ting the
plaster wail, but no one was hit. Those within had already flown to the
windows, and were returning the fire with a will. Several were seen to
fall. The rest dropped down into cover again. Clearly they had no
stomach for charging that determined few under cover.

"That's all right," said Jekyll. "This is all part of the scheme.
These jokers have got on their war-gear. The first lot were an advance
guard. I say, Selwyn, where would you and I have been now but for our
friend here giving us the office? We'd have been quietly knocked on the
head--eh?"

"We'd have had no show at all," replied the assistant, who was brimful
of pluck and beginning to enjoy the fight. But Jekyll, and two or three
others, who were alive to the gravity of the situation, failed to
discover an enjoyable side thereto.

The Matabele were evidently in sufficient force to render them
over-confident, and, indeed, they were hardly careful to remain under
shelter. Squads of twenty and thirty could be seen pouring in to swell
the already formidable number, glancing through the bush and long grass,
all in war-gear, with flowing tufts of red or white cowtail, and wearing
the _isiqoba_, or ball of feathers, on the forehead. Warriors, defying
fate, would spring up, and go through the performance known as "_gwaza_"
making a series of quick leaps in the air, shouting the most
bloodcurdling promises with regard to their enemies, and darting stabs,
lightning-like, this way and that, as though in hand-to-hand conflict
with an imaginary foe. At these the besieged whites, acting on the
advice of the more experienced, forebore to fire. The mark was a very
uncertain one, and there was not much to be gained by picking off two or
three of these boasters. Ammunition was not plentiful. In fact, there
was every chance of it giving out.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE LONG NIGHT THROUGH.

"Stand by, now. Here they come," warned Jekyll. "Not too soon, and
fire low."

For the line of bush was alive with gleaming forms, as fully a hundred
warriors darted out, making straight for the store; not in a compact
body, but in a scattered line; not erect and in bounds and leaps, but
bent low and crouching behind their shields. The while those in the
background now opened a tremendous fire upon the building. Fortunately,
however, most of the missiles flew high.

Those within, crouching too, with their heads just above the sills of
the windows, waited a