Part 11 (1/2)
What is he doing on this naked coast?”
”He can lance beloed hiates had been closed, and that the captain of hishis es, soth along the western wall, in the ate
Valenso had been followed into exile by a hundred men: soldiers, vassals and serfs Of these so helmets and suits of mail, armed with swords, axes and crossbows The rest were toilers, without arhened leather, but they were brawny stalwarts, and skilled in the use of their hunting booods at their hereditary eneo off the southwestern coast of Zingara, had preyed on the people of the mainland for ripped their bows or boar-spears and stared so inshore, its brass work flashi+ng in the sun They could see the figures swar on the deck, and hear the lusty yells of the sea the rail
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The Count had retired froee before hi donned helmet and cuirass, he betook himself to the palisade to direct the defense
His subjects watched him with moody fatalism They intended to sell their lives as dearly as they could, but they had scant hope of victory, in spite of their strong position They were oppressed by a conviction of doo threat of that devil-haunted forest looloos Their women stood silently in the doorways of their huts, built inside the stockade, and quieted the claerly from an upperin the manor house, and Belesa felt the child's tense little body all aquiver within the crook of her protecting arm
”They will cast anchor near the boat-house,” oes their anchor, a hundred yards off-shore Do not tremble so, child! They can not take the fort Perhaps they wish only fresh water and supplies Perhaps a stor ashore in long boats!” exclai men in aranets! Will they eat us?”
Belesa burst into laughter in spite of her apprehension
”Of course not! Who put that idea into your head?”
”Zingelito toldyou The Barachans are cruel, but they are no worse than the Zingaran renegades who call theelito was a buccaneer once”
”He was cruel,” lad the Picts cut his head off”
”Hush, child” Belesa shuddered slightly ”You must not speak that way Look, the pirates have reached the shore They line the beach, and one of the toward the fort That must be Strousty as the wind ”I co of truce!”
The Count's helmeted head appeared over the points of the palisade; his stern face, framed in steel, surveyed the pirate soood ear-shot He was a bigin the wind Of all the sea-rovers who haunted the Barachans, none was more famed for deviltry than he
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”Speak!” commanded Valenso ”I have scant desire to converse with one of your breed”
Stroalleon escaped ht to ain on the Pictish Coast, Valenso!” said he ”Although at the tiht be By Mitra, had I known, I would have followed you then! I got the start of o when I saw your scarlet falcon floating over a fortress where I had thought to see naught but bare beach You have found it, of course?”
”Found what?” snapped the Count impatiently
”Don't try to dissemble with me!” the pirate's stormy nature showed itself momentarily in a flash of impatience ”I knohy you came here and I have come for the same reason I don't intend to be balked Where is your shi+p?”
”That is none of your affair”
”You have none,” confidently asserted the pirate ”I see pieces of a galleon's masts in that stockade It must have been wrecked, some how, after you landed here If you'd had a shi+p you'd have sailed aith your plunder long ago”
”What are you talking about, damn you?” yelled the Count ”My plunder? Am I a Barachan to burn and loot? Even so, ould I loot on this naked coast?”
”That which you ca I'ive o my way and leave you in peace”
”You must be mad,” snarled Valenso ”I came here to find solitude and seclusion, which I enjoyed until you crawled out of the sea, you yellow-headed dog Begone! I did not ask for a parley, and I weary of this eo I'll leave that hovel in ashes!” roared the pirate in a transport of rage ”For the last tiive me the loot in return for your lives? I have you hemmed in here, and a hundred and fifty men ready to cut your throats at esture with his hand below the points of the palisade
Alh a loophole and splintered on Strom's breastplate The pirate yelled ferociously, bounded back and ran toward the beach, with arrows 106
whistling all about hi in the sun
”Curse you, dog!” raved the Count, felling the offending archer with his iron-clad fist ”Why did you not strike his throat above the gorget? Ready with your bows, men here they come!”
But Stro rush The pirates spread out in a long line that overlapped the extre their shafts as they cabow, and their archery was superior to that of the Zingarans But the latter were protected by their barrier The long arrows arched over the stockade and quivered upright in the earth One struck the -sill over which Belesa watched, wringing a cry of fear froed back, her wide eyes fixed on the venoarans sent their bolts and hunting arrows in return, ai without undue haste The women had herded the children into their huts and now stoically awaited whatever fate the Gods had in store for them
The Barachans were fa, but they ary as they were ferocious, and did not intend to waste their strength vainly in direct charges against the ra along and taking advantage of every natural depression and bit of vegetation which was not round had been cleared on all sides of the fort against the threat of Pictish raids
A few bodies lay prone on the sandy earth, back-pieces glinting in the sun, quarrel shafts standing up from arm-pit or neck But the pirates were quick as cats, always shi+fting their position, and were protected by their light ar fire was a continual menace to theas the battle ree arans
But down at the boat-house on the beach, men were at ith axes The Count cursed sulphurously when he saw the havoc they werehis boats, which had been built laboriously of planks sawn out of solid logs
”They're ed ”A sally now, before they complete it while they're scattered ”
Galbro shook his head, glancing at the bare-armed henchmen with their clumsy pikes
”Their arroould riddle us, and we'd be noWe must keep behind our walls and trust to our archers”
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”Well enough,” growled Valenso ”If we can keep them outside our walls”
Presently the intention of the pirates becaroup of soreat shi+eld made out of the planks from the boats, and the timbers of the boat-house itself They had found an ox-cart, and reat solid disks of oak As they rolled it ponderously before theliate, and the straggling line of archers converged toward it, shooting as they ran
”Shoot!” yelled Valenso, going livid ”Stop theate!”
A storm of arrohistled across the palisade, and feathered themselves harmlessly in the thick wood A derisive yell answered the volley Shafts were finding loop-holes now, as the rest of the pirates drew nearer, and a soldier reeled and fell fro, with a clothyard shaft through his throat
”Shoot at their feet!” screaate with pikes and axes!
The rest hold the wall!”
Bolts ripped into the sand before theshi+eld A blood-thirsty howl announced that one had found its target beneath the edge, and aas he strove to withdraw the quarrel that skewered his foot In an instant he was feathered by a dozen hunting arrows