Many heads bobbed out of cliff-side doorways and many curious and suspicious pairs of eyes watched Og and his father Wab climb the narrow and winding trail up the cliff’s face to the miserable, dingy little cave that had been allotted to the blind man, because he was unable to fight for a bigger and better one. Strange grunting calls were passed from one doorway to another too and Og understood them all. He knew too that those who called were worried and frightened; indeed he could see the troubled expressions on some of the faces and he noted with interest that many trembled, and each cave mouth as he passed grew empty, the inmates taking to the farthest and darkest corners for they feared him and his fire brand, and his tiger skin that he had draped boastfully over his shoulders until it hung like a cape with the long tail dragging on the ground behind him. It was like a triumphal procession for Og and[157] he felt proud and elated over the whole affair. He was a man. He was a great man. He was important. Even Gog, the grizzled old leader, shrank from him with a grunt and his children scuttled into the cave like rabbits as he passed. Gog’s wife, too, whimpered and clung to her husband.
Og could not help but grunt ominously and scowl as he passed the doorway of the old chief, for he remembered, as did many others, unwarranted cuffs and kicks that the savage old man had dealt out because of his strength and his position in the tribe. Gog, still the valiant old fighter that he had always been, scowled and growled in return and muttered ugly things under his breath, but still he shrank from this hairy one who was clothed in the skin of Sabre Tooth and carried a mysterious and fearful wand of fire.
When Og and Wab reached the crevice in the cliff that the blind hunter called home Og looked about with a frown on his face.
“So this is all that Wab, the mighty hunter, has to live in; Wab, my father, the man who gave his eyes to the Tiger to protect others. It shall not be so. I, Og, Son of Fire, speak.” (Og’s chest[158] puffed out slightly and he swaggered his shoulders just a little as he proclaimed the last.)
“It is mean enough as a cave,” spoke Wab, “but who am I now that I should have better quarters? I am of less use than a woman. I cannot hunt. I am blind. I am a handicap to the tribe. Soon I must die unless——&rdqu............