the entrance upon the paving stones, for these vermin of plainsmen will
not pass where a dead dog lies, as my father knows well. They came not
by the entrance, but they swarmed elsewhere, as ants swarm upon a
sandhill, upon the roofs, and at the little window where the lamp burns.

"I drove them from the window and killed them through the doorway, but
they were forty to one. In the end the pest would have carried me to
death, as a jackal carries the broken meats to his den, if our hillsmen
had not come. For an hour I fought, and five of them I killed and seven
wounded, and then at the shouts of our hillsmen they fled at last. Nine
of them fell by the hands of our people. Thrice was I wounded, but my
wounds are no deeper than the scratches of a tiger's cub."

"Hadst thou fought for thyself the deed were good," said Pango Dooni,
"but thy blood was shed for another, and that is the pride of good men.
We have true men here, but thou art a true chief and this shalt thou
wear."

He took the rich belt from his waist, and fastened it round the waist of
his son.

"Cumner's Son carries the sword that hung in the belt. We are for war,
and the sword should be out of the belt. When we are at peace again ye
shall put the sword in the belt once more, and hang it upon the wall of
the Palace at Mandakan, even as ye who are brothers shall never part."

Two hours Tang-a-Dahit rested upon skins by the bathing pool, and an hour
did the slaves knead him and rub him with oil, and give him food and
drink; and while yet the sun was but half-way down the sky, they poured
through the Neck of Baroob, over five hundred fighting men, on horses