as well
ride to the crest and see if I could get a shot at it on the further
side.

I reached the ridge, which was strewn with stones, looked over it, and
saw--a Zulu Impi!

I rubbed my eyes and looked again. Yes, there was no doubt of it. They
were halted about a thousand yards away, by the water; some were lying
down, some were cooking at fires, others were stalking about with spears
and shields in their hands; there might have been two thousand or
more of them in all. While I was wondering--and that with no little
uneasiness--what on earth they could be doing there, suddenly I heard a
wild cry to the right and left of me. I glanced first one way, then the
other. From either side a great Zulu was bearing down on me, their broad
stabbing assegais aloft, and black shields in their left hands. The man
to the right was about fifteen yards away, he to the left was not more
than ten. On they came, their fierce eyes almost starting out of their
heads, and I felt, with a cold thrill of fear, that in another three
seconds those broad "bangwans" might be buried in my vitals. On such
occasions we act, I suppose, more from instinct than from anything
else--there is no time for thought. At any rate, I dropped the reins
and, raising my gun, fired point blank at the left-hand man. The bullet
struck him in the middle of his shield, pierced it, and passed through
him, and over he rolled upon the veldt. I swung round in the saddle;
most happily my horse was accustomed to standing still when I fired from
his back, also he was so surprised that he did not know which way to
shy. The other savage was almost on me; his outstretched shield reached
the muzzle of my gun as I pulled the trigger of the left barrel. It
exploded, the warrior sprung high into the air, and fell against my
horse dead, his spear passing just in front of my face.

Without waiting to reload, or even to look if the main body of the Zulus
had seen the death of their two scouts, I turned my horse and drove
my heels into his sides. As soon as I was down the slope of the rise I
pulled a little to the right in order to intercept the waggons before
the Zulus saw them. I had not gone three hundred yards in this new
direction when, to my utter astonishment, I struck a trail marked with
waggon-wheels and the hoofs of oxen. Of waggons there must have been
at least eight, and several hundred cattle. Moreover, they had passed
within twelve hours; I could tell that by the spoor. T