The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1915-06-16
CHAPTER I.
A Hundred Thousand Years.

smooth, brOnZed skin, moved
~ silently through the jungle
primeval
His handsome head, with its shock
Of black hair, roughly cropped between
sharpened stones, was high held, the
delicate nostris questioning each va
grant breeze for word of 90. hunter
Of men.
Now his trained senses catch the
familiar odor of Ia, the great woolly
fhinOcerOs. directly in his path, but
M, the son of M, does not hunt Ia
this day. Does not the hide of Ta's
brother already hang before the en-
trance to Nus cave?
No; today M hunts the gigantic
cat, the fierce, saber toothed tiger, 90,
for Nat-ul, wOndrous daughter of old
Tha, will mate with none but the
mightiest of hunters.
Only so recently as the last dark
ness, as, beneath the great, equatorial
moon, the two had walked hand in
hand beside the restless sea, she had
made it quite plain to M, the son of
M, that not even he son of the chief
of chiefs, could claim her unless there
hung at the thong of his loin cloth the
fangs of 90.
'Nat-ul.' she had said to him, wish
es her man to be greater than other
men. She loves Nh now better than
her life. but if love is TO walk mt her
side during life. pride and respect
must walk with it,"
Her slender hand reached up to
stroke the young giants black hair.
81 am proud of Nu,' she continued.
"Among the young men of the tribe
there is no greater hunter or no
mightier fighter than Nh, the son of
M. Should you. single handed, Stay
90 before Il grown mans beard has
darkened your cheek none will he
greater in all the world than Nat-ul's
mate, M. the son of M
The young man was still sensible to
the sound Of her soft voice and the
caress Of her gentle touch upon his
brow. Even as these things had sent
him speeding forth into the jungle In
search OF 90 while the day was still
so young that the night prowling
beasts were yet abroad, so they urged
him forward deeper and deeper into
the dark and trackless maZes of the
tangled forest.
As he forged on the scent of Ia be
came stronger. until mt last the huge,
ungainly beast doomed large before
Nus eyes.
He wls standing in little clearing,
In deep, rank jungle grasses, and had
he not been head on toward M ne
would not have seen him, since even
his hearing was far too dun to appre
bend the noiselesS tread Of the cave
man moving lightly up wind.
As the tiny, bloodshot eyes of the
primOrdial beast discovered the man.
the great head went down and Ia. III,
natured and bellicoSe progenitor of the
equally i'll natured and bellicose rhin-
oceros Of the twentieth century, charg-
ed the little giant who had disturbed
his antediIuyian meditation.
The creatures great bulk and awk
ward uncOuth lines belied his speed
for he tore cyclOnically down upon Nh
and had not the brain and muscle of
the troglodyte been fitted by heritage
and training To the successful meet
Ing of such emergencies there would
be no tale to tell today of Nh, the son
of M
But the young man was prepared.
and, turning, he ran with the swiftness
OF hare toward the nearest tree, Il
huge, arbOreal fern, towering upon the
verge of the little clearing.
Like a eat. the man ran up the per
pendicular bOlc. his hands and feet
seeming barely to touch the project
ing knobs marking the remains of for
mer fronds which converted the tower
Ing stem into an easy stairway for
such as he.
About Nus neck his stone tipped
spear hung by its rawhide thong
down his back, while stone Ratchet and
stone knife dangled from his gee string.
giving him free use of his hands fer
climbing. You or /, having once gain
ed the seeming safety of the lowest
fronds Of the great tree. fifty feet
above the ground. might have heaved
great sigh Of relief that we had thus
easily escaped the hideOus monster be-
meath. But not so M, who was wise