“Then he turned off the track and struck across country at a canter. As we went off, the man whose girl had been killed came up and joined us, and I saw that he had a thick lock of her hair knotted about his wrist. He rode without speaking, looking straight ahead. We went hard about six miles through some woods, and came out at the foot of the hills with one of the fort men guiding us. “There was nothing much moving in the country, and we passed near no villages. We went on up into the hills; they were low ones, covered with scrubby bushes and small thorn-trees, dotted about with bigger trees above. “At last we came back on to the road, where it ran into a steepish sort of place rather like a cutting with high banks, only natural. The guide ran down on to the road, and I saw he was looking for tracks, but as he found none we knew we were ahead of the enemy. “Then Stephnos started laying an ambush for them. The horses were led away beyond us into some thick stuff, and tethered to the trees in a dip below us. Then he put out twenty men, some on either side of the road up to where it dipped down again, all of them hidden among the trees and bushes. “‘Will you and your man stop here? You can kill with your weapons as they come up. But let them get well into the trap. I with the rest will be hidden a little way down the hill, so as to get in behind them.’ “Then he disappeared. “We waited about half an hour, and then the lookout fellow reported that the raiders were approaching. From where I was I could get a good view of the road below us for about five hundred yards. Firoz was just beside me, and on either hand were the men, each with his bow ready, very quiet. “We heard the noise of horses in front, and then the party came round the turn at a walk, some riding, some on foot. There were mounted men in mail shirts in front with a couple of scouts ahead, but not far enough. I suppose they thought they were safe now in the Green Sakae country. Anyway, they walked slap into it as we lay doggo. “They were pretty close when I heard Stephnos’s horn sound, and there was sudden confusion among the packed men in the road. Then, as the fellows on either side leapt up and opened with their bows, Firoz and I let drive at the two scouts, who were a bare fifty yards from us. “That part lasted a very few minutes. I suppose the first twenty men went down. They were all in a heap bristling with arrows, the horses kicking and plunging. A few tried to gallop up to the top of the rise, and Firoz and I had a pretty minute’s rapid into them. None of them got within fifty yards of us except two loose horses, and another dragging its rider, who got through us and disappeared. Then we heard the fun beginning on Stephnos’s side, and the N.C.O. shouted something. The next minute we were down the slope and going for them.