Child of Storm

Now, the moon would not be up till midnight. But two hours before that

time we began our moves, since the cattle must be driven out of the

kraals as soon as she appeared and gave the needful light. Otherwise

the fight in the pass would in all probability be delayed till after

sunrise, when the Amakoba would see how small was the number of their

foes. Terror, doubt, darkness--these must be our allies if our desperate

venture was to succeed.

All was arranged at last and the time had come. We, the three captains

of our divided force, bade each other farewell, and passed the word

down the ranks that, should we be separated by the accidents of war, my

wagons were the meeting-place of any who survived.

Tshoza and his fifty glided away into the shadow silently as ghosts

and were gone. Presently the fierce-faced Saduko departed also with

his fifty. He carried the double-barrelled gun I had given him, and

was accompanied by one of my best hunters, a Natal native, who was also

armed with a heavy smooth-bore loaded with slugs. Our hope was that the

sound of these guns might terrify the foe, should there be occasion to

use them before our forces joined up again, and make them think they

had to do with a body of raiding Dutch white men, of whose roers--as

the heavy elephant guns of that day were called--all natives were much

afraid.

So Saduko went with his fifty, leaving me wondering whether I should

ever see his face again. Then I, my bearer Scowl, the two remaining

hunters, and the ten score Amangwane who were left turned and soon were

following the road by which we had come down the rugged pass. I call

it a road, but, in fact, it was nothing but a water-washed gully strewn

with boulders, through which we must pick our way as best we could in

the darkness, having first removed the percussion cap from the nipple of

every gun, for fear lest the accidental discharge of one of them should

warn the Amakoba, confuse our other parties, and bring all our deep-laid

plans to nothing.

Well, we accomplished that march somehow, walking in three long lines,

so that each man might keep touch with him in front, and just as the

moon began to rise reached the spot that I had chosen for the ambush.

Certainly it was well suited to that purpose. Here the track or gully

bed narrowed to a width of not more than a hundred feet, while the steep

slopes of the kloof on either side were clothed with scattered bushes

and finger-like euphorbias which grew among stones. Behind these stones

and bushes we hid ourselves, a hundred men on one side and a hundred on

the other, whilst I and my three hunters, who were armed with guns, took

up a position under shelter of a great boulder nearly five feet thick

that lay but a little to the right of the gully itself, up which we

expected the cattle would come. This place I chose for two reasons:

first, that I might keep touch with both wings of my force, and,

secondly, that we might be able to fire straight down the path on the

pursuing Amakoba.