"And it will be rebuilt, Lord Ramaíya!" retorted the captain. "There! Now it reaches the floor below. Forward!"
Ramey said no more. All warfare is a gamble. This was no more desperate a measure than that one nation should hurl the soft bodies of men against the adamant ramparts of machines. Eyes glinting, he let himself over the ledge and hand-over-hand down the living chain that dangled to the room below.
He was but one of many. For now there were other chains ... swarms of comrades flinging themselves down over the bodies of their brothers. And before his feet had touched the floor, he was surrounded by a force of more agile ape-warriors, turning to him for command. His voice could not be heard in the melee, but a gesture was enough.
"Forward!"
And to the relief of the beleaguered loyalists, like a great brown flood of strength, surged the monkey-soldiers. From the rear they struck, and there were scores of Videlians who fell without ever knowing what hand had struck them down. When finally they whirled to see this new danger descending upon them, already they were outnumbered. It scarcely mattered that one courageous archer broke a chain by piercing the key-man on the ledge. Though a dozen tumbled headlong to the granite floor, instantly a new chain was forged. And in a trice, the complexion of the battle had changed. Now it was Ravana's men, instead of the loyalists, who were on the defensive. Hard-pressed, they withdrew from the doorway they had been attacking. But the moment their pressure was withdrawn, Thalakka and Tauthus roared their followers forward.
Thus, trapped between two forces, attacked alike by fresh and weary troops, the Videlians fell. Though giants in stature, they were no match for the squat little 'new men' of Chitrakuta. And at length, when the floor of the huge hall ran slippery-red, when the bodies of dead and dying formed a dreadful tapestry on crimsoned stone, the remnants of the doomed battalion surrendered.
Then it was that Ramey, his heart great with gladness, raced to seek those whom strife and a common cause had already bound him into a brotherhood as strong as that of birth.
To the grinning Copt he cried, "Well done, Tauthus of Cush! This is a mighty battle you have won this day!"
And the tall man chuckled in reply, "The credit is thine, Ramaíya. You spoke the truth. There is more joy in this than in squabbling with these few Videlians who are our friends."