udley anxiously.

"Not to my knowledge," replied his brother.

"Thank heaven for that!" rejoined the subaltern fervently. "Well, how
do you feel?"

"Able to use a rifle," answered Rupert grimly.

A heavy hostile fire was being maintained from three sides, the bullets
either flying high--one of the characteristic faults of African native
troops--or else knocking splinters from the timbers forming the
palisade. The defenders, lying close, made no attempt to reply, for
the attackers were adept at taking cover and offered no target to the
former's fire. Presently, as Rupert Wilmshurst had predicted, came the
rat-tat-tat of a machine gun, and a swathe of bullets traversed the
open ground in front of the defences, rising until the hail of nickel
simply cut a gap in the palisade like a scythe against the ripe corn.

Between the huts some villagers engaged in driving their goats to a
more secure spot came under the machine-gun fire, two men being killed
and four wounded, the herd suffering severely; but these were the only
casualties, the defenders, both white and black, keeping admirable
cover.

For a quarter of an hour the one-sided action was maintained, then
still under the covering fire of the machine gun a battalion of Askaris
advanced at the double in company formation _en echelon_.
Simultaneously a half-battalion debouched on the opposite side of the
kraal.

Until the stormers came within four hundred yards their advance was
covered by the machine guns (for another had joined in the fray), and
consequently the scanty defenders dare not risk exposure; but the
moment the covering fire had to cease lest it should cause casualties
amongst the advancing troops the Rhodesians opened rapid fire at almost
point blank range.

The front attack stopped dead, the Askaris in open order falling in
heaps before the accurate fire of the trained Rhodesians. Despite the
efforts of their officers to advance the native troops refused to
stand. Bolting they were followed by galling volleys until the
resumption of the deadly machine-fire compelled the defenders to take
cover.

The rear attack was a more formidable affair, in spite of the fact that
the enemy force was considerably smaller than that of the frontal
assault. Met by fewer rifles, for only a mere handful of white men
could be told off on that side of the kraal, the Askaris contrived to
reach the palisade. It was here that the native auxiliaries proved
their wor