nd another column upon a great chief named Wedza, who lived with his
warriors in a mountain consisting of six rocky peaks ranging from
eight hundred to a thousand feet high. On the top of these peaks were
perched the kraals, while the mountain itself, nearly three miles
long, resembled nothing so much as a rabbit-warren, being a network of
caves held by the burrowing rebels. Wedza's stronghold was steep, and
its sides were strewn with bush and boulders; only by narrow and
difficult paths was it accessible, and these paths had been fortified
by the Matabele with stockades and breastworks. This important and
well-nigh impregnable stronghold was held by something like sixteen
hundred Matabele--six or seven hundred of whom were real fighting men.
Baden-Powell, nevertheless, drew up his plan for the attack, and sat
down to wait for the other column which was to act with him. That
column never came; only a letter arrived by runner saying that it
would be unable to join in the attack after all. "The only thing we
could do," says Baden-Powell, "was to try and bluff the enemy out of
the place."

So he arranged to win the battle by cunning of the brain. Sending
five-and-twenty men to climb a hill which commanded a part of the
stronghold, with instructions to act as if they were two hundred and
fifty, and giving small parties of Hussars similar instructions
regarding the left flank and rear of the enemy, Baden-Powell got his
artillery ready to bombard the central position. Just as the
five-and-twenty reached the summit of their hill, however, they were
observed by the enemy and instantly fired upon. From hilltop to
hilltop rang the call to arms, and B.-P. watched through his telescope
the yelling savages rushing with their rifles and assegais to massacre
his gallant little force of five-and-twenty men under a lieutenant. To
create a diversion, Baden-Powell galloped off with seven men to the
left rear of the stronghold, crossing a river on the way, and opened
fire upon a village on the side of the mountain. By continually moving
about in the grass and using magazine fire, B.-P. with his seven men
gave the enemy the impression that he had a large army there, and soon
the strain was taken off the five-and-twenty on the hilltop. Then
Hussars and Artillery joined the five-and-twenty, while a 7-pounder
flung deadly shells at every important point of the mountain. Soon
after this the enemy made a backward move, and the lieutenant on the