door. I
must reach them, for perhaps so Quilla might be saved. In front was
the table spread for the death feast. With a bound I leapt on to it,
shouting aloud and scattering its golden furnishings this way and that.
Beyond stood the traitor, Larico, who had trapped me--I sprang at him
and lifting Wave-Flame with both hands I smote with all my strength. He
fell, as it seemed to me, cloven to the middle. Then some spear cast at
me struck the lamp.

It shattered and went out!

CHAPTER XII

THE FIGHT TO THE DEATH

There was tumult in the hall; shoutings, groans from him whom I had
first struck down, the sound of vases and vessels overthrown, and above
all those of a woman's shrieks echoing from the walls and roof, so that
I could not tell whence they came.

Through the gross darkness I went on towards the curtains, or so I
hoped. Presently they were torn open, and by the faint light of the
breaking dawn I saw my eight Chancas rushing towards me.

"Follow!" I cried, and at the head of them groped my way back up the
hall, seeking for Quilla. I stumbled over the dead body of Larico and
felt a path round the table. Then suddenly a door at the back of the
hall was thrown open and by the grey light which came through the
doorway I perceived the last of the ravishers departing. We scrambled
across the dais where the golden chair was overthrown and the embalmed
Upanqui lay, a stiff and huddled heap upon his back, staring at me with
jewelled eyes.

We gained the door which, happily, none had remembered to close, and
passed out into the parklike grounds beyond. A hundred paces or more
ahead of us, by the glowing light, I saw a litter passing between the
trees surrounded by armed men, and knew that in it was Quilla being
borne to captivity and shame.

After it we sped. It passed the gate of the park wall, but when we
reached that gate it was shut and barred and we must waste time breaking
it down, which we did by help of a felled tree that lay at hand. We were
through it, and now the rim of the sun had appeared so that through the
morning mist, which clung to the hillside beyond the town, we could
see the litter, the full half of a mile away. On we went up the hill,
gaining as we ran, for we had no litter to bear, nor aught else save the
sack of armour which one of the Chancas had thought to bring with him
when he rushed into the hall, and with it my long bow and shaft.

Now, at a certain place between this hill and a