Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent darknesswaiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps, the most tryingtime of all--that slow, slow quarter of an hour. The minutes seemedto drag along with leaden feet, and the quiet, the solemn hush,that brooded over all--big, as it were, with a coming fate, was mostoppressive to the spirits. I once remember having to get up beforedawn to see a man hanged, and I then went through a very similar set ofsensations, only in the present instance my feelings were animated bythat more vivid and personal element which naturally appertains ratherto the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic spectator.The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the short passage ofan hour would mean for some, and perhaps all of them, the last greatpassage to the unknown or oblivion; the bated whispers in which theyspoke; even Sir Henry's continuous and thoughtful examination of hiswoodcutter's axe and the fidgety way in which Good kept polishing hiseyeglass, all told the same tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh tobreaking-point. Only Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas andtaking an occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly andcompletely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.
The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer andnearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the world indarkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern sky that palelyheralded the dawn.
Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm andstriving to stifle her sobs.
'Twenty minutes to four,' he said, 'it ought to be light enough toattack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better be moving,he will want three or four minutes' start.'
Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a jocularsort of way--which I could not help feeling it must have cost himsomething to muster up--and, ever polite, took off his steel-lined capto Mrs Mackenzie and started for his position at the head of the kraal,to reach which he had to make a detour by some paths known to thenatives.
Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody in theMasai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who were walkingup and down in front of the respective entrances, appeared to be fastasleep. Then the rest of us took the road. First came the guide, thenSir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi Askari, and Mr Mackenzie'stwo mission natives armed with long spears and shields. I followedimmediately after with Alphonse and five natives all armed with guns,and Mr Mackenzie brought up the rear with the six remaining natives.
The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot of thehill on which the house stood, or, roughly speaking, about eight hundredyards from the Mission buildings. The first five hundred yards of thisdistance we traversed quietly indeed, but at a good pace; after that wecrept forward as silently as a leopard on his prey, gliding like ghostsfrom bush to bush and stone to stone. When I had gone a little way Ichanced to look behind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggeringalong with white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which was atfull cock, pointed directly at the small of my back. Having halted andcarefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again, and all went welltill we were within one hundred yards or so of the kraal, when his teethbegan to chatter in the most aggressive way.
'If you don't stop that I will kill you,' I whispered savagely; for theidea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering cook wastoo much for me. I began to fear that he would betray us, and heartilywished we had left him behind.
'But, monsieur, I cannot help it,' he answered, 'it is the cold.'
Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the pocket ofthe coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that I had used sometime before to clean a gun with. 'Put this in your mouth,' I whisperedagain, giving him the rag; 'and if I hear another sound you are a deadman.' I knew that that would stifle the clatter of his teeth. I musthave looked as if I meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, andcontinued his journey in silence.
Then we crept on again.
At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us and it wasan open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa bush and a couple oftussocks of a sort of thistle for cover. We were still hidden in fairlythick bush. It was beginning to grow light. The stars had paled and asickly gleam played about the east and was reflected on the earth. Wecould see the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also makeout the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires. Wehalted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at the opening.Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking idly up and downwithin five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance. We had hoped to catchhim napping, but it was not to be. He seemed particularly wide awake. Ifwe could not kill that man, and kill him silently, we were lost. Therewe crouched and watched him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few pacesahead of me, turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him godown on his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity whenthe sentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grasswithout a sound.
The unconscious sentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaascrept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived andthere waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently he turnedand looked over the wall into the camp. Instantly the human snake whowas stalking him glided on ten yards and got behind one of the tussocksof the thistle-like plant, reaching it as the Elmoran turned again. Ashe did so his eye fell upon this patch of thistles, and it seemed tostrike him that it did not look quite right. He advanced a pace towardsit--halted, yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threwit at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the armourshirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us. Luckily, too,the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which would certainly havebeen detected. Apparently satisfied that there was nothing wrong, hethen gave over his investigations and contented himself with leaningon his spear and standing gazing idly at the tuft. For at least threeminutes did he stand thus, plunged apparently in a gentle reverie, andthere we lay in the last extremity of anxiety, expecting every momentthat we should be discovered or that some untoward accident wouldhappen. I could hear Alphonse's teeth going like anything on the oiledrag, and turning my head round made an awful face at him. But I am boundto state that my own heart was at much the same game as the Frenchman'scastanets, while the perspiration was pouring from my body, causing thewash-leather-lined shirt to stick to me unpleasantly, and altogether Iwas in the pitiable state known by schoolboys as a 'blue fright'.
