The valley was full of shouting, howling
creatures, and every soul was shrieking, 'Not a God nor a Devil, but only a
man!' The Bashkai troops stuck to Billy Fish all they were worth, but their
matchlocks wasn't half as good as the Kabul breech-loaders, and four of them
dropped. Dan was bellowing like a bull, for he was very wrathy; and Billy Fish
had a hard job to prevent him running out at the crowd.
"'We can't stand,' says Billy Fish. 'Make a run for it down the valley! The
whole place is against us.' The matchlock-men ran, and we went down the valley
in spite of Dravot. He was swearing horrible and crying out that he was a
King. The priests rolled great stones on us, and the regular Army fired hard,
and there wasn't more than six men, not counting Dan, Billy Fish, and Me, that
came down to the bottom of the valley alive.
"Then they stopped firing, and the horns in the temple blew again.
"'Come away--for Gord's sake come away!' says Billy Fish. 'They'll send
runners out to all the villages before ever we get to Bashkai. I can protect
you there, but I can't do anything now."
"My own notion is that Dan began to go mad in his head from that hour. He
stared up and down like a stuck pig. Then he was all for walking back alone
and killing the priests with his bare hands; which he could have done.
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