ball of the pistol might only wound and not kill cleanly. There was no latitude for error here. He had seen the warrior throw aside his shield. He jerked the naval cutlass from its scabbard. Under the eye of Aboli and his father he had practised with this weapon until he mastered the Manual of Arms. He did not brandish the blade to warn his man. He charged Drumfire straight at the Nguni, and saw him check and change his grip on the assegai. His dark eyes locked on Jim's face. Jim knew by his haughty expression that he would not deign to wound the horse under him, but would take him on man to man. He watched for the assegai thrust, leaning forward to meet it. The Nguni struck, and Jim dropped the cutlass into the classic counter, sweeping aside the point of the assegai, then reversed and, as he passed, he swung the cutlass back-handed. Smallboy had put a fine edge on the steel and it was sharp as a butcher's cleaver. Jim swept it across the back of the warrior's neck, and felt the hilt jar in his hand as it sheared cleanly through his vertebrae. The man dropped as though a gal low trap had opened under him.
At the pressure of his knees Drumfire spun round like a weathercock in a fluke of wind. He saw that Louisa was having difficulty trying to mount Trueheart. The mare had smelt the Nguni and seen the ranks
racing towards them. She was skittering sideways and throwing her head wildly. Holding on to the reins Louisa was being pulled off her feet.
Jim sheathed the bloody cutlass, and turned Drumfire in behind her. Leaning from the saddle he grabbed a handful of the baggy seat of her breeches and boosted her up into the saddle. Then he steadied her with a hand on her arm as they galloped back knee to knee. As soon as they were clear he drew his pistol and fired a shot into the air, to alert the sentries at the laager. As soon as he saw that they had heard it, he told Louisa, 'Ride back! Warn them to get the animals into the laager. Send Bakkat and Smallboy to help me delay them.'
To his relief she had the good sense not to argue, and raced away, pushing Trueheart to the top of her speed. He turned back to face the charging warriors, drew the musket from its sheath and walked Drumfire towards them. He picked out the and una in the front rank who was leading them. Tegwane had told him how to recognize the captains. 'They are always older men, and they wear ostrich plumes in their headdress and white cow tails on their arms.'
He touched Drumfire with his toes and broke into a trot, heading directly for the and una By now the Nguni must have understood the terrible menace of the firearms, but the man showed no fear: he increased the speed of his charge, and lifted his shield to clear his spear arm, his face twisted with the ferocity of his war-cry.
'Bulalal Kill! Kill!' Behind him his men surged forward. Jim let him come in close, then fired. Still at full run the and una went down, the assegai flew from his hand and he rolled in the grass. The spread of shot caught the two men directly behind him, and sent them tumbling too.
An angry roar went up from the black mass of the impi to see their captain and their comrades shot down, but Jim had wheeled away and was already galloping back to reload. The Nguni could not keep up the pace, and they slowed to a trot. But still they came on.
With the musket reloaded, Jim mounted again and rode to meet them. He wondered how many there were in that dark mass, but it was impossible to guess. He crossed their front at less than twenty paces and fired into them. He saw men stumble and fall, but their comrades swept over them so their bodies were hidden almost immediately. This time there was no angry shout to acknowledge the damage he had inflicted.
The impi slowed to a smooth, swinging trot, and began to sing. The deep African voices were beautiful, but the sound made the hair rise on the back of Jim's neck, and seemed to reverberate deep in his guts. They moved inexorably towards the fortified walls of the laager.
As Jim finished reloading again, he heard the sound of hoofs and
looked up to see Bakkat and Louisa leading Zama and the other drivers out through the gateway between the wagons.
'Lord give me strength! I meant her to stay safely in the laager,' he muttered, but then he made the best of it. As she rode up and handed him his second musket, he said, The same drill as before, Hedgehog. You take command of the second section, Zama, Bakkat and Muntu with you. Smallboy and Klaas with me.'
He led his section in, right under the assegais of the front rank of warriors, and they fired the first guns, then changed, came back and fired the second volley before breaking off and galloping back with empty guns.
Tick out the indunas,' Jim called, 'kill their captains,' as Louisa led her section forward. Again and again the two sections changed places smoothly, and the steady volleys never faltered. Jim saw with grim satisfaction that most of the indunas at the front of the attack had fallen under the onslaught.
