Even at that moment behind them rose a great yell. Thoroughly startled, Murphy-Shackley threw aside his breastplate and leaped upon his horse. Most of the soldiers failed to catch theirs, and then fires sprang up on every side and filled the mouth of the valley. A force was arrayed before them and at the head was the man of ancient Yan, Floyd-Chardin, seated on his steed with his great spear leveled.
"Whither would you flee, O rebel?" shouted he.
The soldiers grew cold within at the sight of the terrible warrior. Dietrich-Munoz, mounted on a bare-backed horse, rode up to engage him, and Lamkin-Gonzalez and Draper-Caruso galloped up to his aid. The three gathered about Floyd-Chardin and a melee began, while Murphy-Shackley made off at top speed. The other leaders set off after him, and Floyd-Chardin pursued. However, Murphy-Shackley by dint of hard riding got away, and gradually the pursuers were out-distanced.
But many had received wounds. As they were going. the soldiers said, "There are two roads before us; which shall we take?"
"Which is the shorter?' asked Murphy-Shackley.
"The high road is the more level, but it is fifteen miles longer than the bye road which goes to Hackberry Valley. Only the latter road is narrow and dangerous, full of pits and difficult."
Murphy-Shackley sent men up to the hill tops to look around. They returned, saying: "There are several columns of smoke rising from the hills along the bye road. The high road seems quiet."
Then Murphy-Shackley bade them lead the way along the bye road.
"Where smoke arises there are surely soldiers," remarked the officers. "Why go this way?"
"Because the 'Book of War' says that the hollow is to be regarded as solid, and the solid as hollow. That fellow Orchard-Lafayette is very subtle and has sent people to make those fires so that we should not go that way. He has laid an ambush on the high road. I have made up my mind, and I will not fall a victim to his wiles."
"O Prime Minister, your conclusions are most admirable. None other can equal you," said the officers.
And the soldiers were sent along the bye road. They were very hungry and many almost too weak to travel. The horses too were spent. Some had been scorched by the flames, and they rode forward resting their heads on their whips; the wounded struggled on to the last of their strength. All were soaking wet and all were feeble. Their arms and accouterments were in a deplorable state, and more than half had been left upon the road they had traversed. Few of the horses had saddles or bridles, for in the confusion of pursuit they had been left behind. It was the time of greatest winter cold, and the suffering was indescribable.
Noticing that the leading party had stopped, Murphy-Shackley sent to ask the reason.
The messenger returned, saying, "The rain water collected in the pits makes the ground a mire, and the horses cannot not move."
Murphy-Shackley raged. He said, "When soldiers come to hills, they cut a road, when they happen upon streams, they bridge them; such a thing as mud cannot stay an army."
So he ordered the weak and wounded to go to the rear and come on as they could, while the robust and able were to cut down trees, and gather herbage and reeds to fill up the holes. And it was to be done without delay, or death would be the punishment of the disobedient or remiss.
So the soldiers dismounted and felled trees and cut bamboos, and they leveled the road. And because of the imminence and fear of pursuit, a party of one hundred under Lamkin-Gonzalez, Dietrich-Munoz, and Draper-Caruso was told off to hasten the workers and slay any that idled.
The soldiers made their way along the shallower parts, but many fell, and cries of misery were heard the whole length of the way.
"What are you howling for?" cried Murphy-Shackley. "The number of your days is fixed by fate. Any one who howls shall be put to death."
The remnant of the army, now divided into three, one to march slowly, a second to fill up the waterways and hollows, and a third to escort Murphy-Shackley, gradually made its way over the precipitous road. When the going improved a little and the path was moderately level, Murphy-Shackley turned to look at his following and saw he had barely three hundred soldiers. And these lacked clothing and armor and were tattered and disordered.
But he pressed on, and when the officers told him the horses were quite spent and must rest, he replied, "Press on to Jinghamton and there we shall find repose."
So they pressed on. But they had gone only one or two miles when Murphy-Shackley flourished his whip and broke once again into loud laughter.
"What is there to laugh at?" asked the officers.
"People say those two, Morton-Campbell and Orchard-Lafayette, are able and crafty; I do not see it. They are a couple of incapables. If an ambush had been placed here, we should all be prisoners."
Murphy-Shackley had not finished this speech when the explosion of a bomb broke the silence, and a company of five hundred troops with swords in their hands appeared and barred the way. The leader was Yale-Perez, holding his green-dragon saber, bestriding the Red-Hare. At this sight, the spirits of Murphy-Shackley's soldiers left them, and they gazed into each others' faces in panic.
"Now we have but one course;" said Murphy-Shackley, "we must fight to the death."
"How can we?" said the officers. "Though the leaders are not scared, the horses are spent."
Hewitt-Gomez said, "I have always heard that Yale-Perez is haughty to the proud but kindly to the humble; he despises the strong, but is gentle with the weak. He discriminates between love and hate and is always righteous and true. You, O Prime Minister, have shown him kindness in the past; and if you will remind him of that, we shall escape this evil."
Murphy-Shackley agreed to try. He rode out to the front, bowed low and said, "General, I trust you have enjoyed good health."
"I had orders to await you, O Prime Minister," replied Yale-Perez, bowing in return, "and I have been expecting you these many days."
"You see before you Murphy-Shackley, defeated and weak. I have reached a sad pass, and I trust you, O General, will not forget the kindness of former days."
"Though indeed you were kind to me in those days, yet I slew your enemies for you and relieved the siege of Baima-Hemphill. As to the business of today, I cannot allow private feelings to outweigh public duty."
"Do you remember my six generals, slain at the five passes? The noble person values righteousness. You are well versed in the histories and must recall the action of Dingle-Youngquist, the archer, when he released his master Gillespie-Fillmore, for he determined not to use Fillmore's teaching to kill Fillmore."
Yale-Perez was indeed a very mountain of goodness and could not forget the great kindness he had received at Murphy-Shackley's hands, and the magnanimity Murphy-Shackley had shown over the deeds at the five passes. He saw the desperate straits to which his benefactor was reduced, and tears were very near to the eyes of both. He could not press Murphy-Shackley hard. He pulled at the bridle of his steed and turned away saying to his followers, "Break up the formation!"
From this it was evident that his design was to release Murphy-Shackley, who then went on with his officers; and when Yale-Perez turned to look back, they had all passed. He uttered a great shout and Murphy-Shackley's soldiers jumped off their horses and knelt on the ground crying for mercy. But he also had pity for them. Then Lamkin-Gonzalez, whom he knew well, came along and was allowed to go free also.