“Hold!” he muttered in a low, fearful voice. “Not another step or we are lost.”
At that moment, the Mammoth turned his head to seek the meaning of a new and terrifying odor coming from behind. He saw a wall of red tongues and white curling clouds sweeping down upon him.
“Aree, owk, owk; run, run!” he screamed in a frenzy of fear. He and the Rhinoceros were about to dash forward in a wild stampede, when Pic sprang in front of him with ax upraised; his face threatening and terrible to see.
“Stand back!” he yelled. “For your lives stand back;” and the flat of his blade smote the uplifted trunk a resounding blow such as the great Mammoth had never known. Hairi reared back amazed. The blow had struck his most sensitive spot; but the insult delivered by a mere pygmy rankled more deeply than an open wound. With a scream of rage, he raised a ponderous fore-limb to crush the author of such an indignity, when the Ape Boy pointed to the ground almost beneath his feet.
“See! The pit; it is there.”
The Mammoth saw and shrank back in an agony of dread. The Rhinoceros cowered by his side. Both were terrified, stunned by this new horror.
“Stand Back! For Your Lives, Stand Back!”
Partly screened by branches, dirt and grass, the mouth of a great pit yawned in the path. A few more steps and the whole party would have trodden through its flimsy covering and disappeared into the dark cavity below. Pic stepped to the edge and peered down. The fear of death suddenly gripped his heart. He drew back trembling and afraid.