mud and we just saved it and no more. Afterwards the officer's horse
fell with him so that he bruised his head on a stone. My companion
injured one knee against a tree. Some of the men also fell and were
injured. The horses breathed heavily. Somewhere dimly and gloomily
a crow cawed. Later the road became worse still. The trail followed
through the same miry swamp but everywhere the road was blocked with
fallen tree trunks. The horses, jumping over the trunks, would land in
an unexpectedly deep hole and flounder. We and all the soldiers were
covered with blood and mud and were in great fear of exhausting our
mounts. For a long distance we had to get down and lead them. At last we
entered a broad meadow covered with bushes and bordered with rocks. Not
only horses but riders also began to sink to their middle in a quagmire
with apparently no bottom. The whole surface of the meadow was but a
thin layer of turf, covering a lake with black putrefying water. When
we finally learned to open our column and proceed at big intervals, we
found we could keep on this surface that undulated like rubber ice and
swayed the bushes up and down. In places the earth buckled up and broke.

Suddenly, three shots sounded. They were hardly more than the report of
a Flobert rifle; but they were genuine shots, because the officer and
two soldiers fell to the ground. The other soldiers grabbed their rifles
and, with fear, looked about for the enemy. Four more were soon unseated
and suddenly I noticed our rearguard brute raise his rifle and aim
right at me. However, my Mauser outstrode his rifle and I was allowed to
continue my story.

"Begin!" I cried to my friend and we took part in the shooting. Soon the
meadow began to swarm with Soyots, stripping the fallen, dividing the
spoils and recapturing their horses. In some forms of warfare it is
never safe to leave any of the enemy to renew hostilities later with