"No, I shan't. I can shoot, and I'm going to."
And she did. Afterwards she did not care to reckon up with what effect.
The loss to the assailants was great, terrific. They were at close
quarters, and the defenders were firing low. And then they began to get
entangled and tripped up on the barbed wires.
"_Usutu_!"
The war-cry rang out, fierce-throated, on the right. A derisive yell
was the reply.
"Boy, bring the coffee, sharp," shouted someone inside, between the
volleys.
"How much to the Point?" sung out someone else: the joke being that many
of the assailants wore clothes, and had possibly been kitchen boys or
ricksha pullers in Durban or Maritzburg. To which the assailants would
shout back--
"How many women have you got there, _abelungu? Ha_! We shall find
wives directly without having to pay _lobola_."
"Here is the price of one!" cried Verna grimly, as she drilled the head
of a flitting savage who was glancing from one point of cover to
another. A huge shout arose from the defenders.
"Good shot! Oh, good shot! Three cheers for Miss Halse!"
And they were heartily given, amid the roar of dropping volleys. Yet,
at the moment, Verna felt disgusted. That old feeling came over her
again.
But a voice dispelled it.
"Darling, you are too rash. There are enough of us. Why not go under
shelter?" Denham was beside her. All the bitter thoughts vanished.
"Alaric, don't loathe me for this," she whispered. "I don't do it for
choice, but we want all the defence we can make."
"We shall always be able to say we have fought literally side by side,
at any rate," he answered, with a pressure of the hand. "How can I
think any the worse of you for your splendid pluck?"
There was no more time, however, for anything of this sort. The
attacking party had divided into two, and one section of it had crawled
round, under cover of the thorn-bushes, to the other side. Now they
opened fire, and the bullets began to hum and "ping" over the laager.
To their accompaniment the storekeeper's wife and children kept up an
unintermittent howling.
"For God's sake, Ada, choke those brats," yelled the exasperated Minton,
"and yourself helping them. Here's Miss Halse dropping her man to each
shot with the best of us, and all you do is to sit and howl. That won't
help any."
It grew lighter and lighter, and consequently more dangerous for the
savages. They had reconnoitred this laager and its conditions at night,
and had voted it a safe and easy walk over, and so it would have been
but for the arrival of Ben Halse. Now they concluded it wasn't good
enough, and drew off under cover of the long grass. Then the sun flamed
up over the dark wall of forest-hung hill, and Ben Halse, and one or two
more, were just able to get in a stray long shot at stragglers showing
themselves in the retreating distance.
"They're done with," said the last named. "Tell you what it is, Minton,
you deserved all you'd have got for leaving your shop to take its
chance. You'd have got it too if it hadn't been for me and Denham,
though I don't say it to brag."
"Oh, damn it, old chap," was the answer. "Don't jaw and lecture like a
bally Methodist parson. Come on in and have a drink all round. I'll
swear we've deserved it. Then breakfast. All's well that ends well."
They counted the dead. There were thirty-three of them, nearly three
times their own number, and not one of themselves was scratched, though
a horse had been hit by a chance bullet. Of wounded none were found,
their comrades having had time to carry them away.
Breakfast over there was a great cleaning of rifles, and much talk. All
but one or two were wildly elate. They had had their first brush and
had come out with flying colours. They thirsted for a second. So when
someone said suddenly, "Look there!" and every head, turned in the
direction pointed out, was conscious of a dust cloud coming along the
road where it crossed a distant ridge, all hands rejoiced exceedingly,
because they were going to get it.
They were, however, doomed to disappointment, for several binoculars
soon revealed behind that whirling dust cloud, no Zulu impi, but a large
contingent of the Natal Police, advancing at a quick trot.
Their pace slackened as they drew nearer, and recognised that all was
well. As they rode up, nearly a hundred strong, in double file, the
very simplicity of their khaki uniform and well-filled bandoliers, the
sunburnt faces of the troopers, mostly young men, hard and athletic, and
full of determination and dare-devil dash, seemed somehow far more
imposing than any display of scarlet accompanied by the blare of a
regimental band. These men were doing the hard work of their country,
and they looked it.
"We've come to clear you out of this, Minton," said the inspector in
command, when the first greetings were over, "Sapazani has broken out,
and has nearly two thousand niggers in the Lumisana. So roll up
everything and be ready to trek to Esifeni with us as soon as our horses
are rested. You've done well enough this morning, but a few of you like
this are a mere mouthful in the long run. Besides--the ladies."
The storekeeper swore a bit. He wasn't going to be hustled off for any
blooming Sapazani, not he. They had taught them a lesson that morning
that wouldn't want repeating, and so on. Inspector Bray grew "short."
"Well, if you're a blanked idiot, Minton," he said, "stay, by all means;
but I don't suppose there are any more such fools. Eh, Halse?"
"I'm not one of them, Bray," was the answer. "A man can risk his own
skin as much as he's fool enough to do, but he's no business to risk
that of his womenkind. My party goes with you."
That settled it. The consensus of opinion was against the storekeeper,
wherefore, as he could not stay on by himself, the whole position was
simplified. He occupied the remainder of the time burying the most
valuable of his stock-in-trade, the liquor to wit, and such other things
as were worth bothering about in an emergency. Meanwhile the two police
officers and Ben Halse went round the line of attack, like a sort of
informal coroner's court "viewing the bodies." Several of these the
latter recognised as Sapazani's people. The others he did not think
were.
Then, when the Force had sufficiently rested, there was saddling up and
inspanning, and soon after midday the column pulled out.