"Well, Larry," I said at last, after polishing up the ratchet of the
Nordenfeldt I was working at to my personal satisfaction, hoping to have
the aiming of it bye-and-bye, "I can't tell you any more than that we
are bound up the coast, and are likely to have a brush with the Arabs
along there somewhere; but where that somewhere is, my joker, I'm hanged
if I know!"
"I can tell you, mate," put in a man who was rubbing up the gun at the
end of the bridge hard by where we were standing. "We're off for
Mombassa again. I heard `old Square toes,' the navigator, tell Mr
Chisholm just now. He said we were agoin' to meet the _Merlin_ there,
and purseed further up the coast together."
"Oh!" said Larry, "that means business, Tom."
"Ay," said I, "it does, my hearty, and to tell the truth, Larry, I'm
jolly glad of it."
So were all hands on board, when the news spread through the ship; and,
on our reaching Mombassa late in the afternoon of the same day, steaming
fifteen knots all the way, pretty nearly our full speed when the
stokehold was not `closed up,' we found the _Merlin_ there before us, as
the man on deck had told Larry and me in the morning.
This made assurance a certainty, every man-jack of the crew being cock-
a-hoop with excitement, when, after a lot of signalling between the two
cruisers, and the _Merlin's_ gig bringing her captain alongside, he
being junior to `old Hankey Pankey,' the two of us sailed off in company
just before sunset.
Our destination was Malindi, at the mouth of the Sabaki river, where it
was reported the Somalis had made an inroad into the British
protectorate, and burnt one of the out stations of the East African
Company, slaughtering all the whites and natives employed by the
traders.
This place was only some sixty miles to the northward of Mombassa; and
all the arrangements for our landing having been completed, and `old
Hankey Pankey' settled his plan of operations with Captain Oliver of the
_Merlin_, we did not hurry on the passage to Malindi, timing ourselves
to arrive about daybreak, casting anchor in front of the town, as near
in as we could get without shoaling our water, at Six Bells in the
morning watch to the minute.
During our run up the coast from Mombassa, the first lieutenant and Mr
Dabchick saw to our boats being got ready, and the bluejackets and
marines, who were detailed for service with the expedition, mustered on
deck in all their `war paint,' and told off to the respective craft in
which they were to go ashore; and by Eight Bells, after a hurried
breakfast, which none of us much cared to eat, we were all so full of
enthusiasm at the prospect of action, we shoved off from the _Mermaid_--
all in dead silence, though, so that no inkling of our coming might
reach the ears of the Arabs before we were upon them.
The boats of the _Merlin_ left their ship at the same time as we did
ours; the two lots making for the land in two columns abreast, `old
Hankey Pankey' leading our line in the launch, with the first and second
cutters and the whaler trailing on behind, while Captain Oliver led
those of the _Merlin_.
On reaching the shore, the sea being fortunately very quiet, though the
north-east monsoon was now blowing, we waded up the sandy beach without
any difficulty; and, leaving our flotilla under charge of the boat-
keepers, a couple of hands in each craft to look after them so as to
prevent their grounding in the event of the wind getting up, when the
surf might be dangerous, we united our forces and marched in a body
inland.
Avoiding the town of Malindi, our object being to surprise a stockade,
where the Somalis were reported to have established themselves, some
five miles off in the bush, in the rear of the outposts of the settlers,
we shaped a course south by west under the guidance of one of the
natives, who had been sent to us by one of the principal merchants of
the place on hearing of our landing, so as to make our way easy for us,
steering by compass in the jungle ashore being very different to what it
is on the open sea.
The rascal, who was evidently a Somali spy sent by his astute comrades
to watch our movements, made our way very easy indeed; for he took us
directly in front of the stockade we had intended surprising, instead of
showing us a by-path leading to the rear of the fortification, from
which we could have outflanked the defence.
`Old Hankey Pankey,' who led our fighting force of bluejackets and
marines, which mustered in officers and men altogether some two hundred
strong, was flabbergasted as he gaily marched in front of the column on
our being received by a hail of bullets and buckshot, which decimated
our ranks as we suddenly debouched from a rough, tangled undergrowth of
scrub and dwarf plantain trees.
Amidst these we could hardly see an inch before us; and then, we found
ourselves in front of a high palisade, made of the trunks of heavy trees
lashed together with lianas and rattan creepers that were as strong as
wire rope. This was loopholed for musketry, and from thence a murderous
fire of innumerable weapons was directed at our devoted heads.
Plucky as a lion, however, the captain rallied us; and, dividing the
column into three portions, taking command of the middle division
himself, while Captain Oliver of the _Merlin_, and Lieutenant Dabchick
of our ship, headed the two others, we advanced with a cheer to storm
the stockade, `old Hankey Pankey' aiming for its front face, and the
other sections of our force for the flanks of the fortification.
Talk of fighting, it was a case of `pull baker, pull devil!' then!
We numbered two hundred, as I have said, but the Somalis must have
mustered two thousand at least, if they had a man there.
Twice we advanced to the attack, twice we were forced to fall back
before the withering flight of bullets that met us face to face from
every hole and corner of that infernal stockade; though Captain Hankey
bravely walked right up to the timber work till he almost touched it, a
revolver in either hand, which he fired alternately at the beggars!
But, the captain got a big matchlock ball through both his legs, the
missile having been discharged at him as he turned sideways, with a
"Follow me, lads!" to cheer us on.
He was not licked yet, though; for, as Larrikins stooped over him to
lift him up, `old Hankey Pankey' got his arm round his neck and climbed
up on to him pick-a-back, Larry highly delighted at the job, he and the
captain then advancing again to the assault.
In the meantime, Mr Dabchick had brought up one of our little nine-
pounder boat-guns which had stuck in the rear and blew in part of the
palisading on the left of the stockade, when he and a lot of us made a
desperate charge to storm the entrenchment.
Poor little Dabby, though, was shot dead while entering the breach the
shell of our nine-pounder had made in the outer palisade that protected
the Arab defences; and then, finding a second fence composed of similar
baulks of timber in front of us, as strong as that we had surmounted,
and that the fire of the Somalis increased the nearer we got to them,
our chaps, staggered by the fall of poor Dabby, I must confess it, all
at once began to cut and run!