“I didn’t notice that. Is it deep?”
“No; nothing. Tied it up with a handkerchief afterwards, and it stopped at once. However, to get back to the N.C.O. As my bloke toppled over, I saw Firoz’s rifle-barrel come over the N.C.O.’s shoulder as he struggled to get his sword clear. The new man was just lunging when Firoz sort of blew him away from the muzzle. He spun round and collapsed with most of the back of his head missing.
“The next thing that happened was my running into Stephnos, with a white set face, blood all over his sword and arm, looking round for something more to kill, so I gathered the show was about over.
“There was a worry going on under the bank, where two of the enemy had got their backs to a big rock, and four of our fellows were finishing them. Beyond us some of the men were freeing the women, who were tied to the horses. Luckily none of them had got hit, and the enemy had been too rushed to hurt them. Others were tying up wounded men, and some more were holding prisoners. The whole place was littered with bodies of men and horses, many with arrows sticking in ’em.
“I looked round for the soldier whose girl had been killed, and presently I found him. He was on top of a big fellow in a mail shirt, and he had his teeth in the man’s throat. By his side was his sword, broken off below the hilt. A couple of men were pulling him clear as I came up.
“They lifted him off—the Shaman was dead as mutton—and looked him over, and he came to as they did. He had taken something in the body, I think the Shaman’s sword, and he was pretty near gone, but we tried to fix him up. I think he had gone right off his head, for he lay there taking no notice of us, and talking to some one we couldn’t see, stroking the lock of hair round his wrist and smiling. Stephnos, who came up in the middle, said he was still talking to the girl. I hope he was really. He looked as if he could see her until his eyes shut, and then in another minute he was gone.
“The men had seven live prisoners, five of them wounded. The rest were all dead, and if Stephnos hadn’t stopped his men they would have finished these fellows, too. Personally, after what I’d seen, I wouldn’t have stopped them, and I wondered why he did. I understood afterwards.
“There were six women and a certain amount of gear on the pack-horses. We gathered up the enemy’s mail and weapons and such ponies as were worth keeping. Then we mounted the women on the quietest ones and started back.
“We reached the village again about midday, for Stephnos was in a hurry to get back. We had lost four fellows killed and four more pretty badly wounded, as well as lighter cases; but we got off cheap, considering we’d killed forty-five of them. Of course, the arrows and the rifles laid out the majority of them straight off.
“We brought the dead and wounded back on the horses; had to strap ’em on. When we got to the village, we found it full of troops from the fort clearing up the mess, and men from the surrounding villages, as well as some of the villagers, who’d managed to get away in the dark when the raid happened. They had got the fires pretty well under, and had found some burnt bodies in the burnt-out houses.