"How many rounds of ammunition have we?" I asked.
We had nearly six hundred between us; that was enough.
Hurriedly I explained to Jaffa what we intended doing. I tore a leaf
from his note-book, and with his pencil wrote a message to Commander
Duckworth.
"Give it to the old man! Tell him to take it to the _Intrepid_ as
quickly as he can; tell him to take his villagers and the women back
with him."
Jaffa's eyes sparkled as he passed the orders to the trembling head-man
and gave him the note.
I let go of his cloak, and he slid down the rocks like an eel, and was
off down the dizzy zigzag path, like a goat, to where his people lay
hid.
Then Webster, with a grin on his face, went back to his side of the gap
with orders to conceal himself and his two men farther along the edge,
not to expose themselves on the sky-line for a single moment, and on no
account to fire until I fired.