Cave Girl | Page 9

Waldo quite severely.
He wished that he could speak her language, so that he could convey to
her a suggestion of the disapprobation which he felt for her attire.

He was on the point of attempting it by signs, when she rose, lithe and
graceful as a tigress, and walked to the river's brim. With a deft
movement of her fingers she loosed the thong that held her single
garment, and as it fell to the ground Waldo, with a horrified gasp,
turned upon his face, burying his tightly closed eyes in his hands.
Then the girl dived into the cool waters for her matutinal bath.
She called to him several times to join her, but Waldo could not look at
the spectacle presented; his soul was scandalized. It was some time
after she emerged from the river before he dared risk a hesitating
glance. With a sigh of relief he saw that she had donned her single
garment, and thereafter he could look at her unashamed when she was
thus clothed. He felt that by comparison it constituted a most modest
gown.
Together they strolled along the river's edge gathering such fruits and
roots as the girl knew to be edible. Waldo Emerson gathered those she
indicated--with all his learning he found it necessary to depend upon
the untutored mind of this little primitive maiden for guidance.
Then she taught him how to catch fish with a bent twig and a
lightning-like movement of her brown hands--or, rather, tried to teach
him, for he was far too slow and awkward to succeed.
Afterward they sat upon the soft grass beneath the shade of a wild
fig-tree to eat the fish she had caught. Waldo wondered how in the
world the girl could make fire without matches, for he was quite sure
that she had none; and even should she be able to make fire it would be
quite useless, since she had neither cooking utensils nor stove.
He was not left long in wonderment.
She arranged the fish in a little pile between them, and with a sweet
smile motioned to the man to partake; then she selected one for herself,
and while Waldo Emerson looked on in horror, sunk her firm, white
teeth into the raw fish.

Waldo turned away in sickening disgust.
The girl seemed surprised and worried that he did not eat. Time and
again she tried to coax him by signs to join her; but he could not even
look at her. He had tried, after the first wave of revolt had subsided, but
when he discovered that she ate the entire fish, without bothering to
clean it or remove the scales, he became too ill to think of food.
Several times during the following week they ventured from their
hiding-place, and at these times it was evident from the girl's actions
that she was endeavoring to elude their enemies and reach a place of
safety other than that in which they were concealed. But at each venture
her quick ears or sensitive nostrils warned her of the proximity of
danger, so that they had been compelled to hurry back into their little
Eden.
During this period she taught Waldo many words of her native tongue,
so that by means of signs to bridge the gaps between, they were able to
communicate with a fair degree of satisfaction. Waldo's mastery of the
language was rapid.
On the tenth day the girl was able to make him understand that she
wished to escape with him to her own people; that these men among
whom he had found her were enemies of her tribe, and that she had
been hiding from them when Waldo stumbled upon her cave.
"I fled," she said. "My mother was killed. My father took another mate,
always cruel to me. But when I had wandered into the land of these
enemies I was afraid, and would have returned to my father's cave. But
I had gone too far.
"I would have to run very fast to escape them. Once I ran down a
narrow path to the ocean. It was dark. "As I wandered through the
woods I came suddenly out upon a beach, and there I saw a strange
figure on the sand. It was you. I wanted to learn what manner of man
you were. But I was very much afraid, so that I dared only watch you
from a distance.

"Five times I came down to look at you. You never saw me until the
last time, then you set out after me, roaring in a horrible voice.
"I was very much afraid, for I knew that you must be very brave to live
all alone by the edge of the forest without any shelter, or even a stone
to hurl at