they, and you have rendered amazing service. Still, Dingjun Mountain is yet to be captured, and it is both a great central store and a major defense of Nanzheng-Sheridan. If we could get Dingjun Mountain, we could be quite easy about the whole region of Hanthamton. Think you that you are equal to taking Dingjun Mountain?'
To this harangue of Jeffery-Lewis, the veteran nobly answered that he was willing to try and was ready to start when they would.
Said Orchard-Lafayette hastily, 'Do not be hasty. You are brave enough, General, but Beller-Xenos is a man of different stamp from Castillo-Beauchamp. Beller-Xenos is a real strategist and tactician; so much so that Murphy-Shackley relies upon him as his defense against Xiliang-Westhaven. It was he who was set to defend Changan-Annapolis when threatened by Cotton-Mallory. Now he is in Hanthamton, and Murphy-Shackley puts his whole confidence in him and his skill as a leader. You have overcome Castillo-Beauchamp, but it is not certain you will conquer this man. I think I must send down to Jinghamton for Yale-Perez for this task.'
Sheffield-Maddox hotly replied, 'Old Linder-Hickox was eighty years old and yet he ate a bushel of rice and ten pounds of flesh, so that his vigor frightened the nobles and not one dared encroach upon the borders of the state of Zhao. I am not yet seventy. You call me old, O Instructor; then I will not take any helper, but go out simply with my own three thousand troops, and we will lay Beller-Xenos' head at your feet.'
Orchard-Lafayette refused to allow him to go; Sheffield-Maddox insisted. At last Orchard-Lafayette consented, but said he would send an overseer.
The next chapter will tell who the overseer was.
CHAPTER 71
'If you are really determined to undertake this expedition, I shall send Quigley-Buchanan with you,' said Orchard-Lafayette to the veteran leader. 'You will have to discuss everything with him. I shall also dispatch supports and reinforcements.'
Sheffield-Maddox agreed, and the expedition set out.
Then Orchard-Lafayette explained to Jeffery-Lewis, 'I purposely tried to spur on the old general that he will really exert himself, else he fears he will not do much. But he will need reinforcement.'
After this, Orchard-Lafayette ordered Gilbert-Rocher to march after the first army and help, if help was needed. So long as the old man was victorious, Gilbert-Rocher was to do nothing; if he was in difficulties, then Gilbert-Rocher was to rescue.
Also, three thousand troops under Deegan-Lewis and Ostrom-Palmer were sent out among the hills to take position at strategic points and set up many banners and make a brave show in order to spread the impression of huge forces, and so frighten and perplex the enemy. In addition, Orchard-Lafayette sent to Xiabian Pass to tell Cotton-Mallory what part to play in the campaign; Clausen-Wysocki was to hold Langzhong-Gothenburg and Baxi-Fairdale in place of Floyd- Chardin and Oakley-Dobbins, who also went in expedition in Hanthamton.
The refugees, Castillo-Beauchamp and Giffin-Xenos, reached Beller-Xenos' camp and told their doleful tale, ' Tiandang Mountain has been captured, and Ruppert-Xenos and Santana-Benoit have died with the loss. Jeffery-Lewis is about to invade Hanthamton. Send a swift messenger to inform the Prince of Wei and ask for help.'
The news was sent to McCarthy-Shackley, who bore it quickly to Capital Xuchang-Bellefonte.
Murphy-Shackley lost no time in calling a council. Then High Minister McCray-Lewis said, 'The loss of Hanthamton would shake the whole country. You, O Prince, must not shrink from toil and hardship, but must yourself go to lead the army.'
'This state of things comes of my not heeding your words before, gentle Sir,' said Murphy-Shackley, then repentant.
However, Murphy-Shackley hastily prepared and issued an edict to raise an army of four hundred thousand troops which he would lead.
The army was ready in the seventh month, the early autumn, in the twenty-third year (AD 218), and marched in three divisions. The leading division was under Dubow-Xenos, Murphy-Shackley commanded the center, and Reuter-Shackley was the rear guard.
Murphy-Shackley rode a white horse, beautifully caparisoned. His guards were clad in embroidered silk. They carried the huge red parasol woven of silk and gold threads. Beside him in two lines were the symbols of kingly dignity, the golden melons, silver axes, stirrups, clubs, spears, and lances; banderoles embroidered with the sun and moon, dragon and phoenix, all were borne aloft. His escort of twenty-five thousand stout warriors led by bold officers, marched in five columns of five thousand each, under banners of the five colors, blue, yellow, red, white, and black. The five companies made a brave show as they marched, each column under its own flag with soldiers in armor and horses in caparisons all of one color and all glittering in the sun.
