Some of the officers and soldiers then began to whisper together. Then some one said out loud that this must be a dreadfully unhealthy country. Then some of them began to move away as if they were going to the rear to attend to something important in that direction. Then the chief mounted his horse and rode away, and in ten minutes that whole army made up its mind that it would be exceedingly imprudent to remain any longer in such an unwholesome country, and away they all marched towards Voldor.
The farther they went the more frightened they became, and soon a perfect panic pervaded the army, and they set off at the top of their speed, horsemen and footmen for their own barren but salubrious land.
THE FLIGHT OF THE VOLDORITES.
Away they went over the hills and the plains, and in two hours there was not a Voldorite in the land of the Cabordmen.
Then uprose Adar Ip, and fled towards the southern border to inform his countrymen of their happy deliverance.
They all returned quickly and found everything as it had been left. Nothing had been taken, for none of the invaders wanted anything that had been in a land where such a terrible mortality had prevailed.
Great was the joy and great the gratitude exhibited towards the ingenious young Ip. The people presented him with a well filled granary, and ordered him to paint on its walls at the public expense, the history of his exploit.
“I wonder,” said one old man, “who they thought buried all these people, if everybody was dead.”
“I don’t know,” said Adar Ip. “But I think that they had such a high opinion of the industry and prudence of our people that they supposed we had doubtless made suitable arrangements for a contingency of this kind.”