What a change had come to it! Very nearly in the shape of a spear-head it was now, and fine to look upon in its bright redness. Hammer said he had not sought to do more when the light began to fail, for the work must be finer now and he must use a lighter hammer. He was at the rock again in the early morning and wrought all day again, meanwhile having lying on the rock beside him as he worked the best and most beautifully shaped stone spear-head that we owned, one of the hardest flint, most perfect in its form and so polished by rubbing upon sandstone and afterward with the bark of trees that it was as smooth as the shell of a beechnut. This Hammer used as a model, and the “tap-tapping” of his light hammer of stone upon the metal was like the tapping of a woodpecker who never wearied. He would not show me that night what he had accomplished, but said that his task would be done in the day to come. At night when we met again in the hut he showed me the copper spear-head.
It was something wonderful, that spear-head. It was smoother than any stone one ever made, for Hammer had tapped so gently, at the end, that there was left no trace of indentation, and afterward he had polished it until now it glittered in the firelight. Its edge was better than could be given to any stone knife, and, Hammer told me, it could be ground upon our sandstone whetstones, or if it became dulled, could be easily hammered into sharpness again. It could not be broken! There was no other such spear-head in the world—and we could make others like it!
There was such excitement in the village as had not often been known before when Hammer, who had set the spear-head in its shaft, displayed it to the tribe. There was wonder and great envy and desire and a demand that henceforth Hammer should do naught else but make such spear-heads, that each might possess one and so the tribe be made superior to all about us. And Hammer promised this, if only they would bring to him the copper with which to work, and he told of how he had found that which he had. This was agreed upon, and soon as many men as could work together were assailing the copper-holding boulder with their heaviest hammers and mauls of stone. A weary task must it be to break that rock to pieces, but the hammers were of a harder stone than it, and all day the blows were falling and in time each scrap of copper which it held must needs be in our possession.
And, as it had been agreed upon, so it came to pass, though long was the labour. Strips and bits and fragments of copper of all sizes, from those fitted for arrow-heads and spear-heads up to those large enough for axes, were gained from the gradually crushed rock, and Hammer, whom I now aided, laboured from dawn until night. The time came when each man in the tribe bore proudly a shining copper spear-head and when some had axes or copper arrow-heads as well. It was a great thing, but the rock was gone! Where could we get more copper? There was none to answer, and upon this problem Hammer and I thought much and discussed it many times.
The matter, as well it might, had become one meaning much to all of us. We were not a tribe at all mighty as to numbers, but here had come to us what, were it to continue, would lift us above all others, for we would have the best of weapons and, furthermore, that which would enable us to get by barter whatever others had which we most desired. What allies we could make! No little thing in those days was such alliance, when warfare for spoil alone was not uncommon and none of the weak was safe without a strong alliance. And what other good might come to a tribe with such a possession held by itself alone! All saw the need we had—a puny force, an offshoot from a greater one which long since had moved to the western forests and of whom we had lost all trace. Less than half a thousand of us were in the village, and, though we were most prosperous and content, we knew not what might come. Far up toward the north and west of the new land we were, and in a region of scattered forests and bright rivers and wild vines and nuts and fruits. There was a stream behind the village; there was an abundance of game; the women tilled a little, giving us a store of wheat and barley; we had sturgeon from the not far distant greater river to which we made expeditions at times, and there were the little half-wild horses to give us food in any strait. The winters were not severe, though the snow fell deeply and sometimes the famished wolves were out, but all the rest of the year was beautiful and bountiful to us. Nomads, mere wanderers, our forefathers may have been, but upon us had come at last something of the home-clinging way. What better place to guard and, if need be, fight for? So it came that we were glad of whatever might make us greater and stronger, and we were proud and glad of what had come from the copper rock, and disquieted because we knew not where to find another like it.
Long, one night, were Hammer and I debating in our hut concerning what had become the common problem. To both of us it seemed that there must be more than a single rock in all the world which held that which we wanted.
“And it is not distant,” said Hammer, “this other rock of the same kind; there may be a host of rocks.” Then he spoke still more earnestly. “We, even you and I, are the ones. We must seek more copper and we shall find it. It lies somewhere in the gorges, surely! Will you come with me until we have gone far enough and searched most closely? What greater thing could we be doing? Will you come with me?”
As he well knew, he need not have asked the question. I had long since become as earnest as was he in the great thing upon which so depended our fortunes and the fortunes of all our tribe. Surely I consented, for I had lost myself in the fancy for this wonderful new adventure of search and labour which might assure us weapons and many other things of a different and better sort, and give to us of the plains and hills an advantage over all other tribes. I had become a joyous copper-seeker and earnest artisan! My fortunes should be henceforth joined with those of Hammer, as he would have it, and as it was now pledged. What if we should somewhere find the red substance in abundance and perhaps not so firmly imbedded in such rock! What things would happen then! Utterly abandoned were we now in this quest to come. What cared we for the women or the breaking of the horses or the wild chase of the stag or urus? A greater thing was ours! Soon were we prepared for the journey, the course of which we had not yet determined, except that it must follow the base of the low mountain range and lead up its many valleys and gorges and canyons until, if fortune were with us, we had come upon what we sought.
Straight descendants of the first Tamers were we, so our legends said, and there were horses with us, though many other tribes had not yet learned to tame and use them, or sometimes count upon them for meat. Should we take horses? It was finally decided between us that we should, since with the region close about us we were of course well acquainted, and searching would be wasted in it, and it would be a day’s journey afoot along the base of the range, which trended to the southwest, before we could reach the place where began the succession of upward extending ravines in which we hoped to find more of the red metal. We hoped this, not from any definite belief, but because so many of these openings resembled the one in which Hammer had made the first discovery. After we had reached the first of these we could turn our horses loose, knowing that they would find their way back to the village.
We caught our rough little steeds, small, hairy and shaggy, but sinewy and enduring, and, with ropes of hide about our shoulders, fastened to us the heavy hammers we hoped to need, and, after the usual struggle with the animals, got fairly on our way. A half day’s ride brought us to the first ravine, and then we took off the rawhide halters, which were our only bridles, and let the horses go. They started back whinnying and galloping. The horse of the time took most unkindly to the carrying of any burden. He was to learn much concerning that matter very soon.