- 6 months ago
Step back in time to the golden age of pulp fiction with Robert E. Howard's "The Lost Valley of Iskander." This thrilling El Borak adventure follows Francis Xavier Gordon, the legendary American gunslinger, as he navigates the treacherous mountains of Afghanistan. El Borak is a man of action and wit, known as "The Swift" to the local tribes, and he's on a mission to deliver a vital package that could prevent a massive religious war. His path leads him to a forgotten civilization, a hidden valley where the descendants of Alexander the Great's army have preserved their ancient Greek culture, untouched by time.
This story is a masterclass in classic pulp adventure, featuring a rugged hero, high-stakes political intrigue, and a thrilling exploration of a lost world. Robert E. Howard, best known for creating Conan the Barbarian, brings his signature blend of fast-paced action, vivid descriptions, and a deep respect for the rugged landscapes and cultures he writes about. "The Lost Valley of Iskander" is a perfect example of his genius outside of the fantasy genre, showcasing a gritty, realistic hero caught in a world of espionage and ancient secrets. We'll analyze the story's themes of heroism, cultural isolation, and the clash between ancient and modern worlds, all while enjoying the relentless pace of a true pulp classic.
This story is a masterclass in classic pulp adventure, featuring a rugged hero, high-stakes political intrigue, and a thrilling exploration of a lost world. Robert E. Howard, best known for creating Conan the Barbarian, brings his signature blend of fast-paced action, vivid descriptions, and a deep respect for the rugged landscapes and cultures he writes about. "The Lost Valley of Iskander" is a perfect example of his genius outside of the fantasy genre, showcasing a gritty, realistic hero caught in a world of espionage and ancient secrets. We'll analyze the story's themes of heroism, cultural isolation, and the clash between ancient and modern worlds, all while enjoying the relentless pace of a true pulp classic.
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00:00:00Gates of Imagination Presents The Lost Valley of Iskander by Robert E. Howard
00:00:06Read by Josh Greenwood
00:00:07It was the stealthy clink of steel on stone that wakened Gordon.
00:00:15In the dim starlight, a shadowy bulk loomed over him, and something glinted in the lifted
00:00:21hand.
00:00:22Gordon went into action like a steel spring uncoiling.
00:00:26His left hand checked the descending wrist with its curved knife.
00:00:30And simultaneously he heaved upward and locked his right hand savagely on a hairy throat.
00:00:36A gurgling gasp was strangled in that throat.
00:00:40And Gordon, resisting the other's terrific plunges, hooked a leg about his knee and heaved
00:00:45him over and underneath.
00:00:47There was no sound except the rasp and thud of straining bodies.
00:00:52Gordon fought, as always, in grim silence.
00:00:55No sound came from the straining lips of the man beneath.
00:00:58His right hand writhed in Gordon's grip while his left tore futilely at the wrist whose
00:01:04iron fingers drove deeper and deeper into the throat they grasped.
00:01:08That wrist felt like a mass of woven steel wires to the weakening fingers that clawed at
00:01:13it.
00:01:13Grimly, Gordon maintained his position, driving all the power of his compact shoulders and
00:01:19corded arms into his throttling fingers.
00:01:21He knew it was his life or that of the man who had crept up to stab him in the dark.
00:01:27In that unmapped corner of the Afghan mountains, all fights were to the death.
00:01:33The tearing fingers relaxed.
00:01:36A convulsive shudder ran through the great body straining beneath the American.
00:01:40It went limp.
00:01:45Chapter 1
00:01:46The Oiled Silk Package
00:01:50Gordon slid off the corpse, in the deeper shadow of the great rocks among which he had
00:01:55been sleeping.
00:01:57Instinctively, he felt under his arm to see if the precious package for which he had staked
00:02:02his life was still safe.
00:02:03Yes, it was there, that flat bundle of papers wrapped in oiled silk, that meant life or death
00:02:11to thousands.
00:02:13He listened.
00:02:14No sound broke the stillness.
00:02:17About him the slopes with their ledges and boulders rose gaunt and black in the starlight.
00:02:23It was the darkness before the dawn, but he knew that men moved about him, out there among
00:02:28the rocks.
00:02:29His ears, wetted by years in wild places, caught stealthy sounds.
00:02:35The soft rasp of cloth over stones.
00:02:38The faint shuffle of sandaled feet.
00:02:41He could not see them, and he knew they could not see him, among the clustered boulders he
00:02:46had chosen for his sleeping sight.
00:02:49His left hand groped for his rifle, and he drew his revolver with his right.
00:02:53That short, deadly fight had made no more noise than the silent knifing of a sleeping
00:02:59man might have made.
00:03:02Doubtless his stalkers out yonder were awaiting some signal from the man they had sent in to
00:03:07murder their victim.
00:03:09Gordon knew who these men were.
00:03:11He knew their leader was the man who had dogged him for hundreds of miles, determined he should
00:03:16not reach India with that silk-wrapped packet.
00:03:19Francis Xavier Gordon was known by repute from Stamboul to the China Sea.
00:03:25The Mohammedans called him El-Barak, the Swift, and they feared and respected him.
00:03:30But in Gustav Hunyadi, renegade and international adventurer, Gordon had met his match, and he
00:03:37knew now that Hunyadi, out there in the night, was lurking with his Turkish killers.
00:03:43They had ferreted him out at last.
00:03:46Gordon glided out from among the boulders as silently as a great cat.
00:03:52No hillman, born and bred among those crags, could have avoided loose stones more skillfully
00:03:58or picked his way more carefully.
00:04:01He headed southward, because that was the direction in which lay his ultimate goal.
00:04:07Doubtless he was completely surrounded.
00:04:09His soft native sandals made no noise, and in his dark hillman's garb, he was all but
00:04:16invisible.
00:04:17In the pitch-black shadow of an overhanging cliff, he suddenly sensed a human presence
00:04:22ahead of him.
00:04:23A voice hissed, a European tongue framing the turkey words.
00:04:28Ali?
00:04:28Is that you?
00:04:29Is the dog dead?
00:04:31Why did you not call me?
00:04:33Gordon struck savagely in the direction of the voice.
00:04:36His pistol barrel crunched glancingly against a human skull, and a man groaned and crumpled.
00:04:43All about rose a sudden clamor of voices, the rasp of leather on rock.
00:04:47A stentorian voice began shouting with a note of panic.
00:04:51Gordon cast stealth to the winds.
00:04:53With a bound, he cleared the writhing body before him and sped off down the slope.
00:04:58Behind him rose a chorus of yells as the men in hiding glimpsed his shadowy figure racing
00:05:04through the starlight.
00:05:06Jets of orange cut the darkness, but the bullets whined high and wide.
00:05:10Gordon's flying shape was sighted but an instant.
00:05:14Then the shadowy gulfs of the night swallowed it up.
00:05:17His enemies raved like foiled wolves in their bewildered rage.
00:05:22Once again, their prey had slipped like an eel through their fingers and was gone.
00:05:27Then, so thought Gordon as he raced across the plateau beyond the clustering cliffs.
00:05:33They would be hot after him, with hillmen who could trail a wolf across naked rocks.
00:05:39But with the start he had, even with the thought, the earth gaped blackly before him.
00:05:45Even his steel-trap quickness could not save him.
00:05:49His grasping hands caught only thin air as he plunged downward to strike his head with stunning
00:05:55force at the bottom.
00:05:57When he regained his senses a chill dawn was whitening the sky.
00:06:01He sat up groggily and felt his head, where a large lump was clotted with dried blood.
00:06:08It was only by chance that his neck was not broken.
00:06:12He had fallen into a ravine, and during the precious time he should have employed in flight,
00:06:18he was lying senseless among the rocks at the bottom.
00:06:20Again, he felt for the packet under his native shirt, though he knew it was fastened there
00:06:26securely.
00:06:28Those papers were his death warrant, which only his skill and wit could prevent being executed.
00:06:35Men had laughed when Francis Xavier Gordon had warned them that the devil's own stew was
00:06:39bubbling in Central Asia, where a satanic adventurer was dreaming of an outlaw empire.
00:06:45To prove his assertion, Gordon had gone into Turkestan, in guise of a wandering Afghan.
00:06:53Years spent in the Orient had given him the ability to pass himself for a native anywhere.
00:06:58He had secured proof no one could ignore or deny.
00:07:02But he had been recognized at last.
00:07:04He had fled for his life, and for more than his life then.
00:07:08And Hunyadi, the renegade who plotted the destruction of nations, was hot on his heels.
00:07:13He had followed Gordon across the steps, through the foothills, and up into the mountains where
00:07:19he had thought at last to throw him off.
00:07:22But he had failed.
00:07:24The Hungarian was a human bloodhound.
00:07:26Weary, too, as shown by his sending his craftiest slayer in to strike a blow in the dark.
00:07:32Gordon found his rifle and began the climb out of the ravine.
00:07:36Under his left arm was proof that would make certain officials wake up and take steps to prevent
00:07:41the atrocious thing that Gustav Hunyadi planned.
00:07:45The proof was in the form of letters to various Central Asian chiefs, signed and sealed with the
00:07:50Hungarian's own hand.
00:07:52They revealed his whole plot to embroil Central Asia in a religious war, and send howling hordes
00:07:59of fanatics against the Indian border.
00:08:02It was a plan for plundering on a staggering scale.
00:08:05That package must reach Fort Ali Masjid.
00:08:09With all his iron will, Francis Xavier Gordon was determined it should.
00:08:15With equal resolution, Gustav Hunyadi was determined it should not.
00:08:21In the clash of two such indomitable temperaments, kingdoms shake and death reaps a red harvest.
00:08:28Dirt crumbled and pebbles rattled down as Gordon worked his way up the sloping side of the ravine.
00:08:36But presently, he clambered over the edge and cast a quick look about him.
00:08:41He was on a narrow plateau, pitched among giant slopes which rose somberly above it.
00:08:47To the south showed the mouth of a narrow gorge, walled by rocky cliffs.
00:08:53In that direction he hurried.
00:08:54He had not gone a dozen steps when a rifle cracked behind him.
