Part 36 (1/2)
”Don't shoot, Baas, it is I”
”What have you been doing, Hans?” I said as he scra a little as I fancied
”Baas,” he puffed, ”I have been paying the Black Kendah a visit I crept down between their stupid outposts, who are as blind in the dark as a bat in dayti or trunk I didn't find hih I heard him But one of their captains stood up in front of a watchfire, giving a good shot My bullet found _hi the sparks fly this way and that Then I ran and, as you see, got here quite safely”
”Why did you play that fool's trick?” I asked, ”seeing that it ought to have cost you your life?”
”I shall die just when I have to die, not before, Baas,” he replied in the intervals of reloading the little rifle ”Also it was the trick of a wisethat it hasthem and caused theround that they do not know Listen to the!”
As he spoke a roar of sound told us that the great charge had swept round a turn there was in the pass and was heading towards us up the straight Ivory horns brayed, captains shouted orders, the veryof thousands of feet of reat yell that echoed from the cliffs and forests went up the battle-cry of ”_Jana! Jana!_”--a ely with the utter silence in our ranks
”They will be aered Hans, shi+fting his weight nervously fro into them”
It was true Screaun to fall, horse and foot together, into the cunningly devised snares of which with sothem with earth spread over thin wickerwork, or rather interlaced boughs Into them went the forerunners, to be pierced by the sharp, fire-hardened stakes set at the bottoh to understand their danger call to the ranks behind to stop They could not or would not coed the hu all in front of it to death by wounds or suffocation in those deadly holes, till one by one they were filled level with the ground by struggling men and horses, over whom the army still rushed on
How many perished there I do not know, but after the battle was over we found scarcely a pit that was not crowded to the brinall's, for if I had conceived the idea, which was unfamiliar to the Kendah, it was he who had carried it out in so masterly a fashi+on, had served us well
Still the eneh to hold a tithe of theether in inextricable confusion, their hty mass became faintly visible quite close to us, a blacker blot upon the gloom
Then my turn came When they were not more than fifty yards away from the first wall, I shouted an order tolow, and set the exaun at the thickest of the mob At that distance even the most inexperienced shots could not h struck aht the horsemen lifted above their fellows Indeed, of the first few rounds I do not think that one asted, while often single balls killed or injured several men
The result was instantaneous The Black Kendah who, be it remembered, were totally unaccustoined that we only possessed two or three guns in all, stopped their advance as though paralyzed For a few seconds there was silence, except for the intermittent crackle of the rifles as my men loaded and fired Next ca everywhere, and then--the unone That was too warly
”Yes,” I answered, when I had at length succeeded in stopping the firing, ”but I expect they will coht Still, that trick of yours has cost thean to break It was, I reantic and vivid rose opening in the east, or a cup of brightness from which many coloured wines were poured all athwart the firmament Very peaceful also, for not a breath of as stirring But what a scene the first rays of the sun revealed upon that narrow stretch of pass in front of us Everywhere the pitfalls and trenches were filled with still surging heaps of men and horses, while all about lay dead and wounded men, the red harvest of our rifle fire
It was dreadful to contrast the heavenly peace above and the hellish horror beneath
We took count and found that up to this htly wounded by a thrown spear As is coes, this fact filled the White Kendah with an undue exultation Thinking that as the beginning was so the endeach other's hands, then fell to eating the food which the wo incessantly, although as a general rule they were a very silent people
Even the grave Hart, who arrived full of congratulations, seeh-spirited as a boy, till I reminded him that the real battle had not yet commenced
The Black Kendah had fallen into a trap and lost some of their number, that was all, which was fortunate for us but could scarcely affect the issue of the struggle, since they had nall, who had coreed withfor life as well as honour, seeing that most of the corn which they needed for their sustenance was stored in great heaps either in or to the rear of the temple behind us Therefore they must come on until they won or were destroyed Hoith our small force could we hope to destroy this hed upon our hearts
About a quarter of an hour later two spies that we had set upon the top of the precipitous cliffs, whence they had a good view of the pass beyond the bend, ca down the rocks like monkeys by a route that was known to them These boys, for they were notheir army beyond the bend of the pass, and that the cavalry were dis their horses to the rear, evidently because they found them useless in such a place A little later solitarysticks to each of which was attached a piece of white cloth, a proceeding that excited my curiosity
Soon its object became apparent Swiftly these men, of whom in the end there round with spears in search for pitfalls I think they only found a very few that had not been broken into, but in front of these and also of those that were already full ofthat they should be avoided in the advance Also they rereat difficulty in restraining the White Kendah fro out to attack them, which of course would only have led us into a trap in our turn, since they would have fled and conducted their pursuers into the arms of the enemy Nor would I allow my riflereat waste of a would be badly wanted I, however, did shoot two or three, then gave it up as the rehly explored the ground they retired until, a little later, the Black Kendah ariht or ten thousand of the _impi_
Their front ranks halted between three and four hundred yards ahich I thought farther off than it was advisable to open fire on them with Snider rifles held by unskilled troops Then ca of horns and a sound of exultant shouting beyond the turn of the pass
Now froht that I think e elephant, Jana, at a slow, sha trot On his back and head were two nized the la of the Black Kendah, hi spear, seated in a kind of wooden chair Round the brute's neck were a nuht metal chains, twelve in all, and each of these chains was held by a spearside, six on one side and six on the other Lastly, ingeniously fastened to the end of his trunk were three other chains to which were attached spiked knobs of metal
On he ca teak logs, passing through the centre of the host up a wide lane which had been left, I suppose for his convenience, and intelligently avoiding the pitfalls filled with dead I thought that he would stop a his pace to a walk he marched forwards towards our fortifications Now, of course, I saw my chance and made sure that my double-barrelled elephant rifle was ready and that Hans held a second rifle, also double-barrelled and of similar calibre, full-cocked in such a position that I could snatch it fro to kill that elephant,” I said ”Let no one else fire Stand still and you shall see the God Jana die”
Still the enormous beast floundered forward; up to that e it was, not even when it stood over ht about to crush me with its foot Of this I am sure, that none to equal it ever lived in Africa, at least in any tie
”Fire, Baas,” whispered Hans, ”it is near enough”