had
been sent off to the mountains for safety. Among the fugitives were
Lippy and her mother. These happened to meet with the enemy's
detachment which had been sent to assault the village on the left. The
women scattered and fled. The savage warriors pursued, and several were
taken, among them Lippy and her mother, who were promptly despatched to
the rear. Those of the broken band that escaped continued their flight
to the hills.

They had not gone far when they met Zeppa returning from one of his
rambles. His surprise on hearing that the village had been attacked was
great and his anxiety considerable. Although he had refused to go out
to war with his entertainers, he felt no disposition to stand idly by
when they were attacked. Disordered though his mind was, he could make
a clear distinction between aggressive war and self-defence.

"And where is Lippy?" he asked, glancing round on the terrified faces.

"She is caught and carried away--with her mother."

"What!" exclaimed Zeppa, with a flash of his bright eyes that told of
natural rage mingling with the fires of insanity.

The women did not wait for more. They ran away from him in terror.

But Zeppa had heard enough. Turning his face towards the village he
sped over the ground at a pace that soon brought him in sight of the
combatants, who seemed to be swaying to and fro--now here, now there--as
the tide of battle flowed and victory leaned sometimes to one side
sometimes to the other.

Zeppa was unarmed. As he drew near he was observed by both parties to
stop abruptly in his career, and wrench out of the ground a stake that
had been meant for the corner-post of a newly-begun hut. It resembled
the great club of Hercules rather than a weapon of modern man.

Whirling it like a feather round his head, the maniac rushed on. He was
thoroughly roused. A feeling of desperate anxiety coupled with a sense
of horrible injustice had set his spirit in a blaze. His great size,
which became more apparent as he advanced, his flashing eyes, compressed
lips, and the wild flowing of his uncut hair and beard, gave him
altogether an aspect so terrible that his foes trembled, while his
friends rejoiced, and when at last he uttered a roar like a mad bull,
and launched himself into the thickest of the fight the Raturans could
not stand it, but turned and fled in a body under the impression that he
was more than human. He was too fleet for them, however. Overtaking a