brought together at once to the court chamber. At the same time I
contrived, by means I need not go into here, to prevent any word of our
action from getting abroad. So, when the former staff faced me the next
morning, they learned that they were to be executed. I could trust not
one; they were all friends of the old man.

With the chiefs out of the way, and my own men taking their commands,
the whole army fell into my hands. True, there were some insurrections
here and there; but my men handled them with such speed and harshness
that any further stubbornness turned to admiration. By this time the
fame of Strokor was spread throughout the empire.

And thus it came about that, within a week of the night that old Maka
first put the idea into my head, Strokor, son of Strok, reigned
throughout Vlamaland. And, to make it complete, the army celebrated my
accession by taking a pledge before Jon:

"To Strokor, the fittest of the fit!"



IV

THE ASSAULT


Now, out of a total population of perhaps three million, I had about a
quarter-million first-class fighters in my half of the world. Klow, by
comparison, had but two-thirds the number; his land was not a rich one.