great shout announced that the enemy had
gained the fosse and were setting up the ladders. Up to this time the
Makalanga appeared to have done nothing, but now they began to fire
rapidly from the ancient bastions which commanded the entrance the impi
was striving to storm, and soon through the thinning fog they perceived
wounded Matabele staggering and crawling back towards their camp. Of
these, the light now better, Jacob did not neglect to take his toll.

Meanwhile, the ancient fortress rang with the hideous tumult of the
attack. It was evident that again and again, as their fierce war-shouts
proclaimed, the Matabele were striving to scale the wall, and again and
again were beaten back by the raking rifle fire. Once a triumphant yell
seemed to announce their success. The fire slackened and Benita grew
pale with fear.

"The Makalanga cowards are bolting," muttered Mr. Clifford, listening
with terrible anxiety.

But if so their courage came back to them, for presently the guns
cracked louder and more incessant than before, and the savage cries of
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" dwindled and died away. Another five minutes and the
Matabele were in full retreat, bearing with them many dead and wounded
men upon their backs or stretched out on the ladders.

"Our Makalanga friends should be grateful to us for those hundred
rifles," said Jacob as he loaded and fired rapidly, sending his bullets
wherever the clusters were thickest. "Had it not been for them their
throats would have been cut by now," he added, "for they could never
have stopped those savages with the spear."

"Yes, and ours too before nightfall," said Benita with a shudder,
for the sight of this desperate fray and fear of how it might end had
sickened her. "Thank Heaven, it is over! Perhaps they will give up the
siege and go away."

But, notwithstanding their costly defeat, for they had lost over a
hundred men, the Matabele, who were afraid to return to Buluwayo except
as victors, did nothing of the sort. They only cut down a quantity of
reeds and scrub, and moved their camp nearly to the banks of the river,
placing it in such a position that it could no longer be searched by
the fire of the two white men. Here they sat themselves down sullenly,
hoping to starve out the garrison or to find some other way of entering
the fortress.

Now Meyer's shooting having come to an end for lack of men to shoot at,
since the enemy exposed themselves no more, he was again able t