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Every face was gloomy. At last a grey-haired captain of artillery spoke his mind in broken sentences: "Never do have to ride through a half-dozen sneaking tribes Pango Dooni, rank robber steal like a barrack cat besides, no man could get there. Better stay where we are and fight it out till help comes." "Help!" said Cumner bitterly. "We might wait six months before a man-of-war put in.
"Cumner's Son," said she "Cumner's Son, and thou the future of Mandakan is all with ye; neither with Cumner, nor with Pango Dooni, nor with Cushnan Di. To the old is given counsel, and device, and wisdom, and holding; but to the young is given hope, and vision, and action, and building, and peace." "Cumner's Son is without," said he. "May I fetch him to thee?"
But on Tuesday afternoon I smuggled myself away, and got up into one of our old coombs among the Cumner hills, and into a field waving deep with cowslips and grasses, and gathered such a bunch as you and I used to gather in the cowslip field on Lutterworth road long years ago.
At a word his chestnut mare got away with telling stride in pursuit of the unknown rider, passing up the Gap of Mandakan like a ghost. Cumner's Son had a start by about half a mile, but Tang-a-Dahit rode a mare that had once belonged to Pango Dooni, and Pango Dooni had got her from Colonel Cumner the night he escaped from Mandakan.
Cumner, the Governor, and McDermot heard the cry of the hillsmen, too, and took heart. Boonda Broke tried to divide his force, so that half of them should face the hillsmen, and half the Residency; but there was not time enough; and his men fought as they were attacked, those in front against Pango Dooni, those behind against Cumner.
"No debt is paid till I see the face of my son," answered Cumner anxiously. Pango Dooni pointed with his sword. "In the Palace yard," said he. "In the Palace yard, alive?" asked Cumner. Pango Dooni smiled. "Let us go and see." Cumner wiped the sweat and dust and blood from his face, and turned to McDermot. "Was I right when I sent the lad?" said he proudly. "The women and children are safe."
It went abroad through the city that Pango Dooni and Cumner paid great homage to the dead Dakoon, and the dread of the hillsmen grew less.
Suddenly a savage murmuring among the natives in the Bazaar broke into a loud snarl, and it seemed as if a storm was about to break; but as suddenly, at a call from Cumner, the hillsmen, the British, and a thousand native soldiers, faced the Bazaar in perfect silence, their lances, swords, and rifles in a pose of menace. The whole procession stood still for a moment.
When he told the story to Pango Dooni the chief was silent for a moment; then he said: "Until we know whether it be death or life, whether Cumner's Son save the city or lose his life for its sake, we will not call the people together in the Hall of the Heavenly Hours. I will send the heralds abroad, if it be thy pleasure, Cumner."
A hillsman bound up the wound, and he rode on to the Tomb. The Dakoon was placed in his gorgeous house of death, and every man cried: "Sleep, lord of the earth!" Then Cumner stood up in his saddle, and cried aloud: "To-morrow, when the sun stands over the gold dome of the Palace, ye shall come to hear your Dakoon speak in the hall of the Heavenly Hours."
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