I told him that I wanted Humpback for my mate, and that she must come to my hut; and he rose up and roared that it should not be; that she it was who did most of the labour, and that he would not part with her, though we were friends, and fished and hunted together, and were ready to fight each for the other, either against beast or man. His words did not change me. Perhaps they made me but have a greater desire for the woman who was so different from others, and my blood ran wild, and my anger rose at being thwarted, and I not only cajoled, but threatened, the man who had been my close companion. I told him that I would give him the best of my furred skins, and that I would bring much meat to his cave, and that, though we lived apart, we would be almost as one family, and, finally, he consented, it may be because of the look on my face, which he knew left him no choice; and why should there be a fight between us, who had been friends so long? So that matter was settled, and we thought of other things, and laughed and talked once more of the noose and the taming. And of that talk came many happenings, and great ones. We had been made wiser because of our adventure with the aurochs bull, and our memory of what followed the affair of Gnawbones and the wood leopard. We saw that we must seek the capture only of the grass-eaters, and among these the ones which were weak enough to be overcome in any struggle. Only the smaller beasts could we wisely or safely take, or, even better, the young of the greater ones. We agreed upon that. Then, so interested in our fancy did we become, that we planned for another trial. What came of that made life better for me. There remained, even in this region, some of the little horses which had formerly been abundant, as I had known from the scarred bones which lay deep on the floors of caves in many hillsides. They were the bones of horses eaten by the Cave men of the past, and bore the marks of their strong teeth. Other bones there were, and in some of the caves marks on the stone walls showed that they were rude pictures of these same horses. And, as I have said, there were scattering herds of them left; and, after long toil, we decided that we would capture a wild horse.