All round the earthwork men were posted, many for the air was keen and
biting. The stars, not yet faded, shone frostily, but there was no
mist; and for this they were thankful. Each man had a gun of some sort,
from an up-to-date Mauser or Lee-Metford, down to a double-barrelled
shot-gun.
The first dull red streaks had begun to appear in the eastern sky, and
at the sight a thrill of excitement ran along the circle, for such is
almost invariably the time chosen by the wily savage for making his
murderous rush. These were all prepared to give him a most unhealthy
reception.
"Don't light that silly pipe, Jenkins," growled Hyland to his next door
neighbour. "D'you hear? What are you doing, man? D'you think we want
'em to know we're anxiously waiting to welcome them?"
The man addressed snarled.
"Who the 'ell are you?" he grunted. "I'm not taking orders from
anyone." Still he hardly dared disobey. Hyland Thornhill had a
reputation for being a terror with his fists, and he was as strong as an
elephant.
"I'll knock it out of your silly jaws if you attempt to light it," was
the uncompromising answer. "Hallo!" as he became aware of another
presence just behind him. "What are you doing here, Edala? Go in at
once."
"I'm going to take a hand in this game," she answered, showing her
revolver--her brother had impounded her gun, having none of his own.
"Not if I know it. Clear back in again at once, d'you hear." Then in a
tender undertone, "Be sensible, little girl. Go inside, and keep all
those women from yelling themselves to death with funk directly. You
can do it."
She obeyed, with no further demur.
"`The Lord is King,'" quoted with a sneer, the man just taken to task,
to his neighbour on the other side. "But it seems to me that old
Thornhill's pup is king over Him."
"Meaning yourself?"
"Oh, you're so damn funny, Bridson. You'll bust yourself if you don't
watch it," rejoined the other resentfully.
Hyland, the while, was occupying himself by drawing a cross-nick with a
pocket-knife on the apex of each of his Lee-Metford bullets. The gun
was a rifle and smooth bore, and with a heavy charge of Treble A in the
shot barrel, was calculated, as he put it, to stop the devil himself at
no distance; anyhow many black devils would probably undergo the
experiment before the day was an hour older. He had just finished on
the last bullet when something caused him to throw up his head, rigid
and motionless, listening intently. He had caught the faintest possible
suspicion of that unique sound--the quiver of assegai hafts.
"Pass the word round `Stand by'," he whispered to each of his
neighbours. One ignored it--he recently rated, to wit. Who the devil
was young Thornhill, to come here skippering the whole ship? he wanted
to know--to himself.
Hyland was sighting his piece. In the fast lightening dawn his keen
vision had detected a tongue of dark figures flitting stealthily out of
the mimosa bushes some couple of hundred yards away--and striking out a
line which should bring them round to the back of the entrenchment.
This was the encircling manoeuvre, he decided. And then he let go.
But the detonation, and the wild yell of more than one stricken savage--
for he had fired into them bunched up--was drowned by an appalling roar,
as a dense mass sprang up among the low bushes on that front, and,
waving shield and assegai, charged straight for the earthwork.
"Aim low--aim low," was each man's injunction to his neighbour as the
firearms crashed: in the semi-light making a circle of jetting flame.
With effect too, for the front rows went down like mown corn.
"Ho-ho-ho! Haw-haw! Hooray!" were the varying forms of hoarse guffaw
that went up, and the joke was this. Those immediately behind the
fallen ones, pressed on over the bodies of the latter, intending to rush
the earthwork before the defenders should have time to reload. But
they, too, went down in sheaves, and that before another shot had been
fired. They had got into an entanglement of barbed wire, which had been
stealthily and quickly fixed round the defences the night before, but
_after dark_, lest the watchful eyes of scouts should perceive it and so
prepare their countrymen, for this surprise. And now the surprise was
complete.
"Give it 'em again!" shouted Hyland, setting the example. This time the
fire was not directed upon those who had fallen among the wire
entanglement, but on those immediately behind them. The effect was
awful. The whole roaring, struggling mass fell back upon itself--then,
dropping to the ground, glided away like snakes among the long grass,
and many were picked off while doing so. Then, those especially who had
shot-guns, played upon those who were trying to extricate themselves
from the wires. They could not take prisoners, and they had their
families to defend. The odds were tremendous against them: it was
necessary to read the enemy a severe lesson, to inflict upon him a
stunning loss. Hyland Thornhill for one, the probable fate of his
father clouding his brain as with lurid flame, raked the struggling
bodies again and again with charges of heavy buckshot. The carnage was
ghastly, sickening, but--necessary. The alternative was the massacre of
themselves and of their women and children.
