All the Cave-men made such tents in the summer when they were away from the caves. When the branches were not thick enough for a shelter, the women broke saplings and leaned them against the tree.
While Chipper worked at a spearhead, the other men were moving about. Bighorn feared that Fleetfoot’s clan might follow their tracks.
Long after Fleetfoot fell asleep, the strangers talked quietly. They held their ears close to the ground and listened. They went and looked at Fleetfoot, now fast asleep. Then they all sat down by the fire.
“The tent was an old oak, which reached out long and low-spreading branches.”
At length the men turned to Greybeard. And Greybeard spoke to them and said, “When I was young my clan lived in a cave near Sweet Briar River. Every year, in the salmon season, the neighboring clans met at the rapids. The Horse clan came from the Fork of the River, where the Sweet Briar joins the River of Stones. They may live there still. This boy may belong to them.”
“Do you think they will follow us?” asked Bighorn.
Greybeard looked up, but did not speak. He seemed to be trying to think. At length he turned to the men and said, “Sleep until the moon sets; I’ll watch and wake you.”
So the Cave-men went to the tent and slept while Greybeard kept watch. Not a sound escaped his ear that night. Not a leaf rustled that he did not hear. Not a twig broke, as wild animals passed, but that he found out what it meant.