00:08:59Even as the wind of the bullet fanned his cheek, Gordon dropped flat behind a boulder,
00:09:05a sense of futility tugging at his heart.
00:09:09He could never escape Hunyadi.
00:09:12This chase would end only when one of them was dead.
00:09:15In the increasing light, he saw figures moving among the boulders along the slopes of the northwest of the plateau.
00:09:21He had lost his chance of escaping under cover of darkness, and now it looked like a Finnish fight.
00:09:29He thrust forward his rifle barrel.
00:09:32Too much to hope that that blind blow in the dark had killed Hunyadi.
00:09:36The man had as many lives as a cat.
00:09:40A bullet splattered on the boulder close to his elbow.
00:09:43He had seen a tongue of flame lick out, marking the spot where the sniper lurked.
00:09:47He watched those rocks, and when a head and part of an arm and shoulder came up with a rifle, Gordon fired.
00:09:55It was a long shot, but the man reared upright and pitched forward across the rock that had sheltered him.
00:10:01More bullets came, spattering Gordon's refuge.
00:10:05Up on the slopes, where the big boulders poised breathtakingly,
00:10:09he saw his enemies moving like ants, wriggling from ledge to ledge.
00:10:13They were spread out in a wide, ragged semicircle, trying to surround him again.
00:10:18He did not have enough ammunition to stop them.
00:10:21He dared shoot only when fairly certain of scoring a hit.
00:10:24He dared not make a break for the gorge behind him.
00:10:27He would be riddled before he could reach it.
00:10:31It looked like trail's end for him, and while Gordon had faced death too often to fear it greatly,
00:10:36the thought that those papers would never reach their destination filled him with black despair.
00:10:42A bullet whining off his boulder from a new angle made him crouch lower, seeking the marksman.
00:10:49He glimpsed a white turban, high up on the slope, above the others.
00:10:53From that position, the Turk could drop bullets directly into Gordon's covert.
00:10:58The American could not shift his position, because a dozen other rifles nearer at hand were covering it,
00:11:05and he could not stay where he was.
00:11:07One of those dropping slugs would find him sooner or later.
00:11:11But the Ottoman decided that he saw a still better position, and risked a shift,
00:11:16trusting to the long uphill range.
00:11:19He did not know Gordon as Hunyadi knew him.
00:11:22The Hungarian, further down the slope, yelled a fierce command,
00:11:25but the Turk was already in motion, headed for another ledge, his garments flapping about him.
00:11:32Gordon's bullet caught him in mid-stride.
00:11:35With a wild cry, he staggered, fell headlong and crashed against a poised boulder.
00:11:41He was a heavy man, and the impact of his hurtling body toppled the rock from its unstable base.
00:11:47It rolled down the slope, dislodging others as it came.
00:11:51Dirt rattled in widening streams about it.
00:11:54Men began recklessly to break cover.
00:11:58Gordon saw Hunyadi spring up and run obliquely across the slope, out of the path of the sliding rocks.
00:12:05The tall, supple figure was unmistakable, even in Turkish garb.
00:12:10Gordon fired and missed, as he always seemed to miss the man.
00:12:14And then there was no time to fire again.
00:12:16The whole slope was in motion now, thundering down in a bellowing, grinding torrent of stones and dirt and boulders.
00:12:25The Turks were fleeing after Hunyadi, screaming,
00:12:29Ya Allah!
00:12:32Gordon sprang up and raced for the mouth of the gorge.
00:12:36He did not look back.
00:12:37He heard above the roaring, the awful screams that marked the end of men caught and crushed and ground to bloody shreds under the rushing tons of shale and stone.
00:12:48He dropped his rifle.
00:12:50Every ounce of extra burden counted now.
00:12:53A deafening roar was in his ears as he gained the mouth of the gorge and flung himself about the beetling jut of the cliff.
00:12:59He crouched there, flattened against the wall, and through the gorge mouth roared a welter of dirt and rocks, boulders bouncing and tumbling, rebounding thunderously from the sides and hurtling on down the sloping pass.
00:13:15Yet it was only a trickle of the avalanche which was diverted into the gorge.
00:13:20The main bulk of it thundered on down the mountain.
00:13:23CHAPTER TWO
00:13:27THE RESCUE OF BARDILUS OF ATALUS
00:13:30Gordon pulled away from the cliff that had sheltered him.
00:13:34He stood knee-deep in loose dirt and broken stones.
00:13:38A flying splinter of stone had cut his face.
00:13:41The roar of the landslide was followed by an unearthly silence.
00:13:45Looking back onto the plateau, he saw a vast litter of broken earth, shale, and rocks.
00:13:51Here and there an arm or a leg protruded, bloody and twisted, to mark where a human victim had been caught by the torrent.
00:14:00Of Hunyadi and the survivors, there was no sign.
00:14:03But Gordon was a fatalist, where the satanic Hungarian was concerned.
00:14:08He felt quite sure that Hunyadi had survived, and would be upon his trail again, as soon as he could collect his demoralized followers.
00:14:17It was likely that he would recruit the natives of these hills to his service.
00:14:22The man's power among the followers of Islam was little short of marvelous.
00:14:27So Gordon turned hurriedly down the gorge.
00:14:30Rifle, pack of supplies.
00:14:33All were lost.
00:14:35He had only the garments on his body, and the pistol at his hip.
00:14:39Starvation in these barren mountains was a haunting threat, if he escaped being butchered by the wild tribes which inhabited them.
00:14:48There was about one chance in ten thousand of his ever getting out alive.
00:14:54But he had known it was a desperate quest when he started, and long odds had never balked Francis Xavier Gordon,
00:15:01once of El Paso, Texas, and now for years, soldier of fortune, in the outlands of the world.
00:15:09The gorge twisted and bent between tortuous walls.
00:15:13The split-off arm of the avalanche had quickly spent its force there,
00:15:17but Gordon still saw the slanting floor littered with boulders which had stumbled down from the higher levels,
00:15:23and suddenly he stopped short, his pistol snapping to a level.
00:15:27On the ground before him lay a man such as he had never seen in the Afghan mountains or elsewhere.
00:15:35He was young, but tall and strong, clad in short silk britches, tunic and sandals,
00:15:42and girdled with a broad belt which supported a curved sword.
00:15:46His hair caught Gordon's attention.
00:15:48Blue eyes, such as the youth had, were not uncommon in the hills.
00:15:52But his hair was yellow, bound to his temples with a band of red cloth,
00:15:58and falling in a square-cut mane nearly to his shoulders.
00:16:01He was clearly no Afghan.
00:16:04Gordon remembered tales he had heard of a tribe living somewhere in these mountains
00:16:08who were neither Afghans nor Mohammedans.
00:16:12Had he stumbled upon a member of that legendary race?
00:16:15The youth was vainly trying to draw his sword.
00:16:18He was pinned down by a boulder which had evidently caught him as he raced for the shelter of the cliff.
00:16:25Slay me and be done with it, you Muslim dog, he gritted in push-to.
00:16:30I won't harm you, answered Gordon.
00:16:33I'm no Muslim.
00:16:35Lie still.
00:16:36I'll help you if I can.
00:16:38I have no quarrel with you.
00:16:41The heavy stone lay across the youth's leg in such a way that he could not extricate the member.
00:16:46Is your leg broken?
00:16:49Gordon asked.
00:16:50I think not.
00:16:52But if you move the stone, it will grind it to shreds.
00:16:57Gordon saw that he spoke the truth.
00:16:59A depression on the underside of the stone had saved the youth's limb while imprisoning it.
00:17:05If he rolled the boulder either way, it would crush the member.
00:17:10I'll have to lift it straight up, he grunted.
00:17:12You can never do it, said the youth despairingly.
00:17:17Ptolemy himself could scarcely lift it, and you are not nearly so big as he.
00:17:23Gordon did not pause to inquire who Ptolemy might be, nor to explain that strength is not altogether a matter of size alone.
00:17:31His own thews were like masses of knit steel wires.
00:17:37Yet he was not at all sure that he could lift that boulder, which, while not so large as many which rolled down the gorge, was yet bulky enough to make the task look dubious.
00:17:47Straddling the prisoner's body, he braced his legs wide, spread his arms and gripped the big stone.
00:17:54Putting all his corded sinews and his scientific knowledge of weightlifting into his effort, he uncoiled his strength in a smooth, mighty expansion of power.
00:18:03His heels dug into the dirt, the veins in his temples swelled, and unexpected knots of muscles sprang out on his straining arms.
00:18:12But the great stone came up steadily without a jerk or waver, and the man on the ground drew his leg clear and rolled away.
00:18:20Gordon let the stone fall and stepped back, shaking the perspiration from his face.
00:18:26The other worked his skinned, bruised leg gingerly, then looked up and extended his hand in a curiously unoriental gesture.
00:18:35I am Bartalus of Attalus, he said.
00:18:38My life is yours.
00:18:41Men call me El Borac, answered Gordon, taking his hand.
00:18:45They made a strong contrast, the tall, rangy youth in his strange garb with his white skin and yellow hair, and the American, shorter, more compactly built, in his tattered Afghan garments and his sun-darkened skin.
00:19:01Gordon's hair was straight and black as an Indian's, and his eyes were black as his hair.
00:19:07I was hunting on the cliffs, said Bartalus.
00:19:13I heard shots, and was going to investigate them, when I heard the roar of the avalanche, and the gorge was filled with flying rocks.
00:19:21You are no Pataan, despite your name.
00:19:25Come to my village.
00:19:27You look like a man who is weary, and has lost his way.
00:19:31Where is your village?
00:19:33Yonder, down the gorge and beyond the cliffs.
00:19:37Bardalus pointed southward.
00:19:40Then, looking over Gordon's shoulder, he cried out.
00:19:44Gordon wheeled.
00:19:46High up on the beetling gorge wall, a turbaned head was poked from behind a ledge.
00:19:52A dark face stared down wildly.
00:19:55Gordon ripped out his pistol with a snarl, but the face vanished, and he heard a frantic voice yelling in guttural turkey.
00:20:03Other voices answered.