The latter had been stowed within the Court house for safety, and now
with the lull in the attack the frightened screeches of some of the
former, and the unanimous howling of most of the latter were dismally
audible. Edala had carried out her brother's injunction and was trying
to reassure and pacify them. Evelyn too was ably seconding her, and
soon with some effect. The sight of these two, calm and unconcerned,
carried immense weight.
"What's that you're saying, Prior?" said Hyland Thornhill, turning his
head, for he had not moved from his post. "Not come on again? Won't
they? You'll see. I'm only wondering what devil's move they're up to
this time. They're too many, and we're too few for them to give up in
any such hurry. Pity that infernal wire has been cut or we'd soon have
them between two stools."
This was in allusion to the telegraph, which early in the previous
afternoon had been discovered to be not working. The magistrate's
clerk, and some of the older farmers had been holding a hurried council
of war.
"Let's get in one of these shamming cusses and question him," went on
Hyland. "He's sure to be, but it'll help pass time. Hey--you!" he
called out in the vernacular. "You with the scratched toes. Get up and
come over here at once, or I'll blow twenty holes into your carcase with
a very heavy charge of shot. You know me. I'm Ugwala."
The name was magical. The man addressed, a sturdy muscular fellow who
had been shamming death, raised his head and asked to be reassured on
the word of Ugwala that his life should be spared. This was done, and
he clambered over the earthwork.
"Whose people are these?" began Hyland, who had risen and joined the
rest. "Those of Ndabakosi?"
"All people, _Nkose_," was the reply. "Some of Babatyana, some of
Nteseni, some from over the river."
"Do they expect to take this place?"
"_Au Nkose_! They knew not that Ugwala had come into it," answered the
man, with a somewhat whimsical smile, the inference being intended that
had they known of his presence they would not have attempted such a
forlorn hope.
"Are you from beyond the river?"
"_E-he, Nkose_."
"Who are leading these?"
The man looked at him, and shook his head. But he made no reply.
Hyland repeated the question.
"I cannot betray my chiefs," was the answer.
"Oh then you'll have your brains blown out," came the savage rejoinder.
But it was not uttered by Hyland. It came from the man whom he had
prevented from lighting a pipe. He had drawn a revolver and was
pointing it right into the face of the Zulu. But in a moment Hyland's
arm flew up, and the pistol, jerked from the other's grasp, spun away
into the air.
"I have the promise of Ugwala," said the savage, calmly, showing no sign
whatever of trepidation.
"That's quite right," said Prior emphatically. "Damn it. The fellow's
quite right not to give away his chiefs. Hallo--what's up now? Here,
sergeant, shove him into the lock-up with leg-irons on. We can't have
him escaping just now, anyway."
All possibility of any pursuance of the quarrel on the part of the
aggrieved Jenkins was at an end--for the present at any rate. All hands
saw that which told that their work was by no means done. They would
need all their coolness and energy for the next half hour--after that,
things wouldn't much matter either way. The horses were picketed
inside, and outside the defences a large enclosure had been hastily
constructed of thorn bushes, and into this the trek oxen were driven at
night, making quite a respectable herd. Three sides of this kraal were
well covered by the fire of the defenders, but the fourth, of course,
was not. Losing no time after their first repulse the assailants had,
with incredible rapidity, breached this fence and were driving out the
whole herd. But not as spoil--no not yet. For them they had another
purpose, and grasping its import the defenders realised what new peril
threatened.
Away up the valley the oxen had been driven by a number told off for the
purpose, and now they were returning. By this time the animals were
becoming uneasy and excited--tossing their heads and throwing up their
tails, and bellowing wildly as they ran.
"Here, Prior. Is there any paraffin about, or kerosene?" asked Hyland
eagerly. "Because I have an idea. Only--sharp's the word."
"Yes. Come along."
They went into the store and in a second Hyland had got off the head of
a paraffin tin. There were some old sacks in the corner. Seizing one
of these he quickly deluged it with the liquid. He rolled his eyes
around impatiently.
