IV.
Nemesis Overtakes Amalickiah.
Moroni again sat at his study table, while Teancum walked the floor like a caged hyena. The former was haggard-gray like a blasted tree; the latter vowed vengeance, in harsh, inarticulate sounds. Thus the two men took their sorrow differently. Word had come that day that the city of Moroni on the Atlantic coast had been sacked by Amalickiah. For certain reverses that his troops had met with at first, that worthy had sworn to drink Moroni's blood. City after city had fallen under his attack, and ruin and destruction followed in his wake. Finally Moroni's home town was captured. When Amalickiah found that he was cheated of his revenge, as Moroni had gone to Zarahemla, he had without mercy had the aged parents of Teancum and Moroni's young wife, Hirza, put to the sword. Her woman's wit had saved her boy, Moronihah, and sent him in safety to his father, but it could not save herself.
"The vampire has drunk your blood through Hirza's veins." Teancum stopped in his mad pace. "Poor Hirza, whose only fault was being loved by you."
Moroni groaned.
"It was a coward's trick," continued the other. "They are dead, my aged father and my poor old mother—Look you, Moroni, Amalickiah belongs to me. Before heaven I swear to kill him with these two hands!" He flung his powerful arms with clenched fists above his head.
AMALICKIAH SACKED THE COAST CITIES AND PUT HIRZA TO THE SWORD.
"Nay, do not swear," cautioned Moroni. "Teancum, you have been given the command of the division that moves against the Lamanites tomorrow. Fight with the genius and tenacity you displayed on the narrow neck of land. For the rest I trust you implicitly. Now I would be alone."
* * * * * * * *
Amalickiah marched toward the land Bountiful driving the Nephites before him. On the last day he had been much harassed by the archers of Teancum that skirted the woods. When they reached the seashore they met the forces of Teancum drawn up in martial array. A pitched battle ensued in which the Nephites had the advantage over the footsore Lamanites who had been marching and fighting for many days, while their opponents were fresh. With nightfall hostilities ceased. "If Amalickiah were dead, there would be no more war; the snake cannot strike without its head," cogitated the Nephite.
Teancum sat in his tent and by the sputtering flame of a pine torch, was engaged in coloring his skin brown by rubbing it with the juice of a wood berry. His servant, who had already gone through the same performance, and was a Lamanite to all appearances, was sorting over rather gingerly, a pile of women's apparel.
"You are hard to please. Does nothing there suit you?" asked Teancum, with mocking irony.
"Nay, there are so many, I know not which to choose," replied the other in the same spirit.
"It need not be overly becoming in the dark. Let me warn you to make your skirts short, for you may have to run." So daring hearts make light of the gravest dangers.
The man servant replied with a vicious wrench as he got into the woman's garb.
Teancum surveyed him and laughed. "My word, you make a charming wench. Half the men in the Lamanite camp will try to flirt with you, and so defeat our adventure. Pull your scarf down more over your face, so."
The other grinned, displaying a mouth unfeminine in width. But he looked sober when Teancum handed him a battle axe with the remark, "If I fail, you may have an opportunity to finish it," Teancum himself tucked a double-edged dagger into his belt and took down his javelin. He then enveloped himself in a blanket.
As the two passed out, the servant in the yellow striped skirt of a drab, the other with the shuffling gait of a camp straggler, they attracted little attention. When they entered the camp of the Lamanites they elicited less, for the men slept with the abandonment of exhaustion. "A fellow and his girl out late," was all they thought, if they saw them at all.
As the couple picked their way among the tired soldiers one would occasionally open his eyes, see who it was, only grunt and turn over wearily. So without mishap they reached the tent of Amalickiah. Fortune was with them, for his servants were sleeping heavily. Although delay was fraught with danger, Teancum reconnoitered a moment to ascertain just where Amalickiah lay. He was asleep on a camp couch with his arms by his side. A streak of moonlight straggled in and illumined his pale face.
For a moment Teancum poised his javelin in the air. Then he struck. So powerful was the arm that drove the weapon that it went through the sleeper's body, speared the heart, and he died without a groan.
Teancum joined his cowering companion at the entrance, and the two picked their way out of the hostile camp.
Not until morning did the Lamanite hordes raise a wail for their dead king. They had just found his corpse, stark and cold, stuck through with a javelin.
BAS-RELIEF OF ANCIENT WARRIOR.
ALLA DERIDING THE IDOLS.