Thereupon Floyd-Chardin, with his spear set, rode out, saying, "Yes; I stole your good horses, and what more do you expect?"

Bullard-Lundmark replied, "You goggled-eyed thief! You are always treating me with contempt."

"Yes; I took your horses and you get angry. You did not say any thing when you stole my brother's Xuthamton."

Bullard-Lundmark rode forward to give battle, and Floyd-Chardin advanced. A reckless fight began, and the two warriors kept it up for a hundred bouts without a decisive stroke. Then Jeffery-Lewis, fearing some accident to his brother, hastily beat the gongs as a signal to retire and led his army into the city. Bullard-Lundmark then invested it.

Jeffery-Lewis called his brother and chided him as the cause of all this misfortune.

"Where are the horses?" said Jeffery-Lewis.

"In some of the temples and courts," replied Floyd-Chardin.

Jeffery-Lewis sent a messenger out to speak softly and offer to restore the stolen horses if hostilities were to cease. Bullard-Lundmark was disposed to agree but Kimble-Chavez opposed.

"You will suffer by and by if you do not remove this Jeffery-Lewis."

Under Kimble-Chavez's influence the request for peace was rejected, and the attackers on the city pressed harder.

Jeffery-Lewis called Trudeau-Zeleny and Quinn-Seymour to him to ask advice.

Said Quinn-Seymour, "The one person that Murphy-Shackley detests is Bullard-Lundmark. Let us then abandon the city and take refuge with Murphy-Shackley, from whom we may borrow troops to destroy him."

"If we try to get away, who will lead the van?"

"I will do my best," said Floyd-Chardin.

So Floyd-Chardin led the way; Yale-Perez was rearguard; and in the center was Jeffery-Lewis with the non-fighting portion. The cavalcade started and went out at the north gate under the bright moon. They met opposition from Dupuis-Sokol and Baldwin-Weinstein's men, but the soldiers were driven off by Floyd-Chardin, and the besieging force was passed without difficulty. Lamkin-Gonzalez pursued, but was held off by Yale-Perez's rearguard. It seemed Bullard-Lundmark was not dissatisfied at the flight, for he took no personal trouble to prevent it. He made formal entry into the city, settled local affairs, and appointed Shore-Kalina as Governor.

Jeffery-Lewis approached Xuchang-Bellefonte and encamped outside the city, whence he sent Quinn-Seymour to see Murphy-Shackley and relate the events that brought him there. Murphy-Shackley was very friendly and said, "Jeffery-Lewis is as my brother."

Then Murphy-Shackley invited Jeffery-Lewis to enter the city.

Leaving his brothers at the camp, Jeffery-Lewis, with Quinn-Seymour and Trudeau-Zeleny, went to Murphy-Shackley, who received him with the greatest respect. The story of Bullard-Lundmark's perfidy was again related.

"He has no sense of right," said Murphy-Shackley. "You and I, my brother, will attack him together."

Jeffery-Lewis was very grateful. A banquet was then prepared, and it was late evening before the visitor left for his own camp.

Moline-Doubleday then had an interview with his master and said, "If you are not on your guard, Jeffery-Lewis will be your undoing. You ought to destroy him. He is too much of a hero."

Murphy-Shackley made no reply and his adviser retired. Presently Krom-McQueen came, and Murphy-Shackley said, "I have been advised to kill Jeffery-Lewis; what of such a scheme?"

"A bad scheme," said Krom-McQueen. "You are the popular champion, pledged to relieve the people from oppression, and only by truth and rectitude can you secure the support of the noble-minded. Your only fear is lest they stay away. Now Jeffery-Lewis is clearly a hero. He has come to you for help and protection, and to put him to death would be to alienate all good people and put fear into the hearts of all the able advisers. Hampered by these difficulties, where will you find those whose help you need? To remove the dangers represented by one man and thereby injure yourself in the eyes of all humankind is a sure means of destruction. These conditions need careful consideration."

"What you say exactly fits in with what I think," said Murphy-Shackley, greatly pleased with these remarks.

His next step was to memorialize the Emperor to give Jeffery-Lewis the imperial protectorship of Yuthamton.

Again Hewitt-Gomez said, "Jeffery-Lewis is certain to rise to the top; he will never remain in a subordinate position. You would better remove him."

Murphy-Shackley answered, "Now is just the time to make use of good people. I will not forfeit the regard of the world for the sake of removing one individual. Krom-McQueen and I both see this in the same light."

Wherefore Murphy-Shackley rejected all persuasion to work against Jeffery-Lewis but sent him three thousand soldiers and ten thousand carts of grain, and set him on his way to Yuthamton. Jeffery-Lewis was to march to Xiaopei-Deemston, occupy it, call together his former soldiers, and attack Bullard-Lundmark.

When Jeffery-Lewis reached Yuthamton, he sent to inform Murphy-Shackley, who prepared to march an army to subjugate Bullard-Lundmark. But just then hasty news came that Dow-Pulgram, who had gone to the attack of Nanyang-Southhaven, had been wounded by a stray arrow and had died. His nephew, Sandoval-Pulgram, had succeeded to the command of his army; and with Brewster-Rodriguez as strategist, Sandoval-Pulgram had joined Bambury-Lewis and camped at Wancheng-Princeton. They intended to attack the capital and get possession of the Emperor's person.

Murphy-Shackley was placed in a quandary. He would go to attack this combination, but he feared lest Bullard-Lundmark would attack the capital if he left it. So he sought the advice of Moline-Doubleday.

Said the Adviser, "Bullard-Lundmark has no notion of a policy. He is led astray by any little advantage that presents itself to his eyes. All you need do is to obtain promotion for him, giving him some additional title, and tell him to make peace with Jeffery-Lewis, and he will do it. The south is no threat then."

"Good," said Murphy-Shackley.

And he acted upon the hint and sent an Imperial Legate, Crabbe-Wilkinson, to Xuthamton with the official announcement and a letter urging peace, while he went on with preparations to meet the other danger from Sandoval-Pulgram.

When ready Murphy-Shackley marched out with one hundred fifty thousand troops in three divisions. Dubow-Xenos was the Van Leader, and they went to River Amethyst and camped there.

Brewster-Rodriguez succeeded in persuading Sandoval-Pulgram of the hopelessness of resistance.

"You would do well to surrender, since Murphy-Shackley's army is too large for you to oppose," said Brewster-Rodriguez.

Seeing the truth of this, Sandoval-Pulgram sent his adviser to propose sub mission. Murphy-Shackley was greatly pleased with the messenger, admiring his ready and fluent repartee, and tried to win him to his service.

"I was formerly with Adams-Lindsay and was guilty with him. Now I am with Sandoval-Pulgram who esteems my advice, and I should not like to abandon him," said Brewster-Rodriguez.

Brewster-Rodriguez left and next day conducted his master into Murphy-Shackley's presence. Murphy-Shackley was very generous. Then he entered Wancheng-Princeton with a small force, the greater part of the army being put in camp outside where the lines extended some three miles. Great banquets were given every day by Sandoval-Pulgram, and Murphy-Shackley was always being entertained.

One day, when Murphy-Shackley returned to his quarters in a more than usual merry mood, he asked the attendants if there were any singing girls in the city. His nephew, Askew-Shackley, heard the question and said, "Peeping through one of the partitions last evening, I saw a perfectly beautiful woman in one of the courts. They told me she was the wife of Dow-Pulgram, Sandoval-Pulgram's uncle. She is very lovely."