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_ As may be imagined, at the very first sign of a Masai the entire
population of the Mission Station had sought refuge inside the
stout stone wall, and were now to be seen--men, women, and
countless children--huddled up together in little groups, and all
talking at once in awed tones of the awfulness of Masai manners
and customs, and of the fate that they had to expect if those
bloodthirsty savages succeeded in getting over the stone wall.
Immediately after we had settled upon the outline of our plan of
action as suggested by Umslopogaas, Mr Mackenzie sent for four
sharp boys of from twelve to fifteen years of age, and despatched
them to various points where they could keep an outlook upon the
Masai camp, with others to report from time to time what was
going on. Other lads and even women were stationed at intervals
along the wall in order to guard against the possibility of
surprise.
After this the twenty men who formed his whole available fighting
force were summoned by our host into the square formed by the
house, and there, standing by the bole of the great conifer, he
earnestly addressed them and our four Askari. Indeed, it formed
a very impressive scene--one not likely to be forgotten by
anybody who witnessed it. Immediately by the tree stood the
angular form of Mr Mackenzie, one arm outstretched as he talked,
and the other resting against the giant bole, his hat off, and
his plain but kindly face clearly betraying the anguish of his
mind. Next to him was his poor wife, who, seated on a chair, had
her face hidden in her hand. On the other side of her was
Alphonse, looking exceedingly uncomfortable, and behind him stood
the three of us, with Umslopogaas' grim and towering form in the
background, resting, as usual, on his axe. In front stood and
squatted the group of armed men--some with rifles in their hands,
and others with spears and shields--following with eager
attention every word that fell from the speaker's lips. The
white light of the moon peering in beneath the lofty boughs threw
a strange wild glamour over the scene, whilst the melancholy
soughing of the night wind passing through the millions of pine
needles overhead added a sadness of its own to what was already a
sufficiently tragic occasion.
'Men,' said Mr Mackenzie, after he had put all the circumstances
of the case fully and clearly before them, and explained to them
the proposed plan of our forlorn hope--'men, for years I have
been a good friend to you, protecting you, teaching you, guarding
you and yours from harm, and ye have prospered with me. Ye have
seen my child--the Water-lily, as ye call her--grow year by year,
from tenderest infancy to tender childhood, and from childhood on
towards maidenhood. She has been your children's playmate, she
has helped to tend you when sick, and ye have loved her.'
'We have,' said a deep voice, 'and we will die to save her.'
'I thank you from my heart--I thank you. Sure am I that now, in
this hour of darkest trouble; now that her young life is like to
be cut off by cruel and savage men--who of a truth "know not what
they do"--ye will strive your best to save her, and to save me
and her mother from broken hearts. Think, too, of your own wives
and children. If she dies, her death will be followed by an
attack upon us here, and at the best, even if we hold our own,
your houses and gardens will be destroyed, and your goods and
cattle swept away. I am, as ye well know, a man of peace. Never
in all these years have I lifted my hand to shed man's blood; but
now I say strike, strike, in the name of God, Who bade us protect
our lives and homes. Swear to me,' he went on with added
fervour--'swear to me that whilst a man of you remains alive ye
will strive your uttermost with me and with these brave white men
to save the child from a bloody and cruel death.'
'Say no more, my father,' said the same deep voice, that belonged
to a stalwart elder of the Mission; 'we swear it. May we and
ours die the death of dogs, and our bones be thrown to the
jackals and the kites, if we break the oath! It is a fearful
thing to do, my father, so few to strike at so many, yet will we
do it or die in the doing. We swear!'
'Ay, thus say we all,' chimed in the others.
'Thus say we all,' said I.
'It is well,' went on Mr Mackenzie. 'Ye are true men and not
broken reeds to lean on. And now, friends--white and black
together--let us kneel and offer up our humble supplication to
the Throne of Power, praying that He in the hollow of Whose hand
lie all our lives, Who giveth life and giveth death, may be
pleased to make strong our arms that we may prevail in what
awaits us at the morning's light.'
