nd terror they tore at the gateway or each other, and the reports
of the guns which many of them were still firing, half at hazard.

We formed up before the gate, the Zulus with Stephen and myself in front
and the thirty picked Mazitu, commanded by no less a person than Bausi,
the king, behind. We had not long to wait, for presently down the thing
came and over it and the mound of earth and stones we had built beyond,
began to pour a mob of white-robed and turbaned men whose mixed and
tumultuous exit somehow reminded me of the pips and pulp being squeezed
out of a grenadilla fruit.

I gave the word, and we fired into that packed mass with terrible
effect. Really I think that each bullet must have brought down two or
three of them. Then, at a command from Mavovo, the Zulus threw down
their guns and charged with their broad spears. Stephen, who had got
hold of an assegai somehow, went with them, firing a Colt's revolver as
he ran, while at their backs came Bausi and his thirty tall Mazitu.

I will confess at once that I did not join in this terrific onslaught. I
felt that I had not weight enough for a scrimmage of the sort, also that
I should perhaps be better employed using my wits outside and watching
for a chance to be of service, like a half-back in a football field,
than in getting my brains knocked out in a general row. Or mayhap my
heart failed me and I was afraid. I dare say, for I have never pretended
to great courage. At any rate, I stopped outside and shot whenever I got
the chance, not without effect, filling a humble but perhaps a useful
part.

It was really magnificent, that fray. How those Zulus did go in. For
quite a long while they held the narrow gateway and the mound against
all the howling, thrusting mob, much as the Roman called Horatius and
his two friends held the entrance to some bridge or other long ago at
Rome against a great force of I forget whom. They shouted their Zulu
battle-cry of _Laba! Laba!_ that of their regiment, I suppose, for
most of them were men of about the same age, and stabbed and fought and
struggled and went down one by one.

Back the rest of them were swept; then, led by Mavovo, Stephen and
Bausi, charged again, reinforced with the thirty Mazitu. Now the tongues
of flame met almost over them, the growing fence of prickly pear and
cacti withered and crackled, and still they fought on beneath that arch
of fire.

Back they were driven again by the mere weight of numbers. I