the woolly rhinoceros was left standing on the right bank of the dordogne river watching pic and the mammoth disappear. he had been ordered to remain behind, simply because, through no fault of his own, he lacked one cardinal virtue—speed.
but wulli was not bewailing his speed, or rather his lack of it. the subject never entered his head. he was trying to grasp the idea that for the first time in his long and adventurous career the mammoth had gone away and left him alone. as friends they had always been inseparable. it seemed incredible that anything could cleave their bond asunder. what was one without the other? wulli had never imagined the possibility of separation. it had always been “we”; now it was “i.” he bowed his head, stunned, crushed as the terrible reality dawned upon him—he had been left alone.
this was thought number one. his brain, being an unpretentious affair, gave room for only a single idea at one time. no one can blame him for that. some space had to be sacrificed for nose-horn, bumps and everything. unquestionably he could have thought as hard and fast as anybody had he the gray matter to do it with. however,[94] things had to be taken as they were, and this thought number one consumed much time. the sun had set and darkness came on before he finished with it. then occurred thought number two.
this concerned kutnar, and although wulli would have blushed to admit it, he loved the boy with all the unselfish devotion of a faithful dog. he had known kutnar ever since the latter was a baby. he had known the father even longer. pic was the mammoth’s particular man-friend; wulli preferred the boy. he feared, admired and respected pic, but he adored kutnar. the rhinoceros grit his teeth angrily as he thought of the lad now being spirited away by a stranger—one hyena man whom no self-respecting animal would look upon as a friend.
stay behind? well, he guessed not, and the mere fact that pic had so ordered made no difference. he would follow where the mammoth’s trail led him.
it was now dark. so profound had been his reflections that he failed to observe an animal crouching in the grass. something shot through the air, brushing the hilt of his tail as it sped behind him. then followed a thump and a muffled screech as the unknown struck the ground.
[95]
the cave lion cub learning how to shoot
[96]
wulli turned quickly and lowered his nose-horn, whereat the beast uttered a frightened caterwaul and bounded away. it was the cave lion’s half-grown son. wulli gave a snort of contempt, then turned away to the river and plunged in. he did not expect to overtake the mammoth that night nor even the next day. it might take weeks, months, even a year, but he was bound to find him in the end.
all that night he kept on and the following day, too, trotting or walking, but always moving and taking almost no time to graze. he was not disposed to waste precious moments, and so he fasted, drawing heavily upon his reserve fat to nourish him as he hurried along. the trail was an easy one to follow, and he kept his nose to it with a persistence that never faltered. that of the mammoth was fresh and unmistakable. there was the scent of another grown cold and stale but the carrion odor yet clung to it, and wulli judged him who had made it to be the hyena man. he got occasional whiffs of a third and familiar element and finally recognized it as belonging to kutnar. the three were traveling the same path in a southwesterly direction.
wulli had not gone far when he heard faint sounds behind him and detected odors in the air, both of which convinced him that he was being followed. being a keen tracker himself, he could understand the possibility of others tracking him. the sensation of being hunted by unknown enemies made him nervous. hyenas were annoying, but nothing worse. wolves—real hungry ones—scared him as they scared everybody. a pack of half-starved wolves was a serious matter, even for a full-grown[97] rhinoceros. it was hard to tell where they would stop. wolves or hyenas, which? the uncertainty was most distracting. wulli made up his mind to choose some advantageous position and wait until he found out.
it was sundown when he swam across a river and stood in the shallows near its western shore. those who followed were now close behind him, so he waded into the deeper water until all but the top of his head and shoulder-hump were submerged. there he stood motionless. any casual observer would have thought him a water-logged tree-stump with a root—his horn—projecting from one end of it.
wulli waited patiently, patience being one of his greatest gifts. at last he was rewarded by the sounds of animals descending the opposite bank. they were now entering the stream. it was too dark to see them, but he could hear from the noise they made that they were coming toward him. his sharp ears caught faint murmurs as of water rippling and babbling against strong swimmers. there were several of the latter, judging by the sounds made. wulli’s suspicions became reality, for soon he dimly distinguished three heads, keeping close together and coming toward him. even in the dim light he recognized them in that short distance. grun waugh the cave lion was in the lead, followed closely by another smaller animal like him. the third beast trailing behind was a cave-hyena.
[98]
“now, why did that stupid rhinoceros come here?” growled a voice. the voice was scrag’s.
“yes, crocut, you neglected to tell us about him,” grumbled the larger lion. “now we have the rhinoceros to account for; that makes it different.”
“but he is alone,” the hyena sniveled. “you are two. it might have been worse.”
“we are three,” grun waugh sternly corrected. “if you value the meat on your bones, you will be wise and do your part.”
crocut sighed deeply. he, the conscientious objector, was plunging into the thick of battle against his own free will. he shivered at the thought.
by this time the three animals had reached shallow water and were wading ashore. wulli could hear them sniffing along the bank. “here it is,” the hyena announced. “i smell the mammoth, also the friend i told you of. there is another man, too, but i find no scent of the rhinoceros. where did he go?”
“here he is,” said scrag. wulli thought himself discovered and was preparing for emergencies, when the young lion added bumptiously: “i have his scent. it leads back to the water. he must have known that i was after him, or he would not have turned around and gone back to where he came from.”
“pest,” snarled his parent; “get out of the way.” scrag backed off and permitted grun waugh to[99] sniff wulli’s spoor. it was that of the rhinoceros, sure enough, and it led back to the river.
“wow, how unfortunate; he must have escaped us,” laughed the cave hyena, inwardly rejoicing.
“let not that worry you,” grun waugh retorted. “you will have your fill of fighting when we overtake the mammoth.”
“ow!” yowled crocut, and then he shut up like a clam.
“the rhinoceros has turned tail,” thought grun waugh. “he came here and then went back again. i am glad of that. one less; so much the easier for us. the rhinoceros is the worst of the lot—when he is mad.”
just to make sure he stood at the water’s edge and gazed into the darkness. he saw nothing there, nothing but a tree-stump protruding from the river bed. he gave the signal and all three hurried away on the mammoth’s trail.
when wulli felt assured that the cave beasts were past hearing him, he emerged from his refuge, shook himself and followed after.
the affair was now become complicated. there were four elements, wulli’s limit of mental arithmetic. more than that number was beyond his range. in times past he could count only two, the mammoth and himself. then pic became an important factor in his life. this made three. finally kutnar appeared, and his education was complete. he could count four. this number fitted the present situation. the muskman and[100] kutnar represented no. 1 or the pursued. pic and the mammoth following after them were the pursuers or no. 2. grun waugh and his gang made no. 3. wulli himself was no. 4. nos. 3 and 4 had changed their relative positions, and now wulli was the tail of the procession. for some unknown reason the cave beasts had injected themselves into the affair, which, according to his way of thinking, did not concern them at all. and yet here they were and must be reckoned with. he felt sure that they were planning some mischief. he had considered himself as the object of their unwelcome attentions, which now, because of the change in the order of those pursuing, would fall upon pic and the mammoth. the three villains might attack his friends while the latter were unprepared. wulli resolved to take a hand in this hare-and-hound game himself. it took him but a moment to pick up the combined trail of all parties concerned; then with a whisk of his tail he set himself in motion and went trotting briskly away through the darkness.