At last the ordeal came to an end. The sentry glanced at the east, andappeared to note with satisfaction that his period of duty was coming toan end--as indeed it was, once and for all--for he rubbed his hands andbegan to walk again briskly to warm himself.
The moment his back was turned the long black snake glided on again, andreached the other thistle tuft, which was within a couple of paces ofhis return beat.
Back came the sentry and strolled right past the tuft, utterlyunconscious of the presence that was crouching behind it. Had he lookeddown he could scarcely have failed to see, but he did not do so.
He passed, and then his hidden enemy erected himself, and withoutstretched hand followed in his tracks.
A moment more, and, just as the Elmoran was about to turn, the greatZulu made a spring, and in the growing light we could see his long leanhands close round the Masai's throat. Then followed a convulsive twiningof the two dark bodies, and in another second I saw the Masai's headbent back, and heard a sharp crack, something like that of a drytwig snapping, and he fell down upon the ground, his limbs movingspasmodically.
Umslopogaas had put out all his iron strength and broken the warrior'sneck.
For a moment he knelt upon his victim, still gripping his throat till hewas sure that there was nothing more to fear from him, and then he roseand beckoned to us to advance, which we did on all fours, like a colonyof huge apes. On reaching the kraal we saw that the Masai had stillfurther choked this entrance, which was about ten feet
wide--no doubt inorder to guard against attack--by dragging four or five tops of mimosatrees up to it. So much the better for us, I reflected; the moreobstruction there was the slower would they be able to come through.Here we separated; Mackenzie and his party creeping up under the shadowof the wall to the left, while Sir Henry and Umslopogaas took theirstations one on each side of the thorn fence, the two spearmen and theAskari lying down in front of it. I and my men crept on up the rightside of the kraal, which was about fifty paces long.
When I was two-thirds up I halted, and placed my men at distances offour paces from one another, keeping Alphonse close to me, however. ThenI peeped for the first time over the wall. It was getting fairly lightnow, and the first thing I saw was the white donkey, exactly oppositeto me, and close by it I could make out the pale face of little Flossie,who was sitting as the lad had described, some ten paces from the wall.Round her lay many warriors, sleeping. At distances all over the surfaceof the kraal were the remains of fires, round each of which slept somefive-and-twenty Masai, for the most part gorged with food. Now and thena man would raise himself, yawn, and look at the east, which was turningprimrose; but none got up. I determined to wait another five minutes,both to allow the light to increase, so that we could make bettershooting, and to give Good and his party--of whom we could see or hearnothing--every opportunity to make ready.
The quiet dawn began to throw her ever-widening mantle over plain andforest and river--mighty Kenia, wrapped in the silence of eternal snows,looked out across the earth--till presently a beam from the unrisen sunlit upon his heaven-kissing crest and purpled it with blood; the skyabove grew blue, and tender as a mother's smile; a bird began to pipehis morning song, and a little breeze passing through the bush shookdown the dewdrops in millions to refresh the waking world. Everywherewas peace and the happiness of arising strength, everywhere save in theheart of cruel man!
Suddenly, just as I was nerving myself for the signal, having alreadyselected my man on whom I meant to open fire--a great fellow sprawlingon the ground within three feet of little Flossie--Alphonse's teethbegan to chatter again like the hoofs of a galloping giraffe, making agreat noise in the silence. The rag had dropped out in the agitation ofhis mind. Instantly a Masai within three paces of us woke, and, sittingup, gazed about him, looking for the cause of the sound. Moved beyondmyself, I brought the butt-end of my rifle down on to the pit of theFrenchman's stomach. This stopped his chattering; but, as he doubled up,he managed to let off his gun in such a manner that the bullet passedwithin an inch of my head.
