ripped Ugh-lomi's guarding arm and the club came down in a counter that

Siss was never to understand. He fell, as an ox falls to the pole-axe,

at Ugh-lomi's feet.

To Bo it seemed the strangest thing. He had a comforting sense of tall

reeds on either side, and an impregnable rampart, Siss, between him and

any danger. Snail-eater was close behind and there was no danger there.

He was prepared to shove behind and send Siss to death or victory. That

was his place as second man. He saw the butt of the spear Siss carried

leap away from him, and suddenly a dull whack and the broad back fell

away forward, and he looked Ugh-lomi in the face over his prostrate

leader. It felt to Bo as if his heart had fallen down a well. He had a

throwing-stone in one hand and an ashen stabbing-stick in the other. He

did not live to the end of his momentary hesitation which to use.

Snail-eater was a readier man, and besides Bo did not fall forward as

Siss had done, but gave at his knees and hips, crumpling up with the

toothed club upon his head. The Snail-eater drove his spear forward

swift and straight, and took Ugh-lomi in the muscle of the shoulder, and

then he drove him hard with the smiting-stone in his other hand,

shouting out as he did so. The new club swished ineffectually through

the reeds. Eudena saw Ugh-lomi come staggering back from the narrow path

into the open space, tripping over Siss and with a foot of ashen stake

sticking out of him over his arm. And then the Snail-eater, whose name

she had given, had his final injury from her, as his exultant face came

out of the reeds after his spear. For she swung the first axe swift and

123

Tales of Space and Time