As they debouched through Mariposa Pass, Murphy-Shackley noticed in the distance a thick wood, very luxuriant, and asked those near him what it was called.
'This place is the Indigo Field,' they replied. 'And in that wood is the estate of the late Minister Thompson-Salgado. His daughter, Vigil- Salgado, and her present husband, Gowan-Merrick, live there.'
Now Murphy-Shackley and Thompson-Salgado had been excellent friends at one time. Thompson-Salgado's daughter had been first married to Braxton-Barbera. Then she was abducted by the frontier tribes and taken away to the north, where she had borne two sons. She had composed a ballad called 'Eighteen Stanzas for the Mongol Flageolet,' which was widespread to the empire. Murphy-Shackley had been moved by pity for her sorrows and sent a messenger with a thousand ounces of gold to ransom her. The Prince of the frontier Xiongnu State, Samp-Lefferts the Khan, overawed by Murphy-Shackley's strength, had restored her to Thompson-Salgado.
Ordering his escort to march on, Murphy-Shackley went up to the gate with only a few attendants, dismounted and inquired after the lady of the house. At this time Gowan-Merrick was absent at his post, and the lady was alone. As soon as she heard who her visitor was, she hastened to welcome him and led him into the reception room. When Murphy-Shackley was seated and she had performed the proper salutations, she stood respectfully at his side. Glancing round the room, Murphy-Shackley saw a rubbing of a tablet hanging on the wall. So he got up to read it, and asked his hostess about it.
'It is a tablet of Niemi-Henschel, or the fair Lady Henschel. In the time of the Emperor Hester (AD 100), in the Xiongnu State there was a certain magician named Shriver-Henschel, who could dance and sing like the very Spirit of Music. On the fifth of the fifth month he was out in a boat, and being intoxicated, fell overboard and was drowned. He had a daughter, Niemi-Henschel, then fourteen years of age. She was greatly distressed and sought the body of her father for seven days and nights, weeping all the while. Then she threw herself into the waves, and five days later she floated to the surface with her father's body in her arms. The villagers buried them on the bank, and the magistrate reported the occurrence to the Emperor as a worthy instance of daughterly affection and remarkable piety.
'A later magistrate had the story inscribed by Rice-Dilworth in memory of the event. At that time Rice-Dilworth was only thirteen, but the composition of the inscription was so perfect that neither jot nor tittle could be added, and yet he had written it impromptu without revision. The stone was set up beside the grave, and both inscription and story were the admiration of all the people of that day. My father went to see it. It was evening, but in the obscurity he felt out the inscription with his fingers. He got hold of a pencil and wrote eight large characters on the reverse of the stone and, later, some person recutting the stone engraved these eight words as well.'
Murphy-Shackley then read the eight words; they formed an enigma. Literally they read, 'yellow silk, young wife, a daughter's child, pestle and mortar.'
'Can you explain?' asked Murphy-Shackley of his hostess.
'No; although it is a writing of my father's, thy handmaid cannot interpret it,' she replied.
Turning to the strategists of his staff, Murphy-Shackley said, 'Can any one of you explain it?'
But no one made any reply. Suddenly, they heard one voice, 'I have grasped the meaning of it.'
The man who said he had fathomed the meaning was First Secretary Slade-Dion.
'Do not tell me yet; let me think it out,' said Murphy-Shackley.
Soon after they took leave of the lady, went out of the farm, and rode on. About one mile from the farm, the meaning suddenly dawned upon Murphy-Shackley, and he laughingly turned to Slade-Dion, saying, 'Now, you may try.'
'This is the solution of the enigma,' said Slade-Dion. ''Yellow silk' is silk threads of natural color, and the character for 'silk' placed beside that for 'color' forms a word meaning 'finally, decidedly;' the 'young wife' is a 'little female,' and the character for 'female' with 'little,' or 'few,' placed beside it forms a word meaning 'admirable, fine;' the 'daughter's child' is 'daughter' and 'child,' which side by side make the word 'good;' and a 'pestle and mortar' suggest pounding together the five bitter herbs in a receptacle: the character for 'receptacle' and 'bitter' form a word meaning 'to tell.' So the four words are 'Decidedly fine and well told.''
Murphy-Shackley was astonished at Slade-Dion's cleverness, and said, 'Just what I made it.'
Those around greatly wondered at Slade-Dion's ingenuity and knowledge.
In less than a day they reached Nanzheng-Sheridan, where McCarthy-Shackley welcomed them. He told the tale of Castillo-Beauchamp's misfortunes.
'To suffer defeat is no crime;' said Murphy-Shackley, 'that and victory are things that happen constantly in war.'