There was no need for a signal now. From both sides of the kraal brokeout a waving line of fire, in which I myself joined, managing with asnap shot to knock over my Masai by Flossie, just as he was jumping up.Then from the top end of the kraal there rang an awful yell, in whichI rejoiced to recognize Good's piercing notes rising clear and shrillabove the din, and in another second followed such a scene as I havenever seen before nor shall again. With an universal howl of terror andfury the brawny crowd of savages within the kraal sprang to their feet,many of them to fall again beneath our well-directed hail of lead beforethey had moved a yard. For a moment they stood undecided, and thenhearing the cries and curses that rose unceasingly from the top endof the kraal, and bewildered by the storm of bullets, they as by oneimpulse rushed down towards the thorn-stopped entrance. As they went wekept pouring our fire with terrible effect into the thickening mob asfast as we could load. I had emptied my repeater of the ten shots itcontained and was just beginning to slip in some more when I bethoughtme of little Flossie. Looking up, I saw that the white donkey was lyingkicking, having been knocked over either by one of our bullets or aMasai spear-thrust. There were no living Masai near, but the black nursewas on her feet and with a spear cutting the rope that bound Flossie'sfeet. Next second she ran to the wall of the kraal and began to climbover it, an example which the little girl followed. But Flossie wasevidently very stiff and cramped, and could only go slowly, and as shewent two Masai flying down the kraal caught sight of her and rushedtowards her to kill her. The first fellow came up just as the poorlittle girl, after a desperate effort to climb the wall, fell back intothe kraal. Up flashed the great spear, and as it did so a bullet from myrifle found its home in the holder's ribs, and over he went like a shotrabbit. But behind him was the other man, and, alas, I had only thatone cartridge in the magazine! Flossie had scrambled to her feet and wasfacing the second man, who was advancing with raised spear. I turned myhead aside and felt sick as death. I could not bear to see him stab her.Glancing up again, to my surprise I saw the Masai's spear lying on theground, while the man himself was staggering about with both hands tohis head. Suddenly I saw a puff of smoke proceeding apparently fromFlossie, and the man fell down headlong. Then I remembered the Derringerpistol she carried, and saw that she had fired both barrels of it athim, thereby saving her life. In another instant she had made an effort,and assisted by the nurse, who was lying on the top, had scrambled overthe wall, and I knew that she was, comparatively speaking, safe.
All this takes time to tell, but I do not suppose that it took more thanfifteen seconds to enact. I soon got the magazine of the repeater filledagain with cartridges, and once more opened fire, not on the seethingblack mass which was gathering at the end of the kraal, but on fugitiveswho bethought them to climb the wall. I picked off several of these men,moving down towards the end of the kraal as I did so, and arriving atthe corner, or rather the bend of the oval, in time to see, and by meansof my rifle to assist in, the mighty struggle that took place there.
By this time some two hundred Masai--allowing that we had up to thepresent accounted for fifty--had gathered together in front of thethorn-stopped entrance, driven thither by the spears of Good's men,whom they doubtless supposed were a large force instead of being but tenstrong. For some reason it never occurred to them to try and rush thewall, which they could have scrambled over with comparative ease;they all made for the fence, which was really a strongly interwovenfortification. With a bound the first warrior went at it, and evenbefore he touched the ground on the other side I saw Sir Henry's greataxe swing up and fall with awful force upon his feather head-piece, andhe sank into the middle of the thorns. Then with a yell and a crash theybegan to break through as they might, and ever as they came the greataxe swung and Inkosi-kaas flashed and they fell dead one by one, eachman thus helping to build up a barrier against his fellows. Those whoescaped the axes of the pair fell at the hands of the Askari and the twoMission Kaffirs, and those who passed scatheless from them were broughtlow by my own and Mackenzie's fire.
Faster and more furious grew the fighting. Single Masai would springupon the dead bodies of their comrades, and engage one or other of theaxemen with their long spears; but, thanks chiefly to the mail shirts,the result was always the same. Presently there was a great swing of theaxe, a crashing sound, and another dead Masai. That is, if the man wasengaged with Sir Henry. If it was Umslopogaas that he fought with theresult indeed would be the same, but it would be differently attained.It was but rarely that the Zulu used the crashing double-handedstroke; on the contrary, he did little more than tap continually at hisadversary's head, pecking at it with the pole-axe end of the axe as awoodpecker {Endnote 7} pecks at rotten wood. Presently a peck would gohome, and his enemy would drop down with a neat little circular holein his forehead or skull, exactly similar to that which a cheese-scoopmakes in a cheese. He never used the broad blade of the axe except whenhard pressed, or when striking at a shield. He told me afterwards thathe did not consider it sportsmanlike.
Good and his men were quite close by now, and our people had to ceasefiring into the mass for fear of killing some of them (as it was, one ofthem was slain in this way). Mad and desperate with fear, the Masai bya frantic effort burst through the thorn fence and piled-up dead, and,sweeping Curtis, Umslopogaas, and the other three before them, into theopen. And now it was that we began to lose men fast. Down went our poorAskari who was armed with the axe, a great spear standing out
a footbehind his back; and before long the two spearsmen who had stood withhim went down too, dying fighting like tigers; and others of our partyshared their fate. For a moment I feared the fight was lost--certainlyit trembled in the balance. I shouted to my men to cast down theirrifles, and to take spears and throw themselves into the melee. Theyobeyed, their blood being now thoroughly up, and Mr Mackenzie's peoplefollowed their example.
