Settlers and Scouts: A Tale of the African Highlands

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH--An Attack in Force

  It was within an hour of sunset when John and Ferrier reached the fort.They looked first of all to see whether it was possible to raise thestones which had been cast into the pool, for the purpose of repairingthe wall, and found, as John had suspected, that they were too deepbelow the surface.

  "We must make the best of it," said John. "It's lucky we hadn't gotmore of the wall down. They won't bother us to-night, that's onecomfort. They'll think twice before crossing the causeway in the dark."

  It proved as he had said. A careful watch was kept all through thenight, but nothing happened to disturb them. As soon as there was aglimmer of light John went to the gate with Ferrier to survey thesurroundings. Except for the clump of woodland half-a-mile away on theeast there was nothing that afforded good cover, and it struck Ferrierthat it would be a good plan to seize the wood with the fighting menbefore the enemy could occupy it. But when he passed over the causewaywith John and a dozen of the natives they discovered to their vexationthat they were too late. They had advanced but a short distance whenthey were met by a volley from among the trees, and though none of theparty was hit, John considered it prudent to retire into the fort andawait developments there.

  During the rest of the day the enemy made no serious attack. The smokefrom their camp-fires was seen rising above the trees, and now and thena shot was fired if any of the garrison showed themselves at the gate orin the gap of the wall; but the enemy were indifferent marksmen, and theday passed without casualties.

  "Things don't look very rosy, do they?" said Ferrier, as he lay on theground discussing the situation with John. They had found when theycame to look into matters that some of the porters during their hurriedflight had abandoned their loads. Two boxes of ammunition were missing,and several baskets of provisions. Said Mohammed was in great distressat the loss of the package containing cocoa, condensed milk, andmarmalade. This, however, was not so serious as the loss of grain. Thetotal food supply, including the provisions found in the fort, would notlast more than three or four days; and John, though he did not say so,thought that Ferrier would have done better to retreat towards the farmthan to advance chivalrously to rejoin him. He considered that it wouldhave been possible for himself and his fighting men, unencumbered withbaggage of any great weight, to have made a rapid march afterdemolishing the fort, and joined hands with Ferrier probably twentymiles nearer home. But fate had ordained otherwise; the situation mustbe faced as it existed.

  "Things certainly do not look rosy," John replied to Ferrier's remark,"but they might be worse--which is a pretty rotten platitude when youcome to think of it. It looks as if they mean to keep us boxed up here.We shall have to get out when our food's exhausted, or starve, and I'minclined to think we had better make a dash for it at once, before themen get weak. These natives who live mostly on grain food soon crockup: they haven't anything like our reserve strength, whatever thevegetarians may say."

  "I don't know. My poor father and I passed through a village where thepeople hadn't had any food for a week, and it was wonderful to see howenergetic they were when they saw us coming. They were all skin andbone, dreadful-looking objects; but they weren't anything like socrocked as we should be."

  "Well, I suppose it all depends on what you are used to. We'll discussthe pros and cons of vegetarianism when we're out of this and have got afull choice of either food. At present we are likely to becomeair-eaters before long."

  "Aerophags, eh? or chameleons: they're supposed to live on air, aren'tthey?"

  "You seem very chirpy."

  "Well, old chap, the fact is I'm so uncommonly glad we're both alivethat I am perhaps inclined to be a little----"

  "Light-headed," suggested John.

  "If you must be serious, I don't think your notion of an immediate dashis a good one. The men have had a lot of hard marching, and we ought togive them a good rest--a full day, at any rate."

  "I dare say that would be wise, but the worst of it is that it will givetime for that crowd outside to grow still bigger, and the chances of ourgetting through them safely will be slighter than ever."

  "But remember they've got to eat, as well as we, and the more there areof them the worse their position. The country we came through waspractically barren, and when they have used up the food they have withthem they'll have to range about for more. That'll be our chance. Ivote we sit tight for a while."

  "All right. Here's Said with our supper: what is it to-night,khansaman?"

  "I suffer pangs, sir, in serving gents with such slops, et cetera, butcupboard is bare, sir, to quote classic of Mother Hubbard; all I canprovide for sustenance is cassava bread, beans, and bovril. Incredulityof native mind, sir, is as colossal as credulity. Carved wooden stickis a devil right enough: but when I tell them my little brown bottlecontains concentrated essence of stall-fed ox, lo! they grin all overtheir mug and ask where are its four legs."

  "That's rather a good thing, for they won't envy us our supper. Weshall do very well, as long as it lasts."

