It was no longer a fight, for no Mandell man dared venture forward,
and as it was, they were too close to the Sunlanders to go back. Three
tried it, scattering and scurrying like rabbits; but one came down
with a broken leg, another was shot through the body, and the third,
twisting and dodging, fell on the edge of the village. So the
tribesmen crouched in the hollow places and burrowed into the dirt in
the open, while the Sunlanders' bullets searched the plain.

"Move not," Tyee pleaded, as Aab-Waak came worming over the ground to
him. "Move not, good Aab-Waak, else you bring death upon us."

"Death sits upon many," Aab-Waak laughed; "wherefore, as you say,
there will be much wealth in division. My father breathes fast and
short behind the big rock yon, and beyond, twisted like in a knot,
lieth my brother. But their share shall be my share, and it is well."

"As you say, good Aab-Waak, and as I have said; but before division
must come that which we may divide, and the Sunlanders be not yet
dead."

A bullet glanced from a rock before them, and singing shrilly, rose
low over their heads on its second flight. Tyee ducked and shivered,
but Aab-Waak grinned and sought vainly to follow it with his eyes.

"So swiftly they go, one may not see them," he observed.

"But many be dead of us," Tyee went on.

"And many be left," was the reply. "And they hug close to the earth,
for they have become wise in the fashion of righting. Further, they
are angered. Moreover, when we have killed the Sunlanders on the ship,
there will remain but four on the land. These may take long to kill,
but in the end it will happen."

"How may we go down to the ship when we cannot go this way or that?"
Tyee questioned.

"It is a bad place where lie Bill-Man and his brothers," Aab-Waak
explained. "We may come upon them from every side, which is not good.
So they aim to get their backs against the cliff and wait until their
brothers of the ship come to give them aid."

"Never shall they come from the ship, their brothers! I have said it."

Tyee was gathering courage again, and when the Sunlanders verified the
prediction by retreating to the cliff, he was light-hearted as ever.

"There be only three of us!" complained one of the Hungry Folk as they
came together for council.

"Therefore, instead of two, shall you have four guns each," was Tyee's
rejoinder.

"We did good fighting."

"Ay; and if it should happen that two of you be left,