There was a puzzled silence. The slow seconds dragged past, but no one would offer an explanation.
"This shows you," Ru at length pointed out, "that I must have been dead. While I was dead, a god bore me here from the other cave."
Again he paused; and this time not even Grumgra ventured a word in dissent.
"You ask me how I came to die?" he questioned, his manner growing constantly more assured. "You remember, do you not, that two hyenas came out of the cave just after I went in?"
A dozen voices grunted a ready affirmative before Ru continued:
"Those two belonged to a great pack, many in number as the men of our tribe. Bad spirits possessed them, and they fell upon me as soon as I went in, and cut and tore me with their sharp teeth. One or two I might have slain, but what could I do against a whole caveful of them? I struck hard with my club, and broke the skull of their chief, a terrible beast as big as a bear. But the others all jumped on me, and soon they were on top of me so thick I could not breathe. I could see their little eyes shining like blood, and hear their big jaws snapping, and feel myself being torn to bits; but there was nothing I could do. The next moment I lay silent and still, and could not move at all; and then I knew that I was dead.
"It is terrible, my people, to be dead, for then everything moves very, very slowly; and the time it takes a stone to drop from the cave wall to the floor seems like the time between two days. And so I saw very much while I lay there and felt the hyenas cut me to pieces. First there came something big and dark, like the shadow of a man, only as high as three men standing one on top of another, and it was the cave-god, and it looked at me, and said: 'This is Ru the Eagle-Hearted. He is a brave man; he has killed the chief of the hyenas. What shall I do to reward him?' And the cave-god seemed to think for a while and then he turned toward me, and said: 'I will make him alive again. That is the best thing I can do for such a brave man.'
"And the next that I knew I was standing on my feet, and all my wounds were gone. Then I felt big hands lifting me, and carrying me through the dark cave, far, far away. And I heard the god's voice in my ear, 'I will take you to another cave, where you will find your people. They are in need of you, for there are bad men about, who eat other men like wolves. For two days you will wander around without food, and after that you will find them. This I will do for you, O Ru the Eagle-Hearted, since you have killed my greatest foe, the chief of the hyenas.'
"And all this was done; and the cave-god left me to myself in the dark, and for two days I wandered without knowing where I was going, until I found you again, my people. That is all I have to tell you."
Ru ceased, and a long, long silence ensued. The people stared at him in fascinated wonder; they seemed stricken mute before the tale they had heard. Not a murmur of doubt stirred amid those shadowy scores; the apish, glowing faces expressed bewilderment and surprise, but not incredulity. Even Grumgra seemed impressed, and had forgotten his growling and his club.