00:20:04Among which the American recognized the strident accents of Gustav Hunyadi.
00:20:10The pack was at his heels again.
00:20:11Undoubtedly they had seen Gordon take refuge in the gorge, and as soon as the boulders ceased tumbling, had traversed the torn slope and followed the cliffs where they would have the advantage of the man below.
00:20:25But Gordon did not pause to ruminate.
00:20:28Even as the turbaned head vanished, he wheeled with a word to his companion and darted around the next bend in the canyon.
00:20:35Bardalus followed without question, limping on his bruised leg, but moving with sufficient alacrity.
00:20:44Gordon heard his pursuers shouting on the cliff above and behind him, heard them crashing recklessly through stunted bushes, dislodging pebbles as they ran, heedless of everything except their desire to sight their quarry.
00:20:56Although the pursuers had one advantage, the fugitives had another.
00:21:01Gordon followed the slightly slanting floor of the gorge more swiftly than the others could run along the uneven cliffs with their broken edges and jutting ledges.
00:21:09They had to climb and scramble, and Gordon heard their maledictions growing fainter in the distance behind him.
00:21:16When they emerged from the further mouth of the gorge, they were far in advance of Hunyadi's killers.
00:21:22But Gordon knew that the respite was brief.
00:21:25He looked about him.
00:21:27The narrow gorge had opened out onto a trail, which ran straight along the crest of a cliff that fell away sheer three hundred feet into a deep valley, hemmed in on all sides by gigantic precipices.
00:21:39Gordon looked down and saw a stream winding among dense trees far below, and further on, what seemed to be stone buildings among the groves.
00:21:48Bartalus pointed to the latter.
00:21:50There is my village, he said excitedly.
00:21:54If we could get into the valley we would be safe.
00:21:57This trail leads to the pass at the southern end, but it is five miles distant.
00:22:02Gordon shook his head.
00:22:04The trail ran straight along the top of the cliff and afforded no cover.
00:22:07They'll run us down and shoot us like rats at long range if we keep to this path.
00:22:13There is one other way, cried Bartalus.
00:22:17Down the cliff, at this very point.
00:22:21It is a secret way.
00:22:23And none but a man of my people has ever followed it.
00:22:26And then only when hard-pressed.
00:22:28There are handholds cut into the rock.
00:22:31Can you climb down?
00:22:32I'll try, answered Gordon, sheathing his pistol.
00:22:37To try to go down those towering cliffs looked like suicide.
00:22:42But it was sure death to try to outrun Hunyadi's rifles along the trail.
00:22:47At any minute he expected the Magyar and his men to break cover.
00:22:50I will go first and guide you, said Bartalus rapidly, kicking off his sandals and letting himself over the cliff edge.
00:22:58Gordon did likewise and followed him.
00:23:01Clinging to the sharp lip of the precipice, Gordon saw a series of small holes pitting the rock.
00:23:08He began the descent slowly, clinging like a fly to a wall.
00:23:12It was hair-raising work, and the only thing that made it possible at all was the slight, convex slant of the hill at that point.
00:23:21Gordon had made many a desperate climb during his career, but never one which put such strain on nerve and thew.
00:23:29Again and again, only the grip of a finger stood between him and death.
00:23:33Below him, Bartalus toiled downward, guiding and encouraging him, until the youth finally dropped to the earth and stood looking tensely up at the man above him.
00:23:43Then he shouted, with a note of strident fear in his voice.
00:23:47Gordon, still twenty feet from the bottom, craned his neck upward.
00:23:51High above him, he saw a bearded face peering down at him, convulsed with triumph.
00:23:57Deliberately, the Turks sighted downward with a pistol, then laid it aside and caught up a heavy stone, leaning far over the edge to aim its downward course.
00:24:06Clinging with toes and nails, Gordon drew and fired upward with the same motion.
00:24:11Then he flattened himself desperately against the cliff and clung on.
00:24:16The man above screamed and pitched headfirst over the brink.
00:24:19The rock rushed down, striking Gordon a glancing blow on the shoulder.
00:24:24Then the writhing body hurtled past and struck with a sickening concussion on the earth below.
00:24:30A voice, shouting furiously high above, announced the presence of Hunyadi at last,
00:24:36and Gordon slid and tumbled recklessly the remaining distance and, with Bartalus, ran for the shelter of the trees.
00:24:44A glance backward and upward showed him Hunyadi crouching on the cliff, leveling a rifle.
00:24:49But the next instant Gordon and Bartalus were out of sight, and Hunyadi, apparently dreading an answering shot from the trees,
00:24:57made a hasty retreat with the four Turks who were the survivors of his party.
00:25:00You saved my life when you showed me that path, said Gordon.
00:25:12Bartalus smiled.
00:25:14Any man of Atalus could have shown you the path, which we call the Road of the Eagles.
00:25:20But only a hero could have followed it.
00:25:22From what land comes my brother?
00:25:24From the west, answered Gordon.
00:25:28From the land of America, beyond Frankistan and the sea.
00:25:34Bartalus shook his head.
00:25:36I have never heard of it.
00:25:38But come with me.
00:25:40My people are yours henceforth.
00:25:43As they moved through the trees, Gordon scanned the cliffs in vain for some sign of his enemies.
00:25:48He felt certain that neither Hunyadi, bold as he was, nor any of his companions would try to follow them down the Road of the Eagles.
00:25:58They were not mountaineers.
00:26:00They were more at home in the saddle than on a hill path.
00:26:03They would seek some other way into the valley.
00:26:07He spoke his thoughts to Bartalus.
00:26:09They will find death, answered the youth grimly.
00:26:15The Pass of the King, at the southern end of the valley, is the only entrance.
00:26:20Men guard it with matchlocks night and day.
00:26:23The only strangers who enter the Valley of Iskander are traders and merchants with pack mules.
00:26:30Gordon inspected his companion curiously, aware of a certain tantalizing sensation of familiarity he could not place.
00:26:37Who are your people? he asked.
00:26:41You are not an Afghan.
00:26:44You do not look like an Oriental at all.
00:26:47We are the sons of Iskander, answered Bardilus.
00:26:52When the great conqueror came through these mountains long ago, he built the city we call Attalus and left hundreds of his soldiers and their women in it.
00:27:00Iskander marched westward again, and after a long while, word came that he was dead and his empire divided.
00:27:08But the people of Iskander abode here, unconquered.
00:27:12Many times we have slaughtered the Afghan dogs who came against us.
00:27:17Light came to Gordon, illuminating that misplaced familiarity.
00:27:21Iskander, Alexander the Great, who conquered this part of Asia and left colonies behind him.
00:27:30This boy's profile was classic Grecian, such as Gordon had seen in sculptured marble, and the names he spoke were Grecian.
00:27:38Undoubtedly he was the descendant of some Macedonian soldier who had followed the great conqueror on his invasion of the East.
00:27:46To test the matter, he spoke to Bardilus in ancient Greek, one of the many languages, modern and obsolete, he had picked up in his varied career.
00:27:56The youth cried out with pleasure.
00:27:57You speak our tongue, he exclaimed, in the same language.
00:28:03Not in a thousand years has a stranger come to us with our own speech on his lips.
00:28:08We converse with the Muslims in their own tongue, and they know nothing of ours.
00:28:13Surely you, too, are a son of Iskander.
00:28:18Gordon shook his head, wondering how he could explain his knowledge of the tongue to this youth who knew nothing of the world outside the hills.
00:28:25My ancestors were neighbors of the people of Alexander, he said at last.
00:28:31So, many of my people speak their language.
00:28:35They were approaching the stone roofs which shone through the trees, and Gordon saw that Bardilus's village was a substantial town, surrounded by a wall.
00:28:45It was so plainly the work of long-dead Grecian architects that he felt like a man who wandered into a past and forgotten age.
00:28:53Outside the walls, men tilled the thin soil with primitive implements, and herded sheep and cattle.
00:29:01A few horses grazed along the bank of the stream which meandered through the valley.
00:29:06All the men, like Bardilus, were tall and fair-haired.
00:29:10They dropped their work and came running up, staring at the black-haired stranger in hostile surprise, until Bardilus reassured them.
00:29:18It is the first time any but a captive or a trader has entered the valley in centuries, said Bardilus to Gordon.
00:29:26Say nothing till I bid you.
00:29:29I wish to surprise my people with your knowledge.
00:29:32Zeus, they will gape when they hear a stranger speak to them in their own tongue.
00:29:38The gate in the wall hung open and unguarded, and Gordon noticed that the wall itself was in a poor state of repair.
00:29:46Bardilus remarked that the guard in the narrow pass at the end of the valley was sufficient protection, and that no hostile force had ever reached the city itself.
00:29:55They passed through and walked along a broad paved street, in which yellow-haired people in tunics, men, women, and children, went about their tasks, much like the Greeks of two thousand years ago, among buildings which were duplicates of the structures of ancient Athens.
00:30:12A crowd quickly formed about them, but Bardilus, bursting with glee and importance, gave them
00:30:19no satisfaction.
00:30:21He went straight toward a large edifice near the center of the town, and mounting the broad
00:30:25steps, came into a large chamber where several men, more richly dressed than the common people,
00:30:31sat casting dice on a small table before them.
00:30:34The crowd swarmed in after them, and thronged the doorway eagerly.
00:30:39The chiefs ceased their dice game, and one, a giant with a commanding air, demanded,
00:30:44What do you wish, Bardilus?
00:30:46Who is this stranger?
00:30:49A friend of Attalus, Ptolemy, king of the valley of Iskander, answered Bardilus.
00:30:55He speaks the tongue of Iskander.
00:30:57What tale is this, harshly demanded the giant.
00:31:03Let them hear, brother, Bardilus directed triumphantly.
00:31:07I come in peace, said Gordon briefly, in archaic Greek.
00:31:12I am called El Borak, but I am no Moslem.
00:31:17A murmur of surprise went up from the throng, and Ptolemy fingered his chin and scowled suspiciously.
00:31:22He was a magnificently built man, clean-shaven like all his tribesmen, and handsome, but his visage was moody.
