Every one of them
fixed his eye on an enemy, and went straight at him. Every soldier
found himself with two or three opponents, and, instead of pressing on
into the earthwork, had enough to do to hold his ground.

The cool, brave man, who made sure of getting rid of one with a steady
shot a few yards off, and then plied his bayonet till he got a moment's
pause to re-load, came off well; the flurried soldier, who was not quite
sure whether to stand or retire, who missed or only wounded his man, and
then stood strictly on the defensive, was most likely overpowered and
speared.

The greater the daring the greater was the safety, and _vice versa_.
But brave or timid, the men who had rushed out of the ranks to attack
were borne back by the sheer weight of numbers. The Soudanese, however,
never got through the gap that was left. The Marines inside the square
promptly presented themselves as a second barrier, till the attackers,
retiring in good order, fell back into their places again.

But there was some hard fighting at the point for a minute or two. Good
old-fashioned cut and thrust, hammer and tongs, like cutting out a ship.
Tom Strachan found himself, he did not know how, with the hilt of his
sword right up against a Soudanese breast-bone, the weapon having passed
right through the man's body. But there was no expression of pain in
the dying face so close to his own, only hate and defiance. He was
killed, not conquered.

Before he could disencumber himself from the body another Hadendowa
rushed at him with uplifted spear. Tom levelled his pistol at him, and
pressed the trigger; but the weapon did not explode. He had already
fired all the barrels.

Another second and the spear-head would have been buried in his throat,
but suddenly the Arab's arm dropped, nearly severed by a cut from Green,
which caught him between wrist and elbow. The wounded man caught his
spear with the left hand, and strove to stab, but before he had time he
got the point in his throat, and that stopped him.

At this time Private Gubbins had a narrow escape. He fired at an Arab,
about twenty yards off, and hit him hard, but he came on at him all the
same, trying to spear him. Gubbins thrust at him with his bayonet, but
perhaps rather timidly; anyhow he missed his body, though he wounded him
again in the shoulder, and with that, and parrying, knocked the spear
out of his hand. Whereupon the Soudanese caught hold of the bayonet and
t