It cannot be said that they rushed forward.
If it was their wish to fall upon him there was a noticeable lack
of enthusiasm other than that which directed their efforts to
persuade someone else to fall upon him. His fame as a fighter had
been too long a topic of conversation for the good of the morale of
Mo-sar's warriors. It were safer to stand at a distance and hurl
their clubs and this they did, but the ape-man had learned something
of the use of this weapon since he had arrived in Pal-ul-don. And
as he learned great had grown his respect for this most primitive
of arms. He had come to realize that the black savages he had known
had never appreciated the possibilities of their knob sticks, nor
had he, and he had discovered, too, why the Pal-ul-donians had
turned their ancient spears into plowshares and pinned their faith
to the heavy-ended club alone. In deadly execution it was far more
effective than a spear and it answered, too, every purpose of
a shield, combining the two in one and thus reducing the burden
of the warrior. Thrown as they throw it, after the manner of the
hammer-throwers of the Olympian games, an ordinary shield would
prove more a weakness than a strength while one that would be
strong enough to prove a protection would be too heavy to carry.
Only another club, deftly wielded to deflect the course of an enemy
missile, is in any way effective against these formidable weapons
and, too, the war club of Pal-ul-don can be thrown with accuracy
a far greater distance than any spear.
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