about ten feet high.
It was therefore easy enough to count the stakes, but owing to the dense
crowd which surrounded them it was exceedingly difficult to distinguish
whether or not anything, or anybody, was attached to them. But I found
no difficulty in arriving at a tolerably accurate surmise as to the
purpose of these stakes, for four of them were charred quite black, as
though by the action of fire, while a thin wreath of pale brownish-blue
smoke still eddied and circled about one of the four. The tone of the
chant now being sung by the savages was very different from that which
had reached our ears while in the open river; it was more subdued, and
did not convey that suggestion of savage exultation that had been the
dominant note of the other, and I also now noticed that the deafening
clamour of horns and thumping of tom-toms had ceased. The idea conveyed
to my mind was that one act in a drama of absorbing interest had closed
and that another was about to open. But I had no time for further
observation, as the general now came up with the men, and we at once
proceeded to make our final arrangements for an instant attack.

"Now, lads," said I, "you see those hundreds of dancing savages. I want
you to plant your rockets in such a manner that they will rake through
the whole crowd; and if they should finish up by setting fire to the
huts, so much the better. Fire the rockets, one after another, as
rapidly as possible, and the moment that the last rocket has been fired
we will spring out into the open and make a dash for those posts, to
which I believe we shall find the missing men secured. Use your
cutlasses as freely as may be needful, but reserve your pistols for an
emergency. Then, having cut our men loose, we must all retire in a body
to the boat, and get out of the creek as quickly as possible. Now, are
you all ready? Then begin to fire the rockets."

With a preliminary sizzle, and a strong odour of burning powder, the
twelve rockets tore, weirdly screaming, in rapid succession, out of the
clump of bush into the thick of the crowd of dancing savages,
ricochetting hither and thither as they encountered some obstacle,
scattering showers of fire in every direction, and finally exploding
with a loud report many of them having previously embedded themselves in
the dry thatch of the huts. The effect of the discharge was tremendous
and cumulative! As the first rocket plunged into the throng a sudden
silence