Again he shot, and this time the arrow glanced from my helm.  Then I drew on him and my shaft, that I had aimed at his head, cut away the fringe about his brow and carried it far away.  At this sight a groan went up from the lords about him, and one cried: 

“An omen, O Urco, an evil omen!”

“Aye,” he shouted, “for the White Wizard who shot the arrow.”

Dropping the bow, he rushed up the hill at me roaring, axe aloft, and followed by his company.  He smote, and I caught the blow upon my shield, and striking back with Wave-Flame, shore through the shaft of the axe that he had lifted to guard his head as though it had been made of reed, aye, and through the quilted cotton on his shoulder strengthened with strips of gold, and to the bone beneath.

Then a man slipped past me.  It was Kari, striking at Urco with Deleroy’s sword.  They closed and rolled down the slope locked in each other’s arms.  What chanced after this I do not know, for others rushed in and all grew confused, but presently Kari limped back somewhat shaken and bleeding, and I caught sight of Urco, little hurt, as it seemed, amidst his lords at the bottom of the slope.

At this moment I heard a great shouting and looking round, saw that the Quichuas had broken through our left and were slaughtering many, while the rest fled, also that our right was wavering.  I sent messengers to Huaracha, bidding him call up the Yunca rear guard.  They were slow in coming and I began to fear that all was lost for little by little the hordes of the men of Cuzco were surrounding us.

Then it was that Kari, or some with him, lifted a banner that had been wrapped upon a pole, a blue banner upon which was embroidered a golden sun.  At the sight of it there was tumult in the Inca ranks, and presently a great body of men, five or six thousand of them that had seemed to be in reserve, ran forward shouting, “Kari!  Kari!” and fell upon those who were pursuing our shattered left, breaking them up and dispersing them.  Also at last the Yuncas came up and drove back the regiments that assailed our right, while from Urco’s armies there rose a cry of “Treachery!”

Trumpets blew and the Inca host, gathering itself together and abandoning its dead and wounded, drew back sullenly on to the plain, and there halted in three bodies as before, though much lessened in number.

Huaracha appeared, saying: 

“Strike, White Lord!  It is our hour!  The heart is out of them.”

The signal was given, and roaring like a hurricane, presently the Chancas charged.  Down the slope they went, I at the head of them with Huaracha on one side and Kari on the other.  The swift-footed Chancas outran me who was hindered by my mail.  We charged in three masses as we had stood on the ridge, following those open lanes of ground up which the foe had not come, because these were less cumbered with dead and wounded.  Presently I saw why those