Broke's men. They did not call or cry till within a few hundred yards of
the Residency Square. Then their battle-call broke forth, and Boonda
Broke turned to see seven hundred bearing down on his ten thousand, the
black flag with the yellow sunburst over them.

Cumner, the Governor, and McDermot heard the cry of the hillsmen, too,
and took heart.

Boonda Broke tried to divide his force, so that half of them should face
the hillsmen, and half the Residency; but there was not time enough; and
his men fought as they were attacked, those in front against Pango Dooni,
those behind against Cumner. The hillsmen rode upon the frenzied rebels,
and were swallowed up by the great mass of them, so that they seemed
lost. But slowly, heavily, and with ferocious hatred, they drove their
hard path on. A head and shoulders dropped out of sight here and there;
but the hillsmen were not counting their losses that day, and when Pango
Dooni at last came near to Boonda Broke the men he had lost seemed found
again, for it was like water to the thirsty the sight of this man.

But suddenly there was a rush from the Residency Square, and thirty men,
under the command of Cumner, rode in with sabres drawn.

There was a sudden swaying movement of the shrieking mass between Boonda
Broke and Pango Dooni, and in the confusion and displacement Boonda Broke
had disappeared.

Panic and flight came after, and the hillsmen and the little garrison
were masters of the field.

"I have paid the debt of the mare," said Pango Dooni, laughing.