Kadem agreed. 'But you must move swiftly. My uncle, the Caliph, is already engaged. You must drive your men hard to encircle the fort before any of the defenders can escape with the booty.'
The crew took in the sail, and the anchor went over side A cable's length beyond the first line of breakers the dhow settled quietly to ride the long swells running into the beach.
'And now, my old comrade in arms, it is time for us to part,' Kadem said, 'but always remember your promise to me, if you should be so fortunate as to capture al-Salil or his puppy.'
'Yes, I shall remember it well.' Koots smiled like a cobra. 'You want them for yourself. I swear, if it is within my power, I shall deliver them to you. For myself I want only Jim Courtney and his pretty wench.'
'Go with God!' Kadem said, and watched Koots go down into the crowded boat and head for the shore. A swarm of small craft followed him. As they approached the river mouth, the swells sent them swooping in over the sandbar that guarded it. As soon as they were into the protected water, the boats turned into the bank. From each one twenty men jumped over side into the waist-deep water and waded ashore, their weapons and packs held high.
They assembled in their platoons above the high-water mark and squatted in patient ranks. The empty boats returned to the anchored ships, the oarsmen driving them through the lines of waves at the river mouth. As soon as they were alongside the transports the next wave of men swarmed down into them from the high deck. As the boats ferried back and forth, and more and more men went ashore, the stretch of beach grew more crowded, but still none ventured into the thick jungle beyond.
Kadem watched through his telescope and began to fret. What is Koots doing? he wondered. Every minute now, the enemy will be rallying. He is throwing away his chances. Then he turned his head and listened. The distant sound of the bombardment had ceased and there was silence from the direction of the bay. What has happened to the
Caliph's attack? Surely he could not have overpowered the fort so swiftly- He looked back at the men on the beach. As for Koots, Kadem thought, he must move now. He cannot afford to waste more time.
Since he had landed, Koots had been able to form a better estimate of the kind of terrain that lay ahead of him, and had been most unpleasantly surprised. He had sent scouting parties into the bush to find the easiest way through, but they had still not returned. Now he was waiting anxiously at the edge of the jungle, thumping a clenched fist into the palm of the other hand with frustration. He understood as well as Kadem how dangerous it was to allow the momentum of his attack to dissipate, but on the other hand he dared not rush into the unknown.
Would it be better to take them along the beach? he wondered, and looked along the sweep of honey-brown sand. Then he glanced at his own feet. He was ankle-deep in it and the effort of walking even a few paces was demanding. Such a march under heavy packs would exhaust even the hardest of his men.
An hour past low tide, he estimated. Soon the tide will be in full flow. It will flood the sand and force us off it and into the bush.
While he still hesitated, one of the scouting parties pushed their way through the thick wall of vegetation and into the open. 'Where have you been?' Koots bellowed at the leader. 'Is there a way through?'
'It is very bad for three hundred yards. There is a deep swamp directly ahead. One of my men was taken by a crocodile. We tried to save him.'
'You idiot.' With his scabbard Koots struck the man across the side of the head, and he dropped to his knees in the sand. 'Is that what you have been doing all this time, trying to save another useless bastard like yourself? You should have let the crocodile have him. Did you find a path?'
The man came to his feet, swaying slightly and holding his injured face. 'Have no fear, Pasha effendi,' he mumbled. 'After the swamp there is a spur of dry ground that leads towards the south. There is an open path running along it, but it is narrow. It will take only three men abreast.'
'Any sign of the enemy?'
None, great Pasha, but there are many wild beasts.'
Lead us to the path at once, or I will find a crocodile for you also.'
' ' ' f we attack them now, we will sweep them with a single charge
I back into the sea whence they came,' said Beshwayo, fiercely. JL 'No, great king, that is not our purpose. There are still many more of them coming ashore. We want all of them,' said Jim, in a reasonable tone. 'Why kill a few of them when, if we wait awhile, we will kill them all?'
Beshwayo chuckled and shook his head so that the earrings Louisa had given him jangled. 'You are right, Somoya. I have many young warriors seeking the right to wed and I do not want to deprive them of that honour.'
