h more reckless
bravery; but the position was too strong for them, and at last, after
upwards of a thousand of the assailants had fallen, the attack was given
up, and the Dahomans retired from the wall followed by the exulting
shouts of the men of Abeokuta.

The loss of the defenders was small. Some ten or twelve had been killed
with slugs. Three or four times that number were more or less severely
wounded about the head or shoulders with the same missiles. Frank had a
nasty cut on the cheek, and Firewater and Bacon were both streaming with
blood.

There was no chance of a renewal of the attack that day. Sentries were
placed on the walls, and a grand thanksgiving service was held in the
open space in the center of the town which the whole populace attended.

"What will be their next move, do you think?" Frank asked Mr.
Goodenough.

"I cannot say," Mr. Goodenough said; "but these people know something
of warfare, and finding that they cannot carry the place by assault,
I think you will find that they will try some more cautious move next
time."

For two days there was no renewal of the attack. At Mr. Goodenough's
suggestion the Abeokutans on the wall shouted out that the Dahomans
might come and carry off their dead, as he feared that a pestilence
might arise from so great a number of decomposing bodies at the foot
of the wall. The Dahomans paid no attention to the request, and, at Mr.
Goodenough's suggestion, on the second day the whole populace set to
work carrying earth in baskets to the top of the wall, and throwing this
over so as to cover the mass of bodies at its foot. As to those lying
farther off nothing could be done. On the third morning it was seen that
during the night a large number of sacks had been piled in a line upon
the ground, two hundred yards away from the wall. The pile was eight
feet in height and some fifty yards long.

"I thought they were up to something," Mr. Goodenough said. "They have
been sending back to Dahomey for sacks."

In a short time the enemy brought up their cannon, behind the shelter
of the sacks, regardless of the execution done by the rifles of Mr.
Goodenough's party during the movement. The place chosen was two or
three hundred yards to the left of that on which the former attack had
been made. Then a swarm of men set to work removing some of the sacks,
and in a short time twelve rough embrasures were made just wide enough
for the muzzles of the guns, the sacks removed