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took Click with the red hair. That sufficed for two nights. And then in
the dark between the moons he came three nights, night after night, and
that though they had good fires. He was an old lion with stumpy teeth,
but very silent and very cool; he knew of fires before; these were not
the first of mankind that had ministered to his old age. The third night
he came between the outer fire and the inner, and he leapt the flint
heap, and pulled down Irm the son of Irk, who had seemed like to be the
leader. That was a dreadful night, because they lit great flares of fern
and ran screaming, and the lion missed his hold of Irm. By the glare of
the fire they saw Irm struggle up, and run a little way towards them,
and then the lion in two bounds had him down again. That was the last of
Irm.
So fear came, and all the delight of spring passed out of their lives.
Already there were five gone out of the tribe, and four nights added
three more to the number. Food-seeking became spiritless, none knew who
might go next, and all day the women toiled, even the favourite women,
gathering litter and sticks for the night fires. And the hunters hunted
ill: in the warm spring-time hunger came again as though it was still
winter. The tribe might have moved, had they had a leader, but they had
no leader, and none knew where to go that the lion could not follow
them. So the old lion waxed fat and thanked heaven for the kindly race
of men. Two of the children and a youth died while the moon was still
new, and then it was the shrivelled old fire-minder first bethought
herself in a dream of Eudena and Ugh-lomi, and of the way Uya had been
slain. She had lived in fear of Uya all her days, and now she lived in
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