THE FIGHT ON THE HILLSIDE.
It had become the custom of the two young men to go every morning,
when the atmosphere was clear, to a height at one end of the valley,
from which a view could be obtained over the whole country surrounding
that end of Roraima. The spot was a level table of rock under a
picturesque group of fir-trees--for on the upper cliffs fir-trees were
numerous--and from it, looking in the direction farthest from the
mountain, the view was grand in the extreme; while, on the other side
of them was the great valley or basin in which lay the lake and the
city of Manoa.
It would be but labour lost to attempt to give an adequate idea of the
prospect over which the eye could travel on a clear day, when one stood
upon this giddy height. It extended to an almost illimitable distance;
for, when one looked beyond the surrounding mountains of the Roraima
range, there were no more hills to break the view till it reached the
far distant Andes, had these been visible. Indeed, it was said that
they _were_ visible on a few days in the year; but, if that were so,
it would perhaps be rather as an effect in the nature of a mirage than
what is usually understood by an actual view of the far-away mountains.
But nearer at hand, in other directions were mountain ridges and
summits in seemingly endless succession, piled up in extraordinary
confusion. From Roraima, as the highest of all, one could look down,
to some extent, upon the others. Myrlanda was upon the other side, but
Marima, and others of the strange group, lay before the eye, and one
could see the woods and lakes upon their summits; but enough could
not be seen to enable the spectator to decide whether they might be
inhabited or not.
The beauty of the expanse of tropical vegetation immediately below was
indeed marvellous. Here the explorers gazed down upon the tops of the
trees of the gloomy forest that girdled the mountain (though not that
part through which they had made their way with so much wearying, but
dogged perseverance), and lo! it was a veritable garden of flowers of
brilliant hue! For the trees beneath which they had crept, like ants
among the stems of a field of clover, were gorgeous above in their
display of blossoms, while shutting out the light from those who walked
below.
Here and there, amid the green, the great cascades and torrents from
the mountain side dashed impetuously from rock to rock; the streams
that were in fact some of the feeders of the greatest of all rivers,
the mighty Amazon; that river of wondrous mysteries, that pursues its
course of four thousand miles through the plains of Brazil, and finds
its way round at last into the Atlantic, there to hurl the volume of
its waters with such force into the sea, that even the ocean waters are
pushed aside to make a path for them hundreds of miles from land!
Here, upon the table of rock, in full view of one of the grandest and
most eloquent natural panoramas it is possible for the mind of man
to conceive, Leonard and Templemore stood the morning following the
former's interview with Monella, looking out upon the scene. A high
wind, of bracing and exhilarating freshness, blew in their faces,
rushed with a roar through the branches above them, swaying the great
trees to and fro, and then, seeming to tear off across the valley at
one leap, continued its wild course amongst the trees on the heights
that lined the further side. Leonard, on turning to look across the
lake, saw Ergalon advancing up the slope and making signs to him. He
drew Jack's attention to the signals, and they both descended the
terraces of rock below to meet him. Here all was quiet; they were
sheltered from the gusts of wind; the roar of the gale no longer met
their ears.
All the time they had been in the city they had had a guard. It
consisted of a file of soldiers with an officer, and they followed the
two young men in all their walks, movements, journeys, never thrusting
themselves on their attention, yet always ready to assist and defend
them, if occasion should arise. Monella, also, had an escort whenever
he went out. He had particularly enjoined on the other two never to
stir abroad without their rifles, and this injunction, though they did
not always see its necessity, they implicitly observed.
They had not seen much of Ergalon of late; he had attached himself
more particularly to Monella, and had, in fact, become his particular
attendant. Monella had trusted him so far as to explain to him
something of the secrets of the firearms, and had instructed him in
the loading of them in case circumstances should arise in which his
assistance might be needed. Accordingly, when Leonard saw him coming up
the hillside and signifying that he wished to speak to them, he at once
called Templemore and left the ledge where they had been standing.
Soon they saw their guard approaching with Ergalon in advance of them,
and, following them, Monella, who came on leisurely from ledge to
ledge, occasionally giving a glance behind him.
The hillside was marked out in terraces, or tables of rock, most of
them covered with greensward and fringed at the sides with belts of
trees. Ergalon, who had taken his stand below, made signs to the two
to come down to him, and, when they had descended within hearing, he
addressed them.
"The lord Monella has sent me to warn you to await him here and to be
ready for a contest. There is trouble afoot."
"But why wait here?" asked Jack. "We will go down to him at once."
Ergalon shook his head.
"No," he said. "He particularly desired that you would await him here."
"So be it; if you are sure you rightly understood him. But tell us,
friend Ergalon, what all this means."
