John Masters Read Online Free PDF

quavering slow, twice. Then he picked up his spear and stood, tautly strung, pressed against the rock.
    Cryer and Red Boy would be starting up the slope. When the Others heard them, would they ask themselves why they were coming? They would be too heavy and sleepy to wonder. Small stones rolled away under someone's feet, and then he heard Red Boy's breathing. A moment later there was a tiny movement above. An Other had heard it, too.
    And in that instant the Man saw, six inches from his right foot, a crouched bird. His heart nearly stopped, for if it flew up now ... The Others would be creeping to the cave mouth ... the bird did not move ... they would be looking down, gathering ... the bird moved its head, no more. Another five steps and it would not matter: four, three, two ... Cryer and Red Boy were level. The Others meant to let them reach the cave itself and kill them there.
    He muttered, "Look up. See. Scream. Run."
    As he spoke, Cryer obeyed: stopped—looked up—then she really saw them crouched in the cave mouth above, for her mouth opened in a rising shriek, and she turned and hurtled down the slope, Red Boy beside her. The bird shot up drumming from the Man's foot with a loud squawk. Above there was a bellow and the pad of running feet. Two young males crashed past down the gully, and the Man let them go. A moment later the big male came, running at full speed, and the Man cried, "Now!" His young men jerked up the thong; and the Other tripped over it and went flying head first far down the slope. As he landed, Snowborn crashed her ax into his head. By then the three men were racing after the young Others. Below, Cryer and Red Boy turned, snarling in the moonglow. The others slowed and drew back their spear arms. Neither looked around as Feetborn's Son and Lefthand struck, hurling their spears between their shoulder blades from a few feet away. The Others fell, coughing, and the men pounced. "Kill, kill, quick!" the Man cried. He stabbed once, pulled his spear free, and started back up the slope, all the rest with him. There was only one more male Other, the twisted one.
    The six of them reached the cave mouth together, all armed now. The old female was there, keening and screaming, the big female behind, and many cubs, all staring, snarling, backing up into the darkness. Where was the bent one, the last male?
    The Man saw him on the left. He pushed Snowborn and said, "Kill the big female!" Snowborn granted and ran forward, her ax held high, the Man close behind her. The big female stabbed out at her, piercing her shoulder, but the Man, leaning over Snowborn's bent body, passed his spear through the female's throat. Then he turned and ran at the twisted male. He was waiting, crouched, bent. As the Man feinted a thrust, he too feinted, and as the Man struck, he stabbed upward with his short spear at the Man's belly. The Man felt a burning pain under the ribs but laughed aloud, for the spear was blunt, and it had not entered his bowels. As he stabbed down at the exposed back, Snowborn hit the Other on the ear with her ax, and he fell. The Man thrust his spear into his throat, waited while the jerking stopped, then turned around.
    Now all were running about, screaming. In the cave mouth Lefthand and Feetborn's Son struck regularly so that none passed, and beside them Cryer and Red Boy stabbed those who fell. The female with a cub at breast rushed suddenly out of the depths of the cave and brushed past the Man, taking him by surprise. He grabbed at her but missed. The men at the cave mouth were both engaged, and the screaming female ran past them and out into the snow.
    Now they searched the cave and found a female hiding behind a pillar, and several cubs, and killed them all. The saliva began to pour from the Man's mouth, for it was almost done now. There was only the old female left, crawling by the entrance, and her Cryer killed and took a big tooth that was hung around her neck and put it around her own.
    The Man