clawed and ripped my hair and hide with his hind-paws, and ever he
jerked and lunged with his weight to drag me from the wall.

At last his teeth opened and released my torn flesh. I carried his body
up the cliff with me, and perched out the night in the entrance of my
old cave, wherein were Lop-Ear and my sister. But first I had to endure
a storm of abuse from the aroused horde for being the cause of the
disturbance. I had my revenge. From time to time, as the noise of
the pack below eased down, I dropped a rock and started it up again.
Whereupon, from all around, the abuse of the exasperated Folk began
afresh. In the morning I shared the dog with Lop-Ear and his wife,
and for several days the three of us were neither vegetarians nor
fruitarians.

Lop-Ear's marriage was not a happy one, and the consolation about it is
that it did not last very long. Neither he nor I was happy during that
period. I was lonely. I suffered the inconvenience of being cast out of
my safe little cave, and somehow I did not make it up with any other of
the young males. I suppose my lon