Adventure Magazine Cover — page 144: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

138 bone, or of animal hides for clothing, or of the red ocher earth for face-painting and the encrusting of the dead, or of the small. sea-shells that were prized as jewels. What had he to offer for six young women, who, he was told, were skilful in the fabrication of garments? He could think of nothing save the services of him- self and his band. But Lean Ak was himself a great chief, and the idea of obedience to another galled him. There was no certainty, either, that Ufu the Great would accept anything save valuable merchandise for his six daughters; it seemed probable to Lean Ak that he would not. In default of any purchase but one thing remained—to take the women by force. The usual slowness of speech of cave people allowed Lean Ak an interval of silence in which to meditate upon his dilemma. ‘He directed an appraising glance upon the tribesmen of the cave. The com- moners of both clans were squatted in a half-circle around their leaders; the men nearest, and behind them, enjoying the outer circle of the fire’s warmth, the women and children. Lean Ak had not failed to observe, when first he had met with the followers of Ufu the Great, that they were great, hulking fellows, a little fat perhaps—but that added to their impressiveness in the eyes of a gaunt starveling. Now, in the red glare of the fire, the several score of huge men of the cave, who hid in their midst the fewer and less bulky men of the wandering tribe, seemed immensely for- midable. Ufu the Great leaned toward the fire and moaned gratefully at the warmth, but Lean Ak wrestled so long with his problem that at last the placid chieftain-magician mar- veled. “How much?” he repeated emphatically. “T and my men until the cold has come three times,” replied Lean Ak reluctantly. He made the proposal of three years’ service half in the hope that Ufu the Great would not accept it, in which contingency the hunting-chief would utter defiance and depart with his men—he could not make a surprize attack then and there, having pledged amity to Ufu the Great. He would return leading a desperate raid upon the cave. Ufu the Great meditated long. At Jast he said-— ‘hunting-leaders. Adventure “You and your men until the cold has come four times.”’ “Four times,” repeated Lean Ak in as- tonished assent. He could not understand why Ufu the Great should want to exchange six choice women for the service of the vagrant hunting-band, but it did not seem a seasonable time for inquisitive prying. So the compact was closed, a compact which led to stirring events in that valley. TROUBLE WAS INEVITABLE THROUGH ONE OF THE GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE AGE YY THE tall, broad-faced Cro-Magnon ge race had lorded over the chilly plains of Europe for half a dozen milleniums, had fought with and held their own against other races that intruded from the human reservoir in Asia, had hunted the great beasts of the glacial age in heroic fashion, had decorated the walls of their cave dwellings. with masterful drawings and paintings of the animals they preyed upon, and in every manner had demonstrated themselves to be men of noble fiber. : They were now in the course of a cul- tural change, gradual but profound. They had swept over Europe, a great race of hunters; holding virile faith in the bow and arrow, the fire-hardened spear, the flint knife, the stone hatchet, the bludgeon; and worshiping such gods as the mammoth, the bison, the woolly rhinoceros. But now they had advanced greatly in the art of fashioning bone, and had mas- tered the secret of ‘fabricating the bone fish-hook, and were coming to the realiza- tion of the effectiveness of the instrument in catching the plentiful fishes that swam the rivers. The Cro-Magnons were be- ginning to abandon the heroic life of the chase; they were slowly becoming a race of fisherman. But certainly the forsaking of the great ways of old did not take place without arousing dissensions among the cave people. As far back as human traditions extended Lean Ak’s ancestors had been stalwart He was of an ilk all of whose men bore the name of Ak, which they accounted for by saying that they were descendants of a divine hunter of that name -—eonmicboolks (C@