as he climbed he sank down on my ledge bleeding at the mouth it was about this time that the upper seemed to empty themselves nearly all the folk not yet smoked out 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 before adam w in the upper the swift one and i started to make a scramble for the 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 chattering 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 i stopped and looked down she was afraid and and urged me on so we went up over the top and plunged into the trees this event has often caused me to wonder and 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 she was their kind she had never been before adam lost from them that she had been born in the wild forest far from their haunts her father maybe a 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 fled toward the swamp and took refuge in the forest in that neighborhood and all day hunting parties of the fire people ranged the forest killing us wherever they found us it must have been a deliberately executed plan increasing beyond the limits of their own territory they had decided on making a conquest of ours sorry the conquest we had no chance against them it was slaughter slaughter for they spared none killing old and young 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 before adam 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 bent on their task of every way we turned we encountered them and because of this we saw much of their i did not see what became of my mother but i did see the shot down out of the old home tree and i am afraid that at the sight i did a bit of joyous before i leave this portion of my narrative i must tell of red eye he was caught with his wife in a tree down by the 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 we were well by the thicket in which we crouched fully a score of the hunters were under the tree 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 q before adam after a short interval his howling grew muffled 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 severely hurt for she made no effort to get away she crouched in a 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 ear and i had laughed at the old tree man and even as we had him with twigs and sticks so did the fire men with red eye s wife they her with the ends of their bows and her in the ribs but she was poor fun she would not fight nor for that matter would she get she continued to 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 for a while then one of them climbed before adam 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 down to the ground he did not move they looked at him and raised his head but it fell back 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 back from the tree they were not quick enough red eye s flying body landed in the midst of 