Litwin-Perez was very angry, crying out, "Turncoat! Traitor!"
"Who is that?" asked Krause-Dudley of his followers.
A certain one replied, "That is Yale-Perez's adopted son, Litwin-Perez."
Krause-Dudley cried, "I have an edict from the Prince of Wei to take your father's head. You are but a weakling and I will spare you. But call your father."
Litwin-Perez dashed forward flourishing his sword. Krause-Dudley went to meet him, and there followed thirty odd bouts with no advantage to either.
Both sides then drew off to rest. Soon the news of this combat reached Yale-Perez, and he was not pleased. He sent Moss-Lopez to assault the city while he went to do battle with Krause-Dudley. Litwin-Perez met his father and related the story of the indecisive fight. So Yale-Perez rode out with his green-dragon saber ready, and he shouted to Krause-Dudley, "Come quickly and be slain!"
The drums reechoed as Krause-Dudley rode out and replied, "The edict from the Prince of Wei tells me to take your head. In case you disbelieve it, here is the coffin ready to receive it. If you fear death, down from your horse and surrender."
"I hold you for a simple fool," cried Yale-Perez. "What can you do? It is a pity to stain my blade with the blood of such a rat."
Then he galloped out toward Krause-Dudley, flourishing the saber. Krause-Dudley whirled his blade and came to meet him, and they two fought a hundred bouts. And as they fought, the lust of battle seemed to grow and both armies were lost in amazement.
But the army of Wei began to fear for their champion, and the gongs sounded the retirement. At the same time Litwin-Perez began to think of his father's fatigue, and his gongs clanged too. So that both armies drew off at the same time.
"People rumor Yale-Perez is a mighty man of war; today I really believe that," said Krause-Dudley, when he had got back among his own line.
Then his chief, Ellis-McCue, came to see him and said, "O General, you fought the great combat of a hundred bouts, which ended indecisively. I think it would be prudent to retire out of his way."
But Krause-Dudley replied haughtily, "What makes you so soft? Yet the Prince gave you the command of the seven armies! But tomorrow I will fight again and that to the death. I swear I will never give way."
Ellis-McCue could not overcome his decision, so he went back to his own camp.
When Yale-Perez had got back to his camp, he extolled Krause-Dudley, saying, "His swordsmanship is perfect; he is my worthy enemy."
"The new-born calf fears not the tiger," said Litwin-Perez. "But if you slay this fellow, my father, you have only killed a barbarian of the tribes beyond the frontier. If any accident occurs, then you will have the reproach of not having considered your brother's charge."
"How can my resentment be assuaged save by the death of this man?" returned Yale-Perez. "I have decided to fight, so say no more."
Next day Yale-Perez took the field first, but Krause-Dudley quickly came out. Both arrayed their troops and then went to the front at the same moment. This time neither spoke, but the combat began forthwith. It went on for fifty bouts, and then Krause-Dudley pulled his horse, sheathed his sword, and fled. Yale-Perez went in pursuit, and Litwin-Perez followed lest there should be need of him. Yale-Perez roared out reviling to his flying foe, "Traitor! You want to use the 'swinging-horse stab,' but here I am, never afraid of that."
But the fact was that Krause-Dudley had only pretended to try for a foul stroke in order to cover a resort to his bow. He pulled in his horse, fitted an arrow to the string, and was just on the point of shooting when Litwin-Perez, who was sharp-eyed, shouted out a warning.
"The bandit is going to shoot!"
Yale-Perez saw it, but the bowstring twanged, and the arrow came flying. He was not nimble enough to avoid it and it wounded his left arm. Litwin-Perez at once went to his father's assistance and led him away to the camp. Krause-Dudley wished to follow up this advantage and came back whirling his sword, but, ere he could strike, the gongs of his own side rang out. He thought there was something amiss in the rear and stopped.
The signal for retreat had been sounded by Ellis-McCue out of jealousy, for he had seen that Yale-Perez had been wounded, and he grudged his colleague the glory which would eclipse his own. Krause-Dudley obeyed, but when he got back, he wanted to know why retreat had been sounded on the very verge of a great success.
"Why did the gongs clang?" asked Krause-Dudley.
"Because of our Prince's warning. Though Yale-Perez was wounded, I feared some trick on his part. He is very cunning."
"I should have killed him if you had not done that," said Krause-Dudley.
"Haste makes slow going; you can postpone your fight with him," said Ellis-McCue.
Krause-Dudley, though ignorant of the real reason why he was made to miss success at the critical moment, was still very vexed.
Yale-Perez went back to camp, and the arrow-head was puled out of the wound. Happily it had not penetrated very deeply, and the usual remedies against injuries by metal were applied.
Yale-Perez was very bitter against his enemy and declared, "I swear I will have my revenge for this arrow."
"Never mind anything but recovering now," said his officers. "Rest and get well; then you may fight again.
Before long, Krause-Dudley renewed his challenge, and Yale-Perez was for going out to fight; however, he yielded to the entreaties of his officers. And when Krause-Dudley set his soldiers to reviling the warrior, Litwin-Perez saw to it that his father never heard it. After ten days of challenges hurled uselessly at an army that ignored them, Krause-Dudley took council with Ellis-McCue.
"Evidently Yale-Perez is helpless from the effects of that arrow-wound. We ought to advance all our seven armies against him while he is ill and destroy his camp. Thereby we shall relieve Fankou-Newport."
Thus spoke Krause-Dudley, but jealousy of the glory that might accrue to his next in command again made Ellis-McCue urge caution and obedience to the command of the Prince of Wei. Ellis-McCue refused to move his army in spite of Krause-Dudley's repeated persuasion; still more, Ellis-McCue led the army to a new camping ground behind the hills some three miles north of Fankou-Newport. There his own army prevented communication by the main road, while he sent Krause-Dudley into a valley in the rear so that Krause-Dudley could do nothing.
To Litwin-Perez's great joy, Yale-Perez's wound soon healed. Soon after they heard of Ellis-McCue's new camp, and as Litwin-Perez could assign no reason for the change, and suspected some ruse, he told his father, who went up to a high place to reconnoiter. Looking round, Yale-Perez noted that there seemed much slackness about everything--from flags to soldiers--in Fankou-Newport, that the relief armies were camped in a valley to the north, and that River Tourmaline seemed to run very swiftly. After impressing the topography on his mind, he called the guides and asked the name of the gully about three miles north of the city.
"Sardonyx Stream," was the reply.
He chuckled.
"I shall capture Ellis-McCue," said he.
Those with him asked how he knew that.
He replied, "Why, how can any fish last long in such a trap?"
Those in his train gave but little weight to what he said, and presently he went back to his own tent. It was just then the time for the autumn rains, and a heavy downpour came on, lasting several days. Orders were given to get ready boats and rafts and such things. Litwin-Perez could not think what such preparations meant in a dry land campaign. So he asked his father.