g on the ground and peering up
into the tree. At first I thought he was a wild animal, because he wore
around his waist and over his shoulders a ragged piece of bearskin. And
then I saw his hands and feet, and more clearly his features. He was
very much like my kind, except that he was less hairy and that his feet
were less like hands than ours. In fact, he and his people, as I was
later to know, were far less hairy than we, though we, in turn, were
equally less hairy than the Tree People.

It came to me instantly, as I looked at him. This was the terror of the
northeast, of which the mystery of smoke was a token. Yet I was puzzled.
Certainly he was nothing; of which to be afraid. Red-Eye or any of our
strong men would have been more than a match for him. He was old, too,
wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray. Also, he limped
badly with one leg. There was no doubt at all that we could out-run him
and out-climb him. He could never catch us, that was certain.

But he carried something in his hand that I had never seen before. It
was a bow and arrow. But at that time a bow and arrow had no meaning for
me. How was I to know that death lurked in that bent piece of wood?
But Lop-Ear knew. He had evidently seen the Fire People before and
knew something of their ways. The Fire-Man peered up at him and circled
around the tree. And around the main trunk above the fork Lop-Ear
circled too, keeping always the trunk between himself and the Fire-Man.

The latter abruptly reversed his circling. Lop-Ear, caught unawares,
also hastily reversed, but did not win the protection of the trunk until
after the Fire-Man had twanged the bow.

I saw the arrow leap up, miss Lop-Ear, glance against a limb, and fall
back to the ground. I danced up and down on my lofty perch with delight.
It was a game! The Fire-Man was throwing things at Lop-Ear as we
sometimes threw things at one another.

The game continued a little longer, but Lop-Ear did not expose himself
a second time. Then the Fire-Man gave it up. I leaned far out over my
horizontal limb and chattered down at him. I wanted to play. I wanted
to have him try to hit me with the thing. He saw me, but ignored me,
turning his attention to Broken-Tooth, who was still teetering slightly
and involuntarily on the end of the branch.

The first arrow leaped upward. Broken-Tooth yelled with fright and pain.
It had reached its mark. This put a new complexion on the matter. I no
longer c