and pour our fire into the mass of defenders behind the wall. Then the
guns were to be thrown down and we must charge with the assegai. We
had no shields, but that could not be helped; there would be no time to
reload the guns, and it was absolutely necessary that the enemy should
be disconcerted at the moment when the main attack was delivered.

"The men, who were as plucky a set of fellows as ever I saw, and whose
blood was now thoroughly up, consented to this scheme, though I could
see that they thought it rather a large order, as indeed I did myself.
But I knew that if the impi was driven back a second time the game would
be played, and for me at any rate it would be a case of the 'Thing
that bites,' and this sure and certain knowledge filled my breast with
valour.

"We had not long to wait. Presently we heard the Butiana war-song
swelling loud and long; they had commenced their attack. I made a sign,
and the hundred and fifty men, headed by myself, poured out of the
kraal, and getting into a rough line ran up the fifty or sixty yards of
slope that intervened between ourselves and the crest of the hog-backed
ridge. In thirty seconds we were there, and immediately beyond us was
the main body of the Matuku host waiting the onslaught of the enemy with
guns and spears. Even now they did not see us, so intent were they upon
the coming attack. I signed to my men to take careful aim, and suddenly
called out to them to fire, which they did with a will, dropping thirty
or forty Matukus.

"'_Charge!_' I shouted, again throwing down my smoking rifle and drawing
my revolver, an example which they followed, snatching up their spears
from the ground where they had placed them while they fired. The men
set up a savage whoop, and we started. I saw the Matuku soldiers wheel