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Cumner’s Son
by
Cumner’s Son was supple and swift, and scarce an hour had passed ere he came to a steep place on the other side, with rough niches cut in the rocks, by which a strong man might lift himself up to safety. He stood a moment and ate some coffee-beans and drank some cold water from a stream at the foot of the crag, and then began his ascent. Once or twice he trembled, for he was worn and tired; but he remembered the last words of Tang-a-Dahit, and his fingers tightened their hold. At last, with a strain and a gasp, he drew himself up, and found himself on a shelf of rock with all the great valley spread out beneath him. A moment only he looked, resting himself, and then he searched for a way into the hills; for everywhere there was a close palisade of rocks and saplings. At last he found an opening scarce bigger than might let a cat through; but he laboured hard, and at last drew himself out and looked down the path which led into the Bar of Balmud–the great natural escarpment of giant rocks and monoliths and medlar trees, where lay Pango Dooni’s men.
He ran with all his might, and presently he was inside the huge defence. There was no living being to be seen; only the rock-strewn plain and the woods beyond.
He called aloud, but nothing answered; he called again the tribe-call of Pango Dooni’s men, and a hundred armed men sprang up.
“I am a brother-in-blood of Pango Dooni’s Son,” said he. “Tang-a-Dahit rides for his life to the Bar of Balmud. Ride forth if ye would save him.”
“The lad speaks with the tongue of a friend,” said a scowling hillsman, advancing, “yet how know we but he lies?”
“Even by this,” said Cumner’s Son, and he spoke the sacred countersign and showed again the bracelet of Pango Dooni, and told what had happened. Even as he spoke the hillsmen gave the word, and two score men ran down behind the rocks, mounted, and were instantly away by the road that led to the Koongat Bridge.
The tall hillsman turned to the lad.
“You are beaten by travel,” said he. “Come, eat and drink, and rest.”
“I have sworn to breakfast where Pango Dooni bides, and there only will I rest and eat,” answered the lad.
“The son of Pango Dooni knows the lion’s cub from the tame dog’s whelp. You shall keep your word. Though the sun ride fast towards noon, faster shall we ride in the Neck of Baroob,” said the hillsman.
It was half-way towards noon when the hoof-beats drummed over the Brown Hermit’s cave, and they rested not there; but it was noon and no more when they rode through Pango Dooni’s gates and into the square where he stood.
The tall hillsman dropped to the ground, and Cumner’s Son made to do the same. Yet he staggered, and would have fallen, but the hillsman ran an arm around his shoulder. The lad put by the arm, and drew him self up. He was most pale. Pango Dooni stood looking at him, without a word, and Cumner’s Son doffed his cap. There was no blood in his lips, and his face was white and drawn.
“Since last night what time the bugle blows in the Palace yard, I have ridden,” said he.
At the sound of his voice the great chief started. “The voice I know, but not the face,” said he.
“I am Cumner’s Son,” replied the lad, and once more he spoke the sacred countersign.
IV. BY THE OLD WELL OF JAHAR
To Cumner’s Son when all was told, Pango Dooni said: “If my son be dead where those jackals swarm, it is well he died for his friend. If he be living, then it is also well. If he be saved, we will march to Mandakan, with all our men, he and I, and it shall be as Cumner wills, if I stay in Mandakan or if I return to my hills.”