  "Ah, sir, I remember the beautiful words of Dr. Johnson, greatlexicographer: 'And every moment makes my little less.' Hunger is thebest sauce, sir, but it does not fill the saucepan."

  This night, like the last, was undisturbed. On the afternoon of thenext day, when John had ceased to look for any offensive movement on thepart of the enemy, he saw a great crowd of them issue from the wood, andcome yelling across the ground towards the causeway.

  "Hallo! They're getting desperate," he said to Ferrier. He immediatelybrought up all the men who had firearms and placed them at the gap inthe wall, bidding them keep under cover and fire when he gave the word.The yelling horde were met by a volley just as they reached the landwardend of the causeway; but though several men dropped it did not check therush, and John concluded from their intense excitement that they hadbeen stimulating their courage with fermented liquor. Some sprang on tothe causeway, and began to run across it; others took to the water,which soon swarmed with black heads moving towards the fort. Thegarrison fired as fast as they could reload, but the men rushing insingle file along the causeway did not present a good target, and theswimmers were far too numerous to be dealt with by a dropping fire fromthe wall. The defenders in their turn were how the mark for a fusilladefrom the further shore of the pool, where several Swahilis had taken uptheir position, finding a little shelter in the reeds, and doing theirbest to cover the attack of the natives. John looked eagerly among themfor the big form of Juma, resolving if he saw him to pick him off; thefall of their leader might demoralize or dishearten the rest. But Jumanever came in sight; apparently he was directing the movement from aplace of safety in the rear.

  The men running across the causeway sprang into the water when they cameto the gap from which the bridge had been removed, and, swimming underwater, sought to scramble on to the narrow shelf of land which ranbeneath the wall at this part. At the same time those who had swumround on either side were swarming on hands and knees up the steep bank.The attack began to look more serious than John had anticipated. Therewere several hundreds of the assailants, and to meet these he had butforty-three, of whom only ten had rifles. The difficulty was increasedby the fact that when the enemy succeeded, as some of them did, ineffecting a lodgment, it was necessary that his men should showthemselves above the wall in order to shoot down upon them, thusbecoming exposed to the fire from the Swahilis. Leaving his riflemen atthe gap to deal with the men who came over the causeway and to keep downas much as possible the fire from the shore, John ran with Ferrier towhatever part of the wall was at the moment the most seriouslythreatened. He had already proved the poor marksmanship of theSwahilis, and, seeing that the enemy must be prevented at all costs fromentering the fort, he no longer troubled to seek cover, but ordered themen to mount the wall and make the most of their advantage in beingseveral feet above their attackers. Ferrier and he, fully exposed tothe enemy's fire, ran from place to place encou
raging the men, graspingtheir rifles by the barrel so as to use them as clubs if any of thestorming party came near the top of the wall.

  The extent of rampart to be defended was so great and the enemy sonumerous that in spite of all efforts many of them succeeded inscrambling up the mound. Then, having reached the top, they set theirfeet in crevices between the stones and clambered up with great agility,with spears in their mouths. But no sooner did they show their headsabove the wall than John, or Ferrier, or some of the men were upon them,and with clubbed rifles, spears, or fists, hurled them down the slopeand into the water. A few managed to mount on the wall before thedefenders could reach them, and held their position for a minute or two,thrusting viciously with their spears and wounding several of thegarrison. John noticed these, and, hastily loading, called to his mento drop down and then fired, following up the shot with a rush. Thisgroup waited for no more, but sprang from the wall, fell headlong on theslope, and rolled into the pool, whither one of their comrades, shot byJohn's rifle, had already preceded them.

  In spite of these checks, the enemy still came on. Those who had beenthrown down returned again to the assault, and were constantlyreinforced by others. More parties gained a temporary footing on thewall; there was hand-to-hand fighting at several points at once; andJohn began to fear that his men would lose heart and give way beforesheer weight of numbers. Neither he nor Ferrier could be everywhere,and it was noticeable that the enemy held their ground longest where thedefenders had not the presence of the white men to give them confidence.The tide was turned at last by Said Mohammed, who had a brilliantinspiration. There was always a fire burning in the middle of theenclosure. It suddenly occurred to him, when he saw his party beginningto be hard pressed, to boil some water, and observing that John andFerrier were occupied at two different points far apart, he ran towardsthe wall between them, where a group of the enemy were on the point ofspringing down into the enclosure. He carried a can full of boilingwater. Aiming it at the biggest man of the group, just as he wasbending forward to spring, the Bengali hurled the canful at his head.The scalding water fell not only on him, but on the man next him, andthere rose two frightful yells which drowned all other sounds of combat.The injured men and their immediate comrades leapt frantically into thepool; their cries caused a weakening of the attack elsewhere; and thetwo white men, seizing the moment, though unaware at the time to what itwas due, laid about them still more lustily with their rifles.

