e, who would steal the roof and bed of
the Dakoon before his death. For an hour we fought but every man was cut
down save me."

"And you?" asked Pango Dooni.

"I come to hold the road against Pango Dooni, as the Dakoon bade me."

Pango Dooni laughed. "Your words are large," said he. "What could you,
one man, do against Pango Dooni and his hillsman?"

"I could answer the Dakoon here or elsewhere, that I kept the road till
the hill-wolves dragged me down."

"We be the wolves from the hills," answered Pango Dooni. "You would
scarce serve a scrap of flesh for one hundred, and we are seven."

"The wolves must rend me first," answered the man, and he spat upon the
ground at Pango Dooni's feet.

A dozen men started forward, but the chief called them back.

"You are no coward, but a fool," said he to the horseman. "Which is it
better: to die, or to turn with us and save Cumner and the English, and
serve Pango Dooni in the Dakoon's Palace?"

"No man knows that he must die till the stroke falls, and I come to
fight and not to serve a robber mountaineer."

Pango Dooni's eyes blazed with anger. "There shall be no fighting, but a
yelping cur shall be hung to a tree," said he.

He was about to send his men upon the stubborn horseman when the fellow
said:

"If you be a man you will give me a man to fight. We were two hundred.
If it chance that one of a company shall do as the Dakoon hath said,
then is all the company absolved; and beyond the mists we can meet the
Dakoon with open eyes and unafraid when he saith, 'Did ye keep your
faith?'"

"By the word of a hillsman, but thou shalt have thy will," said the
chief. "We are seven hundred men--choose whom to fight."

"The oldest or the youngest," answered the man. "Pango Dooni or Cumner's
Son."

Before the chief had time to speak, Cumner's Son struck the man with the
flat of his sword across the breast.

The man did not lift his arm, but looked at the lad steadily for a
moment. "Let us speak together before we fight," said he, and to show
his good faith he threw down his sword.

"Speak," said Cumner's Son, and laid his sword across the pommel of his
saddle.

"Does a man when he dies speak his heart to the ears of a whole tribe?"

"Then choose another ear than mine," said Cumner's Son. "In war I have
no secrets from my friends."

A look of satisfaction came into Pango Dooni's face. "Speak with the man
alone," said he, and he drew back.

Cumner's Son drew a littl