In short, it was a golden year. And then it happened. It was in the early morning, and we were surprised in our caves. In the chill gray light we awoke from sleep, most of us, to encounter death. The Swift One and I were aroused by a pandemonium3 of screeching4 and gibbering. Our cave was the highest of all on the cliff, and we crept to the mouth and peered down. The open space was filled with the Fire People. Their cries and yells were added to the clamor, but they had order and plan, while we Folk had none. Each one of us fought and acted for himself, and no one of us knew the extent of the calamity5 that was befalling us.
By the time we got to stone-throwing, the Fire People had massed thick at the base of the cliff. Our first volley must have mashed6 some heads, for when they swerved7 back from the cliff three of their number were left upon the ground. These were struggling and floundering, and one was trying to crawl away. But we fixed9 them. By this time we males were roaring with rage, and we rained rocks upon the three men that were down. Several of the Fire-Men returned to drag them into safety, but our rocks drove the rescuers back.
The Fire People became enraged10. Also, they became cautious. In spite of their angry yells, they kept at a distance and sent flights of arrows against us. This put an end to the rock-throwing. By the time half a dozen of us had been killed and a score injured, the rest of us retreated inside our caves. I was not out of range in my lofty cave, but the distance was great enough to spoil effective shooting, and the Fire People did not waste many arrows on me. Furthermore, I was curious. I wanted to see. While the Swift One remained well inside the cave, trembling with fear and making low wailing11 sounds because I would not come in, I crouched13 at the entrance and watched.
The fighting had now become intermittent14. It was a sort of deadlock15. We were in the caves, and the question with the Fire People was how to get us out. They did not dare come in after us, and in general we would not expose ourselves to their arrows. Occasionally, when one of them drew in close to the base of the cliff, one or another of the Folk would smash a rock down. In return, he would be transfixed by half a dozen arrows. This ruse16 worked well for some time, but finally the Folk no longer were inveigled17 into showing themselves. The deadlock was complete.
Behind the Fire People I could see the little wizened18 old hunter directing it all. They obeyed him, and went here and there at his commands. Some of them went into the forest and returned with loads of dry wood, leaves, and grass. All the Fire People drew in closer. While most of them stood by with bows and arrows, ready to shoot any of the Folk that exposed themselves, several of the Fire-Men heaped the dry grass and wood at the mouths of the lower tier of caves. Out of these heaps they conjured19 the monster we feared—FIRE. At first, wisps of smoke arose and curled up the cliff. Then I could see the red-tongued flames darting20 in and out through the wood like tiny snakes. The smoke grew thicker and thicker, at times shrouding21 the whole face of the cliff. But I was high up and it did not bother me much, though it stung my eyes and I rubbed them with my knuckles22.
Old Marrow-Bone was the first to be smoked out. A light fan of air drifted the smoke away at the time so that I saw clearly. He broke out through the smoke, stepping on a burning coal and screaming with the sudden hurt of it, and essayed to climb up the cliff. The arrows showered about him. He came to a pause on a ledge23, clutching a knob of rock for support, gasping24 and sneezing and shaking his head. He swayed back and forth25. The feathered ends of a dozen arrows were sticking out of him. He was an old man, and he did not want to die. He swayed wider and wider, his knees giving under him, and as he swayed he wailed26 most plaintively27. His hand released its grip and he lurched outward to the fall. His old bones must have been sadly broken. He groaned28 and strove feebly to rise, but a Fire-Man rushed in upon him and brained him with a club.
And as it happened with Marrow-Bone, so it happened with many of the Folk. Unable to endure the smoke-suffocation, they rushed out to fall beneath the arrows. Some of the women and children remained in the caves to strangle to death, but the majority met death outside.
When the Fire-Men had in this fashion cleared the first tier of caves, they began making arrangements to duplicate the operation on the second tier of caves. It was while they were climbing up with their grass and wood, that Red-Eye, followed by his wife, with the baby holding to her tightly, made a successful flight up the cliff. The Fire-Men must have concluded that in the interval29 between the smoking-out operations we would remain in our caves; so that they were unprepared, and their arrows did not begin to fly till Red-Eye and his wife were well up the wall. When he reached the top, he turned about and glared down at them, roaring and beating his chest. They arched their arrows at him, and though he was untouched he fled on.
