"Come, men of the outer world!" he shouted. "Let us make our
deaths worth while, and at the back of this unknown warrior turn
this day's Tribute to Issus into an orgy of revenge that will echo
through the ages and cause black skins to blanch at each repetition
of the rites of Issus. Come! The racks without your cages are
filled with blades."
Without waiting to note the outcome of his plea, he turned
and bounded toward me. From every cage that harboured red men a
thunderous shout went up in answer to his exhortation. The inner
guards went down beneath howling mobs, and the cages vomited forth
their inmates hot with the lust to kill.
The racks that stood without were stripped of the swords with
which the prisoners were to have been armed to enter their allotted
combats, and a swarm of determined warriors sped to our support.
The great apes, towering in all their fifteen feet of height, had
gone down before my sword while the charging guards were still some
distance away. Close behind them pursued the youth. At my back
were the young girls, and as it was in their service that I fought,
I remained standing there to meet my inevitable death, but with
the determination to give such an account of myself as would long
be remembered in the land of the First Born.
I noted the marvellous speed of the young red man as he raced after
the guards.
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