dozen huts every building comprising the
kraal was reduced to a heap of charred wood and ashes, from which smoke
was rising sullenly in the still air. The stockade adjoining had
shared the same fate, and had it not been for the earthworks
constructed during the night the rear of the defences would have been
completely open to direct rifle fire. At present the heat of the
smouldering embers was too great to allow any attempt to procure water
from the well that was situated almost in the centre of the kraal,
close to the site of the headman's hut.

The captured machine gun was still under cover, ready to be rushed to
any point where an attack might develop, but the trouble that
confronted the team was the fact that the water in the jacket had
evaporated and no more was at present procurable. The supply of rifle
ammunition, too, was running perilously short. In view of the
liability of the machine gun to jam after a few rounds, Wilmshurst
would have had no hesitation in using the cartridges from the belt had
the gun been a Maxim. But here he was beaten, for the difference in
British and German small-arms ammunition makes an interchange
impossible.

The next best thing was to arrange existing stocks, so that a few
troopers had plenty of .303 ammunition. The others, supplying
themselves with rifles and cartridges taken from the hundreds of German
dead, were then in a position to give a good account of themselves
should the enemy again attack at close quarters.

Having completed his present duties Wilmshurst made his way to the hut
where Bela Moshi had been taken after his wound had been dressed. The
building, consisting of bamboo walls and palm-leaf thatch, had been
converted into a hospital and made bullet proof by piling up earth
against the sides to a height of about six feet. Above that the
bamboos and the roof were riddled with bullets, making it a hazardous
business for any one to stand upright.

In the limited space were two Rhodesians suffering from gunshot wounds.
Almost every other man of the patrol had been hit, but one and all made
light of their injuries, and after receiving attention had resumed
their places in the defence. Over thirty villagers had been badly
wounded, but these were receiving the attention of their fellows,
since, for some unexplained reason, they were reluctant to have their
wounds dressed by their white allies.

"Going on famously, sir," announced the Rhodesian corporal, who,