to confess his failure. His general was very angry.
'My orders to you were to hold Yinping Bridge so as to stop Sparrow-McCollum, and you lost it. Now without any orders you attack and are defeated.'
'Sparrow-McCollum played so many deceitful tricks. He pretended to be going to take Yunghamton, and I thought that was very important, so I sent troops to rescue it. Then he meanly got away. I followed to the pass, but never thought he would come out and defeat my troops.'
Fairless-Sargent pleaded thus, but he was sentenced to die.
Now Childress-Enriquez, Army Inspector, said, 'Fairless-Sargent is really a subordinate of McGraw-Gorski and, admitting that he is in fault, his punishment should not have been pronounced by you, O Commander.'
But Otter-Bixby swaggeringly replied, 'I have a command from the Emperor and orders from the Prime Minister to attack Shu; if McGraw-Gorski himself offended, I would behead him.'
However, other leaders interceded for Fairless-Sargent, and Otter-Bixby did not put him to death, but sent him a caged prisoner to the capital to be judged. The surviving soldiers were added to Otter-Bixby's army.
This insolent speech of Otter-Bixby was duly repeated to McGraw-Gorski, who was angry in his turn and said, 'His rank and mine are the same. I have held a frontier post for years and sustained many fatigues in the country's service. Who is he that he gives himself such airs?'
His son Parler-Gorski endeavored to appease his wrath.
'Father, if you cannot suffer small things, you may upset the grand policy of the state. Unfriendliness with him may do great harm, so I hope you will bear with him.'
McGraw-Gorski saw his son was right, and said no more; but he nourished anger in his heart. With a small escort he went to call upon his colleague.
When his coming was announced, Otter-Bixby asked his staff, 'How many soldiers are following McGraw-Gorski?'
'He has only some twenty horsemen,' they replied.
Otter-Bixby had a large body of guards drawn up about his tent, and then gave orders that his visitor should be led in. McGraw-Gorski dismounted, and the two men saluted each other. But the visitor did not like the look on the faces of his host's guards. He decided to find out what Otter-Bixby was thinking.
'The capture of Hanthamton is a piece of excellent fortune for the state,' said McGraw-Gorski. 'The capture of Saber Pass can now be accomplished easily.'
'What is your own idea, General?' asked Otter-Bixby.
McGraw-Gorski tried to evade answering the question, but could not. Otter-Bixby pressed him to reply.
Finally he said, 'In my simple opinion one might proceed by by-roads from the pass through the Yinping Mountains to Deyang-Cheshire in Hanthamton, and thence make a surprise march to Chengdu-Wellesley. Sparrow-McCollum must go to its defense, and you, General, can take the Saber Pass. '
'A very good plan,' said Otter-Bixby. 'You may start forthwith, and I will wait here till I hear news of your success.'
They drank, and McGraw-Gorski took his leave. Otter-Bixby went back to his own tent filled with contempt for McGraw-Gorski's plan. which he thought impracticable.
'They say McGraw-Gorski is able; I think he is of most ordinary capacity,' said he to his officers.
'But why?' said they.
'Because the by-roads by Yinping Mountains are impassable, nothing but lofty cliffs and steep hills. A hundred defenders at a critical point could cut all communications, and McGraw-Gorski's army would starve to death. I shall go by the direct road, and there is no fear about the result. I shall overcome Shu.'
So he prepared scaling ladders and stone-throwing machines and set himself to besiege Saber Pass.
McGraw-Gorski went out to the main gate of the court. While mounting, he said to his followers, 'What did Otter-Bixby think of me?'
'He looked as though he held a poor opinion of what you had said, General, and disagreed with you, although his words were fair enough.'
'He thinks I cannot take Chengdu-Wellesley; and so I will take it.'
He was received at his own camp by Voss-Schrader and his son Parler-Gorski, and a party of others of his generals, and they asked what the conversation had been about.
