One thing appeared certain to Topsie, and that was, that the beings amongst whom she found herself, intended her no harm. She felt perfectly sure that if poor Shag was alive, he would come to her rescue, and she tried to believe that he had gone back in search of Harry and the others. But then, again, she had not the slightest notion where she was. She had no doubt been insensible a long time, for the sun was high in the heavens when she dashed into the forest in her forced pursuit of the wild horse, and now it was well along on its daily course.
If she had hoped that their journey was at an end for the day, her hope was quickly dispelled, for the hairy captor suddenly advanced towards her, lifted her in his arms again, and began striding through the dense forest. As he held her in a sort of upright position she was able to look back over his shoulder, and she then perceived that the other big creature was following close behind, with the child in her arms, carrying it in the same way as the hairy man carried his burden. The going was rough, the undergrowth of the forest thick and resisting. It was astonishing, however, to see the way in which these powerful wild beings of the forest trampled every obstacle down with their broad, flat feet. At length Topsie felt that they were beginning to descend to the plain below, a glimpse of which she had lately caught sight of while crossing one of the natural clearings, which have been already referred to as occasionally occurring.
On reaching the plain, Topsie’s captor halted and set her on her feet. Then he took her very gently by the hand, and led her by his side, endeavouring to accommodate his giant strides to her shorter and more civilised ones. Released from her mother’s arms, the little wild child ran joyfully on ahead, laughing and clapping her hands, purring and cooing, but never uttering a word; and it was plain to Topsie, that if these hairy beings were human, they could not speak. That was quite certain.
Suddenly the wee creature came to a full stop, stared across the valley plain, and then dropping on all fours, came wriggling back to her father. Both the latter and the mother, on seeing their child in this position, dropped into the same attitude; and Topsie, judging it best to copy them, went down too. Then she cast her eyes forward, to see what it was that had thus attracted their attention. Filing out of the forest on the opposite hillside, and feeding head to wind as they came, Topsie made out a herd of some twenty deer; and as the setting sun cast its light upon them, their rich red coats gleamed like burnished gold.
What followed filled her with astonishment and amazement, and more than ever confirmed her in her suspicions as to the humane genus of her captors.
The hairy man, who had never relaxed his grasp of her, now held out her hand to the female, who, wriggling forward, received it from him; and thus Topsie found herself made over to the care of the hairy woman. But the husband seemed suddenly to change his mind in this respect, and once more taking her hand in his, he handed over to his wife the bow and arrows which Topsie had noticed him carrying that morning, and which he had never relaxed his hold of throughout the march.
No sooner had this strange species of woman received the weapons of destruction, than she began to creep forward on her hands and knees in the direction of the feeding deer, every now and then bending her face to the ground, as if she, too, was browsing, and looking for all the world like some four-footed animal busy with its evening meal.
In this manner she managed to come quite close to the herd, without frightening the members thereof; when, suddenly pausing in her four-legged perambulations, she fitted an arrow to her bow, and rising to her full height, sent the shaft winging with true and deadly precision at a fine monarch of the glen that was standing a little distance apart from the other deer.
Bounding forward about twenty paces, the noble animal reared straight on end, and fell back with a crash. There was a slight struggle, and then all was still. At the same time the members of the herd, wheeling round in a semicircle, gazed first affrightedly upon their dead leader, and the next moment fled precipitately towards the forest which they had but lately quitted.
No sooner had the hairy woman drawn her bow than her husband jumped up from his crouching attitude, and still holding Topsie with one hand, caught hold of that of his child, and began hurrying across the plain to where the dead deer lay. Already the hairy woman was by its side, abstracting from its heart the golden-pointed arrow which had wrought its death.