Do you dare to call down evil on me, Wizard?" shouted the prince
furiously. "Your wife is mine, and now I take your life also," and with
all his strength he hurled at him the great spear he held.

It hissed past Hokosa's head, touching his ear, but he never flinched
from the steel.

"A poor cast, Prince," he said laughing; "but so it must have been, for
I am guarded by that which you cannot see. My wife you have, and she
shall be your ruin; my life you may take, but ere it leaves me, Hafela,
I shall see you dead and your army scattered. The Messenger is passed
away, but his power has fallen upon me and I speak the truth to you, O
Prince and warriors, who are--already dead."

Now a shriek of dismay and fury rose from the hundreds who heard this
prophesy of ill, for of Hokosa and his magic they were terribly afraid.

"Kill him! Kill the wizard!" they shouted, and a rain of spears rushed
towards him on the wall.

They rushed towards him, they passed above, below, around; but, of them
all, not one touched him.

"Did I not tell you that I was guarded by That which you cannot see?"
Hokosa asked contemptuously. Then slowly he descended from the wall
amidst a great silence.

"When men are scarce the tongue must play a part," he explained to his
companions, who stared at him wondering. "By now the king and those
with him should have reached the eastern gate; whereas, had we fought at
once, Hafela would be hard upon his heels, for we are few, and who can
hold a buffalo with a rope of grass? Yet I think that I spoke truth
when I told him that the garment of the Messenger has fallen upon my
shoulders, and that death awaits him and his companions, as it awaits
me also and many of us. Now, friends, be ready, for the bull charges
and soon we must feel his horns. This at least is left to you, to die
gloriously."

While he was still speaking the first files of the regiment rushed upon
the fence, tearing aside the thorns with their hands till a passage was
made through them. Then they sprang upon the wall, there to be met
by the spears of Hokosa and his men thrusting upward from beneath its
shelter. Time after time they sprang, and time after time they fell back
dead or wounded, till at last, dashing forward in one dense column, they
poured over the stones as the rising tide pours over the rocks on the
sea-shore, driving the defenders before them by the sheer weight of
numbers.

"This game is played!" cried Hokosa. "Fly now to