ht and the left, and lo! there was nothing of him left
except his spear alone.

Now a low cry of fear rose from the impi, and some turned to fly, but
Faku, the captain, a great and brave man, shouted to them, "Stand firm,
children of the king, stand firm, these are no Esedowana, these are but
the Wolf-Brethren and their pack. What! will ye run from dogs, ye who
have laughed at the spears of men? Ring round! Stand fast!"

The soldiers heard the voice of their captain, and they obeyed his
voice, forming a double circle, a ring within a ring. They looked to the
right, there, Groan-Maker aloft, the wolf fangs on his brow, the worn
wolf-hide streaming on the wind, Bulalio rushed upon them like a storm,
and with him came his red-eyed company. They looked to the left--ah,
well they know that mighty Watcher! Have they not heard his strokes down
by the river, and well they know the giant who wields it like a wand,
the Wolf King, with the strength of ten! Wow! They are here! See the
people black and grey, hear them howl their war-chant! Look how they
leap like water--leap in a foam of fangs against the hedge of spears!
The circle is broken; Groan-Maker has broken it! Ha! Galazi also is
through the double ring; now must men stand back to back or perish!

How long did it last? Who can say? Time flies fast when blows fall
thick. At length the brethren are beaten back; they break out as they
broke in, and are gone, with such of their wolf-folk as were left alive.
Yet that impi was somewhat the worse, but one-third of those lived
who looked on the sun without the forest; the rest lay smitten, torn,
mangled, dead, hidden under the heaps of bodies of wild beasts.

"Now this is a battle of evil spirits that live in the shapes of wolves,
and as for the Wolf-Brethren, they are sorcerers of the rarest," said
Faku the captain, "and such sorcerers I love, for they fight furiously.
Yet I will slay them or be slain. At the least, if there be few of us
left, the most of the wolves are dead also, and the arms of the wizards
grow weary."

So he moved forward up the mountain with those of the soldiers who
remained, and all the way the wolves harried them, pulling down a man
here and a man there; but though they heard and saw them cheering on
their pack the Wolf-Brethren attacked them no more, for they saved their
strength for the last fight of all.

The road was long up the mountain, and the soldiers knew little of
the path, and ever the ghos