Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1902-05-21

&c
seeing that she had the whole broad
face of the country under her rule.
But with US it was different. A man
down on our side was a man whose
arm would bitterly be missed, and
one which could in no possible way
be replaced.
l made calculation of the chances,
and saw clearly that if we continued
the fight on the present plan, they
would storm the gates one after an
other as they came to them, and
| that by the time the uppermost gate
was reached there would be no priest
alive to defend it. And so, not dis
daining to fashion myself on Pho
renice's newer plan, which held that
general should at times in prefer
ence plot coldly from place of some
safety, and not lead the thick of the
fighting, | left those who stood to
the gate with some rough soldiers
words of cheer, and withdrew again
up the narrow stair of the pass.
This one approach to the Sacred
Mountain was, as have said before,
vastly more difficult and dangerous
in the olden days when it stood as a
mere bare cleft as the high gods
made it. But a chasm had been
bridged here, and shelf cut through
the solid rock there, and in many
places the roadway was built up on
piers from distant crags below so as
to make all uniform and easy. 1t
came To my mind now that if 1 could
destroy this path, we might gain a
breathing space for further effort.
The idea seemed good, or at least
no other occurred to me which would
in any way relieve our desperate sit
uation, and I looked around me for
means to put it into execution. Up
and down from the mountain to the
plains below, I had traversed that
narrow stair of a pass some thou
sands of times, and SO in a manner
of speaking knew every stone and
every turn and every cut of it by
heart. But | had never looked upon
it with an eye to shaving off all road
way to the Sacred Mountain, and so
now, even in this moment of dread
full stress, l had to traverse it no less
than three times afresh before
could decide upon the best site for
demolition.
But once the point was fixed, there
was littledelay in getting the scheme
In movement. Already I had sent
men to the storehouses among the
priests dwellings to fetch me rams
and crows and acids and hammers,
and such other material as was need
ed, and these stood handy behind one
OF the upper gates. I put on every
pair of hands that could be spared to
the work, no matter what was their
age and feebleness; yes, if Nais could
have walked so far I would have
pressed her for the labor; and pres
emily carved balustrade and wayside
statue, together with the lettered
wall stones and the foot-worn cob
bles roared down into the gulf below,
and added their din to the shrieks
and yells and crashes of the fighting.
Gods! but it was a hateful task,
smashing down that splendid handi-
work of the men of the past. But it
was better that it should crash down
to ruin in the abyss below than that
Phorenice should profane it with her
impious sandals.
At first l had feared that it would
be needful to sacrifice the knot of
brave men who were so valiantly de-
Tending the gate then being attacked.
1t is disgusting to be forced into
measure of this kind, but in hard
warfare it is often needful to the car
rying out of his schemes for a gen
eral to leave part of his troops to
fight to finish, and without hope of
rescue, as valiantly as they may; and
all he can do for their rewar is to
commend them earnestly to the care
of the gods. But when the work of
destroying the pathway was nearly
completed, I saw chance of retriev-
ing them.
So / gave the word for one more
furious avalanche of rock to be pelted
down, and while the few living were
crawling out from those killed by the
discharge, and while the next band
of reenforcements came scrambling
up over the bodies, / sent my nine re-
naming men away at a run up the
steep stairway of the path, and then
followed them myself. Each of the
gates in turn we passed, shutting
them after us, and breaking the bars
and levers with which they were
moved, and not till we were through
the. last did the roar ofsshouts from
below tell that the besiegers had
found the gate they bit against was
deserted.
Nm hu ha1