and emptied the magazine, firing at the Maxim.
Immediately the flashes grew brighter as it came questing back to find
him, and around Sean's head the air was filled with the swishing crack
of a hundred whips.
Sean ducked down while he reloaded, then stood up again to shoot.
'You bastards,' he shouted at them, and his voice must have carried for
now the riflemen up there were helping the Maxim to search him out.
They were getting very close.
Sean crouched down once more, and beside him Saul was firing also.
'Where did you get the rifle?'
'I went back for it.' Saul punctuated his reply with gunfire and Sean
gritmed as his fingers fumbled with the reload. 'You're going to get
hurt one day, ' he said.
'You taught me how to go about it, ' Saul retorted.
Once more Sean emptied his magazine to no effect, except that the
recoil of the rifle invoked the old high madness in him.
It needed only Mbejane's voice beside him to trigger it completely.
'Where the hell. have you been?' Sean demanded.
'My spears were lost. I spent much time finding them in the darkness.
' Sean was silent for a moment while he peered up at the ridge.
Out of the left there was a gap in the line of riflemen where a narrow
don ga ran through them and down towards the railway.
A small party might be able to go up that gully and pass through the
rear of the Boer firing-line. From there the solitary Maxim on the
ridge would be very vulnerable.
'Bring your spears, Mbejane.
'Where are you going?' Saul asked.
'I'm going to try for that machine-gun. Stay here and keep these
gentlemen's minds on other things.
Sean started off along the train towards the outlet of the don ga
He covered fifty yards before he realized that not only MbeJane but
Saul was with him.
'Where do you think you're going?'
'With YOU' The hell you are!
'Watch me. ' There was that peculiar note of obstinacy in Saul's voice
that Sean had come to recognize, and there was no time to argue.
He ran on until he was opposite the don ga where again he sought
shelter in the lee of an overturned coach while he made his final
assessment of the position.
The don ga looked narrow but deep, and the scrub-bush that filled it
would give them cover to the top where there was a definite gap in the
Boer line.
'It'll do, ' he decided aloud, and then to the other two,
'I'll go first, then you follow me, Saul, and watch those big feet of
yours!
He was vaguely aware that some show of resistance was being organized
among the survivors of the wreck. He could hear the officers rallying
them and now a hundred rifles were returning the Boer fire.
'All right. I'm off.' Sean stood up. 'Follow me as soon as I get
across. ' At that moment a new voice hailed them. 'What are you men