This move had a momentary good result, but still the fight hung in thebalance.
Our people fought magnificently, hurling themselves upon the dark massof Elmoran, hewing, thrusting, slaying, and being slain. And everabove the din rose Good's awful yell of encouragement as he plunged towherever the fight was thickest; and ever, with an almost machine-likeregularity, the two axes rose and fell, carrying death and disablementat every stroke. But I could see that the strain was beginning to tellupon Sir Henry, who was bleeding from several flesh wounds: his breathwas coming in gasps, and the veins stood out on his forehead like blueand knotted cords. Even Umslopogaas, man of iron that he was, was hardpressed. I noticed that he had given up 'woodpecking', and was now usingthe broad blade of Inkosi-kaas, 'browning' his enemy wherever he couldhit him, instead of drilling scientific holes in his head. I myself didnot go into the melee, but hovered outside like the swift 'back' in afootball scrimmage, putting a bullet through a Masai whenever I got achance. I was more use so. I fired forty-nine cartridges that morning,and I did not miss many shots.
Presently, do as we would, the beam of the balance began to rise againstus. We had not more than fifteen or sixteen effectives left now, and theMasai had at least fifty. Of course if they had kept their heads, andshaken themselves together, they could soon have made an end of thematter; but that is just what they did not do, not having yet recoveredfrom their start, and some of them having actually fled from theirsleeping-places without their weapons. Still by now many individualswere fighting with their normal courage and discretion, and this alonewas sufficient to defeat us. To make matters worse just then, whenMackenzie's rifle was empty, a brawny savage armed with a 'sime',or sword, made a rush for him. The clergyman flung down his gun, anddrawing his huge carver from his elastic belt (his revolver had droppedout in the fight), they closed in desperate struggle. Presently, lockedin a close embrace, missionary and Masai rolled on the ground behind thewall, and for some time I, being amply occupied with my own affairs, andin keeping my skin from being pricked, remained in ignorance of his fateor how the duel had ended.
To and fro surged the fight, slowly turning round like the vortex ofa human whirlpool, and the matter began to look very bad for us. Justthen, however, a fortunate thing happened. Umslopogaas, either byaccident or design, broke out of the ring and engaged a warrior at somefew paces from it. As he did so, another man ran up and struck him withall his force between his shoulders with his great spear, which, fallingon the tough steel shirt, failed to pierce it and rebounded. For amoment the man stared aghast--protective armour being unknown amongthese tribes--and then he yelled out at the top of his voice--
'_They are devils--bewitched, bewitched!_' And seized by a sudden panic,he threw down his spear, and began to fly. I cut short his career witha bullet, and Umslopogaas brained his man, and then the panic spread tothe others.
'_Bewitched, bewitched!_' they cried, and tried to escape in everydirection, utterly demoralized and broken-spirited, for the most parteven throwing down their shields and spears.
On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It was aslaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked or given. Oneincident, however, is worth detailing. Just as I was hoping that it wasall done with, suddenly from under a heap of slain where he had beenhiding, an unwounded warrior sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dyingdead like an antelope, sped like the wind up the kraal towards thespot where I was standing at the moment. But he was not alone, forUmslopogaas came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-likemotion for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in theMasai the herald of the previous night. Finding that, run as he would,his pursuer was gaining on him, the man halted and turned round to givebattle. Umslopogaas also pulled up.
'Ah, ah,' he cried, in mockery, to the Elmoran, 'it is thou whom Italked with last night--the Lygonani! the Herald! the capturer of littlegirls--he who would kill a little girl! And thou didst hope to stand manto man and face to face with Umslopogaas, an Induna of the tribe ofthe Maquilisini, of the people of the Amazulu? Behold, thy prayer isgranted! And I didst swear to hew thee limb from limb, thou insolentdog. Behold, I will do it even now!'
The Masai ground his teeth with fury, and charged at the Zulu withhis spear. As he came, Umslopogaas deftly stepped aside, and swingingInkosi-kaas high above his head with both hands, brought the broad bladedown with such fearful force from behind upon the Masai's shoulder justwhere the neck is set into the frame, that its razor edge shore rightthrough bone and flesh and muscle, almost severing the head and one armfrom the body.
'_Ou!_' ejaculated Umslopogaas, contemplating the corpse of his foe; 'Ihave kept my word. It was a good stroke.'