They got ready to jump from the car.
Then, over the din, came a low approaching sound. The growing thunder of a thousand hooves trampling the ground.
"Mongols!" Remo said.
"This is impossible!" Chiun squeaked. "My Mongols gave their word not to follow me."
"Maybe they're not your Mongols," Remo suggested lightly.
"Then whose Mongols would they be?"
"Maybe they're my Mongols," Remo said airily.
"Your Mongols!" Chiun exploded. "You do not have any Mongols!"
Then from out of the foothills they came. Howling and shouting, hurling walls of arrows before them. They swarmed over the tank line at the bridge. Their ponies splashed into the cold river and lunged up the banks, wild-eyed and sweating. Sharpshooters began falling off the high walls of the pass, feathered with willow shafts.
"That's our cue, Little Father," Remo shouted. They jumped from the car as Mongol horsemen formed a protective circle around them.
Kula led them. He reined in before Remo and Chiun. Jumping down, he ignored the Master of Sinanju and clapped his hands on Remo's shoulders in the traditional Mongol greeting.
"Ho, white tiger!" he cried. "I see we are in time to succor you."
Chiun stepped between them. "Remo, do you know this lunatic?"
Kula looked down at Chiun. "White tiger, is this old one with you?"
"White tiger?" Chiun said. His eyes narrowed.
"It's just a nickname they hung on me, kinda like the Lone Ranger," Remo offered. "How'd you know where I was, Kula?" he asked the Mongol.
"I heard that the Blue Bees had taken you. We tortured one of them until he told us where you would be found. That would-be khan, Boldbator, refused to join us, but Kula's men were not afraid."
"He was not afraid!" Chiun insisted harshly. "He was under obligation not to follow me. He is a Mongol with honor-unlike you."
"I am not under your obligation, or Boldbator's," Kula spat. "I serve the white tiger, the greatest warrior in all of Mongolia."
Remo turned to Chiun. He smiled broadly.
"I guess you had to hear it sometime," he said seriously. "It's true. I am the greatest warrior in all of Mongolia."
"You?" Chiun exploded. "You are no white tiger, but a pale piece of pig's ear!"
At that, Kula drew his knife. "Who are you to insult the white tiger?" he growled.
"I am the Master of Sinanju," Chiun said proudly, drawing himself up to his full five-foot height.
"That is what Boldbator swore," Kula returned. "I did not believe him, either."
Chiun's tiny mouth formed an outraged O. "What manner of Mongol are you that you do not know of the Master of Sinanju when you stand in his awesome presence?" Chiun demanded.
Kula gestured to his horse Mongols, as they drove the last of the surviving PLA out of their tanks and back into the hills with exultant whoops of joy.
"The kind who would lead his men into the teeth of the Chinese Army and hurl them broken into the wind," he said with pride.
"I think that translates as my Mongol can beat your Mongol," Remo whispered.
"Remo!" Chiun snapped. "Tell this man who I am!"
"Happy to." Remo turned to Kula. "Kula, this is Chiun. Chiun-meet Kula."
Kula regarded the Master of Sinanju stonily. Chiun turned to Remo, "No, tell him I am the Master of Sinanju."
"It's true," Remo said. "He is."
Kula's gong of a face looked Chiun up and down.
"There," Chiun said haughtily. "Now you may kneel. I will not require the full bow because you have assisted us."
"He is very small for a Master of Sinanju," Kula told Remo. "In the time of Lord Genghis, Masters of Sinanju were great robust men who rode magnificent ponies."
"I am an expert rider!" Chiun shouted.
"Then why did you ride this machine?" Kula asked, slapping the black limousine.
"Remo, tell this barbarian to kneel!"
Remo threw up his hands in a what-do-you-expect-me-to-do? gesture. "Hey, he's a Mongol. He's gonna do what he wants."
Chiun turned on Kula, pointing a furious shaking finger.
"You, horse Mongol!" he shouted. "Summon your men. In this very cave lies the treasure of Temujin. I will pay ten percent of all we recover to the men who help me carry it back to the village of Sinanju."
Kula looked to the cave mouth, where the dust still rolled out, carrying with it the tang of blood and other bodily secretions.
"What is to stop me from going in there and wresting the treasure for myself, old dragon?"
The Master of Sinanju's wrinkled face smoothed out in sudden shock. He leapt to the cave mouth, spreading defending arms.
"No man will cross this threshold but at my leave!" he warned. "Else he dies!"
Remo caught Kula's eye. "Believe him," he said.
"Ten percent for the use of your horses," Chiun called.
"Try for twenty," Remo suggested, sotto voce.