Cumner & South Sea Folk, Complete

he darkness was a single mounted figure in the

asked the leade

said that Cumner's Son has ridden to the

d ridden up. The horseman recognised

ce when we fell into an ambush, even two thousand men led by Boonda Broke, who would steal the roo

" asked P

d against Pango Dooni,

ge," said he. "What could you, one man,

elsewhere, that I kept the road til

Pango Dooni. "You would scarce serve a scrap

answered the man, and he spat upo

forward, but the chi

ich is it better: to die, or to turn with us and save Cumner

he stroke falls, and I come to fight

There shall be no fighting, but a yelpi

men upon the stubborn hor

a company shall do as the Dakoon hath said, then is all the company absolved; and beyond the m

t have thy will," said the chief. "We are

t," answered the man. "Pan

Cumner's Son struck the man with the

ly for a moment. "Let us speak together before we fight,"

, and laid his sword acros

s speak his heart to th

e," said Cumner's Son. "In war I

ngo Dooni's face. "Speak with the m

one side with the man, who spo

as noised abroad that I was dead. Little by little I grew in favour with the Dakoon, and little by little I gathered strong men about me-two hundred in all at last. It was my purpose, when the day seemed ripe, to seize upon the Palace as the Dakoon had seized upon my little city. I knew from my fathe

by my hands. I heard of your riding to the Neck of Baroob-the men of Boonda Broke brought word. So I told the Dakoon, and I told him also that Boonda Broke was ready to steal into his Palace even before he died. He started up, and new life seemed given him

she was beautiful and tall and straight as a bamboo stem, but now she is in body no more than a piece of silken thread. Yet her face is like the evening sky after a rain. She is mu

me do, and what I had sworn to perfo

that all shall be well with thee, and thy city be restored when Pango Dooni sits in the Palace of the Dakoon, then shalt thou join with them, that there may be peace in the land, fo

e lad, for he was sure that this man's daugh

beautiful, and her body was like a swaying wand of the boolda tree. But my city

e came ag

uld no

stened to her voice, and thought upon her words and loved her still.

terrupted, "I would fight, follow him, and serve him, and my city sh

e so the man sprang from his horse, and taking off the thin necklet of beaten gold he wore round his throat, without a word

d with a body like a withered gourd." Then all at once, with a new look in his face, he continued softly: "

.......

et near to the Aqueduct of the Failing Fountain, and looked out towards the Palace of the Dakoon. It was the time of peach blossoms, and all through the city the pink and white petals fell like the gay crystals of a dissolving sunrise. Yet there ros

onade began, and the smoke of the guns curled through the showering peach-trees. Hoarse shoutings and crie

disclosed beneath the great flag-stones of a ruined building. Here was a wide natural corridor overhung with stalactites, and it led on into an artificial passage which inclined gradually upwards till it came into a mound above the level by which they entered. Aga

temple. Not a word was spoken as Pango Dooni and his company galloped towards the front of the Palace. Hundreds of the Dakoon's soldiers and terrified people who had taken refuge in the great court-yard, ran screaming into corners, o

re. They were making ready to march out and defend the Palace. When they saw the flag and heard the battle-cry there was a movement backward, as though this handful of men were an overwhelming army coming at them. Scattered and disorderly groups of men

s dead!" crie

n of the Palace through the lattice windows, and it was

he Earth, the grea

p, who fled at his approach, and, drivi

is living.

ride down upon the native army, but Cumner's Son whispered to him, and an instant after the lad was r

here idle? My father, your friend, fights with a hundred men at the Residency. Choose ye between Boonda Broke, the mongrel, and Pango Dooni,

ople, and presently from the whole dark batta

men. Gathering the men from the rampart he did the same with these, reserving only one hundred to remain upon the walls under guard of ten hillsmen. Then, taking his own six hundred men

fore the walls, and, far beyond, they c

ke a monstrous wave upon the rebel mob. There was no preparation to resist the onset. The rush wa

battle-call ringing high above the clash of steel. Again they turned at the Palace wall, and, gathering impetus, they rode at the

ill within a few hundred yards of the Residency Square. Then their battle-call broke forth, and Boonda Broke t

Dermot heard the cry of the

t Cumner. The hillsmen rode upon the frenzied rebels, and were swallowed up by the great mass of them, so that they seemed lost. But slowly, heavily, and with ferocious hatred, they drove their hard path on. A head and shoulders dropped ou

idency Square, and thirty men, under the c

ass between Boonda Broke and Pango Dooni, and in the c

the hillsmen and the little gar

of the mare," said P

ee the face of my son," a

th his sword. "In the

" asked Cumner. Pango Dooni

dust and blood from his f

lad?" said he proudly. "The