much damage, at
least, I thought, they could make a noise and impress the enemy with the
idea that we were well armed.

Ten minutes or so later Babemba arrived with about fifty men, all the
Mazitu soldiers who were left in the town. He reported that he had held
the north gate as long as he could in order to gain time, and that the
Arabs were breaking it in. I begged him to order the soldiers to pile
up stones as a defence against the bullets and to lie down behind them.
This he went to do.

Then, after a pause, we saw a large body of the Arabs who had effected
an entry, advancing down the central street towards us. Some of them
had spears as well as guns, on which they carried a dozen or so of human
heads cut from the Mazitus who had been killed, waving them aloft and
shouting in triumph. It was a sickening sight, and one that made me
grind my teeth with rage. Also I could not help reflecting that ere long
our heads might be upon those spears. Well, if the worst came to the
worst I was determined that I would not be taken alive to be burned in
a slow fire or pinned over an ant-heap, a point upon which the others
agreed with me, though poor Brother John had scruples as to suicide,
even in despair.

It was just then that I missed Hans and asked where he had gone.
Somebody said that he thought he had seen him running away, whereon
Mavovo, who was growing excited, called out:

"Ah! Spotted Snake has sought his hole. Snakes hiss, but they do not
charge."

"No, but sometimes they bite," I answered, for I could not believe that
Hans had showed the white feather. However, he was gone and clearly we
were in no state to send to look for him.

Now our hope was that the slavers, flushed with victory, would advance
across the open ground of the market-place, which we could sweep with
our fire from our position on the ridge. This, indeed, they began to do,
whereon, without orders, the Mazitu to whom we had given the guns, to
my fury and dismay, commenced to blaze away at a range of about four
hundred yards, and after a good deal of firing managed to kill or wound
two or three men. Then the Arabs, seeing their danger, retreated and,
after a pause, renewed their advance in two bodies. This time, however,
they followed the streets of huts that were built thickly between the
outer palisade of the town and the market-place, which, as it had been
designed to hold cattle in time of need, was also surrounded with a
wooden fence stron