And he knelt down, an example that we all followed except
Umslopogaas, who still stood in the background, grimly leaning on
Inkosi-kaas. The fierce old Zulu had no gods and worshipped
nought, unless it were his battleaxe.
'Oh God of gods!' began the clergyman, his deep voice, tremulous
with emotion, echoing up in the silence even to the leafy roof;
'Protector of the oppressed, Refuge of those in danger, Guardian
of the helpless, hear Thou our prayer! Almighty Father, to Thee
we come in supplication. Hear Thou our prayer! Behold, one
child hast Thou given us--an innocent child, nurtured in Thy
knowledge--and now she lies beneath the shadow of the sword, in
danger of a fearful death at the hands of savage men. Be with
her now, oh God, and comfort her! Save her, oh Heavenly Father!
Oh God of battle, Who teacheth our hands to war and our fingers
to fight, in Whose strength are hid the destinies of men, be Thou
with us in the hour of strife. When we go forth into the shadow
of death, make Thou us strong to conquer. Breathe Thou upon our
foes and scatter them; turn Thou their strength to water, and
bring their high-blown pride to nought; compass us about with Thy
protection; throw over us the shield of Thy power; forget us not
now in the hour of our sore distress; help us now that the cruel
man would dash our little ones against the stones! Hear Thou our
prayer! And for those of us who, kneeling now on earth in health
before Thee, shall at the sunrise adore Thy Presence on the
Throne, hear our prayer! Make them clean, oh God; wash away
their offences in the blood of the Lamb; and when their spirits
pass, oh receive Thou them into the haven of the just. Go forth,
oh Father, go forth with us into the battle, as with the
Israelites of old. Oh God of battle, hear Thou our prayer!'
He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and then
began our preparations in good earnest. As Umslopogaas said, it
was time to stop 'talking' and get to business. The men who were
to form each little party were carefully selected, and still more
carefully and minutely instructed as to what was to be done.
After much consideration it was agreed that the ten men led by
Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not to carry
firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself, who had a
revolver as well as a short sword--the Masai 'sime' which I had
taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered in the
canoe. We feared that if they had firearms the result of three
cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own
people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the
work they had to do would best be carried out with cold
steel--especially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great
advocate of cold steel. We had with us four Winchester repeating
rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis. I armed myself with one
of the repeaters--my own; an excellent weapon for this kind of
work, where great rapidity of fire is desirable, and fitted with
ordinary flap-sights instead of the cumbersome sliding mechanism
which they generally have. Mr Mackenzie took another, and the
two remaining ones were given to two of his men who understood
the use of them and were noted shots. The Martinis and some
rifles of Mr Mackenzie's were served out, together with a
plentiful supply of ammunition, to the other natives who were to
form the two parties whose duty it was to be to open fire from
separate sides of the kraal on the sleeping Masai, and who were
fortunately all more or less accustomed to the use of a gun.
As for Umslopogaas, we know how he was armed--with an axe. It
may be remembered that he, Sir Henry, and the strongest of the
Askari were to hold the thorn-stopped entrance to the kraal
against the anticipated rush of men striving to escape. Of
course, for such a purpose as this guns were useless. Therefore
Sir Henry and the Askari proceeded to arm themselves in like
fashion. It so happened that Mr Mackenzie had in his little
store a selection of the very best and English-made hammer-backed
axe-heads. Sir Henry selected one of these weighing about two
and a half pounds and very broad in the blade, and the Askari
took another a size smaller. After Umslopogaas had put an extra
edge on these two axe-heads, we fixed them to three feet six
helves, of which Mr Mackenzie fortunately had some in stock, made
of a light but exceedingly tough native wood, something like
English ash, only more springy. When two suitable helves had
been selected with great care and the ends of the hafts notched
to prevent the hand from slipping, the axe-heads were fixed on
them as firmly as possible, and the weapons immersed in a bucket
of water for half an hour. The result of this was to swell the
wood in the socket in such a fashion that nothing short of
burning would get it out again. When this important matter had
been attended to by Umslopogaas, I went into my room and
proceeded to open a little tin-lined deal case, which
contained--what do you think?--nothing more or less than four
mail shirts.
