o a natural grave.

Fearing to tread lest I should fall into the terrible quicksand, I knelt
and kept up a continuous fire with my musket, shooting into the dense
smoke whenever I saw the flash of an Arab gun. It was exciting work, not
knowing from one second to another whether the ping of a bullet would
bring death. Still I knew that to save our own lives we must sweep away
the host of invaders, and, reassured by the knowledge that Omar had met
with no mishap, I kept on, heedless of all dangers, thinking only of the
ultimate rout of our enemy.

How long the terrible fight lasted I know not. We stood our ground, the
majority of us kneeling, engaging the Arabs in mortal combat for, I
believe, considerably over an hour. Several times the firing seemed so
strong that I feared we should be vanquished, nevertheless the Dagombas
proved themselves a valiant, stubborn race, well versed in savage
warfare, for the manner in which they shot their arrows was admirable,
and even at the decisive moment when all seemed against us they never
wavered, but kept on, fierce and revengeful as in the first moments of
the fight.

Gradually, when Omar's voice had been heard a dozen times urging us on to
sweep every invader from our path and not to let a single man escape, we
found our enemy's fire slackening. The smoke, moved by the sand-laden
wind that swept across the plain each night after sundown, became less
dense, and at last we realized that the tide of battle had turned in our
favour, and that we were conquerors.

Then, loud fierce yells rose from the Dagombas and with one accord we
struggled to our feet. Each with his hand upon the shoulder of his
companion in front we moved cautiously forward, shooting now and then as
we went. But the reply to our fire was now spasmodic, and we were
convinced that only a few of the Arabs survived.

For some minutes we ceased the struggle and moved forward, but suddenly,
to our amazement, a long line of muskets again blazed forth upon us,
committing serious havoc in our ranks. We were victims of a ruse!

This aroused the anger of the Dagombas, who recommenced the fight with
almost demoniacal fierceness, and as the van of both forces struggled
hand-to-hand, we found ourselves slowly but surely gaining ground until
half an hour later we were standing upon the path where our enemies had
stood when they had attacked us, and of that long line of Samory's picked
fighting-men not a single survivor rema