"'Behold they are too many for us! Let us fly up the other road.' Stepan loosed the horses as he spoke. 'They will kill my lord, and then where is our revenge?'
"'What matters my life to me? Whoever they are, I will not fly. But why should they desire to kill us, Stepan? They look not like bandits; and they are not Russians.'
"'Nay, but they are worse than either. They are Ossets of the Karai Khokh, who go either side of the mountains. Their Chief is dead, and they are Rakhan's children now. Rakhan rides first in this handful.'
"'Rakhan shall have speech with me,' I spoke, with the heart of my spirit rising, as the Lord has granted it to rise when He has beaten down the body. 'Rakhan is welcome! I will salute him.'
"The man had been out of my sight so long (not only because of my service with Shamyl, but through his own avoidance of me) that I did not know his face for certain till I met his eyes. Then I felt sure what my duty was; as God himself ordained it, when He made man to be true to woman, and woman true to man, and their children to spring of their own loins,—there was no choice left me but to slay this man, or be slain by him.
"Having this within my mind, and being calmer than I can be now in looking back upon it, I stood across the narrow track, and took the horse that Rakhan rode by the head, and gazed at Rakhan. He was amazed at first, and the colour of his great black eyes turned paler, and he fumbled for a pistol, without daring to take his gaze from mine. I would not speak, but I struck his hand up with a flip of mine. The lips that had sullied my dear wife's should have no sort of speech with mine. He tried to regard me humorously, as a man who thinks woman his slave blinks eye, when the question is about her; but the sparkle of his gaze died under mine, like an ember with the sun on it.
"'Get off thy horse, Prince Rakhan,' Stepan shouted, with his big arm laid across. 'The time hath come for man to man, instead of lying with another man's wife.'
"Rakhan made pretence to smile, and to leap from horseback lightly. 'What a stir to make about a light-of-love! Fool that knows not what a woman is! Stand back, my sons; this is not for you.'
"The Ossets took their orders gladly. Every savage man loves to see a fight. They leaped from their horses, and squatted in the snow, and filled their pipes, and kindled them.
"There was a clear place close at hand, with a ring of black cedars round it, and room inside for stepping to and fro, if life and death required it. I threw off my furs, and so did he; and we stood against one another.