All this time the Rhinoceros remained asleep upon the Rock of Moustier, unconscious of his own solitude. Oncoming night cast its first twilight shadows over the valley and highlands. The bats came forth from their hiding-places and fluttered about the cliffs and ledges on nimble wings. Not until the chirping of crickets and distant cries of night-roving animals heralded the fast-gathering dusk did he awaken, yawn and look about to find himself alone.
It took him but a moment to see how very much alone he was. As he gazed wildly about him, he saw that the Mammoth and Ape Boy were gone. He ran to one side of the terrace and looked down into the dark depths; not a sign. A quick dash to the other side produced no better results. The Mammoth had disappeared. Gloomy thoughts tormented the Rhinoceros; he became frantic.
“Oo-oo-oo! he has fallen from the rock or something terrible has happened. Hairi would not have left me alone unless——” He stopped, for at that moment he caught sight of the chunk of rotten wood firmly wedged on the tip of his horn. He gasped, sniffed and his brows contracted with terrible rage. For the second time, his glossy weapon had been the sport of others; once by the Ape Boy, now by——
“This is the Mammoth’s work,” he squealed, working himself into a frenzy. “He shall pay dearly when I meet him again.”
He strove to shake loose the offending object but it stuck tight in spite of all he could do. Wulli’s rage passed all bounds. It was too late for a descent or search for his missing companions. In a storm of fury at his own helplessness, he again stepped to the edge of the terrace and peered into the black depths. A single misstep might mean a fall and a broken neck. He shivered at the thought. The clammy night mists came floating about his ears. They enveloped the terrace in a hazy fog. He was cold, lonesome and beside himself with rage. A dark shapeless blotch on the rock-wall suddenly attracted his attention,—the grotto whose dark entrance offered him its shelter. With bitterness in his heart, Wulli backed away from the ledge into the gloomy hole. Here he stood stamping his feet until mind and body yielded beneath the strain and once more he fell into a sound sleep.
V
The first rays of the morning sun penetrated the grotto and awoke the sleeping Rhinoceros. For a moment he gazed about him, wondering where he could be. Voices sounded outside—whispers. Slowly his senses returned, and with them remembrances of the previous night’s unpleasant experience. Aha! so the Mammoth and Ape Boy had returned. Now for his part. With deadly calmness, he stepped to the mouth of the grotto.
A most unexpected sight met his gaze. The Mammoth and Ape Boy had not returned at all. In their stead, a fierce group sprawled upon the rock platform. Their backs were turned toward him; but Wulli knew them at once as the beasts of prey, the flesh-eaters of the caves. Stretched at full length, lay Grun Waugh the Cave Lion with a Lioness seated by his side. A little apart squatted the Hyena and Cave Wolf.