They had faith in their leader,
Boarface, and expected confidently every moment an onslaught to aid
them from above. And so they came up the watery slope, one pressing
blood-thirstily behind the other with an earnestness none but men as
strong and well equipped and as brave or braver could hope to withstand.
The closing struggle was desperate.
Hilltop stood to the front, between two rocks some few yards apart, over
which bubbled the shallow creek, and between which was the main upward
entrance to the valley. He stood upon a rock almost as flat as if some
expert engineer of ages later had planed its surface and then adjusted it
to a level, leaving the shallow waters tumbling all about it. The rock
out-jutted somewhat on the slope and there must necessarily be some
little climb to face the aged defender. On either side was a stretch of
down-running, gradually-sloping waterfall, full of great boulders,
embarrassing any straight rush of a group together, but, between and
upward, sprang swart men, and facing them on either side of old Hilltop
beyond the rocks were the remainder of the mass of cave men upon whom he
depended for making good the defense of the whole barrier. Beside him, in
the center of the battle, were the two creatures in the world upon whom
he could most depend, his stalwart and splendid sons, Strong-Arm and
Branch.
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