Cumner & South Sea Folk, Complete

he died for his friend. If he be living, then it is also well. If he be saved, we will march to Mandakan, wi

' and my father never lied," said the lad dauntlessly. The strong, tall chief, with

ne of thieves from the plains to my hills, the cattle were mine ere I drove them. If I harry the rich in the midst of the Dakoon's men, it is gaining my own over

to a court-yard where was a pool of clear water. He made him bathe in it, and dark-skinned natives brought him bread dipped in wine, and when he had eaten they

.......

an with a thousand men before him, and three men came forward and gave him a sword. And a bird came flying through the great chambers and

d glory and houses and kine, but naught for

side, and the bird, flying away out of the great window of the chamber, sang: "Peace! Peace! Peace!" And Pango Dooni's Son standing by, with a shining

.......

go Dooni, in his dress of scarlet and gold and brown, his broads

with Cumner's Son," said he. "They would hear the tale of our kinsme

lithe, clean body and limbs, and he took from the slaves his clothes. The eye of th

at Mandakan, no man might be Dakoon save him who was clear of mote or beam; of true bone and body, like a high-bred yearling

aten good meat," said he,

other-in-blood, for the ride he had made and his honest face together acted on them. Moreover, whom the head of their clan honoured they also willed to ho

rop of blood of their chief that they would not sheathe their swords again till a thousand of Boonda Broke's and the Dakoon's men lay where their own kinsmen had fallen. If it chanced that Tang-a

their belts, and then wheeled suddenly and stood still, and shot their swords up into the air the full length of the arm, and called th

ou been, broth

were both unarmed and spent, and with broken weapons could fight no more; and two days did I ride to be by a woman's side when her great sickness should come upon her.

all that thou

my l

" The chief's eye b

, and he bowed his head. "The jewel is thine and not mine, brother," said the c

and cutting to right and left, calling aloud, their teeth showing, death and valour in their eyes. The chief glanced at Cumner's Son. The horses were not twenty feet from the lad, but he did not stir a muscle. They were not ten feet from him, and

side a short gold-handled

he added, for he saw a strange look in the lad's eyes: "The father of my father's father wore it in the Palace, and i

h pride, and taking from his poc

beleaguered town, with spoil, and blood, and misery, and sick women and childr

red from among them by a kinsman of Pango Dooni, and presently, the troop

Cumner's Son had given him and fired it into th

to the cliff edge, I halted and took my stand. The mare and the sorrel of Cumner's Son I put inside the house that covers the well, and I lifted two stones from the floor and set them against the entrance. A beggar lay dead beside the well, and his dog licked his body. I killed the cur, for, following its master, it would have peace, and peace is more th

rries the broken meats to his den, if our hillsmen had not come. For an hour I fought, and five of them I killed and seven wounded, and then at the shouts of our

ut thy blood was shed for another, and that is the pride of good men. We

his waist, and fastened it

out of the belt. When we are at peace again ye shall put the sword in the belt once more, and

gs, and spring like deer, and that knew each tone of their masters' voices. By the Bar of Balmud they gathered another fifty hillsmen, and again half-way beyond the Old Well of Jahar they met two score more, who had hunted Boonda Broke's men, and these moved into column. So that when they came to Koongat Bridge, in t

-a-Dahit, as brothers sleep by their mother's bed. And Pango Dooni sat on the ground near them and pondered, and no man br

ad of troopers who rode a dozen rods before the columns, hear