I
examined and estimated to number at least ten thousand men.

This army, the Amahagger captains informed me, was that of Rezu, who,
they said, intended to commence his attack at dawn on the following
morning, since the People of Rezu, being sun-worshippers, would never
fight until their god appeared above the horizon. Having studied all
there was to see I asked the captains to set out their plan of battle,
if they had a plan.

The chief of them answered that it was to advance halfway down the
right-hand ridge to a spot where there was a narrow flat piece of
ground, and there await attack, since at this place their smaller
numbers would not so much matter, whereas these made it impossible for
them to assail the enemy.

"But suppose that Rezu should choose to come up to the other ridge and
get behind you. What would happen then?" I inquired.

He replied that he did not know, his ideas of strategy being, it was
clear, of a primitive order.

"Do your people fight best at night or in the day?" I went on.

He said undoubtedly at night, indeed in all their history there was no
record of their having done so in the daytime.

"And yet you propose to let Rezu join battle with you when the sun is
high, or in other words to court defeat," I remarked.

Then I went aside and discussed things for a while with Umslopogaas and
Hans, after which I returned and gave my orders, declining all argument.
Briefly these were that in the dusk before the rising of the moon, our
Amahagger must advance down the right-hand ridge in complete silence,
and hide themselves among the scrub which I saw grew thickly near its
root. A small party, however, under the leadership of Goroko, whom I
knew to be a brave and clever captain, was to pass halfway down the
left-hand ridge and there light fires over a wide area, so as to make
the enemy think that our whole force had encamped there. Then at the
proper moment which I had not yet decided upon, we would attack the army
of Rezu.

The Amahagger captains did not seem pleased with this plan which I think
was too bold for their fancy, and began to murmur together. Seeing that
I must assert my authority at once, I walked up to them and said to
their chief man,

"Hearken, my friend. By your own wish, not mine, I have been appointed
your general and I expect to be obeyed without question. From the moment
that the advance begins you will keep close to me and to the Black One,
and if so much as one of yo