I watched a third tier smoked out, and a fourth. A few of the Folk escaped up the cliff, but most of them were shot off the face of it as they strove to climb. I remember Long-Lip. He got as far as my ledge, crying piteously, an arrow clear through his chest, the feathered shaft30 sticking out behind, the bone head sticking out before, shot through the back as he climbed. He sank down on my ledge bleeding profusely31 at the mouth.
It was about this time that the upper tiers seemed to empty themselves spontaneously. Nearly all the Folk not yet smoked out stampeded up the cliff at the same time. This was the saving of many. The Fire People could not shoot arrows fast enough. They filled the air with arrows, and scores of the stricken Folk came tumbling down; but still there were a few who reached the top and got away.
The impulse of flight was now stronger in me than curiosity. The arrows had ceased flying. The last of the Folk seemed gone, though there may have been a few still hiding in the upper caves. The Swift One and I started to make a scramble32 for the cliff-top. At sight of us a great cry went up from the Fire People. This was not caused by me, but by the Swift One. They were chattering33 excitedly and pointing her out to one another. They did not try to shoot her. Not an arrow was discharged. They began calling softly and coaxingly34. I stopped and looked down. She was afraid, and whimpered and urged me on. So we went up over the top and plunged35 into the trees.
This event has often caused me to wonder and speculate. If she were really of their kind, she must have been lost from them at a time when she was too young to remember, else would she not have been afraid of them. On the other hand, it may well have been that while she was their kind she had never been lost from them; that she had been born in the wild forest far from their haunts, her father maybe a renegade Fire-Man, her mother maybe one of my own kind, one of the Folk. But who shall say? These things are beyond me, and the Swift One knew no more about them than did I.
We lived through a day of terror. Most of the survivors36 fled toward the blueberry swamp and took refuge in the forest in that neighborhood. And all day hunting parties of the Fire People ranged the forest, killing37 us wherever they found us. It must have been a deliberately38 executed plan. Increasing beyond the limits of their own territory, they had decided39 on making a conquest of ours. Sorry the conquest! We had no chance against them. It was slaughter40, indiscriminate slaughter, for they spared none, killing old and young, effectively ridding the land of our presence.
It was like the end of the world to us. We fled to the trees as a last refuge, only to be surrounded and killed, family by family. We saw much of this during that day, and besides, I wanted to see. The Swift One and I never remained long in one tree, and so escaped being surrounded. But there seemed no place to go. The Fire-Men were everywhere, bent41 on their task of extermination42. Every way we turned we encountered them, and because of this we saw much of their handiwork.
I did not see what became of my mother, but I did see the Chatterer shot down out of the old home-tree. And I am afraid that at the sight I did a bit of joyous43 teetering. Before I leave this portion of my narrative44, I must tell of Red-Eye. He was caught with his wife in a tree down by the blueberry swamp. The Swift One and I stopped long enough in our flight to see. The Fire-Men were too intent upon their work to notice us, and, furthermore, we were well screened by the thicket45 in which we crouched.
Fully46 a score of the hunters were under the tree, discharging arrows into it. They always picked up their arrows when they fell back to earth. I could not see Red-Eye, but I could hear him howling from somewhere in the tree.
After a short interval his howling grew muffled47. He must have crawled into a hollow in the trunk. But his wife did not win this shelter. An arrow brought her to the ground. She was severely48 hurt, for she made no effort to get away. She crouched in a sheltering way over her baby (which clung tightly to her), and made pleading signs and sounds to the Fire-Men. They gathered about her and laughed at her—even as Lop-Ear and I had laughed at the old Tree-Man. And even as we had poked49 him with twigs50 and sticks, so did the Fire-Men with Red-Eye’s wife. They poked her with the ends of their bows, and prodded51 her in the ribs52. But she was poor fun. She would not fight. Nor, for that matter, would she get angry. She continued to crouch12 over her baby and to plead. One of the Fire-Men stepped close to her. In his hand was a club. She saw and understood, but she made only the pleading sounds until the blow fell.
