It is
dry, and gives some protection against the wind.
'But it is too hard to defend,' he continued. 'Even with a man
guarding each entrance, we had to keep our fires burning brightly and
our weapons close at hand. Barabbas held it more through intimidation
than anything. Perhaps we could block all but one entrance. But the
rock is like hard white earth filled with pebbles---'
'Limestone,' interjected the girl.
'Yes, and not always firm to brace wooden poles and stones
across.' His gaze returned from the low roof. 'Do you want to
here this?'
'Yes, very much.' Even this brief scenario had given a clearer
picture of his life among the hill-people than all the shy, abbreviated
accounts which had come before it.
'There are other caves, along the ridge farther north. But they are
not large, and too close to the bottom of the gorge. I don't like to
think that other creatures could crawl down on me: being below the level
of the land. Then there are the earth-holes dug by the wolves in the
Northern Hills. With Akar ---the pack has gone to the South, as I told
you---it would be all right for us to live there until Spring, perhaps
longer.
'But there also, there are too many unknowns. The great bears come
farther south in Winter, crossing the Broad River far to the west, where
it is shallower and stony.
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