Genesis | Page 6

of the two children killed by the cold.
But, after an examination to see what sort of things they were, they had tumbled the
bodies of the Hairy People over the cliff. These had been too bestial to bury as befitted
human dead, but too manlike to skin and eat as game.
Since then, they had often found traces of the Hairy People, and when they met with them,
they killed them without mercy. These were great shambling parodies of humanity,
long-armed, short-legged, twice as heavy as men, with close-set reddish eyes and heavy
bone-crushing jaws. They may have been incredibly debased humans, or perhaps beasts
on the very threshold of manhood. From what he had seen of conditions on this planet,
Kalvar Dard suspected the latter to be the case. In a million or so years, they might
evolve into something like humanity. Already, the Hairy ones had learned the use of fire,
and of chipped crude stone implements--mostly heavy triangular choppers to be used in
the hand, without helves.
Twice, after that night, the Hairy People had attacked them--once while they were on the
march, and once in camp. Both assaults had been beaten off without loss to themselves,
but at cost of precious ammunition. Once they had caught a band of ten of them
swimming a river on logs; they had picked them all off from the bank with their carbines.
Once, when Kalvar Dard and Analea had been scouting alone, they had come upon a
dozen of them huddled around a fire and had wiped them out with a single grenade. Once,
a large band of Hairy People hunted them for two days, but only twice had they come
close, and both times, a single shot had sent them all scampering. That had been after the
bombing of the group around the fire. Dard was convinced that the beings possessed the
rudiments of a language, enough to communicate a few simple ideas, such as the fact that
this little tribe of aliens were dangerous in the extreme.
* * * * *
There were Hairy People about now; for the past five days, moving northward through
the forest to the open grasslands, the people of Kalvar Dard had found traces of them.
Now, as they came out among the seedling growth at the edge of the open plains,
everybody was on the alert.
They emerged from the big trees and stopped among the young growth, looking out into
the open country. About a mile away, a herd of game was grazing slowly westward. In
the distance, they looked like the little horse-like things, no higher than a man's waist and
heavily maned and bearded, that had been one of their most important sources of meat.
For the ten thousandth time, Dard wished, as he strained his eyes, that somebody had
thought to secure a pair of binoculars when they had abandoned the rocket-boat. He
studied the grazing herd for a long time.
The seedling pines extended almost to the game-herd and would offer concealment for
the approach, but the animals were grazing into the wind, and their scent was much
keener than their vision. This would prelude one of their favorite hunting techniques, that

of lurking in the high grass ahead of the quarry. It had rained heavily in the past few days,
and the undermat of dead grass was soaked, making a fire-hunt impossible. Kalvar Dard
knew that he could stalk to within easy carbine-shot, but he was unwilling to use
cartridges on game; and in view of the proximity of Hairy People, he did not want to
divide his band for a drive hunt.
"What's the scheme?" Analea asked him, realizing the problem as well as he did. "Do we
try to take them from behind?"
"We'll take them from an angle," he decided. "We'll start from here and work in, closing
on them at the rear of the herd. Unless the wind shifts on us, we ought to get within
spear-cast. You and I will use the spears; Varnis can come along and cover for us with a
carbine. Glav, you and Olva and Dorita stay here with the children and the packs. Keep a
sharp lookout; Hairy People around, somewhere." He unslung his rifle and exchanged it
for Olva's spears. "We can only eat about two of them before the meat begins to spoil, but
kill all you can," he told Analea; "we need the skins."
Then he and the two girls began their slow, cautious, stalk. As long as the grassland was
dotted with young trees, they walked upright, making good time, but the last five hundred
yards they had to crawl, stopping often to check the wind, while the horse-herd drifted
slowly by. Then they were directly behind the herd, with