“Ugh! What Are You Doing There?”
“Ugh-h! What are you doing there?” he demanded in a deep guttural voice. The rock was poised threateningly over the Mammoth’s head.
Hairi was too startled by the suddenness of it all to speak or move. Wulli’s eyes sparkled. He was taking note of the Cave Man’s resolute bearing and the huge rock held aloft with such seeming ease. He was amazed that the Cave Man was prepared to defend himself and at the great physical strength which could lift a stone of such size and weight. No fear that it might at any moment come tumbling down upon his own head disturbed Wulli’s trend of thought.
The stranger had spoken words that neither of his hearers could grasp, the man-language which in their ears was a confused jabber of meaningless sounds. But his look and actions were enough. He had not flinched from even such a formidable pair as the Mammoth and Woolly Rhinoceros; and then as though realizing that he had none but brutes to deal with, he burst forth into the Mother Nature tongue:
“By the Lion’s tooth! What are you doing there?”
Hairi shrank back amazed. He now heard and saw familiar sounds and gestures—the beast-talk which all creatures could understand. Never had he thought Trog-men capable of talking sense—these strange beings who huddled together in caves and made no friends among the beasts about them.
“The Cave Lion—where is he?” was all the Mammoth could say.
“Gone. What do you want of him?”
“We came to fight,” replied the Elephant who by this time was fast recovering from his first astonishment. “He lives in that cave; so we have been told.”