"A pole--Prior, damn it! I must have a pole of some sort."
"Here you are," dragging one out from under some rubbish. It was an old
pole which had been used for hoisting a flag on occasions of national
festivity. Hyland seized a chopper, and having split the thinner end of
the pole, inserted the paraffin-soaked sacking in such wise that it
should be held gripped within the cleft. Then they went out.
"Now you fellows," he cried. "They're going to drive the oxen bang over
us and rush us under cover of them, and I'm going to _split the herd_.
Cover me well when I skip back, but don't shoot wild."
A hurried murmur of applause. It was a feat whose daring was about
equalled by the quickness of resource which had devised the plan.
The oxen were coming on now at a canter, about a hundred all told. The
impi had thrown out `horns' so that the terrified animals, beset by a
leaping, yelling crowd on either side, had no option other than to rush
blindly ahead.
Hyland Thornhill leaped over the breastwork, armed with his impromptu
torch. Carefully avoiding the wires, he advanced about fifty yards and
lighted it. The oxen were about twice that distance from him--rendered
frantic by the yells and whistling of the savages urging them on behind.
The flame roared up the soaked sacking, and as he waved this about, on
a level with the eyes of the animals, Hyland fired off a series of
appalling yells worthy of the savages themselves. Would his plan
succeed? Those watching it seemed turned to stone. The oxen were
almost upon him--they could not stop. Then, as he charged them with the
flaming ball, they were suddenly seen to split off into two sections,
and in wild mad career to dash through those who would have turned them
back, galloping away into distance. Almost before the enemy, coming on
behind, could take in this feat its daring perpetrator was back within
the defences again. A ringing cheer broke forth. It was answered from
the other side.
_Usutu_! _'Sutu_!
The roar of the terrible black wave as it rolled forward. It was full
daylight now, and the tossing shields, and broad blades gripped in each
right hand were clearly discernible. The war-shout of the late King
told that these were largely made up of those from beyond the river.
The defenders had to meet the dreaded Zulu charge.
Would it never be turned? The guns of the defenders grew hot, with the
rapidity of the fire. Assegais came whizzing over the breastwork--one,
striking a man between the shoulders as he lay at his post, literally
pinned him to the earth--but no one had time to notice this. That awful
raking of the front ranks, combined with a wholesome dread of the barbed
wire, whose disastrous effects they had witnessed, had brought the
savages to a halt. Assegais, however were hurled in showers, killing
another man and wounding several. For a moment the fate of the day hung
by a hair, but the terrible incessant fire, and that from guns that
seemed to need no reloading, was too much. The line wavered, then
dropping to the ground, the assailants crawled away among the grass and
bushes as before.
A sigh of relief that was almost a murmur, escaped the defenders. Grim,
haggard-eyed, they looked furtively at each other, and each, in the face
of his fellow, saw the reflection of his own. Each and all had been
within the Valley of the Shadow. It had seemed not within their power
to turn that last charge, but--they had done it. An odd shot or two was
fired at long range after the retreating army, and then men found
speech, but even then that speech was apt to be a little unsteady.
"I say, Prior!" cried one devil-may-care fellow, who had borne a tiger's
share in the fight. "How about `The Governor of North Carolina'? We
must drink Thornhill's health. He saved this blooming camp."
"_Ja-ja_, he did," was the response on all sides.
"Oh damn all that for bosh!" was the half savage, half weary, comment on
the part of him named.
There was a laugh--a somewhat nervous laugh--the effect of the strain.
"All right," said Prior. "Elvesdon has some stuff, but we mustn't clean
him out of it all, you know. Ugh! These dead devils look rather
disgusting," for he was not used to the sight of bloodshed. "We must
keep the women from seeing them."
"Master," said a timid voice, on the outskirts of the crowd. "I make
good dinner now for all gentlemen?"
There was a roar of laughter and a cheer. The voice had proceeded from
Ramasam, Thornhill's Indian cook, who had spent the time of the fight in
the kitchen of Elvesdon's house, green with scare.
"Well done, Ramsammy. So you shall," cried Prior.
"Zulu nigger all run away now, masters?" queried the Indian. Whereat
the roar redoubled--the point of the joke being that the speaker was a
very black specimen of a Madrassi, some shades darker than the darkest
of those he had defined as "Zulu nigger."