without saying anything more we gave to each of them a
double-barrelled and loaded pistol.

CHAPTER XX

THE BATTLE OF THE GATE

By now heavy firing had begun at the north gate of the town, accompanied
by much shouting. The mist was still too thick to enable us to see
anything at first. But shortly after the commencement of the firing
a strong, hot wind, which always followed these mists, got up and
gradually gathered to a gale, blowing away the vapours. Then from the
top of the crest, Hans, who had climbed a tree there, reported that the
Arabs were advancing on the north gate, firing as they came, and that
the Mazitu were replying with their bows and arrows from behind the
palisade that surrounded the town. This palisade, I should state,
consisted of an earthen bank on the top of which tree trunks were set
close together. Many of these had struck in that fertile soil, so that
in general appearance this protective work resembled a huge live fence,
on the outer and inner side of which grew great masses of prickly pear
and tall, finger-like cacti. A while afterwards Hans reported that the
Mazitu were retreating and a few minutes later they began to arrive
through the south gate, bringing several wounded with them. Their
captain said that they could not stand against the fire of the guns and
had determined to abandon the town and make the best fight they could
upon the ridge.

A little later the rest of the Mazitu came, driving before them all the
non-combatants who remained in the town. With these was King Bausi, in a
terrible state of excitement.

"Was I not wise, Macumazana," he shouted, "to fear the slave-traders and
their guns? Now they have come to kill those who are old and to take the
young away in their gangs to sell them."

"Yes, King," I could not help answering, "you were wise. But if you had
done what I said and kept a better look-out Hassan could not have crept
on you like a leopard on a goat."

"It is true," he groaned; "but who knows the taste of a fruit till he
has bitten it?"

Then he went to see to the disposal of his soldiers along the ridge,
placing, by my advice, the most of them at each end of the line
to frustrate any attempt to out-flank us. We, for our part, busied
ourselves in serving out those guns which we had taken in the first
fight with the slavers to the thirty or forty picked men whom I had been
instructing in the use of firearms. If they did not do