With a tremendous heave, Karn hurled the giant idol to the floor
The Frightened Planet
By Sidney Austen
Karn was only a savage, but he knew a thing or two
about the way justice should be meted out—and he did it
Against the blackness of the early morning sky the huge ball traced anarc of flame. Had Karn been watching the sky he would have seen the ballslow in its descent and then come to a landing some distance ahead ofhim. But he was too busy for that.
On the back of his neck the short hairs told him that pursuit was still[Pg 30]close behind. He put on a fresh burst of speed, his bare feet making nosound on the trail he followed. Soon the early breeze would shift andthey would lose his scent.
Until then he was in danger from the males of Tur’s tribe. Tur thecoward, Karn thought. Tur the bully. Tur the leader of the tribe. Turhad never liked Karn. He had liked him even less as he grew intomagnificent Cro-Magnon manhood. Karn represented the challenge that mustcome to every leader sooner or later.
Then the wind shifted and Karn slowed. They’d give him up now. He wascertain of that. But what to do next? He was all alone, an outcast fromhis tribe. For a full-grown man to find another tribe was impossible.
Still, he wasn’t sorry about the fight. It had been a good one. Tur wasstill in his prime. He’d used his teeth and his feet and every trick heknew. He wasn’t quite as strong as Karn, nor as fast, but he’d had theadvantage of experience.
Only one thing Tur lacked, in common with the other members of thetribe, and it was that which had lost him the fight. He had almost noinventiveness. For Karn’s questing mind Tur hated him. He could notunderstand a man who found interest in new situations. And what Turcould not understand he hated.
So they had fought. For a while Tur held the upper hand. He had metevery rush of Karn’s and repulsed it. But Karn had noticed that everyattack from Tur’s left was met by a singular twist of the chief’s body.
Once Tur twisted. Twice; a third time; and a fourth time he swungaround. The fifth time Karn was not there. He’d stopped himself inmid-stride, reversed himself and caught Tur off balance. Then steelfingers had fastened on Tur’s throat in unshakable tenacity.
That was when the other males had charged to his rescue. Tur, theyhated. But Karn they hated more. Karn made up his mind quickly. Glatalone he could have torn limb from limb. Waan alone would have fared nobetter. But they and the others together represented for him a quick andcertain death.
Then it had been run, run, run. Run with all of them after him. Run intothe forest in the night. Only the giant wolf and the saber-tooth there.But they were not half so deadly as his own blood relatives.
Now the chase was over. Karn paused, his chest heaving. In a few minuteshis breathing was back to normal. It didn’t take this man long torecover. Karn grinned into the darkness. It would take Tur longer. He’dwear those welts on his throat for a while.
Karn shrugged and sniffed the night air. Better move ahead. No smell ofthe big cats. But there was a nest of wolves off to his right. Theyslept now, but soon they’d be