with a black face. Again he faced me.

"What means this, ye huge bundle of lies? What mean ye by tricking us
with yon badge of surrender, only to tie our hands with thy magic of
Hofe? Is this the way to fight like a man?"

I had stood at ease in my door since rolling the iron. Now, I looked
about me still more easily; my men were running down the louts, who had
jumped from their useless chariots and taken to their heels. 'Twere but
a matter of time before the army of Klow would be no more, at that rate.

"Klow," I answered him mildly; "ye are right; this is not the way to
fight like a man. Neither," I pointed out one of the fallen air-cars;
"neither is that the way, flitting over our heads like shadows, and
destroying us with filthy smoke! Shame on ye, Klow, for stooping to
such! And upon thy own head be the blame for the trick I have played
upon ye!"

"You attacked us without provocation," he muttered, sourly.

"Aye, and for a very good reason," I replied. "Yet I see thy viewpoint,
and shalt give thee the benefit of the doubt." I turned to my whistlers
and gave an order; so that presently the great slaughter had stopped. My
men and Klow's alike struggled back to see what were amiss.

I handed Klow an ax. "Throw away thine own, scabbard and all," I told
him. "It is useless, for 'tis made of iron. Ours, and all our tools of
war, are formed of an alloy which is immune from the magic."

He took the ax in wonderment. "What means it, Strokor?" asked he again,