Jim and Beshwayo had waited on the hills above the coast from where they had an uninterrupted view out to sea. They watched Zayn's fleet sail in and separate into two divisions. The five largest ships sailed into the bay, and the gunsmoke billowed up as they began to bombard the fort. It seemed that this was the signal for which the second, larger division had been waiting out at sea, for they immediately came directly in towards the mouth of the Umgeni river. Jim waited until they anchored close inshore. He watched them launch their boats, filled with men, and send them in towards the beach.
'Here is the meat I promised you, mighty black lion,' Jim told Beshwayo.
'Then let us go down to the feast, Somoya, for my belly growls with hunger.'
The imp is of young warriors poured down on to the flat lands of the littoral strip. Silently as a pride of panthers they moved into their forward positions. Jim and Beshwayo ran ahead of the leading impi to the lookout position. They climbed high into the branches of the tall wild fig tree they had chosen days before. Its twisted serpentine air-roots and branches formed a natural ladder, and the bunches of yellow fruit and dense foliage sprouted directly from the trunk to screen them effectively. From their perch in one of the main forks they had a view through the foliage along the entire sweep of the beach south of the river mouth.
Jim had his eye to his spyglass. Suddenly he exclaimed in astonishment, 'Sweet Mother Mary, if it's not Koots himself, all dressed up like a Mussulman grandee. No matter what his disguise, I would know that evil jib anywhere.'
He spoke in English, and Beshwayo scowled. 'Somoya, I do not understand what you say,' he rebuked Jim. 'Now that I have taught you
to speak the language of heaven, there is no reason for you still to jabber like a monkey in that strange tongue of yours.'
'Do you see that man on the beach down there in the headdress with the bright and shining band, the one closest to us? He is speaking to the other two. There! He has just struck one in the face.'
'I see him,' Beshwayo said. 'Not a good blow, for his victim is standing up again. Who is he, Somoya?'
'His name is Koots,' Jim answered grimly, 'my enemy to the death.'
Then I will leave him for you,' Beshwayo promised.
'Ah, it seems as though at last they have all their troops ashore, and that Koots has made up his mind to move.'
Even above the sound of the surf breaking on the sandbar, they could hear the Arab captains shouting their orders. The squatting ranks rose to their feet, hefting their weapons and packs. Quickly they formed up into columns and began to move into the bush and swamp. Jim tried to count them, but could not do so accurately. 'Over two hundred,' he decided.
Beshwayo whistled and two of his indunas climbed up to him swiftly. They wore the head-rings of their rank, their short beards were grizzled and their bare chests and arms carried the scars of many battles. Beshwayo gave them a rapid string of orders. To each they replied in unison, 'Yehbo, Nkosi Nkulul Yes, great king!'
'You have heard me,' Beshwayo told them. 'Now obey!'
Beshwayo dismissed them, and they slid down the trunk of the wild fig and disappeared into the undergrowth. Minutes later, Jim saw the surreptitious movements in the bush below as the regiments of Beshwayo warriors began to creep forward. They were well spread out, and even from above there was only the brief flash of oiled dark skin, or the glint of bare steel as they closed in quietly on each flank of the marching Omani columns.
A detachment of Turks in their bronze bowl-shaped helmets passed almost directly under the fig tree in which they sat, but they were so intent on finding their way through the matted bush that none looked up. Suddenly there was a commotion of grunts, breaking branches and splashing mud. A small herd of buffalo, disturbed in their mud wallows, burst out of the swamp and thundered away in a solid mass of black, mud-caked bodies and curved, gleaming horns, smashing a road through the forest. There was a scream and Jim saw the body of one of the Arabs tossed high as he was gored by the old cow buffalo that led the herd. Then they were gone.
A few of his companions gathered about the man's crushed body, but the captains yelled at them angrily. They left him lying where he had
fallen and went on. By this time the leading platoons had disappeared into the jungle, while the rear echelons were only just leaving the open beach and starting into the swamp.
Once they were into the bush, none of them was able to see further ahead than the man in front of him, and they followed each
