Volume 1, Chapter XV.

LOTUS-EATING ON THE ZAMBESI.

Startled from his deep sleep by the shout of the Amatongas, as they
leaped into the clearing, the soldier had sprung to his feet, and
possessing the faculty of instantly recovering his senses, when suddenly
awoke, he at once comprehended his situation. Shouting to Wyzinski to
join him, and whirling round his head the heavy knapsack held by the
straps, he struck down the foremost savage: a second shared the same
fate, but the leather straps broke with the blow. Springing on the
third, Hughes grappled with his adversary, clutching the chief Matumba,
for it was no other, fiercely by the throat--but he had met his match.

Matumba, short of stature, was yet a powerful man, and though partially
stunned by the fall, and his heavy knobstick having dropped from his
hands, he struggled manfully for life. The fire had been trampled out,
the light of the stars was very feeble, and the two rolled over and over
in the death struggle, none daring to meddle with them. A dozen dark,
naked forms moved round them; the long knives gleamed in the starlight,
but the Amatongas could not strike, so rapid were the movements of the
two struggling men. At last, Matumba's efforts seemed to grow weaker,
the deadly grip tightened on his throat, and as he lay under him, Hughes
buried his short dagger in the Amatonga's side. Casting the body from
him, with a superhuman effort, and without pausing for a moment, the
soldier dashed through the circle, the savages striking at him with
their knives.

Seizing his rifle as he fled, with one sweeping blow he drove back the
foremost of his pursuers, and shouting to Wyzinski to follow, plunged
into the bush. The ground ascended, the trees grew farther apart; he
was on the verge of the forest; but one of the long knives had wounded
him deeply in the left shoulder, and he was growing faint from loss of
blood. Pausing to listen, he distinctly heard the crashing of the
underwood. Was it Wyzinski following him? Listening attentively, he
could distinguish the same noise to the right and left, and he then knew
that the Amatongas, paralysed and astonished as they had been at first
by the desperate nature of the resistance, had spread themselves out,
and were bringing up the whole country before them on three sides, just
as they did when hunting antelope. On the fourth ran the Zambesi.
Moving rapidly forward, and determined to trust to the river rather