Chapter Five.
The Tree Clan.
They walked a little way along the bank, looking for a good place to cross the flat, green meadow that lay between the river and the forest. Soon they came to a sort of path which led back into the woods. Hawk-Eye looked at it very carefully. He even got down and examined the wet ground at the water’s edge. In the mud there were foot-prints.
“Isn’t it a drinking-place for the wild creatures?” asked Limberleg.
Hawk-Eye grunted. “Like ourselves,” he answered briefly. “There are people living in these woods. That’s the print of a man’s foot.”
Limberleg looked just as she would have looked if he had said, “There’s a pack of hyenas living in those woods.” There was reason for it in those days. The different groups of people in the forests had nothing to do with one another, and when they met, they were much more likely to fight than to be friendly.
“Can’t we go up the river-bank and not go into the woods at all?” asked Limberleg. For answer Hawk-Eye pointed down the river. Far away in the green meadow they saw two mammoths feeding. Even at that distance they looked like giant rocks looming out of the grass. Their long ivory tusks gleamed in the sun.