00:31:33He listened impatiently while Bardilus related the circumstances of his meeting with Gordon,
00:31:38and when he told of the American lifting the stone that pinned him down,
00:31:42Ptolemy frowned and involuntarily flexed his own massive thews.
00:31:46He seemed ill-pleased at the approval with which the people openly greeted the tale.
00:31:50Evidently, these descendants of Grecian athletes had as much admiration for physical perfection
00:31:56as had their ancient ancestors, and Ptolemy was vain of his prowess.
00:32:02How could he lift such a stone?
00:32:05The king broke in.
00:32:07He is of no great size.
00:32:09His head would scarcely top my chin.
00:32:12He is mighty beyond his stature, O king, retorted Bardilus.
00:32:17Here is the bruise on my leg to prove I tell the truth.
00:32:21He lifted the stone I could not move, and he came down the road of the eagles,
00:32:26which few even among the Alteans have dared.
00:32:30He has travelled far and fought men.
00:32:33And now he would feast and rest.
00:32:36See to it, then, grunted Ptolemy contemptuously, turning back to his dice game.
00:32:41If he is a Moslem spy, your head shall answer for it.
00:32:47I stake my head gladly on his honesty, O king, answered Bardilus proudly.
00:32:53Then, taking Gordon's arm, he said softly,
00:32:56Come, my friend.
00:32:59Ptolemy is short of patience and scant of courtesy.
00:33:03Pay no heed to him.
00:33:05I will take you to the house of my father.
00:33:07As they pushed their way through the crowd,
00:33:11Gordon's gaze picked out an alien countenance among the frank, blonde faces.
00:33:16A thin, swarthy visage, whose black eyes gleamed avidly on the American.
00:33:22The man was a Tajik, with a bundle on his back.
00:33:26When he saw he was being scrutinized, he smirked and bobbed his head.
00:33:30There was something familiar about the gesture.
00:33:33Who is that man? Gordon asked.
00:33:36Abdullah, a Moslem dog whom we allow to enter the valley with beads and mirrors and such trinkets as our women love.
00:33:45We trade ore and wine and skins for them.
00:33:49Gordon remembered the fellow now, a shifty character who used to hang around Peshawar
00:33:54and was suspected of smuggling rifles up the Khyber Pass.
00:33:57But when he turned and looked back, the dark face had vanished in the crowd.
00:34:04However, there was no reason to fear Abdullah, even if the man recognized him.
00:34:10The Tajik could not know of the papers he carried.
00:34:14Gordon felt that the people of Atalis were friendly to the friend of Bardilis,
00:34:18though the youth had plainly roused Ptolemy's jealous vanity by his praise of Gordon's strength.
00:34:23Bardilis conducted Gordon down the street to a large stone house with a pillared portico,
00:34:29where he proudly displayed his friend to his father, a venerable patriarch called Perdiccas,
00:34:35and his mother, a tall, stately woman, well along in years.
00:34:40The Atalons certainly did not keep their women in seclusion, like the Moslems.
00:34:45Gordon saw Bardilis's sisters, robust, blonde beauties, and his young brother.
00:34:52The American could scarcely suppress a smile at the strangeness of it all being ushered into
00:34:57the everyday family life of 2,000 years ago.
00:35:00These people were definitely not barbarians.
00:35:03They were lower, undoubtedly, in the cultural scale than their Hellenic ancestors,
00:35:08but they were still more highly civilized than their fierce Afghan neighbors.
00:35:11The interest in their guest was genuine, but none, save Bardilis,
00:35:17showed much interest in the world outside their valley.
00:35:20Presently, the youth led Gordon into an inner chamber and set food and wine before him.
00:35:26The American ate and drank ravenously, suddenly aware of the lean days that had preceded this feast.
00:35:32While he ate, Bardilis talked, but he did not speak of the men who had been pursuing Gordon.
00:35:37Gordon, evidently he supposed them to have been Afghans of the surrounding hills,
00:35:42whose hostility was proverbial.
00:35:45Gordon learned that no man of Attilis had ever been more than a day's journey away from the valley.
00:35:50The ferocity of the hill tribes all about them had isolated them from the world completely.
00:35:57When Gordon at last expressed a desire for sleep,
00:36:01Bardilis left him alone, assuring him that he would not be disturbed.
00:36:05The American was somewhat disturbed to find that there was no door to his chamber,
00:36:11merely a curtain drawn across an archway.
00:36:14Bardilis had said there were no thieves in Attilis,
00:36:17but caution was so much a natural part of Gordon that he found himself a prey to uneasiness.
00:36:24The room opened onto a corridor, and the corridor, he believed, gave onto an outer door.
00:36:29The people of Attilis apparently did not find it necessary to safeguard their dwellings.
00:36:36But though a native could sleep in safety, that might not apply to a stranger.
00:36:41Finally, Gordon drew aside the couch which formed the main piece of furniture for the chamber,
00:36:46and making sure no spying eyes were on him,
00:36:50he worked loose one of the small stone blocks which composed the wall.
00:36:53Taking the silk-bound packet from his shirt, he thrust it into the aperture,
00:36:59pushed back the stone as far as it would go, and replaced the couch.
00:37:04Stretching himself then, upon the couch,
00:37:06he fell to evolving plans for escape with his life and those papers which meant so much to Peace of Asia.
00:37:14He was safe enough in the valley,
00:37:16but he knew Hunyadi would wait for him outside with the patience of a cobra.
00:37:20He could not stay here forever.
00:37:23He would scale the cliffs some dark night and bolt for it.
00:37:28Hunyadi would undoubtedly have all the tribes in the hills after him,
00:37:31but he would trust to luck and his good right arm, as he had so often before.
00:37:36The wine he had drunk was potent.
00:37:40Weariness after the long flight weighted his limbs.
00:37:43Gordon's meditations merged into dream.
00:37:46He slept deeply and long.
00:37:48Chapter 4
00:37:52The Duel with Ptolemy the Kind
00:37:55When Gordon awoke, he was in utter darkness.
00:37:59He knew that he had slept for many hours, and night had fallen.
00:38:03Silence reigned over the house,
00:38:05but he had been awakened by the soft swish of the curtains over the doorway.
00:38:10He sat up on his couch and asked,
00:38:12Is that you, Bardilis?
00:38:13A voice grunted.
00:38:16Yes.
00:38:18Even as he was electrified by the realization that the voice was not that of Bardilis,
00:38:24something crashed down on his head,
00:38:26and a deeper blackness, shot with fire sparks, engulfed him.
00:38:29When he regained consciousness, a torch dazzled his eyes,
00:38:34and in its glow he saw three men,
00:38:36burly, yellow-haired men of Atalis with faces more stupid and brutish than any he had yet seen.
00:38:43He was lying on a stone slab in a bare chamber,
00:38:46whose crumbling, cobwebbed walls were vaguely illumined by the guttering torch.
00:38:51His arms were bound, but not his legs.
00:38:55The sound of a door opening made him crane his neck,
00:38:59and he saw a stooped, vulture-like figure enter the room.
00:39:03It was Abdullah, the Tajik.
00:39:06He looked down on the American with his rat-like features twisted in a venomous grin.
00:39:11Low lies the terrible El Borak, he taunted.
00:39:16Fool, I knew you the instant I saw you in the palace of Ptolemy.
00:39:21You have no feud with me, growled Gordon.
00:39:25A friend of mine has, answered the Tajik.
00:39:29That is nothing to me, but it shall gain me profit.
00:39:33It is true you have never harmed me, but I have always feared you.
00:39:37So when I saw you in the city, I gathered my goods and hastened to depart,
00:39:43not knowing what you did here.
00:39:45But beyond the pass I met the Ferenghi Hunyadi,
00:39:48and he asked me if I had seen you in the valley of Iskander
00:39:52whither you had fled to escape him.
00:39:55I answered that I had, and he urged me to help him steal into the valley
00:39:59and take from you certain documents he said you stole from him.
00:40:03But I refused, knowing that these Atalan devils would kill me if I tried to smuggle a stranger
00:40:10into Iskander, and Hunyadi went back into the hills with his four Turks
00:40:14and the horde of ragged Afghans he has made his friends and allies.
00:40:18When he had gone, I returned to the valley, telling the guardsmen at the pass that I feared the Patans.
00:40:27I persuaded these three men to aid me in capturing you.
00:40:31None will know what became of you,
00:40:33and Ptolemy will not trouble himself about you,
00:40:36because he is jealous of your strength.
00:40:38It is an old tradition that the king of Attalus must be the strongest man in the city.
00:40:44Ptolemy would have killed you himself, in time.
00:40:47But I will attend to that.
00:40:50I do not wish to have you on my trail,
00:40:52after I have taken from you the papers Hunyadi wishes.
00:40:56He shall have them ultimately,
00:40:57if he is willing to pay enough,
00:40:59he laughed,
00:41:00a high cackling laugh,
00:41:02and turned to the stolid Atalans.
00:41:04Did you search him?
00:41:05We found nothing,
00:41:07a giant rumbled.
00:41:09Abdullah tch-tchked his teeth in annoyance.
00:41:13You do not know how to search a Ferengi.
00:41:16Here, I will do it myself.
00:41:19He ran a practiced hand over his captive,
00:41:21scowling as his search was unrewarded.
00:41:24He tried to feel under the Americans' armpits,
00:41:26but Gordon's arms were bound so closely to his sides that this was impossible.
00:41:32Abdullah frowned worriedly and drew a curved dagger.
00:41:36Cut loose his arms,
00:41:38he directed.
00:41:39Then all three of you lay hold on him.
00:41:41It is like letting a leopard out of his cage.
00:41:44Gordon made no resistance,
00:41:46and was quickly spread-eagled on the slab,
00:41:48with a big atalan at each arm,
00:41:50and one on his legs.
00:41:52They held him closely,
00:41:54but seemed skeptical of Abdullah's repeated warnings
00:41:56concerning the stranger's strength.
00:41:58The Tajik again approached his prisoner,
00:42:01lowering his knife as he reached out.
