At the sight of the captives Uraso shouted the order to his men, and quickly turning to John, who was slightly in the advance, cried out: "Here are the chief and his principal advisers."
John turned to look and noticed that they were surrounded by the men in charge of Harry and George.
"Good work," he said. "Demand that he tell[p. 182] his men to surrender." And Uraso repeated the message.
The chief saw the situation, but refused to give the order.
"Then we shall have to kill them, and unless you surrender we shall attack at once."
He had hardly finished the words when Muro, seeing the condition of affairs, left their fortress, and rushing forward scaled the low entrenchments, directing a volley into the now thoroughly disorganized and excited warriors. The entire body of Illyas had seen the capture of their chiefs.
The appearance of the chiefs at the head of the column commanded by John made his position safe from attack. Whether the chief refused to comply with Uraso's demand from stubbornness, or because he was paralyzed at the sudden changes from his fancied security, was not apparent at the time.
The warriors now advanced with guns ready for a volley, and the chief saw that resistance was useless. He held up his hand as a signal. John rushed forward toward the oncoming warriors led by Muro, and the latter, seeing the chief in the hands of Uraso, ordered his men to halt.
Meanwhile the forces under Uraso had spread out and were approaching the halting warriors, who, one by one, threw down their bows, and, as they did so, were marched to the open central part of the village and surrounded by the men led by Muro on one side and Uraso on the other. John rushed back to the cordon surrounding the chiefs.