The three paused to listen. The intelligent look went out of their eyes, and gave place to the plaintive child look—the animal look.
“That will be No Man,” said Fish Catch presently.
Now if you or I had been in the glade in front of One Eye’s cave, we would not have known that there was anybody but One Eye, Strong Hand and Fish Catch within a hundred miles. But these three men having the acuteness of dogs, had heard footsteps that were half a mile away, and not only that, but they had almost instantly known to whom the footsteps belonged. If the wind had been right, they could have told also by sense of smell.
“He is coming in this direction,” said One Eye.
“He steps stronger with one foot than the other,” said Strong Hand. “He is carrying something heavy.”
“Perhaps No Man wants One Eye’s daughter,” said Fish Catch with an ugly laugh.
“I wonder what he is carrying?” said One Eye.
This No Man was so called, because he would neither hunt, fish, make weapons, nets, or marry. Therefore he was No Man. He lived on charity, and scratched pictures on bone. That was the only thing that interested him. He was suffered to live only because he was mysterious and because the tribe liked to go to his cave and look at the pictures when there was nothing better to do.
Presently he came out of the woods, slope-shouldered and long-armed like the others, but not so heavily built, nor so apishly skulled. He seemed, besides, less stealthy, but more timid.
He had tucked under his right arm a huge flat bone. This he laid before One Eye. It was covered with little etched scenes of the chase and of the fight—throughout which a man, palpably having but one eye, deported himself with the utmost heroism—now strangling a bear, and now beating the life out of an enemy.
“This,” said No Man, “is the whole story of One Eye from the beginning. It is the most beautiful picture bone that has ever been made in the world. Sitting alone in my cave, it befell on a time that a great loneliness came upon me. And the woman whose image rose most often before me, was the daughter of One Eye. Therefore I have wrought the bone, sparing no labor, and now I offer it to One Eye for the loss of his daughter. It is a thing which will keep him company in his old age. For to look upon it is to be reminded of his glorious deeds.”
As One Eye examined the picture bone, the intelligence went out of his one eye. It wavered and became plaintive. Reason told him that nets were more valuable than clubs and clubs more valuable than pictures. But desire, which is a thing apart from reason, clamored for the bone.
“I wish this picture bone,” he said presently. “It is of no use, neither is it of any value. Yet I wish it.”
Strong Hand and Fish Catch looked at one another stealthily and then at No Man. It would be impossible to say which sprang upon him first, nor at whose hands he suffered the most. They so choked, beat and clubbed him that he screamed for mercy. One Eye blinked in the mouth of his cave and chuckled.
“Is it enough?” cried Strong Hand presently, “Filthy-do-nothing—Marrowless-bone.”
“It is enough,” said No Man, and they let him go.
Directly he had gained his feet, he ran from that place with incredible swiftness, and howled as he ran.
“The picture bone,” said Fish Catch to One Eye, “is now ours, but knowing that you desire it, we give it to you to be a solace in your old age. And now it remains for you to choose between those admirably balanced but somewhat antiquated clubs which Strong Hand offers and this invaluable net knotted by myself.”
“Fish Catch—Strong Hand,” said One Eye, “I have thought of a way by which we may all be satisfied. The thought came to me when you fell upon No Man. Let each one of you take a club, and at the word fight, the one who wins shall give me his present and take the girl.”
Fish Catch measured Strong Hand with his eye; Strong Hand measured Fish Catch. They nodded, which meant that what the old man said was good talk.
The latter called over his shoulder into the cave.
“Maku, come out! There will be a fight!”
Maku came at once, eagerly. She was, as we have said, the image of her father, only less hairy. She was considered very alluring by the young men of the tribe.
Meanwhile Strong Hand and Fish Catch had each taken a club and backed away from each other.
“Is it about me?” asked Maku.
“It is.”
She laughed happily.
“Fight!” commanded One Eye.
At the word Strong Hand and Fish Catch sprang forward and fell upon each other with roars and blows. There was no question of fence involved, only the ability to hit hardest and take the most punishment. As they fought they became beasts, yelping, snarling, snapping and foaming—totally unlike articulate men. Blows that would have splintered a modern skull to atoms were given and taken. Now the clubs cracked upon bone and now thudded upon muscle. One Eye and Maku roared with laughter and screamed with pleasure. The fight ended with a blow that broke Fish Catch’s forehead into two halves. But, although he fell as if struck by lightning, he did not die at once; he moaned and his lips twitched. His eyes were plaintive and uncomprehending like those of a frightened child. He blinked, too, as he died.
Strong Hand tossed his club down at One Eye’s feet.
“The girl is yours,” said One Eye.
Strong Hand’s eyes glittered and he looked the girl over. He reached forward a vast hairy hand and took her by the shoulders. But she wrenched loose, half laughing, half screaming, and fled into the cave. Strong Hand followed. One Eye chuckled and thought upon the days of his youth.
In the darkness of the cave there was a sudden fierce struggle, a cry of pain from Strong Hand, and Maku, bounding from the entrance, made swiftly down the slope toward the forest. But Strong Hand, bleeding on the shoulder where her teeth had met, was close behind. Swift as she was, he caught up with her in a few bounds and felled her with a blow on the head. Stunned and motionless she lay at his feet.
Strong Hand twined his left hand in her long black hair and dragged her after him until the trees had closed behind them both.
When One Eye had done laughing, for the whole scene had seemed very humorous to him, he gathered together his treasures and hid them in the cave.
“I now have,” he said, “the clubs, the net, the strongest among three for a son-in-law, and also the picture bone. I am, therefore, the richest man in the tribe, save only Moon Face, and than him there is none richer in all the forest.”
When One Eye thought about the clubs his eye flashed and he clinched his hands. When he thought about the net he scratched his stomach—either with hand or foot. But when he thought about the picture bone, the reason went out of his eye, and it became strange and plaintive.
And as for Maku, it was not long before she followed her husband like a dog, whimpering and laughing when he spoke to her, craving his caresses and enjoying his blows.