00:42:02With a dynamic release of coiled steel muscles,
00:42:06Gordon wrenched his legs free from the grasp of the careless atalan,
00:42:10and drove his heels into Abdullah's breast.
00:42:13Had his feet been booted,
00:42:14they would have caved in Tajik's breastbone.
00:42:17As it was,
00:42:18the merchant shot backward with an agonized grunt,
00:42:21and struck the floor flat on his shoulders.
00:42:24Gordon had not paused.
00:42:26That same terrific lunge had torn his left arm free,
00:42:29and heaving up on the slab,
00:42:31he smashed his left fist against the jaw of the man who gripped his right arm.
00:42:36The impact was that of a caulking hammer,
00:42:38and the atalan went down like a butchered ox.
00:42:41The other two lunged in,
00:42:43hands grasping.
00:42:45Gordon threw himself over the slab to the floor on the other side,
00:42:49and as one of the warriors lunged around it,
00:42:52he caught the atalan's wrist,
00:42:54wheeled,
00:42:54jerking the arm over his shoulder,
00:42:56and hurled the man bodily over his head.
00:42:59The atalan struck the floor headfirst with an impact
00:43:02that knocked wind and consciousness out of him together.
00:43:05The remaining kidnapper was more wary.
00:43:10Seeing the terrible strength and blinding speed of his smaller foe,
00:43:14he drew a long knife and came in cautiously,
00:43:18seeking an opportunity for a mortal thrust.
00:43:21Gordon fell back,
00:43:22putting the slab between himself and that glimmering blade,
00:43:26while the other circled warily after him.
00:43:29Suddenly,
00:43:30the American stooped and ripped a similar knife from the belt of the man he had first felled.
00:43:35As he did so,
00:43:37the atalan gave a roar,
00:43:38cleared the slab with a lion-like bound,
00:43:41and slashed in midair at the stooping American.
00:43:44Gordon crouched still lower,
00:43:46and the gleaming blade whistled over his head.
00:43:49The man hit the floor feet first,
00:43:51off balance,
00:43:52and tumbled forward,
00:43:53full into the knife that swept up in Gordon's hand.
00:43:56A strangled cry was wrung from the atalan's lips
00:43:59as he felt himself impaled on the long blade,
00:44:02and he dragged Gordon down with him in his death struggles.
00:44:07Tearing free from his weakening embrace,
00:44:10Gordon rose,
00:44:11his garment smeared with his victim's blood,
00:44:14the red knife in his hand.
00:44:16Abdullah staggered up with a croaking cry,
00:44:19his face green with pain.
00:44:22Gordon snarled like a wolf and sprang toward him,
00:44:25all his murderous passion fully roused.
00:44:27But the sight of that dripping knife
00:44:30and the savage mask of Gordon's face
00:44:32galvanized the Tajik.
00:44:35With a scream,
00:44:36he sprang for the door,
00:44:37knocking the torch from its socket as he passed.
00:44:40It hit the floor,
00:44:41scattering sparks
00:44:42and plunging the room into darkness,
00:44:45and Gordon caromed blindly into the wall.
00:44:48When he righted himself and found the door,
00:44:51the room was empty except for himself
00:44:53and the atalans,
00:44:54dead or senseless.
00:44:55Emerging from the chamber,
00:44:58he found himself in a narrow street
00:45:00with the stars fading for dawn.
00:45:03The building he had just exited was dilapidated
00:45:05and obviously deserted.
00:45:08Down the narrow way he saw the house of Perdiccas.
00:45:11So he had not been carried far.
00:45:14Evidently his abductors had anticipated no interference.
00:45:18He wondered how much of a hand
00:45:20Bardilis had had in the plot.
00:45:23He did not like to think
00:45:24that the youth had betrayed him.
00:45:27But in any event,
00:45:28he would have to return
00:45:29to the house of Perdiccas
00:45:31to obtain the packet
00:45:32he had concealed in the wall.
00:45:34He went down the street,
00:45:36still feeling a bit sick
00:45:37and giddy from that blow
00:45:38that had knocked him senseless,
00:45:40now that the fire of battle
00:45:41had cooled in his veins.
00:45:43The street was deserted.
00:45:45It seemed indeed more like an alley
00:45:47than a street,
00:45:48running between the back of the houses.
00:45:50As he approached the house,
00:45:52he saw someone running toward him.
00:45:54It was Bardilis,
00:45:56and he threw himself on Gordon
00:45:57with a cry of relief
00:45:58that was not feigned.
00:46:00Oh, my brother!
00:46:03he exclaimed.
00:46:04What has happened?
00:46:05I found your chamber empty a short time ago,
00:46:08and blood on your couch.
00:46:10Are you unhurt?
00:46:12Nay, there is a cut upon your scalp.
00:46:15Gordon explained in a few words,
00:46:17saying nothing of the letters.
00:46:19He allowed Bardilis to suppose
00:46:21that Abdullah had been a personal enemy,
00:46:23bent on revenge.
00:46:25He trusted the youth now,
00:46:27but there was no need
00:46:28to disclose the truth of the packet.
00:46:31Bardilis whitened with fury.
00:46:34What a shame upon my house!
00:46:36he cried.
00:46:38Last night that dog Abdullah
00:46:39made my father a present
00:46:40of a great jug of wine,
00:46:42and we all drank except yourself,
00:46:44who were slumbering.
00:46:45I know now the wine was drugged.
00:46:49We slept like dogs.
00:46:51Because you were our guest,
00:46:53I posted a man
00:46:54at each outer door last night.
00:46:56But they fell asleep
00:46:57because of the wine they had drunk.
00:47:00A few minutes ago,
00:47:02searching for you,
00:47:03I found the servant
00:47:04who was posted at the door,
00:47:06which opens into this alley
00:47:08from the corridor
00:47:08that runs past your chamber.
00:47:11His throat had been cut.
00:47:13It was easy for them
00:47:14to creep along that corridor
00:47:16and into your chamber
00:47:17while we slept.
00:47:19Back in the chamber,
00:47:21while Bardilis went to fetch
00:47:22fresh garments,
00:47:23Gordon retrieved the packet
00:47:25from the wall
00:47:25and stowed it under his belt.
00:47:28In his waking hours,
00:47:29he preferred to keep it
00:47:30on his person.
00:47:32Bardilis returned then
00:47:34with the breeches,
00:47:35sandals,
00:47:35and tunic of the Atalans,
00:47:37and while Gordon donned them,
00:47:39gazed in admiration
00:47:40at the American's
00:47:41bronzed and sinewy torso,
00:47:44devoid as it was
00:47:45of the slightest trace
00:47:46of surplus flesh.
00:47:49Gordon had scarcely
00:47:50completed his dressing
00:47:51when voices were heard without.
00:47:53The tramp of men
00:47:54resounded through the hall,
00:47:56and a group of yellow-haired warriors
00:47:58appeared at the doorway,
00:47:59with swords at their sides.
00:48:01Their leader pointed at Gordon
00:48:03and said,
00:48:03Ptolemy commands that this man
00:48:06appear at once before him,
00:48:08in the Hall of Justice.
00:48:09What is this?
00:48:12exclaimed Bardilis.
00:48:14El Borac is my guest.
00:48:16It is not my part to say,
00:48:19answered the chief.
00:48:20I but carry out
00:48:21the commands of our king.
00:48:24Gordon laid a restraining hand
00:48:25on Bardilis' arm.
00:48:27I will go.
00:48:29I want to see what business
00:48:30Ptolemy has with me.
00:48:32I too will go,
00:48:34said Bardilis,
00:48:35with a snap of his jaws.
00:48:37What this portends,
00:48:38I do not know.
00:48:40I do know that El Borac
00:48:42is my friend.
00:48:44The sun was not yet rising
00:48:45as they strode down
00:48:46the white street
00:48:47toward the palace,
00:48:48but people were already
00:48:49moving about,
00:48:51and many of them
00:48:51followed the procession.
00:48:55Mounting the broad steps
00:48:56of the palace,
00:48:57they entered a wide hall,
00:48:58flanked with lofty columns.
00:49:00At the other end
00:49:01there were more steps,
00:49:03wide and curving,
00:49:04leading up to a dais
00:49:05on which,
00:49:06in a throne-like marble chair,
00:49:08sat the king of Atalus,
00:49:10sullen as ever.
00:49:11A number of his chiefs
00:49:12sat on stone benches
00:49:14on either side of the dais,
00:49:15and the common people
00:49:16ranged themselves
00:49:17along the wall,
00:49:19leaving a wide space
00:49:20clear before the throne.
00:49:22In this open space
00:49:23crouched a vulture-like figure.
00:49:25It was Abdullah,
00:49:28his eyes shining
00:49:29with hate and fear,
00:49:31and before him
00:49:32lay the corpse
00:49:32of the man Gordon
00:49:33had killed
00:49:34in the deserted house.
00:49:36The other two kidnappers
00:49:38stood nearby,
00:49:39their bruised features
00:49:40sullen and ill at ease.
00:49:43Gordon was conducted
00:49:44into the open space
00:49:45before the dais,
00:49:46and the guards fell back
00:49:48on either side of him.
00:49:49There was little formality.
00:49:52Ptolemy motioned
00:49:53to Abdullah and said,
00:49:54Make your charge.
00:49:57Abdullah sprang up
00:49:58and pointed a skinny finger
00:49:59in Gordon's face.
00:50:01I accuse this man
00:50:03of murder,
00:50:04he screeched.
00:50:06This morning before dawn,
00:50:07he attacked me
00:50:08and my friends
00:50:09while we slept,
00:50:10and slew him
00:50:11who lies there.
00:50:12The rest of us
00:50:13barely escaped
00:50:14with our lives.
00:50:15A mutter of surprise
00:50:17and anger
00:50:17rose from the throng.
00:50:19Ptolemy turned
00:50:20his somber stare
00:50:21on Gordon.
00:50:22What have you to say?
00:50:24He lies,
00:50:26answered the American
00:50:27impatiently.
00:50:28I killed that man,
00:50:30yes.
00:50:31He was interrupted
00:50:32by a fierce cry
00:50:33from the people,
00:50:34who began to surge
00:50:35menacingly forward,
00:50:36to be thrust back
00:50:37by the guards.
