The Story of Ab | Page 6

she was
twenty feet above the ground, and then, lifting herself into a
comfortable place, in a moment was sitting there at ease, her legs and
one arm coiled about the big branch and a smaller upstanding one,
while the other arm held the brown babe close to her bosom.
This charming lady of the period had reached her perch in the beech
tree top none too soon. Even as she swung herself into place upon the

huge bough, there came rushing across the space beneath, snarling,
smelling and seeking, a brute as foul and dangerous as could be
imagined for mother and son upon the ground. It was of a dirty dun
color, mottled and striped with a lighter but still dingy hue. It had a
black, hoggish nose, but there were fangs in its great jaws. It resembled
a huge wolf, save as to its massiveness and club countenance, It was
one of the monster hyenas of the time, a beast which must have been as
dangerous to the men then living as any animal except the cave tiger
and the cave bear. Its degenerate posterity, as they shuffle uneasily
back and forth when caged to-day, are perhaps not less foul of aspect,
but are relatively pygmies. Doubtless the brute had scented the sleeping
babe, and, snarling aloud in its search, had waked it, inducing the cry
which proved the child's salvation.
The beast scented immediately the prey above him and leaped upward
ferociously and vainly. Was the woman thus beset thus holding herself
aloft and with her child upon one arm in a state of sickening anxiety?
Hardly! She but encircled the supporting branch the closer, and laughed
aloud. She even poked one bare foot down at the leaping beast, and
waved her leg in provocation. At the same time there was no doubt that
she was beset. Furthermore she was hungry, and so she raised her voice,
and sent out through the forest a strange call, a quavering minor wail,
but something to be heard at a great distance. There was no delay in the
response, for delays were dangerous when cave men lived. The call was
answered instantly and the answering cry was repeated as she called
again, the sound of the reply approaching near and nearer all the time.
All at once the manner of her calling changed; it was an appeal no
longer; it was a conversation, an odd, clucking, penetrating speech in
the shortest of sentences. She was telling of the situation. There was
prompt reply; the voice seemed suddenly higher in the air and then
came, swinging easily from branch to branch along the treetops, the
father of Ab, a person who felt a natural and aggressive interest in what
was going on.
To describe the cave man it is, it may be, best of all to say that he was
the woman over again, only stronger, longer limbed and deeper chested,
firmer of jaw and more grim of countenance. He was dressed almost as

she was. From his broad shoulder hung a cloak of the skin of some wild
beast but the cord which tied it was a stout one, and in the belt thus
formed was stuck a weapon of such quality as men have rarely carried
since. It was a stone ax; an ax heavier than any battle-ax of mediaeval
times, its haft a scant three feet in length, inclosing the ax through a
split in the tough wood, all being held in place by a taut and hardened
mass of knotted sinews. It was a fearful weapon, but one only to be
wielded by such a man as this, one with arms almost as mighty as those
of the gorilla.
The man sat himself upon the limb beside his wife and child. The two
talked together in their clucking language for a moment or two, but few
words were wasted. Words had not their present abundance in those
days; action was everything. The man was hungry, too, and wanted to
get home as soon as possible. He had secured food, which was awaiting
them, and this slight, annoying episode of the day must be ended
promptly. He clambered easily up the tree and wrenched off a deadened
limb at least two yards in length, then tumbling back again and passing
his wife and child along the main branch, he swung down to where the
leaping beast could almost reach him. The heavy club he carried gave
him an advantage. With a whistling sweep, as the hyena leaped upward
in its ravenous folly, came this huge club crashing against the thick
skull, a blow so fair and stark and strong that the stunned beast fell
backward upon the ground, and then, down, lightly as any monkey,
dropped the cave man.