ng tone--

"_Hau! Ibomvu_!"

And the shout ran through the whole crowd.

"_Ibomvu_!" roared the men. "_Yau_! _Ibomvu_!" shrilled the women in
the background.

I have said something as to the effect produced upon our comrade by any
allusion to his flaming poll. It seemed to drive him quite mad. It
mattered not that it was uttered by one man or a thousand, the effect
upon him was just the same, and this held good here. In less than a
second he had put his horse straight at the original offender, and with
a tough seacow-hide sjambok which dangled from his wrist was cutting
into that astonished and ill-advised ruffian with the fury of a madman.
On head and face and naked shoulders the terrible lash descended, and
the lightning-like celerity of the attack was such as to leave neither
time nor thought for resistance--the victim's one idea--if he had even
one--being to escape from that awful lash, while those around, appalled
by the white, infuriated countenance, and the frenzied plunging of the
horse, gave way, though not before several of them had tasted the
infliction; for Revell cut impartially right and left as though he were
hewing his way through with a sabre. And in effect this is just what he
might have been doing, for the crowd on that side opened out in wildest
confusion, of which we took advantage, and in less than a minute were a
couple of hundred yards from the spot.

And now a terrific hubbub arose in our rear. A glance over our
shoulders showed the crowd roaring forward on our track, while among
others who had dived into the huts to arm, we could see the bright gleam
of assegais.

"Face round," cried Brian, "and aim, but for your lives don't fire. If
we can't scare them to a halt we must turn and run. But--no shooting."

We wrenched our horses round. The roaring, surging rush of oncoming
savages poured forward, then stopped. Four gun barrels sending forth
their contents into the thick of the mob would create awful havoc, and
there were four more in reserve, for we each had double barrels.
Besides, they knew we could gallop out of reach at no loss to ourselves.
So they halted, brandishing sticks and assegais, and howling out every
kind of taunting and abusive epithet.

"_Ibomvu_! _Yau_! _Ibomvu_!" yelled Revell, in return, making his
sjambok whistle through the air as he flourished it round his head.
"Come on, all of you, and taste this. I'll cut the whole lot of you to
thongs! I'll sho