vanced, and was, fortunately for himself, not recognised by
them as being one of Oham's people. In the night he had slipped away.
He reported the Zulus 20,000 strong, a great portion of them being armed
with rifles.

Fortunately little preparation was necessary at Kambula. Nothing had
been left to chance here, and there was therefore no fear of a
repetition of the Isandula disaster. Each corps, each subdivision, each
section, and each man had his place allotted to him, and had been told
to be in that place at the sound of the bugle.

The little fort was in a strong position, laid out upon an elevated
narrow reach of table-land. A precipice, inaccessible to a white man,
guarded the right flank; on the left a succession of steep terraces had
been utilised and carefully intrenched, each successive line commanding
that below it. At one end there was a narrow slip of land swept by two
7-pounders. Immediately in the rear, upon an eminence 120 feet higher
than the fort, was a small work, armed with two guns. The camp
consisted of an outer defence of 100 waggons, and an inner one of
fifty--the whole protected by earthworks and ditches.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

KAMBULA.

Immediately Oham's Zulu had made his report, the bugle sounded, and the
garrison quietly and quickly took up the places assigned to them.
Messengers went out to order a fatigue-party, which had gone out
wood-cutting, to return at once. These men reported that they had seen
the Zulus scouting, about five miles to the west. The tents were
struck, the men lined the shelter-trenches, and ammunition was served
out by fatigue-parties told off for this duty. The white conductors and
commissariat men, most of whom were old settlers and good shots, were
told off to the different faces of the laager. A small party were
provided with stretchers, in order to carry the wounded to the hospital
in the centre.

Dick and Tom, having no duty and being without arms, thought that they
might as well make themselves useful at this work, and therefore, taking
a stretcher, they proceeded to one of the outer shelter-trenches.

It was nearly eleven o'clock when the Zulus were seen approaching, and
halted just out of musket-range. Here apparently a council of war was
held, and it was more than an hour before any forward movement was made.
Then a body of them, about 7000 strong, ran at a tremendous pace along
a ledge situated at the edge of the cultivated land. The troops