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discoloured rock, slashed the face of the cliff, and gave a footing to a
scrubby growth, by which Eudena and Ugh-lomi went up and down.
They stood as noiseless as startled deer, with every sense expectant.
For a minute they heard nothing, and then came a faint rattling of dust
down the gully, and the creaking of twigs.
Ugh-lomi gripped his axe, and went to the edge of the ledge, for the
bulge of the chalk overhead had hidden the upper part of the gully. And
forthwith, with a sudden contraction of the heart, he saw the cave bear
half-way down from the brow, and making a gingerly backward step with
his flat hind-foot. His hind-quarters were towards Ugh-lomi, and he
clawed at the rocks and bushes so that he seemed flattened against the
cliff. He looked none the less for that. From his shining snout to his
stumpy tail he was a lion and a half, the length of two tall men. He
looked over his shoulder, and his huge mouth was open with the exertion
of holding up his great carcase, and his tongue lay out....
He got his footing, and came down slowly, a yard nearer.
"Bear," said Ugh-lomi, looking round with his face white.
But Eudena, with terror in her eyes, was pointing down the cliff.
Ugh-lomi's mouth fell open. For down below, with her big fore-feet
against the rock, stood another big brown-grey bulk--the she-bear. She
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