I caught the blow upon my shield, but so great was the giant's
strength that it brought me to my knees. Next second I was up and at
him. Shouting, I smote with both hands, for my shield had fallen. The
thick, turban-like headdress that Urco wore was severed, cut through as
the axe had been, and Wave-Flame bit deep into the skull beneath.
Urco fell like a stunned ox and I sprang upon him to make an end. Then
it was that a rope was flung about my shoulders, a noosed rope that was
hauled tight. In vain I struggled. I was thrown down; I was seized by a
score of hands and dragged away into the heart of Urco's host.
Waiting till a litter could be brought, they set me on my feet again, my
arms still bound by the noose that these Indians call _laso_, which they
know so well how to throw, the red sword Wave-Flame still hanging by its
thong from my right wrist. Whilst I stood thus, like a bull in a net,
they gathered round, staring at me, not with hate as it seemed to me,
but in fear and with reverence. When at length the litter came they
aided me to enter it quite gently.
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