The man did not lift his arm, but looked at the lad steadily for a
moment. "Let us speak together before we fight," said he, and to show
his good faith he threw down his sword.

"Speak," said Cumner's Son, and laid his sword across the pommel of his
saddle.

"Does a man when he dies speak his heart to the ears of a whole tribe?"

"Then choose another ear than mine," said Cumner's Son. "In war I have
no secrets from my friends."

A look of satisfaction came into Pango Dooni's face. "Speak with the man
alone," said he, and he drew back.

Cumner's Son drew a little to one side with the man, who spoke quickly
and low in English.

"I have spoken the truth," said he. "I am Cushnan Di"--he drew himself
up--"and once I had a city of my own and five thousand men, but a plague
and then a war came, and the Dakoon entered upon my city. I left my
people and hid, and changed myself that no one should know me, and I came
to Mandakan. It was noised abroad that I was dead. Little by little I
grew in favour with the Dakoon, and little by little I gathered strong
men about me-two hundred in all at last. It was my purpose, when the day
seemed ripe, to seize upon the Palace as the Dakoon had seized upon
my little city. I knew from my father, whose father built a new portion
of the Palace, of a secret way by the Aqueduct of the Failing Fountain,
even into the Palace itself. An army could ride through and appear in