XVIIAdam and Belgrade would have avoided the Neanderthals if they could. They had no real confidence that their ruse would succeed. But the hairy men held the river bank between them and the plane, and there was no alternative.
They approached the strange foe with all the ceremony they could assume. They strode along side by side, looking straight to the front, their left hands raised high over their heads holding their lamps; Belgrade carried his rifle over his right shoulder. They seemed fearless, lofty, and the soul of inexorable god-like calm, but really their hearts were hammering against their ribs, and beneath their goggles their faces showed pale and drawn.
They had so little to go on. What did they really know of the thought and emotional processes of the Neanderthal men? These
