Part 6 (2/2)

'Ay, ay, Macumazahn,' he answered 'For thirty years have I been a warrior, and have seen ht I smell blood--I tell thee, I smell blood'

CHAPTER VI THE NIGHT WEARS ON

As n of a Masai the entire population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the stout stone wall, and were now to be seen--ether in little groups, and all talking at once in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners and customs, and of the fate that they had to expect if those bloodthirsty savages succeeded in getting over the stone wall

Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of action as suggested by Uaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four sharp boys of froe, and despatched them to various points where they could keep an outlook upon the Masai ca on Other lads and even wouard against the possibility of surprise

After this the twentyforce were summoned by our host into the square forreat conifer, he earnestly addressed them and our four Askari Indeed, it forotten by anybody itnessed it Iular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arainst the giant bole, his hat off, and his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of his mind

Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair, had her face hidden in her hand On the other side of her was Alphonse, looking exceedingly uncoaas' gri, as usual, on his axe In front stood and squatted the group of armed men--some with rifles in their hands, and others with spears and shi+elds--folloith eager attention every word that fell fro in beneath the lofty boughs threw a strange wild glaht wind passing through the millions of pine needles overhead added a sadness of its own to as already a sufficiently tragic occasion

'Men,' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances of the case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them the proposed plan of our forlorn hope--' you, teaching you, guarding you and yours from harm, and ye have prospered with row year by year, from tenderest infancy to tender childhood, and from childhood on towards maidenhood She has been your children's playmate, she has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved her'

'We have,' said a deep voice, 'and ill die to save her'

'I thank you from my heart--I thank you Sure am I that now, in this hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to be cut off by cruel and savage men--who of a truth ”know not what they do”--ye will strive your best to save her, and to save me and her mother from broken hearts Think, too, of your oives and children If she dies, her death will be followed by an attack upon us here, and at the best, even if we hold our own, your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your goods and cattle swept away I am, as ye well know, a man of peace

Never in all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man's blood; but now I say strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect our lives and homes Swear to me,' he went on with added fervour--'swear to me that whilst a man of you remains alive ye will strive your uttermost with me and with these brave white men to save the child from a bloody and cruel death'

'Say no ed to a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'ear it May we and ours die the death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the jackals and the kites, if we break the oath! It is a fearful thing to do, my father, so few to strike at soWe swear!'

'Ay, thus say we all,' chimed in the others

'Thus say we all,' said I

'It is well,' went on Mr Mackenzie 'Ye are true men and not broken reeds to lean on And now, friends--white and black together--let us kneel and offer up our hu that He in the hollow of Whose hand lie all our lives, Who giveth life and giveth death,our arht'

And he knelt down, an exaaas, who still stood in the background, gri on Inkosi-kaas The fierce old Zulu had no Gods and worshi+pped nought, unless it were his battleaxe

'Oh God of Gods!' began the clergy up in the silence even to the leafy roof; 'Protector of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian of the helpless, hear Thou our prayer! Alhty Father, to Thee we come in supplication

Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one child hast Thou given us--an innocent child, nurtured in Thy knowledge--and now she lies beneath the shadow of the sword, in danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men Be with her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly Father! Oh God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers to fight, in Whose strength are hid the destinies of o forth into the shadow of death,to conquer Breathe Thou upon our foes and scatter theh-blown pride to nought; compass us about with Thy protection; throw over us the shi+eld of Thy power; forget us not now in the hour of our sore distress; help us now that the cruel ainst the stones!

Hear Thou our prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on earth in health before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy Presence on the Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away their offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits pass, oh receive Thou theo forth with us into the battle, as with the Israelites of old Oh God of battle, hear Thou our prayer!'

He ceased, and after a an our preparations in good earnest As Uet to business The men ere to form each little party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely instructed as to as to be done After reed that the ten men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not to carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword--the Masai 'sime'

which I had taken from the body of our poor servant as murdered in the canoe We feared that if they had firearms the result of three cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the work they had to do would best be carried out with cold steel--especially to Ureat advocate of cold steel We had with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis

I armed myself with one of the repeaters--reat rapidity of fire is desirable, and fitted with ordinary flap-sights instead of the cuenerally have Mr Mackenzie took another, and the two reiven to two of his men who understood the use of them and were noted shots The Martinis and soether with a plentiful supply of ammunition, to the other natives ere to form the two parties whose duty it was to be to open fire fro Masai, and ere fortunately all un

As for Uaas, we knoas armed--with an axe It est of the Askari were to hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal against the anticipated rush ofto escape Of course, for such a purpose as this guns were useless Therefore Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm themselves in like fashi+on It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his little store a selection of the very best and English-made hahing about two and a half pounds and very broad in the blade, and the Askari took another a size se on these two axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six helves, of which Mr Mackenzie fortunately had soh native wood, soy When two suitable helves had been selected with great care and the ends of the hafts notched to prevent the hand fro, the axe-heads were fixed on them as firmly as possible, and the weapons immersed in a bucket of water for half an hour The result of this was to swell the wood in the socket in such a fashi+on that nothing short of burning would get it out again When this iaas, I went into my room and proceeded to open a little tin-lined deal case, which contained--what do you think?--nothing more or less than four mail shi+rts

It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had made in another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shi+rts of native ested before we started on our present hazardous expedition that we should have some made to fit us There was a little difficulty about this, as ar is pretty well an extinct art, but they can do ham if they are put to it and you will pay the price, and the end of it was that they turned us out the loveliest steel shi+rts it is possible to see The work cos of the best steel h-necked jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather, were not bright, but browned like the barrel of a gun; and hed exactly seven pounds and fitted me so well that I found I could wear it for days next tochafed Sir Henry had two, one of the ordinary make, viz a jersey with little dependent flaps hs, and another of his own design fashi+oned on the pattern of the gar twelve pounds This combination shi+rt, of which the seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down to the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to be laced up at the back and, of course, involved soht With these shi+rts hat looked like four brown cloth travelling caps with ear pieces Each of these caps was, however, quilted with steel links so as to afford a most valuable protection for the head

It seehable to talk of steel shi+rts in these days of bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but where one has to do with savages, arais or battleaxes, they afford the , if well ht that if only the English Governe wars, and ht steel shi+rts, there would be otten