The Nguni wilted before this fearsome unrelenting attack. Their pace slowed, the singing sank away to an angry, frustrated hissing. At last they stopped only three hundred paces short of the laager. The horsemen kept up the steady attack.
Jim rode in once again at the head of his section, and saw the change. Some of the warriors in the front rank lowered their shields and glanced behind them. Jim and his men fired a volley with their first guns, then turned and rode back along the front with their second guns at the ready. The headdresses waved, the feathers fluttered like the wind in the grass. The next volley crashed into them, and the lead-shot clapped into living flesh. Men reeled and fell.
The echoes of the volley were still booming back from the hills when Louisa galloped forward with Zama, Bakkat and Muntu close behind her. The front rank of the Nguni saw them coming and broke. They turned back and shoved with their shields into the men behind them shouting, 'Emuval Back, go back!' but those behind shouted, 'Shikelelal Forward! Push forward!'
The entire impi wavered, swaying back and forth, men struggling, their shields tangling and blocking each other's spear arms. Louisa and her men charged in close and they fired a rolling volley into the struggling mass. A groan of despair went up and the rear rank gave way. They turned and streamed back across the grassland, leaving their dead and wounded lying where they had fallen, their shields, spears and kernes strewn about them. Louisa's party galloped after them, firing their second guns into the ruck.
Jim saw the danger of them being drawn into a trap, and raced after them. Drumfire swiftly overhauled them. 'Stop! Break off the chase!' Louisa obeyed at once and called off her men. All of them rode back. As soon as they were safely into the laager, a span of oxen dragged the faggots of thornbush into the gap in the defences to seal it off.
It seemed impossible that such a mass of humanity could disappear so swiftly, but by the time the gate was secured the impi were gone, and the only signs of the fighting were the dead and the trampled, bloodstained grass in front of the laager.
'We hurt them grievously. Will they come back?' Louisa asked anxiously.
'As surely as the sun will set and rise again tomorrow,' Jim said grimly, and nodded to where it was already sinking towards the horizon. 'That was probably only the scouting party, sent by Manatasee to test our mettle.'
He called for Tegwane, and the old man came at once, trying not to favour his wounds. 'The impi were lying up close to the laager. If Welanga had not come across them, they would have waited for nightfall to attack us. You were wrong, old man. They do fight at night.'
'Only the Kulu Kulu is never wrong,' Tegwane answered, with an unconvincing attempt at nonchalance,
'You can redeem yourself,' Jim told him sternly.
'I will do whatever you say.' Tegwane nodded.
'Some of the Nguni are not dead. As we rode back, I saw at least one still moving. Go out with Bakkat to guard you. Find one of the Nguni who still lives. I want to know the whereabouts of their queen. I also want to know where their baggage train is camped, the cattle and the ivory.'
Tegwane nodded, and loosened his skinning knife in its sheath. Jim was about to order him to leave his knife in the laager, but then he remembered the women and children of the old man's tribe, and the manner of their deaths.
'Go at once, great chief. Go before the coming of darkness and before the hyena find the wounded Nguni.' Then he turned to Bakkat. 'Have your musket ready. Never trust a Nguni, especially a dead one.'
Three times Jim looked up from inspecting the defences of the laager at the sound of Bakkat's musket booming out across the battlefield. He knew that the little Bushman was finishing off the wounded enemy. Just as the light was fading, Bakkat and Tegwane returned to the laager. Both were carrying assegais and looted ivory ornaments. Tegwane had fresh blood on his hands.
'I spoke to a wounded and una before he died. You were right. This
was only a scouting party. However, Manatasee is very close, with the rest of her imp is and the cattle. She will be here within two days.'
'What did you do with the man who told you this?'
'I recognized him,' Tegwane replied. 'He was the one who led the first attack on our village. Two of my sons died that day.' Tegwane was silent for a while, then smiled thinly. 'It would have been heartless to leave a fine warrior, such as he was, to the hyenas. I am a man of compassion.'
A;r dinner, the drivers and other servants drifted across from their fires and gathered at a respectful distance around Jim and Louisa. The drivers smoked their