Ergalon explained that Coryon had unexpectedly dispatched a large
force of his soldiers to capture the three strangers. They had hoped
to surprise them without giving time for others of the king's soldiers
to lend their aid. But he (Ergalon) had, through a former comrade who
was still one of Coryon's people, attained intimation of the intended
movement, and had been able thus to warn Monella.
"So the lord Monella," he explained, "sent on your guard in advance,
and then himself walked up the hill towards you that they might see
him. Thus he hoped to draw Coryon's people away from the palace and the
houses to this place, where, he says, it will be better to make a stand
and fight them, since thus no other persons will be injured in the
encounter."
It was strange, but all who spoke of Monella, or to him, gave him some
title of honour or respect. Ergalon called him 'lord.' Even Dakla,
at the meeting in the king's council chamber--spite of his insolent
swagger towards the king--had been awed by this man's look into
addressing him by the equivalent in their language of 'sir.'
"How many are there of them?" asked Jack.
"Oh, a hundred--or perhaps more. But the lord Monella has said their
number matters not; and he sent me to the king to beg that none of his
soldiers should interfere. 'They would only be in the way,' he said.
He sent these extra things for you. See." And he showed a parcel of
cartridges he had brought with him.
"Good," said Jack. "He is quite right. That's all we wanted; we can
answer for the rest. More soldiers would only be in the way; and some
of them would be pretty sure to get hurt, if not killed outright--and
all for nothing. I think I see Monella's idea. It is"--turning to
Elwood--"to take up our position here and shoot them down as they come
across this wide terrace just below us. Not a man of them will ever
cross that stretch alive."
"Here are your guards," observed Ergalon. "The lord Monella desired
that you should place them somewhere where they would be out of the
way, but within call."
"Let them get on to this next ledge, then, just behind us. There they
will have a fine view of everything. Did these people think to surprise
us, do you think, friend Ergalon?"
"No doubt. Your habit of coming here of a morning has been noted, I
suspect, and they had intended, I imagine, to creep round and get up
through the woods unseen. But the lord Monella, being warned by me,
went up on a high rock, where he could see them in the distance; when
they saw they were observed by him, they gave up that plan and came
straight on."
"I see. Well, we owe you something for having warned us, friend."
"It is nothing," Ergalon answered simply. "My life was forfeited that
day, and you spared me; and through the lord Monella and the princess,
I gained the king's pardon. I owe you all my service."
By this time the guards and their officer had arrived, and were placed
by Ergalon on a terrace above and behind that on which the two were
standing.
"We like it not, this mode of yours--putting us in the background, out
of danger, while you stand up in front," observed the officer; "we
consent only because the lord Monella so desires it. They are many, but
we should not shrink; and others from the king's palace would soon come
to our assistance."
"Yes, yes, good Abla. We have no misgivings of your courage. But you
could do no good with so few men--they are more than ten to one, I
hear--and your men would but impede us. Besides, it will give them a
lesson for the future, if we deal with them ourselves, unaided."
Abla bowed and walked away unwillingly, as one who is bound to obey
orders, but does so against his will.
Monella now came in view, and was soon standing by their side. After a
few words of explanation, he said gravely,
"They thought to have surprised us all three up here; but, when they
saw they had failed in that, they took a bold course and came straight
on. Now that means, in effect, an open challenge to the king. It
means," he continued with increased earnestness, "civil war. Civil war,
you understand, has therefore broken out in the land--unless we nip it
in the bud, _here, now_, as we can, if we show no untimely hesitation.
These men are scoundrels of the serpent's brood; cruel, bloodthirsty
tools of the human fiends behind them. They deserve no mercy, no
consideration. Let none be shown to them! My plan is simply to shoot
them down the instant they appear on that ledge below us. They _must_
climb up in front; there is no way round it, nor any means of getting
to the height above us. Therefore, they must cross that piece of open
ground. One word more. The chief, Dakla, leads them. Do not fire at
him. I wish to take him alive, if possible; he will make our best
ambassador hereafter."
Under such conditions the battle could not be a long one. Monella had
chosen his ground skilfully, so as to make the utmost of the advantage
firearms gave him. The black-coated myrmidons of Coryon scaled the
fatal terrace only to be shot down the moment that they came in sight.
There were only four or five places where they could climb up and, at
these, not more than two men could pass together. Those who reached the
top and escaped a bullet, turned back when they heard the explosions of
the firearms, saw the flashes and the smoke, saw also their comrades
fall. Others of those below who could see nothing of what was going on,
swarmed up in their places, only to fall or turn back at once in like
manner; till, in a short time, every man had been up and witnessed the
ghastly sight of the dead and wounded lying around, and had satisfied
himself that not one could cross that level piece of rock to come near
their foes. Finally, the survivors were all seized with panic when one
of the last to show his head above the ridge came back crying out that
"the white demons were coming down after them." At this, all those who
were unhurt turned and fled. But many had fallen, dead or wounded, and
lay at the foot of the rock they had climbed up only to be instantly
shot down. Above, on the terrace itself, but at one side, stood Dakla
and one of his subordinates. These had been amongst the first to appear
above the ledge, and had moved aside to let the men form into line up
on the rock; but now they were left alone, and, when Monella quietly
descended from the rock above, they had the mortification of seeing all
their men who were capable of running disappear in frantic terror down
the hillside.
