“Ah,” said Infadoos, “they are going
to attack us on three sides at once.”
This seemed rather serious news, for our position
on the top of the mountain, which measured a mile
and a half in circumference, being an extended one,
it was important to us to concentrate our comparatively
small defending force as much as possible. But
since it was impossible for us to dictate in what
way we should be assailed, we had to make the best
of it, and accordingly sent orders to the various regiments
to prepare to receive the separate onslaughts.
THE ATTACK
Slowly, and without the slightest appearance of haste
or excitement, the three columns crept on. When
within about five hundred yards of us, the main or
centre column halted at the root of a tongue of open
plain which ran up into the hill, to give time to the
other divisions to circumvent our position, which
was shaped more or less in the form of a horse-shoe,
with its two points facing towards the town of Loo.
The object of this manoeuvre was that the threefold
assault should be delivered simultaneously.
“Oh, for a gatling!” groaned Good, as
he contemplated the serried phalanxes beneath us.
“I would clear that plain in twenty minutes.”
“We have not got one, so it is no use yearning
for it; but suppose you try a shot, Quatermain,”
said Sir Henry. “See how near you can go
to that tall fellow who appears to be in command.
Two to one you miss him, and an even sovereign, to
be honestly paid if ever we get out of this, that
you don’t drop the bullet within five yards.”
This piqued me, so, loading the express with solid
ball, I waited till my friend walked some ten yards
out from his force, in order to get a better view
of our position, accompanied only by an orderly; then,
lying down and resting the express on a rock, I covered
him. The rifle, like all expresses, was only
sighted to three hundred and fifty yards, so to allow
for the drop in trajectory I took him half-way down
the neck, which ought, I calculated, to find him in
the chest. He stood quite still and gave me every
opportunity, but whether it was the excitement or
the wind, or the fact of the man being a long shot,
I don’t know, but this was what happened.
Getting dead on, as I thought, a fine sight, I pressed,
and when the puff of smoke had cleared away, to my
disgust, I saw my man standing there unharmed, whilst
his orderly, who was at least three paces to the left,
was stretched upon the ground apparently dead.
Turning swiftly, the officer I had aimed at began
to run towards his men in evident alarm.
“Bravo, Quatermain!” sang out Good; “you’ve
frightened him.”
This made me very angry, for, if possible to avoid
it, I hate to miss in public. When a man is master
of only one art he likes to keep up his reputation
in that art. Moved quite out of myself at my failure,
I did a rash thing. Rapidly covering the general
as he ran, I let drive with the second barrel.
Instantly the poor man threw up his arms, and fell
forward on to his face. This time I had made no
mistake; and—I say it as a proof of how
little we think of others when our own safety, pride,
or reputation is in question—I was brute
enough to feel delighted at the sight.