00:50:39I only defended my life,
00:50:41said Gordon angrily,
00:50:43not relishing
00:50:43his position of defendant.
00:50:45That Tajik dog
00:50:47and three others,
00:50:48that dead man
00:50:49and those two
00:50:49standing there,
00:50:51slipped into my chamber
00:50:52last night
00:50:52as I slept
00:50:53in the house
00:50:53of Perdiccas,
00:50:55knocked me senseless
00:50:56and carried me away
00:50:57to rob and kill me.
00:50:59Aye,
00:51:00cried Bardilis
00:51:01wrathfully,
00:51:02and they slew
00:51:03one of my father's
00:51:04servants
00:51:04while he slept.
00:51:06At that,
00:51:07the murmur
00:51:08of the mob changed
00:51:09and they halted
00:51:10in uncertainty.
00:51:11A lie,
00:51:12screamed Abdullah,
00:51:14fired to recklessness
00:51:15by avarice and hate.
00:51:16Bardilis is bewitched.
00:51:18El Borak
00:51:19is a wizard.
00:51:20How else could he
00:51:21speak your tongue?
00:51:23The crowd recoiled
00:51:24abruptly,
00:51:24and some made
00:51:25furtive signs
00:51:26to avert conjury.
00:51:27The Atalans
00:51:28were as superstitious
00:51:29as their ancestors.
00:51:31Bardilis had drawn
00:51:32his sword,
00:51:33and his friends
00:51:34rallied about him,
00:51:35clean-cut,
00:51:36rangy youngsters
00:51:36quivering like hunted
00:51:38dogs in their eagerness.
00:51:40Wizard,
00:51:41or man,
00:51:42roared Bardilis.
00:51:43He is my brother,
00:51:45and no man touches him
00:51:46save at peril of his head.
00:51:47He is a wizard,
00:51:50screamed Abdullah,
00:51:51foam dabbling his beard.
00:51:53I know him of old.
00:51:55Beware of him.
00:51:56He will bring madness
00:51:57and ruin upon Atalus.
00:51:59On his body
00:52:00he bears a scroll
00:52:01with magic inscriptions
00:52:02wherein lies
00:52:03his necromantic power.
00:52:05Give that scroll to me,
00:52:07and I will take it
00:52:08afar from Atalus
00:52:09and destroy it
00:52:10where it can do no harm.
00:52:12Let me prove
00:52:13I do not lie.
00:52:14Hold him
00:52:15while I search him,
00:52:16and I will show you.
00:52:19Let no man dare touch Elborak,
00:52:22challenged Bardilis.
00:52:24Then from his throne
00:52:25rose Ptolemy,
00:52:26a great menacing image
00:52:27of bronze,
00:52:28somber and awe-inspiring.
00:52:30He strode down the steps,
00:52:32and men shrank back
00:52:33from his bleak eyes.
00:52:36Bardilis stood his ground,
00:52:37as if ready to defy
00:52:39even his terrible king,
00:52:40but Gordon drew the lad aside.
00:52:42Elborak was not one
00:52:44to stand quietly by
00:52:46while someone else
00:52:46defended him.
00:52:48It is true,
00:52:50he said without heat,
00:52:51that I have a packet
00:52:52of papers in my garments,
00:52:54but it is also true
00:52:55that it has nothing
00:52:56to do with witchcraft,
00:52:57and that I will kill
00:52:58the man who tries
00:52:59to take it from me.
00:53:01At that,
00:53:03Ptolemy's brooding
00:53:04impassiveness
00:53:04vanished in a flame
00:53:06of passion.
00:53:06Will you defy
00:53:08even me?
00:53:10He roared,
00:53:11his eyes blazing,
00:53:13his great hands
00:53:14working convulsively.
00:53:16Do you deem yourself
00:53:17already king of Atalis?
00:53:19You black-haired dog,
00:53:20I will kill you
00:53:21with my naked hands.
00:53:23Back,
00:53:23and give us space.
00:53:26His sweeping arms
00:53:27hurled men right and left,
00:53:29and roaring like a bull,
00:53:30he hurled himself
00:53:31on Gordon.
00:53:33So swift and violent
00:53:34was his attack
00:53:35that Gordon was unable
00:53:36to avoid it.
00:53:38They met breast to breast,
00:53:40and the smaller man
00:53:41was hurled backward
00:53:42and to his knee.
00:53:43Ptolemy plunged over him,
00:53:45unable to check
00:53:46his velocity,
00:53:47and then,
00:53:48locked in a death grapple,
00:53:49they ripped and tore
00:53:50while the people surged
00:53:52yelling about them.
00:53:55Not often did Elborak
00:53:57find himself opposed
00:53:58by a man stronger
00:53:59than himself.
00:54:01But the king of Atalis
00:54:02was a mass of whalebone
00:54:03and iron
00:54:04and nerved
00:54:05to blinding quickness.
00:54:07Neither had a weapon.
00:54:09It was man to man,
00:54:10fighting as the primitive
00:54:12progenitors of the race
00:54:13fought.
00:54:14There was no science
00:54:15about Ptolemy's onslaught.
00:54:17He fought like a tiger
00:54:19or a lion,
00:54:20with all the appalling
00:54:21frenzy of the primordial.
00:54:23Again and again,
00:54:24Gordon battered his way
00:54:25out of a grapple
00:54:26that threatened
00:54:27to snap his spine
00:54:28like a rotten branch.
00:54:29His blinding blows
00:54:31ripped and smashed
00:54:32in a riot of destruction.
00:54:34The tall king of Atalis
00:54:35swayed and trembled
00:54:37before them
00:54:37like a tree in a storm,
00:54:39but always came
00:54:40surging back
00:54:40like a typhoon,
00:54:42lashing out
00:54:42with great strokes
00:54:43that drove Gordon
00:54:44staggering before him,
00:54:46rending and tearing
00:54:47with mighty fingers.
00:54:49Only his desperate speed
00:54:50and the savage skill
00:54:51of boxing and wrestling
00:54:52that was his
00:54:53had saved Gordon
00:54:54so long.
00:54:56Naked to the waist,
00:54:57battered and bruised,
00:54:59his tortured body
00:55:00quivered with the punishment
00:55:01he was enduring.
00:55:03But Ptolemy's great chest
00:55:04was heaving.
00:55:06His face was a mask
00:55:07of raw beef
00:55:08and his torso
00:55:09showed the effects
00:55:10of a beating
00:55:11that would have killed
00:55:12a lesser man.
00:55:13Gasping a cry
00:55:14that was half curse,
00:55:16half sob,
00:55:17he threw himself
00:55:17bodily on the American,
00:55:19bearing him down
00:55:20by sheer weight.
00:55:22As they fell,
00:55:22he drove a knee
00:55:23savagely at Gordon's groin
00:55:25and tried to fall
00:55:26with his full weight
00:55:27on the smaller man's breast.
00:55:28A twist of his body
00:55:30sent the knee sliding
00:55:31harmlessly along his thigh
00:55:32and Gordon writhed
00:55:34from under the heavier body
00:55:35as they fell.
00:55:36The impact broke their holds
00:55:38and they staggered up
00:55:39simultaneously.
00:55:41Through the blood and sweat
00:55:42that streamed into his eyes,
00:55:43Gordon saw the king
00:55:44towering above him,
00:55:46reeling,
00:55:46arms spread,
00:55:47blood pouring down
00:55:48his mighty breast.
00:55:50His belly went in
00:55:51as he drew
00:55:52a great laboring breath
00:55:53and into the relaxed pit
00:55:55of his stomach,
00:55:56Gordon,
00:55:57crouching,
00:55:58drove his left
00:55:59with all the strength
00:56:00of his rigid arm,
00:56:02iron shoulders,
00:56:03and knotted calves
00:56:04behind it.
00:56:06His clenched fist
00:56:07sank to the wrist
00:56:08in Ptolemy's solar plexus.
00:56:10The king's breath
00:56:11went out of him
00:56:12in an explosive grunt.
00:56:14His hands dropped
00:56:15and he swayed
00:56:16like a tall tree
00:56:17under the axe.
00:56:19Gordon's right,
00:56:20hooking up
00:56:20in a terrible arc,
00:56:22met his jaw
00:56:22with a sound
00:56:23like a cooper's mallet.
00:56:25And Ptolemy pitched headlong,
00:56:27and lay still.
00:56:31Chapter 5
00:56:32The Death of Hunyadi
00:56:35In the stupefied silence
00:56:37that followed
00:56:38the fall of the king,
00:56:40while all eyes,
00:56:41dilated with surprise,
00:56:43were fixed
00:56:43on the prostrate giant
00:56:44and the groggy figure
00:56:46that weaved above him,
00:56:48a gasping voice
00:56:49shouted from outside
00:56:50the palace.
00:56:52It grew louder,
00:56:53mingled with a clatter
00:56:54of hooves
00:56:55which stopped
00:56:55at the outer steps.
00:56:57All wheeled toward the door
00:56:59as a wild figure
00:57:00staggered in,
00:57:01spattering blood.
00:57:03A guard from the pass,
00:57:04cried Bardilis.
00:57:06The Muslims,
00:57:07cried the man,
00:57:08blood spurting
00:57:08through his fingers
00:57:09which he pressed
00:57:10to his shoulder.
00:57:11Three hundred Afghans,
00:57:12they have stormed the pass.
00:57:14They are led by a Feringi
00:57:15and four Turkey
00:57:16who have rifles
00:57:17that fire many times
00:57:18without reloading.
00:57:19These men shot us down
00:57:20from afar off
00:57:21as we strove
00:57:22to defend the pass.
00:57:23The Afghans
00:57:24have entered the valley.
00:57:26He swayed and fell,
00:57:28blood trickling
00:57:29from his lips.
00:57:30A blue bullet hole
00:57:31showed in his shoulder,
00:57:33near the base
00:57:33of his neck.
00:57:35No clamor of terror
00:57:36greeted this appalling news.
