"Listen, Kac," he said. "Call out and tell your people to banish fear from their minds, or many will die by the spears of the crazed Beast People. Tell them to fall on the ground and not to rise until you so instruct them. Hurry now, there is no time to lose!"
Dazedly, Kac obeyed. Though his voice was cracked and unrecognizable, it boomed with authority. Suppressing their fright, the transposed Wronged Ones dropped to the ground and lay unmoving.
Then Gene crouched beside his fearful companion and looked upon the debacle. The transported Beast People were groping about uncertainly.
They were in the same boat as their hated enemies. Sight was a thing unknown to their brutish minds, thus the eyes they now possessed were utterly useless; and try as they would, they could not produce the inaudible squeal which gave them knowledge of their surroundings with the vocal cords of their new bodies.
Two of them collided, and immediately struck out with their stone knives. To each, the flesh they felt was the flesh of a Wronged One—a feared foe who must be destroyed. Both toppled, screaming defiance even in their final death throes.
The scene was repeated time and again, till the valley floor was but a mass of shrieking, struggling, mangled bodies.
The carnage all but over, Gene grabbed up a spear and went forth to mop up. Some of the transposed Wronged Ones had not dropped as Kac, now their chief, had commanded, but stood about with vacuous expressions on their faces. He suddenly realized that there were no guiding minds in these husks. The Beast People had outnumbered the tribe; consequently many of the monstrosities had been left mindless when the change took place.
Finishing his grisly task, he flung the spear from him in disgust and hurried back to the cave, shouting as he went: "Victory is ours, Kac! The Beast People are defeated! Now your tribe can rejoice!"
But there was no joy in Kac, he found. Now, there was a greater sadness on the new chief's face than was there at any time previous. Strange people! What could be the grievance now?
Kac must have sensed the question in his mind. He gestured disdainfully at his squat, hairy body. "Look you, Gene. You have made our plight far worse. Now we cannot see to hunt or to harvest the puny crops that we wrest from this woe-begone world. This had to be, that is to my knowing. But I fear the tribe will not understand. I can sense their rage even now, my brother."