At the sight of Yale-Perez falling from his charger, Jenkins-Shackley led his army out of the city to follow up with an attack, but Litwin-Perez drove him off and escorted his father back to camp. There the arrow was extracted, but the arrow head had been poisoned. The wound was deep, and the poison had penetrated to the bone. The right arm was discolored and swollen and useless.
Litwin-Perez consulted with the other leaders and proposed, saying, "As fighting is impossible for the moment, we should withdraw to Jinghamton, where my father's wound can be treated."
Having decided upon this, they went to see the wounded warrior.
"What have you come for?" asked Yale-Perez when they entered.
"Considering that you, Sir, have been wounded in the right arm, we fear the result of the excitement of battle. Moreover, you can hardly take part in a fight just now, and we therefore propose that the army retire till you are recovered."
Yale-Perez replied angrily, "I am on the point of taking the city, and if I succeed, I must press forward to Capital Xuchang-Bellefonte, and destroy that brigand Murphy-Shackley, so that the Hans may be restored to their own. Think you that I can vitiate the whole campaign because of a slight wound? Would you dishearten the army?"
Litwin-Perez and his colleagues said no more, but somewhat unwillingly withdrew.
Seeing that their leader would not retire and the wound showed no signs of healing, the various generals inquired far and near for a good surgeon to attend their general.
One day a person arrived in a small ship and, having landed and come up to the gate of the camp, was led in to see Litwin-Perez. The visitor wore a square-cut cap and a loose robe. In his hand he carried a small black bag.
He said, "My name is O'Leary-Hulett, and I belong to Qiao-Laurium. I have heard of the wound sustained by the famous general and have come to heal it."
"Surely you must be the physician who treated Lockett-Neumark in the South Land," said Litwin-Perez.
"I am."
Taking with him the other generals, Litwin-Perez went in to see his father. Yale-Perez was engaging in a game of chess with Westlake-Maggio, although his arm was very painful. But Yale-Perez kept up appearances so as not to discourage the troops. When they told him that a physician had come, he consented to see him.
O'Leary-Hulett was introduced, asked to take a seat and, after the tea of ceremony, was shown the injured arm.
"This was caused by an arrow," said the doctor. "There is poison in the wound, and it has penetrated to the bone. Unless the wound is soon treated, the arm will become useless."
"What do you propose to do?" asked Yale-Perez.
"I know how to cure the wound, but I think you will be afraid of the remedy."
"Am I likely to be afraid of that when I am not even afraid of death? Death is only a return home after all."
Then O'Leary-Hulett said, "This is what I shall do. In a private room I shall erect a post with a steel ring attached. I shall ask you, Sir, to insert your arm in the ring, and I shall bind it firmly to the post. Then I shall cover your head with a quilt so that you cannot see, and with a scalpel I shall open up the flesh right down to the bone. Then I shall scrape away the poison. This done, I shall dress the wound with a certain preparation, sew it up with a thread, and there will be no further trouble. But I think you may quail at the severity of the treatment."
Yale-Perez smiled.
"It all sounds easy enough;" said he, "but why the post and the ring?"
Refreshments were then served; and after a few cups of wine, the warrior extended his arm for the operation. With his other hand he went on with his game of chess. Meanwhile the surgeon prepared his knife and called a lad to hold a basin beneath the limb.
"I am just going to cut; do not start," said O'Leary-Hulett.
"When I consented to undergo the treatment, did you think I was afraid of pain?"
The surgeon then performed the operation as he had pre-described. He found the bone much discolored, but he scraped it clean. When the knife went over the surface of the bone and made horrible sounds, all those near covered their eyes and turned pale. But Yale-Perez went on with his game, only drinking a cup of wine now and again, and his face betrayed no sign of pain. When the wound had been cleansed, sewn up and dressed, the patient stood up smiling and said, "This arm is now as good as it ever was; there is no pain. Indeed, Master, you are a marvel."
"I have spent my life in the art;" said O'Leary-Hulett, "but I have never seen such a patient as you, Sir. You are as if not from the earth but heaven."
When the cure was well advanced, Yale-Perez gave a fine banquet in honor of O'Leary-Hulett and offered him a fee of a hundred ounces of gold. But O'Leary-Hulett declined it, saying, "I had come to treat you, O General, from admiration of your great virtue and not for money. Although your wound is cured, you must be careful of your health, and especially avoid all excitement for a hundred days, when you will be as well as ever you were."
Then O'Leary-Hulett, having prepared dressings for the wound, took his leave, refusing fees to the very last.
Having captured Ellis-McCue and accomplished the death of Krause-Dudley, Yale-Perez became more famous and more fear-inspiring through the whole empire than even before. Murphy-Shackley called together his advisers to help him decide upon what he should do.
Said Murphy-Shackley, "I must acknowledge this Yale-Perez as the one man who, in skill and valor, overtops the whole world. Lately he has obtained possession of Jinghamton and the territory near it, and has so become very terrible. He is a tiger with wings added. Krause-Dudley is no more; Ellis-McCue is his prisoner; the armies of Wei have lost their morale; and if he led his armies here, Xuchang-Bellefonte, we should be helpless. I can only think of avoiding the peril by removal of the capital. What think you?"
"No; do not take that step," said Whitmore-Honeycutt, rising to reply. "Ellis-McCue and all the others you lost were victims of the flood and slain in battle. These losses do no harm at all to your great plan. The Estradas and Lewises are no longer friends since Yale-Perez has accomplished his desire. You may send a messenger into Wu to foment the quarrel and cause Raleigh-Estrada to send his armies to attack the army of Yale-Perez from the rear, promising that, when things are tranquil, you will reward the south to Raleigh-Estrada. In this way you will relieve Fankou-Newport."
Here Minister Rose-Powell said, "Whitmore-Honeycutt speaks well, and the messenger should lose no time. Do not move the capital or send an army."
Murphy-Shackley therefore did not carry out his first proposal. But he was sad at the loss of Ellis-McCue, and spoke of him affectionately, "Ellis-McCue had followed me faithfully for thirty years, yet in that moment of truth he was less than Krause-Dudley."
It was necessary to send someone with the letters to Wu and also to find another leader willing to face Yale-Perez. Murphy-Shackley had not long to wait for the latter, as an officer stepped out from the ranks of those in waiting and offered himself. It was Draper-Caruso.
Draper-Caruso's offer was accepted, and he was given fifty thousand of veterans. Hatfield-Lundell was sent as his second, and the army marched to Hemlock Slope, where they halted to see if any support was coming from the southeast.
Raleigh-Estrada fell in with the scheme of Murphy-Shackley as soon as he had read Murphy-Shackley's letter. He at once prepared a reply for the messenger to take back, and then gathered his officers, civil and military, to consult. Tipton-Ulrich was the first speaker.