ground at Pango Dooni's feet.

A dozen men started forward, but the chief called them back.

"You are no coward, but a fool," said he to the horseman. "Which is it
better: to die, or to turn with us and save Cumner and the English, and
serve Pango Dooni in the Dakoon's Palace?"

"No man knows that he must die till the stroke falls, and I come to fight
and not to serve a robber mountaineer."

Pango Dooni's eyes blazed with anger. "There shall be no fighting, but a
yelping cur shall be hung to a tree," said he.

He was about to send his men upon the stubborn horseman when the fellow
said:

"If you be a man you will give me a man to fight. We were two hundred.
If it chance that one of a company shall do as the Dakoon hath said, then
is all the company absolved; and beyond the mists we can meet the Dakoon
with open eyes and unafraid when he saith, 'Did ye keep your faith?'"

"By the word of a hillsman, but thou shalt have thy will," said the
chief. "We are seven hundred men--choose whom to fight."

"The oldest or the youngest," answered the man. "Pango Dooni or Cumner's
Son."

Before the chief had time to speak, Cumner's Son struck the man with the
flat of his sword across the breast.