It had happened to us three on a previous journey that we had
made in another part of Africa to owe our lives to iron shirts of
native make, and remembering this, I had suggested before we
started on our present hazardous expedition that we should have
some made to fit us. There was a little difficulty about this,
as armour-making is pretty well an extinct art, but they can do
most things in the way of steel work in Birmingham if they are
put to it and you will pay the price, and the end of it was that
they turned us out the loveliest steel shirts it is possible to
see. The workmanship was exceedingly fine, the web being
composed of thousands upon thousands of stout but tiny rings of
the best steel made. These shirts, or rather steel-sleeved and
high-necked jerseys, were lined with ventilated wash leather,
were not bright, but browned like the barrel of a gun; and mine
weighed exactly seven pounds and fitted me so well that I found I
could wear it for days next to my skin without being chafed. Sir
Henry had two, one of the ordinary make, viz. a jersey with
little dependent flaps meant to afford some protection to the
upper part of the thighs, and another of his own design fashioned
on the pattern of the garments advertised as 'combinations' and
weighing twelve pounds. This combination shirt, of which the
seat was made of wash-leather, protected the whole body down to
the knees, but was rather more cumbersome, inasmuch as it had to
be laced up at the back and, of course, involved some extra
weight. With these shirts were what looked like four brown cloth
travelling caps with ear pieces. Each of these caps was,
however, quilted with steel links so as to afford a most valuable
protection for the head.
It seems almost laughable to talk of steel shirts in these days
of bullets, against which they are of course quite useless; but
where one has to do with savages, armed with cutting weapons such
as assegais or battleaxes, they afford the most valuable
protection, being, if well made, quite invulnerable to them. I
have often thought that if only the English Government had in our
savage wars, and more especially in the Zulu war, thought fit to
serve out light steel shirts, there would be many a man alive
today who, as it is, is dead and forgotten.
To return: on the present occasion we blessed our foresight in
bringing these shirts, and also our good luck, in that they had
not been stolen by our rascally bearers when they ran away with
our goods. As Curtis had two, and after considerable
deliberation, had made up his mind to wear his combination one
himself--the extra three or four pounds' weight being a matter of
no account to so strong a man, and the protection afforded to the
thighs being a very important matter to a fighting man not armed
with a shield of any kind--I suggested that he should lend the
other to Umslopogaas, who was to share the danger and the glory
of his post. He readily consented, and called the Zulu, who came
bearing Sir Henry's axe, which he had now fixed up to his
satisfaction, with him. When we showed him the steel shirt, and
explained to him that we wanted him to wear it, he at first
declined, saying that he had fought in his own skin for thirty
years, and that he was not going to begin now to fight in an iron
one. Thereupon I took a heavy spear, and, spreading the shirt
upon the floor, drove the spear down upon it with all my
strength, the weapon rebounding without leaving a mark upon the
tempered steel. This exhibition half converted him; and when I
pointed out to him how necessary it was that he should not let
any old-fashioned prejudices he might possess stand in the way of
a precaution which might preserve a valuable life at a time when
men were scarce, and also that if he wore this shirt he might
dispense with a shield, and so have both hands free, he yielded
at once, and proceeded to invest his frame with the 'iron skin'.
And indeed, although made for Sir Henry, it fitted the great Zulu
like a skin. The two men were almost of a height; and, though
Curtis looked the bigger man, I am inclined to think that the
difference was more imaginary than real, the fact being that,
although he was plumper and rounder, he was not really bigger,
except in the arm. Umslopogaas had, comparatively speaking, thin
arms, but they were as strong as wire ropes. At any rate, when
they both stood, axe in hand, invested in the brown mail, which
clung to their mighty forms like a web garment, showing the swell
of every muscle and the curve of every line, they formed a pair
that any ten men might shrink from meeting.
