but not enoubh men that they might effectively hold a postion behind which further climbers, in numbers, might be able to complete their ascent.
'Now?' asked Hci.
'No,' I said.
In our lines we had fifty men. I would, accordingly, permit, as nearly as I could determine, someting in the neighborhood of twenty-five soldiers to attain the level. This should be a number large enough for our purposes and yet small enough, Ihoped, to be dealt with effectively and decisively.
'Now?' asked Cuwignaka.
'Wait,' I said.
We watched the darkness grow at the edge of the rear escarpment.
'Now?' asked Hci.
'No,' I said.
'Now?' asked Hci.
'Yes.' I said, 'now!'
Kaiila warriors, like unleashed sleen, rushed toward the ledge.
What was done then, stabbing down, cutting and hacking, took little time.
I remained a bit behind. I did not wish to be struck in the darkness. I was white.
Then, in a moment, I went and stood near the ledge. The rocky face was dark with darkness. It was hard to tell what might be men and what shadows.
I spun and caught a lance being thrust toward me. 'Tatankasa!' cried a man.
My clothes seemed suddenly soaked with cold sweat. I released the lance.
The soldiers seemed, for the most part, to have been swept from the ledge.
Bows and arrows were brought from the lodges. Men, with impunity, began firing into the shadows. More than once, below me, on the rock face, I saw a body pitch outward and then fall, silently, it seemed, into the darkness below.
'The torch!' I called. 'Light the brush!'
An arm reached over the ledge, near me. I saw a face, wild. Hci thrust down with the point of his lance. The man plummeted backwards, down and away into the darkness.
The mystery of the silent climbers, however, had been solved. The man had been gagged. I could only conjecture how many might have fallen in the darkness, essaying that treacherous, terrible ascent.
A torch was brought. With it we set fire to the great bundles of brush, on ropes, which had been prepared earlier. These flaming bundles, on their ropes, were then hurled over the edge, to hang burning against the rocky face.
I again looked over the edge. The men, in great numbers, like insects, now illuminated, clung precariously to the rock. They could offere no defense. Barely could they hold thier position. At their leisure the Kaiila bowmen picked their targets. Some men, in terror, lost their hold on the rock. Others, terrified, remained where they were, to die. Most began, in haste, to attempt the desscent. Many of these fell. Some men released their hold altogether on the rock, hoping to risk less in the terrors of the slide downward than in facing the Kaiila arrows.
'How many died?' asked Cuwignaka.
I looked down. I could not see, in the darkness, to the foot of the mountain.
'I do not know,' I said.
'Many?' asked Cuwignaka.
'Yes,' I said. 'Many.'
Chapter 46
THE SECOND DAY OF WAR
'I heard noises last night, cries,' said Iwoso. 'Oh!' she said.
I had tightened her neck bonds, pulling her head back against the post. She was then bound as she had been the previous day, helplessly, indentically, as Hci had wished.
It was near dawn. Bloketu was already bound to her post.
'There was an action,' I said. 'It need not concern you.'
Iwoso struggled briefly in her ropes, futilely. I then tightened them.
'Must I be displayed like this?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said. 'Hci, your captor, finds it amusing.'
She struggled, angrily, helplessly.
'Too, he thinks it might be of intrest to you, to observe the issuance of these military affairs, particularly as you are not likely to be unaffected by their outcome.'
She looked at me, frightened.
'Too, of course,' I said, 'your presence here, naked, in your ropes, tied like a slave, is calculated to be an incitement to the Yellow Knives.'
'You use me in many ways, it seems,' she said, bitterly, 'to serve your purposes.'
'You are a captive female,' I said. 'It is thus only natural that you be used to serve the purposes of your captors.'
'You use me,' she said, 'as thoughtlessly and brazenly as a slave!'
I regarded her. 'Yes,' I said, 'you might say that.'
She looked away.
'I would like to make a recommendation,' I said.
She did not look at me.
'Things were perhaps closer for you yesterday than you realize,' I said.
She looked at me.
'It has to do with keeping you alive, my proud, pretty Iwoso,' I said.
'Oh?' she said.
'Hci is your captor,' I said, 'and he is not a patient man. I think you should show him total respect and obey him with absolute perfection.'
She looked at me, angrily.
'Do you understand?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
I turned away, to look down at the Yellow-Knife camp.
'Almost as though I were a slave!' she said.
'Yes,' I said, 'almost as though you were a slave.'
'Never!' she cried.
'As you will, Lady Iwoso,' I said. I continued looking down at the Yellow-Knife camp. I could see, too, their kaiila, grazing behind the camp.
'Yesterday,' she said, 'I was weak! But I am not weak today!'
'The whip,' I said, 'is often useful in dispelling such illusions from the mind of women.'
She was silent.
'Have you ever been whipped, Lady Iwoso?' I asked.
'No,' she said.
'The Yellow Knives,' said Cuwignaka, coming over to where I stood, 'are beginning to mass at the foot of the trail.'
'It would appear to be a major assult,' said Hci, joining us.
'This time they will finish you!' called Iwoso.
'Iwoso seems to be in good spirits today,' observed Cuwignaka.
'She is in fine fettle,' I said.
'Tonight,' said Iwoso, 'I will be with my people, safe!'
'What are they carrying?' asked Hci.