Red-Eye, in the hollow of the trunk, was safe from their arrows. They stood together and debated for a while, then one of them climbed into the tree. What happened up there I could not tell, but I heard him yell and saw the excitement of those that remained beneath. After several minutes his body crashed down to the ground. He did not move. They looked at him and raised his head, but it fell back limply when they let go. Red-Eye had accounted for himself.
They were very angry. There was an opening into the trunk close to the ground. They gathered wood and grass and built a fire. The Swift One and I, our arms around each other, waited and watched in the thicket. Sometimes they threw upon the fire green branches with many leaves, whereupon the smoke became very thick.
We saw them suddenly swerve8 back from the tree. They were not quick enough. Red-Eye’s flying body landed in the midst of them.
He was in a frightful53 rage, smashing about with his long arms right and left. He pulled the face off one of them, literally54 pulled it off with those gnarly fingers of his and those tremendous muscles. He bit another through the neck. The Fire-Men fell back with wild fierce yells, then rushed upon him. He managed to get hold of a club and began crushing heads like eggshells. He was too much for them, and they were compelled to fall back again. This was his chance, and he turned his back upon them and ran for it, still howling wrathfully. A few arrows sped after him, but he plunged into a thicket and was gone.
The Swift One and I crept quietly away, only to run foul55 of another party of Fire-Men. They chased us into the blueberry swamp, but we knew the tree-paths across the farther morasses56 where they could not follow on the ground, and so we escaped. We came out on the other side into a narrow strip of forest that separated the blueberry swamp from the great swamp that extended westward58. Here we met Lop-Ear. How he had escaped I cannot imagine, unless he had not slept the preceding night at the caves.
Here, in the strip of forest, we might have built tree-shelters and settled down; but the Fire People were performing their work of extermination thoroughly59. In the afternoon, Hair-Face and his wife fled out from among the trees to the east, passed us, and were gone. They fled silently and swiftly, with alarm in their faces. In the direction from which they had come we heard the cries and yells of the hunters, and the screeching of some one of the Folk. The Fire People had found their way across the swamp.
The Swift One, Lop-Ear, and I followed on the heels of Hair-Face and his wife. When we came to the edge of the great swamp, we stopped. We did not know its paths. It was outside our territory, and it had been always avoided by the Folk. None had ever gone into it—at least, to return. In our minds it represented mystery and fear, the terrible unknown. As I say, we stopped at the edge of it. We were afraid. The cries of the Fire-Men were drawing nearer. We looked at one another. Hair-Face ran out on the quaking morass57 and gained the firmer footing of a grass-hummock60 a dozen yards away. His wife did not follow. She tried to, but shrank back from the treacherous61 surface and cowered62 down.
The Swift One did not wait for me, nor did she pause till she had passed beyond Hair-Face a hundred yards and gained a much larger hummock. By the time Lop-Ear and I had caught up with her, the Fire-Men appeared among the trees. Hair-Face’s wife, driven by them into panic terror, dashed after us. But she ran blindly, without caution, and broke through the crust. We turned and watched, and saw them shoot her with arrows as she sank down in the mud. The arrows began falling about us. Hair-Face had now joined us, and the four of us plunged on, we knew not whither, deeper and deeper into the swamp.
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1
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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2
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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3
pandemonium
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| n.喧嚣，大混乱 | |
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4
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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5
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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6
mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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7
swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swerve
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| v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离 | |
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9
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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10
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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11
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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12
crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
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13
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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15
deadlock
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| n.僵局，僵持 | |
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16
ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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17
inveigled
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| v.诱骗，引诱( inveigle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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19
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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20
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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21
shrouding
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| n.覆盖v.隐瞒( shroud的现在分词 )；保密 | |
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22
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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23
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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24
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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25
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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26
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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28
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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29
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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30
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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31
profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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32
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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33
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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34
coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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35
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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36
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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37
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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38
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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39
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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40
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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41
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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42
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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43
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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44
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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45
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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46
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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47
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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48
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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49
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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50
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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51
prodded
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| v.刺，戳( prod的过去式和过去分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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52
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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53
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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54
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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55
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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56
morasses
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| n.缠作一团( morass的名词复数 )；困境；沼泽；陷阱 | |
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57
morass
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| n.沼泽，困境 | |
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58
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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59
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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60
hummock
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| n.小丘 | |
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61
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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62
cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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