Only vaguely was Og aware of anything that happened to him during the rest of the night. Now and then he gained a state of semi-consciousness and saw dimly that he was part of a weird tree-top procession formed by the huge band of apish tree people. Hundreds of them were swinging through the tops of the giant sequoias, and as they traveled their strange arboreal highway, this army of apish beings reminded Og of a band of conquerors, such was their demeanor. They swung through the branches, chanting weird songs, and now and then they uttered strange, deep-voiced, booming cries that Og guessed were their war cries and shouts of victory; cheers of conquerors, for this big tree-people band were proud of their achievement; proud that they had made war against a hairy man and, having captured him, were carrying him off a prisoner. [75]
Never in the history of the race of tree men, at least not in the lives of any of his troupe—and that was as far back as the history of their race was known to them—had they had the courage to attack even one hairy man, let alone best him in conquest and carry him off. It was a triumph, an achievement, and to them, in their elation, it all appeared to be a great step forward for their kind.
To be sure this attitude was but a whim of the moment or the hour. Perhaps had the band suddenly come upon a grove of trees with edible fruit they would have straight way forgotten their captive and left him to his own devices while they ate. Indeed this was a rare exhibition of steadfastness of purpose for the apish folk of the band and doubtless if it had not been for Scar Face, their leader who really did have more purpose than the rest of the tribe, they would long ago have strangled Og or dropped him from a high tree and killed him that way.
But always had Scar Face been jealous of the prowess of the hairy folk. Always had he envied them their courage, and their advancement. He had striven to be like them, to make his people like them but always he had failed, for the ape[76] men’s brain had not yet developed to the point where they could think out even the simple problems that the limited intelligence of the hairy people could master. In truth, they were several steps below the hairy folk in the scale of intelligence, and their progress upward was very much slower than that of these men who had learned to live in caves.
The light of a new day was filling the eastern sky with its brilliance when Og gained full consciousness and was able to comprehend the situation. The army of tree folk was still swinging enthusiastically onward over its tree-top highway, and Og found that he was still a prisoner. The giant leader held him captive, and because of his great strength the ape man handled him as if he were a child. One of the tree men’s great arms was thrown about Og’s middle and with head and feet and arms dangling the great creature carried him as easily as Og would have carried the limp body of a young goat that he had slain.
 
The great creature carried him as easily as Og would have carried a young goat
 
Og was weak, and sore, and passive; passive because he had not the strength to make an effort to free himself from his captors. He simply remained inert and limp and permitted himself to[77] be carried in this awkward fashion wherever the huge tree man chose to take him.
His captor led the horde; as they swung from branch to branch and from one tall tree to another. On and on they hurried through the tree tops, making remarkably swift progress despite the awkwardness of their going. That they were far from the point where he had camped the night before and had been captured, Og was certain. Then, too, the character of the country had changed a great deal. The sequoias were slowly giving way to trees of new and different type. They were giant trees, tremendously tall, and growing close together, but instead of branches they had spreading fronds that reached a great distance upward and outward and were very strong, despite their graceful appearance. Then there were other trees, lower and more massive in character, with short thick trunks and foliage that spread over acres of ground, sending down other stems that took root and spread onward again. A single tree was a veritable forest.
Og did not know that these were giant palms and banyan trees and that his night’s journey had taken him farther south than any point to which the hairy folk had yet ventured. He did know that[78] the climate was perceptibly warmer, and that vegetation familiar to him was fast disappearing. Several times, from this tree-top highway, he had a clear vision of the forest floor, and he understood then why the ape people traveled in the treetops. The vegetation below him was so thick and so massed and intertwined that no earth could be seen at all, and Og knew that even the strongest hairy man could never force his way through it. Only heavy animals like the mammoth, or the hairy rhinoceros would have the strength to trample a pathway there.
Whither his captors were taking him Og had not the vaguest idea. For once these tree people seemed to have a single purpose; a single desire to get somewhere, for they never ceased going. Og felt sick and sore and uncomfortable. He made a movement once to change from this hanging position, but his great captor snarled at him and cuffed him with such terrible force that he became unconscious again, nor did he regain his senses until he felt himself being laid prone on the ground.
He discovered that he was lying on a gently sloping hill, and that he was surrounded by a circle of crouching, inquisitive tree people. Back[79] of this first line of apish beings were massed thousands of others. There were so many that Og could scarcely believe his eyes. They covered the hillside, they filled the trees, and rocks, all about him, and all were staring at him as if waiting patiently for him to open his eyes.
Beyond the mass Og could get a partial view of the valley. It was surrounded on all sides by towering palm clad mountains, but there were few trees in the valley bottom. Instead, there was a pleasant meadow overgrown with lush grass through which a broad, lazy stream slipped slowly. To Og, used to the ruggedness of the country further north, it was beautiful and restful.
But he had little time to take in details, for so soon as he sat up a great chattering and squalling and taunting began. The tree folk became tremendously excited and danced up and down, and pointed their fingers at him, and chattered and grinned and snarled and made ugly faces. Some in the trees threw sticks at him and great round hard objects that Og had never seen before. Some stones and clods came from the tree folk on the ground, many of them hitting him resounding thumps.
Then suddenly they left off throwing and bega............