Og, tired but triumphant, with a dead goat slung over his shoulders and the wolf dogs trotting at his heels, returned to the home cave just before nightfall, as all of the cave dwelling people did, for not even the bravest was willing to be caught far from the protection of the colony when darkness came on. But as he approached the cave he experienced a sensation of fear and dread. He knew instinctively that something was wrong, for the fire in the doorway had burned down to just a smouldering heap of dying embers. Og knew that Wab would never have been so inattentive unless something had happened.
Hastily he went forward calling, but as he entered the big cave his heart fell, for Wab was not about. He noted instantly that one of his stone hammers was gone from its accustomed place and that Wab’s cherished flint knife had disappeared[191] from the cleft in the rock wall where he always kept it.
The strange demeanor of the wolf dogs added a great deal to the discomfort that these observations caused him, for so soon as they entered the cave they bristled and growled and stepped about in stiff-legged anger just as they always did when Gog visited the cave. They sniffed at the ground, too, and trotted a little way from the cave in the direction of the forest.
Og could almost read the problem, but just then two hairy men, Big Face and Crooked Feet, passed, going toward the spring, and when they saw Og they told him of how they had seen Wab go off hunting with Gog that morning.
In an instant the whole situation dawned on Og. Gog had taken his helpless father off into the forest and Og instinctively knew that treachery of some sort or another was afoot.
He heaped sticks onto the fire and sat down for a few moments to think things over. Night was coming on. The forest would be a terrible place to travel in at night. But he thought too of his father and the terror that must come upon a man all but blind who might be left to wander about in the forest alone.
[192]
That thought was enough for Og. He must find his father. He must risk any dangers or any of the night terrors to find Wab. Hastily he made two fire brands and ignited them. Then, arming himself also with stone hammer and a long flint knife, he called to the wolf dogs. The animals he quickly made to understand just what was wanted of them, and when they did know their mission they bounded forward despite the fact that they were tired, and with noses to the ground followed the trail of Wab and Gog, while Og swung along behind them at a remarkably swift pace despite the fact that he too was tired from his day’s efforts.
Into the black fastness of the forest they plunged, their only light being the glimmer from Og’s torches. Despite his courage and the importance of his mission, Og could not stifle the natural, instinctive fear that possessed him as he dodged in and out among the trees, his eyes and ears alert for any signs of danger.
Southward they swung toward the mountain range that cut their valley off from the valley of the warm lands beyond, and presently they began to mount the thickly wooded slopes. Strange night noises they heard aplenty. To most of these[193] the wolf dogs paid little heed, but when from afar they heard the terrifying roar of a cave tiger and the answering challenge of some wandering cave leopard, the hair on their backs bristled. So did that of Og, and he actually trembled with fear despite the stoutness of his heart. This traveling at night through the forest was a fearsome thing to do, and time and again he was tempted to seek the shelter of some huge bowlder, and build a great fire beside which to spend the remainder of the night.
But the thoughts of his father somewhere here in the terrible forest, and without fire (for Og knew that Wab, or Gog either, would never travel with a fire in his hand the way he did), spurred the hairy boy on to move faster and put aside the desire to build a big protective fire at least until he had found his father.
Upward on the mountain side they climbed, the wolf dogs following closely the trail that Gog and Wab had taken. On and on they pushed, soon panting and out of breath. Og’s lungs were pumping, too, and he sucked in air in great gasps; but still he climbed and kept pace with the hurrying dogs.
Soon they reached the gently rolling summit,[194] where if it had been daylight they could have looked into the valley below. But as they halted there a brief space to catch their breaths, Og gave a loud and startled grunt, for from below him, and in the direction the wolf dogs were straining to go, rolled up to him a loud, booming sound. Og had little difficulty in recognizing it as the war noise of his old captors, the tree pe............