dead tree. They said--

"All right, give your orders."

We crawled along the ground for some distance, till we were concealed by
a portion of the bush; we then rose and ran along the edge of the bush,
but we did not run very fast, for I was afraid that my companions would
get out of breath before the real race began. When we had gone some
distance near the bush, I found that, to go in the direction of our
boats, we must now move in the open country. I told my companions of my
plan, and said that we could move no faster than the slowest runner
among them. I saw that one of the officers, who was rather stout, was
already out of breath, and I feared that we should find it hard work
reaching our boat before the Zulus were upon us. When we struck off
into the open plain I looked round, and then knew that the Zulus must
have seen us from the first, as they were coming on at a run, which,
although not very fast, had yet enabled them to decrease the distance
between them and us.

"Now do your best," I said, and we commenced our run.

The Zulus uttered a shout, as they now saw us plainly, and several of
their fastest runners advanced in front of the main body. I now carried
two guns of the officers that they might get on the more easily, but
found that our pursuers were gaining rapidly on us.

When we were within a short distance of the boat, about twenty Zulus
were nearly within an assagy's-throw of us. I said to the officers,
"Run to the boat: I will stop the Zulus." The officers ran on whilst I
stopped, and, dropping one of the guns, aimed with the other at the
leading Zulu. The man dodged about as I aimed, but my bullet struck
him, and he fell to the ground; with the second barrel I hit another
Zulu, and then the other men dropped on the ground to conceal
themselves. Picking up the gun I had dropped, I darted off to the boat,
into which the officers had embarked, and jumped into it, telling them
to push off at once. The water for some distance was shallow, and
before we could get into deep water, about a hundred Zulus dashed in,
and were hurling their assagies at us. We fired at these men, whilst
the four sailors in the boat rowed as fast as they could; and as the
water became deeper, we could move faster than the Zulus, and so were
soon beyond the range of their assagies.

The Zulus, on finding they could not reach us, instantly left the water
and concealed themselves in the bush, in order to avoid our bu