00:57:39In the utter silence
00:57:40that followed,
00:57:41all eyes turned
00:57:42toward Gordon,
00:57:44leaning dizzily
00:57:44against the wall,
00:57:46gasping for breath.
00:57:47You have conquered
00:57:50Ptolemy,
00:57:51said Bardilis.
00:57:53He is dead
00:57:54or senseless.
00:57:55While he is helpless,
00:57:57you are king.
00:57:59That is the law.
00:58:01Tell us what to do.
00:58:03Gordon gathered
00:58:04his dazed wits
00:58:05and accepted the situation
00:58:06without demur
00:58:07or question.
00:58:09If the Afghans
00:58:10were in the valley,
00:58:11there was no time
00:58:12to waste.
00:58:13He thought he could hear
00:58:14the distant popping
00:58:15of firearms already.
00:58:17How many men
00:58:19are able to bear arms?
00:58:21He panted.
00:58:23Three hundred and fifty,
00:58:26answered one of the chiefs.
00:58:27Then let them take
00:58:29their weapons
00:58:29and follow me,
00:58:31he said.
00:58:32The walls of the city
00:58:34are rotten.
00:58:35If we try to defend them,
00:58:37with Hunyadi
00:58:37directing the siege,
00:58:39we will be trapped
00:58:40like rats.
00:58:42We must win
00:58:43with one stroke,
00:58:44if at all.
00:58:45Someone brought him
00:58:47a sheathed and belted
00:58:49scimitar,
00:58:50and he buckled it
00:58:50about his waist.
00:58:52His head was still swimming
00:58:53and his body numb,
00:58:55but from some obscure
00:58:56reservoir he drew
00:58:57a fund of reserve power,
00:58:59and the prospect
00:59:00of a final showdown
00:59:02with Hunyadi
00:59:02fired his blood.
00:59:04At his directions,
00:59:06men lifted Ptolemy
00:59:07and placed him
00:59:08on a couch.
00:59:09The king had not
00:59:11moved since he dropped,
00:59:12and Gordon thought
00:59:13it probable
00:59:14that he had
00:59:14a concussion
00:59:15of the brain.
00:59:17That pole-axe smash
00:59:18that had felled him
00:59:20would have split
00:59:20the skull
00:59:21of a lesser man.
00:59:23Then Gordon
00:59:24remembered Abdullah
00:59:25and looked about
00:59:27for him,
00:59:28but the Tajik
00:59:29had vanished.
00:59:31At the head
00:59:32of the warriors
00:59:33of Atalis,
00:59:34Gordon strode
00:59:35down the street
00:59:35and through
00:59:36the ponderous gate.
00:59:37All were armed
00:59:39with long curved swords.
00:59:41Some had unwieldy
00:59:42matchlocks,
00:59:43ancient weapons
00:59:44captured from
00:59:45the hill tribes.
00:59:47He knew the Afghans
00:59:48would be no better armed,
00:59:49but the rifles
00:59:50of Hunyadi
00:59:51and his Turks
00:59:51would count heavily.
00:59:53He could see
00:59:54the horde swarming
00:59:55up the valley
00:59:56still some distance away.
00:59:58They were on foot.
00:59:59Lucky for the Atalans
01:00:01that one of the pass guards
01:00:02had kept a horse
01:00:03near him.
01:00:04Otherwise,
01:00:05the Afghans
01:00:05would have been
01:00:06at the very walls
01:00:07of the town
01:00:08before the word
01:00:08came of their invasion.
01:00:10The invaders
01:00:11were drunk
01:00:12with exultation,
01:00:14halting to fire
01:00:15outlying huts
01:00:16and growing stuff,
01:00:17and to shoot cattle
01:00:18in sheer wanton
01:00:20destructiveness.
01:00:22Behind Gordon
01:00:23rose a deep
01:00:24rumble of rage,
01:00:25and looking back
01:00:26at the blazing
01:00:27blue eyes
01:00:28and tall,
01:00:28tense figures,
01:00:30the American knew
01:00:31he was leading
01:00:31no weaklings
01:00:32to battle.
01:00:33He led them
01:00:34to a long,
01:00:35straggling heap
01:00:36of stones
01:00:36which ran
01:00:37waveringly clear
01:00:38across the valley,
01:00:39marking an ancient
01:00:40fortification,
01:00:42long abandoned
01:00:42and crumbling down.
01:00:44It would afford
01:00:46some cover.
01:00:47When they reached it,
01:00:48the invaders
01:00:49were still
01:00:50out of rifle fire.
01:00:51The Afghans
01:00:52had ceased
01:00:53their plundering
01:00:53and came on
01:00:54at an increased gait,
01:00:56howling like wolves.
01:00:58Gordon ordered
01:00:58his men
01:00:59to lie down
01:01:00behind the stones
01:01:01and called to him
01:01:02the warriors
01:01:02with the matchlocks,
01:01:04some thirty in all.
01:01:06Pay no heed
01:01:07to the Afghans,
01:01:09he instructed them.
01:01:10Shoot at the men
01:01:11with the rifles.
01:01:12Do not shoot
01:01:13at random,
01:01:14but wait until
01:01:14I give the word,
01:01:16then all fire together.
01:01:18The ragged horde
01:01:19were spreading out
01:01:20somewhat
01:01:20as they approached,
01:01:22loosing their matchlocks
01:01:23before they were
01:01:24in range
01:01:24of the grim band
01:01:25waiting silently
01:01:26along the crumbled wall.
01:01:28The Atalans
01:01:29quivered with eagerness,
01:01:30but Gordon
01:01:31gave no sign.
01:01:32He saw the tall,
01:01:34supple figure
01:01:34of Hunyadi
01:01:35and the bulkier shapes
01:01:37of his turbaned Turks
01:01:38in the center
01:01:39of the ragged crescent.
01:01:41The men came straight on,
01:01:42apparently secure
01:01:43in the knowledge
01:01:44that the Atalans
01:01:45had no modern weapons
01:01:46and that Gordon
01:01:47had lost his rifle.
01:01:49They had seen him
01:01:50climbing down the cliff
01:01:51without it.
01:01:53Gordon cursed Abdullah,
01:01:55whose treachery
01:01:56had lost him his pistol.
01:01:59Before they were
01:01:59in range of the matchlocks,
01:02:01Hunyadi fired
01:02:02and the warrior
01:02:03at Gordon's side
01:02:04slumped over,
01:02:05drilled through the head.
01:02:07A mutter of rage
01:02:08and impatience
01:02:09ran along the line,
01:02:10but Gordon
01:02:11quieted the warriors,
01:02:12ordering them
01:02:13to lie closer
01:02:14behind the rocks.
01:02:15Hunyadi tried again
01:02:16and the Turks
01:02:18blazed away,
01:02:19but the bullets
01:02:20wind off the stones.
01:02:22The men moved nearer
01:02:23and behind them
01:02:24the Afghans
01:02:25howled with
01:02:26bloodthirsty impatience,
01:02:28rapidly getting
01:02:29out of hand.
01:02:31Gordon had hoped
01:02:31to lure Hunyadi
01:02:32into reach
01:02:33of his matchlocks,
01:02:34but suddenly,
01:02:36with an earth-shaking yell,
01:02:37the Afghans
01:02:38stormed past
01:02:39the Hungarian
01:02:39in a wave,
01:02:41knives flaming
01:02:42like the sun
01:02:42on water.
01:02:43Hunyadi yelped
01:02:44explosively,
01:02:45unable to see
01:02:46or shoot
01:02:47at his enemies
01:02:47for the backs
01:02:48of his reckless allies.
01:02:50Despite his curses,
01:02:52they came on
01:02:52with a roar.
01:02:54Gordon,
01:02:55crouching among
01:02:56the stones,
01:02:57glared at the
01:02:58gaunt giants
01:02:58rushing toward him
01:02:59until he could
01:03:00make out
01:03:00the fanatical
01:03:01blaze of their eyes.
01:03:02Then he roared,
01:03:04Fire!
01:03:05A thunderous volley
01:03:06ripped out
01:03:07along the wall,
01:03:08ragged,
01:03:08but terrible
01:03:09at that range.
01:03:10A storm of lead
01:03:11blasted the
01:03:12oncoming line
01:03:13and men went
01:03:14down in windrows.
01:03:16Lost to all caution,
01:03:17the Atalans
01:03:18leaped the wall
01:03:19and hewed
01:03:19into the staggering
01:03:20Afghans
01:03:21with naked steel.
01:03:23Cursing as Hunyadi
01:03:24had cursed,
01:03:25Gordon drew
01:03:25his scimitar
01:03:26and followed them.
01:03:27No time
01:03:28for orders now,
01:03:29no formation,
01:03:30no strategy.
01:03:32Atalan and Afghan,
01:03:34they fought
01:03:34as men fought
01:03:35a thousand years ago,
01:03:36without order
01:03:37or plan,
01:03:38massed in a straining,
01:03:39grunting,
01:03:40hacking mob,
01:03:41where naked blades
01:03:42flickered like lightning.
01:03:44Yard-long
01:03:44kyber knives
01:03:45clanged
01:03:46and ground
01:03:46against the curved
01:03:47swords of the Atalans.
01:03:49The rending
01:03:50of flesh and bone
01:03:51beneath the chopping blades
01:03:52was like the sound
01:03:53of butcher's cleavers.
01:03:55The dying
01:03:56dragged down
01:03:57the living
01:03:57and the warriors
01:03:58stumbled
01:03:59among the mangled corpses.
01:04:01It was a shambles
01:04:03where no quarter
01:04:03was asked
01:04:04and none given
01:04:04and the feuds
01:04:06and hates
01:04:06of a thousand years
01:04:07glutted in slaughter.
01:04:09No shots
01:04:10were fired
01:04:10in that deadly crush,
01:04:12but about the edges
01:04:13of the battle
01:04:14circled Hunyadi
01:04:15and the Turks
01:04:16shooting with deadly accuracy.
01:04:18Man to man,
01:04:19the stalwart Atalans
01:04:20were a match
01:04:21for the hairy hillmen
01:04:22and they slightly
01:04:23outnumbered
01:04:24the invaders.
