At each end of the field were the goals, indicated by two poles twelve feet high and half as far apart. There was also a center pole of equal height mid-distant between the end goals. All were surmounted by flags. Each of the players was armed with a stick flattened at the end, and the intention was to drive the rubber ball into goal between the enemy’s posts. The Monbas defended, while the Azes attacked. A noisy, chattering, bantering, betting crowd surged up and down on each side of the players, piling up articles of every description as their respective sides seemed on the point of either winning or losing. The attack and defense strained every nerve, keeping the twenty-four players constantly on the move. Here, a man races with another; there, he makes a prodigious throw up field; and, before any one knows what has happened the battle has been transferred, and the Azes stand fair to lose. Alcamayn runs full against his antagonist, and both come to the ground together; while Setos fells his opponent by a sharp blow over the head. The fallen player is carried bleeding and unconscious from the field just as the Monbas rescue the ball, and send it with a triumphant shout through the goal which wins them the game. “Foul! foul!” screamed the on-lookers. “The Azes shall not have a point. They play unfairly.” A shouting, gesticulating, seething mass of men and women surged around the judges’ stand. “Give us justice!” they demanded. The cazique pounded the gong madly. Finally, he could make himself heard above the din and noise. “Hear thy priestess!” he called. “She begs that thou wilt remember thy duty and the occasion. There are many reasons why we feel grateful to the Azes. Judgment is suspended. All bets are invalid. Go back to thy seats and be quiet. The Monbas won their game with honor. Be content with that.” It was well for Setos and Alcamayn that Yermah was preparing for an archery contest with Ben Hu Barabe and Hanabusa and was therefore ignorant of the cause of the offense. The officers of the balsas, the warriors, and the other players among the Azes, instinctively huddled together, humiliated and ashamed, but silent. A plaited disk of straw having a central circle of yellow nine inches in diameter, surrounded by rings of red, blue, black and white, was hung up on the center pole. The Monbas served Yermah and Hanabusa with arrows, while the Azes performed a similar office for Ben Hu Barabe. During the years spent in the Atlantian colonies, the Dorado had been the actual head of the fighting men; but this was the first time he had been called upon to show his skill in bow-craft to the Azes. The fame of Ben Hu Barabe was spread far and wide, and the Monbas waited with smiling concern as to the outcome. Hanabusa had won his position with the bowstring, but Yermah’s capabilities were unknown.