CHAPTER VI
The Hunt for the Mammoths
It was a long way to where Bolo had seen the herd, and they were all afraid the animals might have wandered away. Bolo and Fisher ran eagerly ahead, and Bolo pointed out to Fisher the things he had noticed while searching for his mother. One Eye said very little, but he sent men up into every tall tree they passed to see if they could discover the herd. They traveled all day, and when night came they built a great circle of fire and lay down to rest. One Eye chose four men to carry torches, and it was their duty to see that the fires did not go out.
When they came to the valley where Bolo had seen the mammoths they found nothing but trampled grass and the broken limbs of trees. They went very slowly and carefully after that. It was not long till a man, who had climbed into a very tall tree on a hilltop, called out excitedly that he could see something moving at the base of a cliff that hung high and steep above the river. One Eye climbed the tree himself, and looked long and closely where the man pointed.
“It is the herd,” he said. “Now let every man do just as I say.”
He divided the cave men into two parties. One was to move up very slowly from the side where they were, the other was to travel rapidly around through a valley behind some hills and come upon the herd from the other side. Bolo, young as he was, was appointed to lead the first party, while One Eye himself led the second division through the valley. The men seemed pleased at this for they thought Bolo deserved some honor.
When the cave men had surrounded the herd in this fashion they were to close in upon them, each man carrying a blazing torch, and try to drive the animals up the landward slope of the cliff, and over it into the river. They knew they could never kill one of these huge beasts with any weapons they had. So they thought to kill them by driving them over the cliff and making them fall upon the rocks below. Some of the cave men who had never seen a mammoth were very much frightened at the terrible beasts. They said they were going back to the caves. But the others taunted them and called them women, until they grew ashamed and went on with the rest.
Very stealthily and carefully the two bodies of cave men drew toward the great herd of grazing animals. One of the older men told in whispers of another such hunt he had taken part in when a young man. He said he had never tasted any meat so good as that of the mammoth.
Bolo watched carefully for his father’s signal. At last it came, and when he saw the tossing torch he motioned his men to light their torches and go on quickly.
In a very few minutes the surprised mammoths found themselves attacked from three sides by a screaming, leaping line of cave men, each swinging a fiery torch above his head. At first the huge beasts stood still. Then they turned and went awkwardly up the long slope on the landward side of the bluff. The men followed as closely as they dared, for they feared that when the animals came to the edge of the bluff they would swing around and rush through the line of their attackers, trampling them under their great feet.
One Eye was again leading the entire band. Always he was at the very front, shouting and waving his torch. One man, more daring than the rest, ran up and thrust his burning firebrand right against the shaggy side of the nearest mammoth. The frenzied beast, with a bellow of rage, turned and tore back through the yelling mass of hunters. In spite of all their efforts to escape, two men were killed and three more badly hurt. The rest of the herd, terrified by the confusion, huddled together on the edge of the bluff.