01:04:25But they had thrown
01:04:26away the advantage
01:04:27of their position
01:04:28and the rifles
01:04:29of the Hungarians
01:04:30own party
01:04:31were dealing havoc
01:04:32in their disordered ranks.
01:04:34Two of the Turks
01:04:35were down,
01:04:36one hit
01:04:36by a matchlock ball
01:04:37in that first
01:04:38and only volley
01:04:39and another
01:04:40disemboweled
01:04:41by a dying Atalan.
01:04:43As Gordon
01:04:44hewed his way
01:04:44through the straining
01:04:45knots
01:04:46and flailing blades,
01:04:48he met
01:04:48one of the remaining
01:04:49Turks face to face.
01:04:50The man thrust
01:04:52a rifle muzzle
01:04:52in his face,
01:04:53but the hammer
01:04:54fell with a click
01:04:55on an empty shell,
01:04:57and the next instant
01:04:58Gordon's scimitar
01:04:59ripped through his belly
01:05:00and stood out
01:05:01a foot behind his back.
01:05:03As the American
01:05:04twisted his blade free,
01:05:05the other Turk
01:05:06fired a pistol,
01:05:08missed,
01:05:08and hurled
01:05:09the empty weapon
01:05:10fruitlessly.
01:05:11He rushed in,
01:05:13slashing with a saber
01:05:14at Gordon's head.
01:05:16El Borak
01:05:16parried the singing blade,
01:05:18and his scimitar
01:05:19cut the air
01:05:20like a blue beam,
01:05:21splitting the Turk's
01:05:22skull to the chin.
01:05:24Then he saw Hunyadi.
01:05:26The Hungarian
01:05:27was groping
01:05:28in his belt,
01:05:28and Gordon knew
01:05:29he was out of ammunition.
01:05:31We've tried hot lead,
01:05:32Gustav,
01:05:33challenged Gordon,
01:05:34and we both still live.
01:05:36Come and try cold steel.
01:05:38With a wild laugh,
01:05:40the Hungarian
01:05:40ripped out his blade
01:05:41in a bright shimmer
01:05:42of steel
01:05:43that caught
01:05:43the morning sun.
01:05:45He was a tall man.
01:05:47Gustav Hunyadi,
01:05:49black sheep's son
01:05:50of a noble
01:05:51Magyar house,
01:05:52supple and lithe
01:05:53as a catamount,
01:05:55with dancing,
01:05:56reckless eyes
01:05:57and lips
01:05:57that curved
01:05:58in a smile
01:05:58as cruel
01:05:59as a striking sword.
01:06:01I match my life
01:06:02against a little
01:06:03package of papers,
01:06:05El Borak,
01:06:06the Hungarian laughed
01:06:07as the blades met.
01:06:09On each side
01:06:10the fighting lulled
01:06:11and ceased
01:06:12as the warriors
01:06:13drew back
01:06:14with heaving chests
01:06:15and dripping swords
01:06:16to watch their leaders
01:06:17settle the score.
01:06:19The curved blades
01:06:20sparkled in the sunlight,
01:06:22ground together,
01:06:23leaped apart,
01:06:24licked in and out
01:06:25like living things.
01:06:27Well for El Borak then
01:06:28that his wrist
01:06:29was a solid mass
01:06:30of steel cords,
01:06:31that his eye
01:06:32was quicker
01:06:32and surer
01:06:33than a falcon's,
01:06:35and his brain
01:06:36and thews
01:06:36bound together
01:06:37with a coordination
01:06:38keen as razor-edged steel.
01:06:41For into his play,
01:06:43Hunyadi brought
01:06:43all the skill
01:06:44of a race
01:06:45of swordsmen,
01:06:46all the craft
01:06:47taught by masters
01:06:48of the blade
01:06:49of Europe and Asia,
01:06:50and all the savage cunning
01:06:52he had learned
01:06:52in wild battles
01:06:53on the edges
01:06:54of the world.
01:06:56He was taller
01:06:56and had the longer reach.
01:06:59Again and again
01:06:59his blade whispered
01:07:01at Gordon's throat.
01:07:03Once it touched his arm
01:07:04and a trickle
01:07:05of crimson began.
01:07:07There was no sound
01:07:08except the rasp
01:07:09of feet on the sword,
01:07:11the rapid whisper
01:07:12of the blades,
01:07:13the deep panting
01:07:14of the men.
01:07:16Gordon was the harder pressed.
01:07:18That terrible fight
01:07:19with Ptolemy
01:07:20was taking its toll.
01:07:22His legs trembled,
01:07:23his sight kept blurring,
01:07:25as if through a mist
01:07:26he saw the triumphant smile
01:07:28growing on the thin lips
01:07:29of the Magyar.
01:07:32And a wild surge
01:07:33of desperation
01:07:34rose in Gordon's soul,
01:07:36nerving him
01:07:37for a last rush.
01:07:39It came with the unexpected fury
01:07:41of a dying wolf
01:07:42with a flaming fan
01:07:43of steel,
01:07:45a whirlwind of blades.
01:07:47And then Hunyadi was down,
01:07:49clutching at the earth
01:07:50with twitching hands,
01:07:51Gordon's narrow curved blade
01:07:53through him.
01:07:54The Hungarian rolled
01:07:55his glazing eyes
01:07:56up at his conqueror
01:07:57and his lips distorted
01:07:58in a ghastly smile.
01:08:00To the mistress
01:08:02of all true adventures,
01:08:04he whispered,
01:08:05choking on his own blood.
01:08:07To the lady death!
01:08:09He sank back
01:08:11and lay still.
01:08:12His pallid face
01:08:13turned to the sky,
01:08:15blood oozing
01:08:16from his lips.
01:08:17The Afghans began
01:08:18slinking furtively away,
01:08:20their morale broken,
01:08:22like a pack of wolves
01:08:23whose leader is down.
01:08:25Suddenly,
01:08:26as if waking from a dream,
01:08:28the Atalans gave tongue
01:08:29and pelted after them.
01:08:31The invaders broke and fled,
01:08:33while the infuriated Atalans
01:08:35followed,
01:08:35stabbing and hacking
01:08:36at their backs,
01:08:37down the valley
01:08:38and out through the pass.
01:08:41Gordon was aware
01:08:41that Bardilis,
01:08:43bloodstained but exultant,
01:08:44was beside him,
01:08:45supporting his trembling frame
01:08:47that seemed
01:08:47on the point of collapse.
01:08:50The American wiped
01:08:51the bloody sweat
01:08:52from his eyes
01:08:52and touched the packet
01:08:53under his girdle.
01:08:55Many men had died for that.
01:08:57But many more would have died
01:08:58had it not been saved,
01:09:00including helpless women
01:09:01and children.
01:09:03Bardilis muttered apprehensively,
01:09:05and Gordon looked up
01:09:06to see a gigantic figure
01:09:08approaching leisurely
01:09:09from the direction
01:09:10of the city,
01:09:11through whose gate
01:09:12the rejoicing women
01:09:13were already streaming.
01:09:15It was Ptolemy,
01:09:17his features grotesquely swollen
01:09:19and blackened
01:09:20from Gordon's iron fists.
01:09:22He strode serenely
01:09:24through the heaps of corpses
01:09:25and reached the spot
01:09:27where the companions stood.
01:09:30Bardilis gripped
01:09:31his notched sword,
01:09:33and Ptolemy,
01:09:33seeing the gesture,
01:09:35grinned with his pulped lips.
01:09:38He was holding
01:09:38something behind him.
01:09:40I do not come in anger,
01:09:42Elborak,
01:09:43he said calmly.
01:09:45A man who can fight
01:09:46as you have fought
01:09:47is neither wizard,
01:09:49thief,
01:09:49nor murderer.
01:09:51I am no child
01:09:52to hate a man
01:09:53who has bested me
01:09:54in fair fight
01:09:54and then saved my kingdom
01:09:57while I lay senseless.
01:09:59Will you take my hand?
01:10:01Gordon grasped it
01:10:04with an honest surge
01:10:05of friendship
01:10:05toward this giant,
01:10:07whose only fault,
01:10:08after all,
01:10:09was his vanity.
01:10:11I did not recover
01:10:12my senses in time
01:10:14for the battle,
01:10:15said Ptolemy.
01:10:16I only saw the last of it.
01:10:18But if I did not reach
01:10:19the field in time
01:10:20to smite the Muslim dogs,
01:10:22I have at least rid
01:10:23the valley of one rat
01:10:24I found hiding
01:10:25in the palace.
01:10:27He casually tossed
01:10:28something at Gordon's feet.
01:10:30The severed head
01:10:31of Abdullah,
01:10:32the features frozen
01:10:33in a grin of horror,
01:10:35stared up at the American.
01:10:37Will you live in Atalus
01:10:39and be my brother
01:10:40as well as the brother
01:10:42of Bardilus?
01:10:43asked Ptolemy,
01:10:44with a glance down the valley
01:10:46toward the pass
01:10:46through which the warriors
01:10:48were harrying
01:10:48the howling Afghans.
01:10:51I thank you, king,
01:10:53said Gordon,
01:10:53but I must go
01:10:55to my own people,
01:10:56and it is still
01:10:57a long road to travel.
01:10:58When I have rested
01:11:00for a few days,
01:11:01I must be gone.
01:11:03A little food
01:11:04to carry with me
01:11:05on my journey
01:11:06is all I ask
01:11:07from the people
01:11:07of Atalus,
01:11:09who are men as brave
01:11:10and valiant
01:11:11as their royal ancestors.
01:11:28are also people
01:11:29outside of balance
01:11:30in a ë‚®.
01:11:33They're treated
01:11:33as healthy as they
01:11:34donning them.
01:11:35In a direct
01:11:36time,
01:11:36I know
01:11:38what is that
01:11:39I think
01:11:40and I will
01:11:41be shot
01:11:42as other guessed
01:11:42as a soldier
01:11:43that I have
01:11:44to avoid
01:11:45and avoid
01:11:46fighting
01:11:47or
01:11:47Terry
01:11:47as I O'
01:11:48did.
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