that Kari, or some with him, lifted a banner that had been
wrapped upon a pole, a blue banner upon which was embroidered a
golden sun. At the sight of it there was tumult in the Inca ranks, and
presently a great body of men, five or six thousand of them that had
seemed to be in reserve, ran forward shouting, "_Kari! Kari!_" and fell
upon those who were pursuing our shattered left, breaking them up and
dispersing them. Also at last the Yuncas came up and drove back the
regiments that assailed our right, while from Urco's armies there rose a
cry of "Treachery!"

Trumpets blew and the Inca host, gathering itself together and
abandoning its dead and wounded, drew back sullenly on to the plain, and
there halted in three bodies as before, though much lessened in number.

Huaracha appeared, saying:

"Strike, White Lord! It is our hour! The heart is out of them."

The signal was given, and roaring like a hurricane, presently the
Chancas charged. Down the slope they went, I at the head of them with
Huaracha on one side and Kari on the other. The swift-footed Chancas
outran me who was hindered by my mail. We charged in three masses as we
had stood on the ridge, following those open lanes of ground up which
the foe had not come, because these were less cumbered with dead and
wounded. Presently I saw why those of Cuzco had left these lanes untrod,
for of a sudden some warriors, who had outstripped me, vanished. They
had fallen into a pit covered over with earth laid upon canes, of which
the bottom was set with sharp stakes. Others, who were running along
the lanes of open ground to right and left, also fell into pits of which
there were scores all carefully prepared against the day of battle.
With trouble the Chancas were halted, but not before we had lost some
hundreds of men. Then we advanced again across that ground over which
the Inca host had retreated.

At length we reached their lines, passing through a storm of arrows, and
there began such a battle as I had never heard of or even dreamed. With
axes, stone-headed clubs and spears, both armies fought furiously,
and though the Incas still outnumbered us by two to one, because of my
training our regiments drove them back. Lord after lord rushed at me
with glaring eyes, but my mail turned their copper spears and knives
of flint. Oh! Wave-Flame fed full that day, and if Thorgrimmer my
forefather could have seen us from his home in Valhalla, surely he must
have sworn by Odin