Whereupon, in the sheer exuberance of her joy, Yonyo leaped up and down and shouted. "You will save us all yet! You will save us all! Your wonder stick will kill the beast-men!"
"All day I have worked to make the strip of hide tighter," Ru confided, after Yonyo's wild outburst had died down. "I do not know whether it is tight enough yet, but it is very tight." He held forth the bow as if to examine it, and dangled the end of an arrow playfully against the bowstring.
But suddenly his playful mood gave way to one of intense alertness.
"What is that?" he gasped. "What is that—" Without warning, the hoarse growling voice of Wuff had sounded from around a bend in the gallery; then a series of angry snarls, as though Wuff were at bay before some foe. And, mingled with the mutterings of the wolf, came the familiar grumbling of a heavy voice.
"Grumgra!" Ru murmured. And before he and the startled Yonyo had had time to turn and flee, a huge familiar figure shuffled into view, monstrous against the dark cave wall; and through the shadows a great club swung threateningly.
For a moment there was silence—a silence of paralyzing terror on the part of Ru and Yonyo—a silence of evil triumph on the part of Grumgra.
"So you thought to escape me!" the chieftain at length bawled, in tones of malicious relish. "You, Yonyo the Smiling-Eyed, thought to escape me to go to him—to him, the Sparrow-Hearted! But you are not wise enough for me. I watched you—and I followed! And now you cannot get away! I will take you! You belong to me!"
Leering at Yonyo with eyes that shone bestially in the half-light, Grumgra lifted his club yet a little higher, and took a step forward. But he was halted by an unexpected voice.
"She does not belong to you! You shall not take her!" challenged Ru, with a boldness that startled even himself.
"Does the Sparrow-Hearted then tell me what is mine to take?" bellowed Grumgra; and the echoes of his wrath sounded weirdly through that dim, vaulted chamber.