By this the lad knew that he was now brother-in-blood to the son of Pango
Dooni.




III

THE CODE OF THE HILLS

"You travel near to Mandakan!" said the lad. "Do you ride with a
thousand men?"

"For a thousand men there are ten thousand eyes to see; I travel alone
and safe," answered Tang-a-Dahit.

"To thrust your head in the tiger's jaw," said Cumner's Son. "Did you
ride to be in at the death of the men of your clan?"

"A man will ride for a face that he loves, even to the Dreadful Gates,"
answered Tang-a-Dahit. "But what is this of the men of my clan?"

Then the lad told him of those whose heads hung on the rear Palace wall,
where the Dakoon lay dying, and why he rode to Pango Dooni.

"It is fighting and fighting, naught but fighting," said Tang-a-Dahit
after a pause; "and there is no peace. It is fighting and fighting, for
honour, and glory, and houses and cattle, but naught for love, and naught
that there may be peace."