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He wanted to be very sure that no Kalmucks were coming, behind the stranger called Hugo.
    Although the spot was exposed to the icy winds that made a channel of the pass, the archer did not move for hours. He watched the golden eagle circling over the network of forest, muttering the while a song that was half a prayer chant:

    A slight sound on the mountainside behind him caused Aruk at length to wheel and ride swiftly down in the trail left by the three travelers. Other ears might have caught it, as an echo, but Aruk was sure that a shot had been fired near the hut of Ostrim the falconer.
    The reason for his haste was soon apparent. Halfway down the mountainside, where the snow lay only in patches in the gullies and the larch thickets, Aruk came upon a brown-faced maiden no larger than he.
    From a clump of larches she was peering, bow in hand, her slant eyes intent on the trail, teeth gleaming between full, red lips.
    "Ohai, Yulga, daughter of Ostrim," he hailed her, slowing his pony at once in an effort to appear unconcerned, "was the Devil firing off his popgun down here, or did a boulder crash from the cliff? I heard-"
    "A splendid protector, you," the girl mocked him, unstringing her bow.
    The sight of the hunter had relieved her fear, and now she teased him.
    "You come nimbly after the fight is finished, like a jackal instead of a wolf. Our heads might have been hanging to the saddle-peak of the robber band who just passed this way, for all the aid we had from you!"
    Aruk grew red and muttered beneath his breath. Under Yulga's laughter the hunter always waxed clumsy as a bear cub. He despaired of ever gathering together the horses and furs necessary to buy Yulga for his wife from the old Ostrim. In like degree he had small hope that the fair child of the falconer would ever look upon him and smile without mockery.
    "Perhaps," pursued Yulga, tossing her long black hair back from her eyes, "it is because you are so tiny that you dare sit up yonder to watch the pass. You think that anybody will take you for a ferret, or a fox looking out of its hole-"
    "Peace little woodpecker," growled the hunter.
    His lined cheeks grew red, for he was acutely conscious of his small figure. Although no man might belie Aruk's boldness, or hope to outdo his ready tongue, he was at a loss for words before Yulga.
    "Did the Frank draw sword on Ostrim?" he demanded. "I will let the life out of him for that-"
    "Ohai!"
    Yulga threw back her head and laughed delightedly.
    "The big Frank would swallow you, pony and arrows, and only swear that his gullet tickled him," she cried. "Nay, the robbers were black-boned Mongols with faces like dogs. Here they are-"
    They had come to a clearing where a thatched hut stood among the larches. At the door sat a white-haired Tatar, a small bouragut perched on his shoulder. On the rooftree of the dwelling a hawk screamed gutturally, flapping its wings so that the bells on its throat jangled.
    On the grass of the clearing lay five bodies, distorted and sprawling. Aruk went from one to another, turning them over with his foot.
    "Dead," he commented. "Hai-here is that dog-brother who led the Frank. Well, the evil spirits from below will be the gainer by a dung picker. No one need kill a horse for him to ride in the other world. He turned his back to the scimitar, it is clear. Hum-this black beetle was shot in the face."
    "By the servant of the Frank."
    Ostrim lifted his venerable head and spoke quietly.
    "The robbers were four. They sought to pick my poor hearth. As they came up the party of the Frank rode into the clearing. So the black-souled ones scented gold and attacked with their swords, slaying the follower and striking down the old servant who had no more strength than a sick woman."
    "And the Frank-he let out the lives of three?"
    "With the point of his sword that is long as a spear. He warded their cuts and thrust, once each time. The Frank wiped his sword in the grass and picked up the servant, who was cut