Jack London. Before Adam -
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which were recognized by the young ones. Thus, had my mother
been there calling to me, I should have recognized her voice
amongst the voices of a thousand mothers, and in the same way
would she have recognized mine amongst a thousand.
This calling back and forth continued for some time, but
they were too cautious to come out of their caves and descend
to the ground. Finally one did come. He was destined to play a
large part in my life, and for that matter he already played a
large part in the lives of all the members of the horde. He it
was whom I shall call Red-Eye in the pages of this history--so
called because of his inflamed eyes, the lids being always red,
and, by the peculiar effect they produced, seeming to advertise
the terrible savagery of him. The color of his soul was red.
He was a monster in all ways. Physically he was a giant.
He must have weighed one hundred and seventy pounds. He was the
largest one of our kind I ever saw. Nor did I ever see one of
the Fire People so large as he, nor one of the Tree People.
Sometimes, when in the newspapers I happen upon descriptions of
our modern bruisers and prizefighters, I wonder what chance the
best of them would have had against him.
I am afraid not much of a chance. With one grip of his
iron fingers and a pull, he could have plucked a muscle, say a
biceps, by the roots, clear out of their bodies. A back-handed,
loose blow of his fist could have smashed their skulls like
egg-shells. With a sweep of his wicked feet (or hind-hands) he
could have disembowelled them. A twist could have broken their
necks, and I know that with a single crunch of his jaws he
could have pierced, at the same moment, the great vein of the
throat in front and the spinal marrow at the back.