  The savages on the side where Said Mohammed had so opportunelyintervened were now seen swimming to the shore. Their panic wasspeedily communicated to their fellows, and in a few moments at leasthalf of the attacking force were in retreat. The defenders being thusfree to devote all their attention to the enemy in the other quarter,soon made short work of them, and after twenty minutes of exhaustingeffort they saw the whole force making shorewards, and scurrying backunder cover. John's riflemen fired a few shots at them as they fled,but he put a stop to this, thinking that the punishment they had alreadyreceived might have taught them a lesson and would break up the siege.

  As he turned from the wall to see what casualties the garrison hadsuffered, Said Mohammed came up to him with his usually solemn facespread abroad with a smile. An empty can was swinging in his hand.

  "I did that jolly well, sir: _Hoc solus feci_."

  "By and by," said John impatiently, thinking that the Bengali had sometrifling act to relate at epic length. Said Mohammed's smile vanishedlike an April sun behind a cloud. He looked sorrowfully after John'sretreating form, then brightened a little as he caught sight of Ferrier.

  "Esteemed sir," he said, advancing towards him, "this humble billy wasthe _Deus ex machina_."

  "Eh! What! You aren't hurt, are you?" said Ferrier, hurrying by.

  "Only in my soul," muttered Said Mohammed, gloom descending upon him."'Slow rises worth by poverty depressed.'"

  John and Ferrier spent the next half-hour in attending to the wounded.Not a man had been killed; but several were suffering from spear wounds,and still more from rifle shots. The white men were again struck by theuncomplaining patience of the injured men.

  "You may call it a lack of sensibility if you like," said Ferrier, "butI guess it's a fine thing from a military point of view."

  "One can understand how Wellington's army in the Peninsula, the scum ofthe earth, as he called them, did what they did. I wish we could dosomething for these poor chaps. One of them is done for, I'm afraid; Idon't feel fit to-day to dig out the bullets from the others. All wecan do is to bathe 'em and bandage them up; they've astonishingvitality. Did you read some time ago about a fellow who got a bullet inhim in the Franco-Prussian war, and didn't have it removed till thirtyyears afterwards? Hallo! You've had a knock yourself."

  "So have you."

  "I didn't know it," said John, looking himself up and down.

  "I'm sorry to say it's behind," said Ferrier, with a smile: "just underyour shoulder. You'd better take your shirt off and let me see to it."

  "After you. You've got a pretty gash in your neck. My face must havescared 'em, and they didn't recover till I had turned, and then jabbedme in the back."

  "If we were only outside, Bill might find some of his herbs and plasterus. However, we're lucky to have got off so well, and I hope we shan'thave anything worse to go through before we get back."

  Said Mohammed was unwontedly silent when he brought their supper. Hehanded them their bovril and cassava cakes without a word. Johnsuddenly remembered that he had brushed hastily past the Bengali just asthe fight was over.

  "By the way, khansaman," he said, "you began to tell me something. SorryI was too busy to attend to you. What was it?"

  "Trifling matter, sir, not worthy of august attention," murmured theman.

  "You made some remark about your billy, didn't you?" said Ferrier. "Ididn't quite catch it."

  "Foreign lingo, sir: in short, Latin, reformed pronunciation."

  "Ah! that accounts for it. I was taught by an old Westminster man. Youshould take pity on my ignorance, khansaman."

  "Accepting your invite, sir, I take you back to critical moment when allseemed U P. The hour brings forth the man. There came into my mind thelovely words of Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet laureate--

  Fill the can, and fill the cup: All the windy ways of men Are but dust that rises up, And is lightly laid again.

  There was the enemy, rising up like dust; here was the can, ready to befilled. Whereupon I filled it in a jiffy, boiled it in the timeordained by nature, and with this right hand hurled it in teeth of thefoe. The dust was laid, sir. Q.E.F."

  "By Jove!" cried John, "I wondered why they slackened off all of asudden. You did jolly well, khansaman."

  "Shows the usefulness of English literature," said Ferrier gravely. "Younever know what inspiration it may give at times of difficulty anddanger."

  "Verree true, sir; and it makes me feel jolly bucked to know I have suchspanking good memory."