“In the cave,” said Pic. “None of us can help him now. He is dying.”
Hairi and Wulli stepped to the grotto’s mouth and peered in. For a moment, they could see nothing; but as their eyes became adjusted to the darkness, they made out the form of a man stretched full length upon the floor. A pile of dried grass and leaves supported the head. A tattered fragment of bear-skin partly enveloped the body. The figure was that of an old man aged by disease and the nearness of death. His eyes were closed. Breath came and went in feeble irregular gasps. The wide-open mouth was burned and parched with wasting fever. Although reduced almost to a skeleton, the short, broad frame showed traces of a once gigantic strength. The protruding face, chinless jaws, eyes buried beneath heavy brows which merged into the low sloping forehead, were the same as those of the youth now bending over him.
“You see he is too sick to help himself,” Pic explained. “Once he was the best hunter and warrior in our whole band. But the sickness came upon him and when he was dying, his people—my people—drove him away. I kept the Cave Beasts from him but that was all I could do.”
His two hearers gazed intently into the sufferer’s face. They said nothing, only stared; too awed by the strange scene to speak a single word.
The whole group was like a strange bit of sculpture:—the grotto and its dying occupant; the Ape Boy crouched over the sick man; the two great brutes standing by awed and attentive; every figure motionless and rigid as though cast in bronze.
For a time, all was still and the Cave Man’s feeble gasps could be heard above the low breathing of the three silent spectators. Then the wasted chest heaved and the sick man slowly opened one eye. As it looked upon the Ape Boy’s face, a flash of color lighted the ghastly features and he strove to raise his head. An arm encircled his shoulders, and helped him to rise. He opened his mouth to speak; but the effort was too much and he sank back exhausted.
The Ape Boy’s body was now thrust between him and the light.
“Stand back,” Pic whispered to his companions. “He must not see you. He would be displeased to know that you are with me here.”
Hairi and Wulli retreated several paces. Both obeyed silently and without protest, for reasons they could not understand.