d slew till the dead could be counted by
the thousand. Again and again they strove to storm the hill on which I
stood, hoping to kill me, and each time we beat them back. Picking out
their generals I loosed shaft after shaft from my long bow, and seldom
did I miss, nor could their cotton-quilted armour turn those bitter
arrows.

"_The shafts of the god! The shafts of the god!_" they cried, and shrank
back from before me.

There appeared a man with a yellow fillet on his head and a robe that
was studded with precious stones; a huge man with great limbs and
flaming eyes; a loose-mouthed, hideous man who wielded a big axe of
copper and carried a bow longer than any I had seen in that land.
Hooking the axe to his belt, he set an arrow on the bow and let drive at
me. It sped true and struck me full upon the breast, only to shatter on
the good French mail, which copper could not pierce.

Again he shot, and this time the arrow glanced from my helm. Then I drew
on him and my shaft, that I had aimed at his head, cut away the fringe
about his brow and carried it far away. At this sight a groan went up
from the lords about him, and one cried:

"An omen, O Urco, an evil omen!"

"Aye," he shouted, "for the White Wizard who shot the arrow."

Dropping the bow, he rushed up the hill at me roaring, axe aloft, and
followed by his company. He smote, and I caught the blow upon my shield,
and striking back with Wave-Flame, shore through the shaft of the axe
that he had lifted to guard his head as though it had been made of reed,
aye, and through the quilted cotton on his shoulder strengthened with
strips of gold, and to the bone beneath.

Then a man slipped past me. It was Kari, striking at Urco with Deleroy's
sword. They closed and rolled down the slope locked in each other's
arms. What chanced after this I do not know, for others rushed in and
all grew confused, but presently Kari limped back somewhat shaken and
bleeding, and I caught sight of Urco, little hurt, as it seemed, amidst
his lords at the bottom of the slope.

At this moment I heard a great shouting and looking round, saw that the
Quichuas had broken through our left and were slaughtering many, while
the rest fled, also that our right was wavering. I sent messengers to
Huaracha, bidding him call up the Yunca rear guard. They were slow in
coming and I began to fear that all was lost for little by little the
hordes of the men of Cuzco were surrounding us.

Then it was