“See here, now,” said Bek.
He took a large, smooth piece of the tusk of the mammoth the cave men had killed. One Eye had given him one of the ivory tusks because he knew the old man loved beautiful things, and the ivory was very smooth and beautiful. Then he took a sharp flint awl and began to make deep, careful marks in the ivory. Bolo watched him with great interest.
“Why, it is the mammoth itself,” he cried at last. “Only wait, Bek; the great tusk did not curve up quite like that. It was more like this.”
Bolo took the awl and made a mark that he thought showed more nearly how the tusk looked. Yet he was not quite satisfied and tried again, and the next time both he and Bek declared that the curve was right.
“Now we must put in the long hair,” said Bek, drawing short, straight lines down over the animal’s head and shoulders. “There, now! here is the eye, too, and the big, flapping ears. Ah, ha, my Bolo, we must show this to One Eye and see what he says.”
When One Eye saw the drawing he became very grave.
“It is a charm,” he said. “Whoever carries that can never be harmed by a mammoth.”
So he bored a hole through one end of the ivory and ran a thong through it. Then he hung it about Bolo’s neck. The lad was very proud of his new ornament and showed everybody the wonderful picture Bek had made.
Day after day Bolo worked with Bek in his cave. Many were the drawings he made, or tried to make, and at last old Bek began to say he was doing very well.
“The animals like to have us make their pictures,” said Bek. “They think we want to be friends with them when we do that.”