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A narrow stream wandered out of the mouth of the valley. Along its sides were unusually heavy growths of vegetation, though none were over six feet high. Gribardsun saw the vegetation moving. Occasionally Thrimk's head would appear. Then he saw the brown tip of a horn plowing through the little trees. He repressed a shout. A moment later he heard the sudden thudding of heavy feet and the thrashing of little trees bending and breaking under the onslaught of a huge body.
Thrimk should have gone in far more cautiously, and he should have tried to lure the behemoths out into the open. But he must have been overconfident because of his dream. And he also probably wanted to impress the tribesmen with his bravery. Whatever his reasons, he had made a fatal mistake.
Thrimk yelled, there was a very loud thud, and the youth's body went sailing through the air while a tall horn followed it and then the shorter horn appeared and then the head of the rhinoceros as the beast completed the upward toss.
Both beast and man disappeared, but the vegetation waved and shook as the beast turned and charged again.
The hunters were setting up loud cries by now. They ran up to the edge of the vegetation and poked their spears into it and shouted. Gribardsun looked up at von Billma
The German, however, saw him and waved at him. Then he gestured into the valley and held up seven fingers. Seven rhinos.
Presently the vegetation thrashed and bent and cracked again, and a great woolly rhinoceros burst out. He was larger than any the group had yet seen, and his hide was covered with brownish, tightly coiled hair like rather sparse sheep's wool.
He stopped after he broke the greenery, snuffed, and then trotted back and forth, his head lifted high.
A female and her baby broke out of the woods and then another male and female and a baby and a half-grown female.
The first beast had blood upon his horn and on his hoofs.
Kaemgron yelled and ran forward and then cast his spear. It struck the huge male on the shoulder, and the tip of reindeer antler penetrated about two inches. The atlatl had given the spear considerable force.
At that the rhino, which had not been able to make up its mind which way to charge, or, indeed, to charge at all, started out for Kaemgron. The earth shook as its heavy legs pounded, and its head was slung low.
Kaemgron turned and ran. Angrogrim threw his spear, and the missile penetrated perhaps three inches into the right rear flank just forward of the upper part of the leg. But the rhino did not even seem aware of the wound.
Other spears missed or, striking, bounced off harmlessly.
The men scattered.
The rhino did not allow itself to be distracted by all the yelling and ru
The second male also charged.
Gribardsun ran in with a spear he had snatched from a man in flight, and rammed it into the eye of the beast as it passed him by at three feet.
The spear was torn out of his grasp, and he was whirled around violently and thrown to the ground.
Von Billma
The express boomed twice, the rhino collapsed, its legs folding under it. Blood ran out of three wounds on its left side and out of its mouth.
The first behemoth was also dead. Gribardsun's spear had driven into its brain.
The remaining beasts had turned uncertainly and moved back into the brake. Von Billma
Kaemgron pushed past Gribardsun and then wailed loudly. He went around the corpse three times widdershins, dragging his speartip in the earth, and then he returned to the body of the rhino that had killed Thrimk. There he beat the animal over the head with the butt of his spear, wailing and weeping all the time. Then he walked three times counterwiddershins around the beast and cut off its tail with his flint knife. He gave the tail to Gribardsun, who stuck it in his belt. Gribardsun recovered his spear, noting that the reindeer antler tip was loose.
Kaemgron returned to his son's body to mourn. Those who followed him also began wailing. But those who stayed to cut up the two carcasses were jubilant. They laughed and smeared blood over their foreheads and lips and dipped their index fingers in the blood and spotted Gribardsun's forehead with the blood. After von Billma
'That was very good shooting, Robert,' Gribardsun said.
Tve practiced enough in the preserve,' von Billma
'But it didn't,' the Englishman said. 'He had his heart set on Kaemgron. Though it is true that the beasts are very unpredictable and he might have turned.'
He did not seem to want to talk about his feat. But he looked as if he were bursting with happiness.
Drummond joined them. He said, 'I got some fine shots, but the people back home aren't going to believe them.'
Thammash approached Gribardsun. 'We have plenty of meat for a week or so,' he said. 'And the mourning for Thrimk must start soon. But the day is far from being over, and it would be well if we pushed on and killed more. What do you think?'
Though he had been treated with great politeness and respect from the begi
Von Billma
Gribardsun considered and then said, 'We should push on, I believe. Why waste the day?'
The body of Thrimk was wrapped in a great bearskin and six men were delegated to watch the body and to cut up the two behemoths. Leaving these behind weakened the party, but the hyenas, wolves, lions, and bears had to be kept away.
The party set out again toward the edge of the plain where a herd of mammoths was eating. The great beasts did not pay them any attention until the hunters were within fifty yards. They were downwind, and the mammoths, like the elephants of Gribardsun's time, were weak-eyed. But when they detected the mass of humans, they began moving away. Several big bulls, however, threatened them with short charges and much trumpeting and tearing up of small trees.
The very long and fantastically curved tusks, the huge hump of fat on top of the head, the long reddish-brown hairs, and the sheer size of the beasts was very impressive.
The men spread out in a deep crescent formation. While the center held the attention of the bulls, the horns advanced very slowly.
One of the bulls broke and ran toward the herd. The other two kept up their bluffing charges until the center had gotten within fifty feet and the horns of the crescent were past them. Then the biggest bull charged.