Then he who stood by Dakla made a rush at Monella with uplifted sword,
thinking, since he seemed to be unarmed, that he would fall an easy
prey; but the man fell with a pistol ball in his breast ere he had gone
half way to meet Monella.
"Now yield, Dakla," Monella called to the other. "It is useless either
to fight or run."
"We will see to that," Dakla exclaimed savagely. "If thou be man, and
not demon, this sword shall find thine heart." And he too made a sudden
rush. But, before he had gone three yards, the sword flew from his hand
and his arm dropped useless by his side. Monella had shot him in the
arm.
"Thou see'st," he said coldly, as he now approached the crestfallen
chief, "how ill-advised thou hast been not to give heed to all my
warnings. I could have slain thee earlier in the fight; I could have
killed thee now, as I did thy friend there; but I have spared thy life.
It is not for thine own sake, but that thou mayest bear a message to
thy master, and witness to him of that which thou hast seen and warn
him once more of the futility of warring against us, the allies of the
king. Dost thou understand?"
The other cast a murderous scowl upon Monella, but made no answer for
a moment. Then, after reflection, he said in a dogged, surly tone,
"So be it. But thou must give thy message quickly and let me go; for
thou hast hurt me sore and the blood flows fast----"
"We will see to thy wound," Monella replied composedly. "Let me bind it
up till we get to the king's palace; there it shall be seen to farther."
And Dakla, reluctantly, and with an ill grace, submitted to have his
wound bound up by his enemy, who, before commencing, took away the
other's dagger.
"I cannot trust thee with these playthings," he observed. "Thou art of
the wolf tribe, Dakla."
Meanwhile, the officer and men of their guard had come down to the
lower terrace, with Templemore and Elwood, and were looking in awe and
horror upon the outcome of the fight--if so one-sided an encounter
could be so called. On Monella and the two young men they gazed in
wonder; and, gradually, they drew away from them in fear, from that
moment treating them with even greater deference than before.
Monella despatched Abla to summon more soldiers from the king's palace
to bring down the dead and wounded; and himself set about attending to
the latter, first handing Dakla over to Templemore.
"Look you!" said Jack to his prisoner, "if you attempt to escape, I
shall not kill you, but hurt your other arm; and, if that does not stop
you, I shall hurt your leg, and I know that that _will_. Do you follow
me?"
Dakla nodded a sour assent; then stood looking with evident surprise at
the trouble Monella was now taking with some of his late enemies. Such
singular behaviour he did not understand, and he shrugged his shoulders
in contempt.
When, after a time, more soldiers, with some officers, arrived upon
the scene, these were at once set to work to bear the dead and wounded
down the hill. Monella followed with his friends and Dakla. The noise
of the firing had brought out great crowds of people, who were now
massed about the palace waiting to receive them. They had watched the
precipitate flight of the survivors of the soldiers of Coryon, and
rejoiced greatly at their defeat. But, when they saw the dead and
wounded, and that Dakla was himself a prisoner, and heard that not one
had been hurt upon the other side, their astonishment was complete.
The king himself, with some of his ministers and officials, came out
to meet the victors; and his gratitude and emotion, when he noted all
these things and greeted Monella and his friends, were profuse and
heartfelt.
"Ye have indeed rendered us a service," he exclaimed, "and taught
Coryon a lesson he will do well to take to heart. I feared me greatly
that harm would come to ye, and that war would follow in the land."
"Nay, we have laid the dogs of war, I trust, at any rate, for the
present," Monella returned, with a grave smile. "They will not attack
us further, I opine, nor brave thee in the future in this rebellious
fashion."
Then they entered the palace, and Ulama came forward to welcome them,
with Zonella and many more.
"We have been in such trouble about you," she said, the tears standing
in her tender eyes, "ever since they told us that over a hundred of
Coryon's people had gone up the rocks to take you. And we heard the
noise of the thunder-wands, and were in great fear, till they told us
that your enemies were fleeing. Then we looked out and saw them rushing
madly down the hill, throwing away their spears, and their helmets, and
even fighting one another in their haste to scramble down the rocks.
Then Abla came and told us you were all safe, and then----"
"Then," said Zonella, "you sat down and wept." And at that Ulama
laughed.
"I fear it is true," she said.