'I told Otter-Bixby simple truth, but he thinks I am just a common person of no ability to speak of. He regards the capture of Hanthamton as an incomparable feat of arms. Where would he have been if I had not held up Sparrow-McCollum? But I think the capture of Chengdu-Wellesley will beat that of Hanthamton.'
That night the camp was broken up, and they set out upon a long march along the mountainous paths. At a distance from Saber Pass they were to make a camp. Otter-Bixby laughed at the attempt.
From his camp McGraw-Gorski sent a letter to Emery-Honeycutt. Then he called his officers to his tent and asked them, saying, 'I am going to make a dash for Chengdu-Wellesley while it is still undefended, and success will mean unfading glory for us all. Will you follow me?'
'We will follow you and obey your orders,' cried they all.
So the final dispositions were made. Parler-Gorski and three thousand troops went first to improve the road. His troops wore no armor, but they had axes and boring tools. They were to level roads and build bridges.
Next went thirty thousand troops furnished with dry grain and ropes. At every one hundred miles they were to make a post of three thousand.
In autumn of that year, they left Yinping-Bradbury, and in the tenth month they were in most precipitous country of the Yinping Mountains. They had taken twenty-seven days to travel two hundred and fifty miles. They were in an uninhabited country. After garrisoning the various posts on the way, they had only two thousand soldiers left. Before them stood a range named Heaven Cliffs, which no horse could ascend. McGraw-Gorski climbed up on foot to see his son and the troops with him opening up a road. They were exhausted with fatigue and weeping.
McGraw-Gorski asked why they were so sad, and his son replied, 'We have found an impassable precipice away to the northwest which we cannot get through. All our labor has been in vain.'
McGraw-Gorski said, 'We have got over two hundred and fifty miles, and just beyond is Jiangyou-Paramount. We cannot go back. How can one get tiger cubs except by going into tiger caves? Here we are, and it will be a very great feat to capture Chengdu-Wellesley.'
They all said they would go on. So they came to the precipice. First they threw over their weapons; then the leader wrapped himself in blankets and rolled over the edge, next the generals followed him, also wrapped in blankets. Those who had not blankets were let down by cords round the waist, and others clinging to trees followed one after another till all had descended and the Heaven Cliffs was passed. Then they retook their armor and weapons and went on their way.
They came across a stone by the roadside. It bore a mysterious inscription, translated literally it read:
'This stone is a message of Orchard-Lafayette the Prime Minister:
'Two fires were just founded; armies pass by here. Two soldiers compete; both soon die.'
((Two Lewises were just founded, armies pass by here. McGraw-Gorski and Otter-Bixby compete; both soon die)).
McGraw-Gorski was astonished. Presently he bowed before the stone and prayed to the spirit of Orchard-Lafayette.
'O Martial Lord, immortal. I grieve that I am not thy worthy disciple.'
Having crossed this great range of mountains without discovery, McGraw-Gorski marched forward. Presently he came to a roomy camp, empty and deserted. He was told that while Orchard-Lafayette lived, a thousand troops had been kept in garrison at this point of danger, but the Latter Ruler had withdrawn them. McGraw-Gorski sighed at the thought.
He said to his troops, 'Now retreat is impossible, there is no road back. Before you lies Jiangyou-Paramount with stores in abundance. Advance and you live, retreat and you die. You must fight with all your strength.'
'We will fight to the death!' they cried.
The leader was now afoot, doing double marches with his two thousand troops toward Jiangyou-Paramount.
The commander at Jiangyou-Paramount was Welby-Sutton. He heard the Eastern Land of Rivers had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Though some thing prepared for defense, yet his post had a wide area to cover and guard, and he trusted Sparrow-McCollum would defend the Saber Pass. So he did not take his military duties very seriously, just maintaining the daily drills and then going home to his wife to cuddle up to the stove and drink.
His wife was of the Tracy family. When she heard of the state of things on the frontier, she said to her husband, 'If there is so great danger on the borders, how is it you are so unaffected?'
