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on.
At last the two fugitives gained the bank of the river, where the stream
ran deep and narrow, and they still had fifty yards in hand of Wau, the
foremost pursuer, the man who made the smiting-stones. He carried one, a
large flint, the shape of an oyster and double the size, chipped to a
chisel edge, in either hand.
They sprang down the steep bank into the stream, rushed through the
water, swam the deep current in two or three strokes, and came out
wading again, dripping and refreshed, to clamber up the farther bank.
It was undermined, and with willows growing thickly therefrom, so that
it needed clambering. And while Eudena was still among the silvery
branches and Ugh-lomi still in the water--for the antler had encumbered
him--Wau came up against the sky on the opposite bank, and the
smiting-stone, thrown cunningly, took the side of Eudena's knee. She
struggled to the top and fell.
They heard the pursuers shout to one another, and Ugh-lomi climbing to
her and moving jerkily to mar Wau's aim, felt the second smiting-stone
graze his ear, and heard the water splash below him.
Then it was Ugh-lomi, the stripling, proved himself to have come to
man's estate. For running on, he found Eudena fell behind, limping, and
at that he turned, and crying savagely and with a face terrible with
sudden wrath and trickling blood, ran swiftly past her back to the bank,
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