It was now nearly one o'clock in the morning, and the spies
reported that, after having drunk the blood of the oxen and eaten
enormous quantities of meat, the Masai were going to sleep round
their watchfires; but that sentries had been posted at each
opening of the kraal. Flossie, they added, was sitting not far
from the wall in the centre of the western side of the kraal, and
by her were the nurse and the white donkey, which was tethered to
a peg. Her feet were bound with a rope, and warriors were lying
about all round her.
As there was absolutely nothing further that could be done then
we all took some supper, and went to lie down for a couple of
hours. I could not help admiring the way in which old
Umslopogaas flung himself upon the floor, and, unmindful of what
was hanging over him, instantly sank into a deep sleep. I do not
know how it was with the others, but I could not do as much.
Indeed, as is usual with me on these occasions, I am sorry to say
that I felt rather frightened; and, now that some of the
enthusiasm had gone out of me, and I began to calmly contemplate
what we had undertaken to do, truth compels me to add that I did
not like it. We were but thirty men all told, a good many of
whom were no doubt quite unused to fighting, and we were going to
engage two hundred and fifty of the fiercest, bravest, and most
formidable savages in Africa, who, to make matters worse, were
protected by a stone wall. It was, indeed, a mad undertaking,
and what made it even madder was the exceeding improbability of
our being able to take up our positions without attracting the
notice of the sentries. Of course if we once did that--and any
slight accident, such as the chance discharge of a gun, might do
it--we were done for, for the whole camp would be up in a second,
and our only hope lay in surprise.
The bed whereon I lay indulging in these uncomfortable
reflections was near an open window that looked on to the
veranda, through which came an extraordinary sound of groaning
and weeping. For a time I could not make out what it was, but at
last I got up and, putting my head out of the window, stared
about. Presently I saw a dim figure kneeling on the end of the
veranda and beating his breast--in which I recognized Alphonse.
Not being able to understand his French talk or what on earth he
was at, I called to him and asked him what he was doing.
'Ah, monsieur,' he sighed, 'I do make prayer for the souls of
those whom I shall slay tonight.'
'Indeed,' I said, 'then I wish that you would do it a little more
quietly.'
Alphonse retreated, and I heard no more of his groans. And so
the time passed, till at length Mr Mackenzie called me in a
whisper through the window, for of course everything had now to
be done in the most absolute silence. 'Three o'clock,' he said:
'we must begin to move at half-past.'
I told him to come in, and presently he entered, and I am bound
to say that if it had not been that just then I had not got a
laugh anywhere about me, I should have exploded at the sight he
presented armed for battle. To begin with, he had on a
clergyman's black swallow-tail and a kind of broad-rimmed black
felt hat, both of which he had donned on account, he said, of
their dark colour. In his hand was the Winchester repeating
rifle we had lent him; and stuck in an elastic cricketing belt,
like those worn by English boys, were, first, a huge
buckhorn-handled carving knife with a guard to it, and next a
long-barrelled Colt's revolver.
'Ah, my friend,' he said, seeing me staring at his belt, 'you are
looking at my "carver". I thought it might come in handy if we
came to close quarters; it is excellent steel, and many is the
pig I have killed with it.'
By this time everybody was up and dressing. I put on a light
Norfolk jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy
to hold my cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good did the
same, but Sir Henry put on nothing except his mail shirt,
steel-lined cap, and a pair of 'veldt-schoons' or soft hide
shoes, his legs being bare from the knees down. His revolver he
strapped on round his middle outside the armoured shirt.
Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under
the big tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly
armed, etc. At the last moment we made one change. Finding that
two of the men who were to have gone with the firing parties knew
little or nothing of guns, but were good spearsmen, we took away
their rifles, supplied them with shields and long spears of the
Masai pattern, and took them off to join Curtis, Umslopogaas, and
the Askari in holding the wide opening; it having become clear to
us that three men, however brave and strong, were too few for the
work. _
Read next: CHAPTER VII - A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
Read previous: CHAPTER V - UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE
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