United States or Portugal ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It is fighting and fighting, for honour, and glory, and houses and cattle, but naught for love, and naught that there may be peace." Cumner's Son turned round in his saddle as if to read the face of the man, but it was too dark. "And naught that there maybe peace."
These last showed alertness at the sound of the flying sorrel's hoofs, and all at once a tall, keen-eyed horseman sprang to the broad doorway and strained his eyes into the night after Cumner's Son. He waited a few moments; then, as if with a sudden thought, he ran to a horse tethered near by and vaulted into the saddle.
"Hadst thou fought for thyself the deed were good," said Pango Dooni, "but thy blood was shed for another, and that is the pride of good men. We have true men here, but thou art a true chief and this shalt thou wear." He took the rich belt from his waist, and fastened it round the waist of his son. "Cumner's Son carries the sword that hung in the belt.
He stood up in his stirrups and cut down with his broadsword, so that the blade was driven through the head and shoulders of his foe as a woodsman splits a log half through, and grunts with the power of his stroke. Then he turned to the lad. "What stranger calls by the word of our tribe?" he asked. "I am Cumner's Son," was the answer, "and my father is brother-in-blood with Pango Dooni.
If for her sake he came secretly, daring death, wouldst thou stand " The man's eyes lighted. "If there were such truth in any man," he interrupted, "I would fight, follow him, and serve him, and my city should be his city, and the knowledge of my heart be open to his eye." Cumner's Son turned and called to Pango Dooni and his son, and they came forward. Swiftly he told them all.
The quickest way, but the most perilous, lay through the long defile between the hills, flanked by boulders and rank scrub. Tang-a-Dahit pointed out the ways that they might go by the path to the left along the hills, or through the green defile; and Cumner's Son instantly chose the latter way.
Once or twice Cumner's Son tried to speak, but failed; and at last all he could say was: "Thou art good thou art good!" and then he turned and stole quietly from the room. At midnight they carried the Dakoon to the resting-place of his fathers. A thousand torches gleamed from the Palace gates through the Street of Divers Pities, and along the Path by the Bazaar to the Tomb with the Blue Dome.
I ride to Pango Dooni for the women and children's sake." "Proof! Proof! If you be Cumner's Son, another word should be yours." The Colonel's Son took out the bracelet from his breast. "It is safe hid here," said he, "and hid also under my tongue. If you be from the Neck of Baroob you will know it when I speak it;" and he spoke reverently the sacred countersign.
"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.
"By the Old Well of Jahar, which has one side to the mountain wall, and one 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.
Word Of The Day