this air gave my heart a wrench, as I thought of poor Dennis; whose
gallant race with death assuredly had saved all of us from dying without
a chance to strike a blow. And both of our Otomi Indians were dead too.

But while we had suffered thus severely we had the satisfaction of
knowing that we had inflicted a most signal punishment upon our enemies.
Of the whole company that had attacked us--eighteen in number, as we
found by counting their bodies--only two remained alive when the fight
ended; and these two speedily relieved us of all responsibility
concerning them by dying of their wounds. As Young tersely expressed
it, we had "given the whole outfit a through bill of lading to Kingdom
Come!"

Notwithstanding the pain that I was in, the first thought that came to
me after we had achieved peace (by the effective yet somewhat radical
process of killing all of our enemies) was concerning the strange weapon
with which Pablo had been fighting; and by his prompt use of which in my
defence my life had been saved. He had laid it upon a rock--while
testing the integrity of his mouth-organ--and as I now carefully
examined it I found that my glimpse of it as Pablo had mashed the
Indian's head had not deceived me. It truly was a maccuahuitl, the
primitive Aztec sword, but very unlike any description of that weapon
that I had ever seen. The maccuahuitl, as described by the Spaniards at
the time of the conquest and as shown by the Aztec pictures of it
preserved in various museums, was a wooden blade from three and a half
to four feet long and from four to five inches wide. Along its two
edges, like great saw teeth, fragments of obsidian, about three inches
long and two inches wide, were inserted; and as these were keenly sharp
the weapon was a most ferocious one. The sword that I held in my hand
was identical in its essential features with this primitive design; but
it was shorter, narrower, and thinner. What was still more extraordinary
about it was that, while it seemed to be made of brass, it had the
bright glitter of gold and the temper and the elasticity of steel. Being
tested by bending, it instantly sprung straight again; and
notwithstanding the vigorous use that Pablo had been making of it on the
bones of several Indians, the thin edges of the projecting teeth were
only nicked a little--as the edge of a steel sword would have been
nicked under like circumstances--and not one of these teeth was bent out
of place, as assur