"'It is too early to come out as yet,' answered our man in fine
diplomatic style. 'When the sun sucks up the mist then we will come out.
Our limbs are stiff with cold.'

"'Come forth even now,' said the herald.

"'Not if I know it, my boy,' said I to myself; but the captain replied
that he would come out when he thought proper, and not before.

"'Then make ready to die,' said the herald, for all the world like the
villain of a transpontine piece, and majestically stalked back to the
soldiers.

"I made my final arrangements, and looked anxiously at the mountain
crest a couple of miles or so away, from which the mist was now
beginning to lift, but no column of smoke could I see. I whistled,
for if the attacking force had been delayed or made any mistake, our
position was likely to grow rather warm. We had barely enough water to
wet the mouths of the men, and when once it was finished we could not
hold the place for long in that burning heat.

"At length, just as the sun rose in glory over the heights behind us,
the Matuku soldiers, of whom about fifteen hundred were now assembled,
set up a queer whistling noise, which ended in a chant. Then some shots
were fired, for the Matuku had a few guns, but without effect, though
one bullet passed just by a man's head.

"'Now they are going to begin,' I thought to myself, and I was not
far wrong, for in another minute the body of men divided into three
companies, each about five hundred strong, and, heralded by a running