to be dealt with before the others could come back with the cattle
and take us in the rear.

Will brought another man down; I saw the blood splash on his forehead
as the bullet drilled the skull cleanly. Then one man shouted and they
all lay prone, beginning to crawl toward us with their shields held
before, not as protection against bullets (for as that they were
utterly worthless) but as cover that made their exact position merest
guesswork.

I fell back and took position on the ant-hill from which I had first
seen them, thus making our position triangular and giving myself a
chance to protect the other two should they feel forced to retire. The
extra height also gave me a distinct advantage, for I could see the
legs of the Masai over the tops of their shields, and was able to wound
more than one of them so severely that they crawled to the rear.

But the rest came on. Kazimoto began to be busy supplying cartridges.
In that first real pinch we were in he certainly lived up to all
Courtney had said of him, for without the stimulus of his proper
master's eye he neither flinched nor faltered, but crawled from one to
the other, dividing the spare rounds equally.

The Masai began to attempt to outflank us, but my position on the
ant-hill to the rear made that impossible; they found themselves faced
by a side of the triangle from whichever side they attacked. But in
turning to keep an eye on the flank I became aware of a greater danger.
The cattle were coming back. That meant that the other Masai were
coming, too, and that in a few moments we were likely to be
overwhelmed. I shouted to Will and Brown, but either they did not hear
me, or did not have time to answer.

I fired half a dozen shots, and then distinctly heard the crack of a
rifle from beyond the cattle. That gave matters the worst turn yet.
If one of the raiders had a rifle, then unless I could spot him at once
and put him out of action our cause was likely lost. I stood up to
look for him and heard a wild cheer, followed by three more shots in
quick succession. Then at last I saw Fred Oakes running along a
depression in the ground, followed at a considerable distance by the
advance-guard of his porters. He was running, and then kneeling to
fire--running, and kneeling again. And he was not wasting ammunition.
He was much the best shot of us all, now that Monty was absent.

The terrified cattle stampeded past us, too wild to be cheeked by any
nois