the African dialects as he could call to mind,
that they were friends. His assurances, however, if understood,
appeared to be quite unconvincing--to put it mildly--the attitude of the
natives growing momentarily more hostile and menacing, as though the
mere sight of a white man stirred their worst passions to their lowest
depths.

"Halt!" cried Lethbridge, in a low, tense voice. "Those fellows are
about to make a rush. Form up in line, and, the moment they start to
run, open fire upon them, _and keep it up_. If we let them get within
striking distance of us, we are done for!"

Whether or not the sudden halt of the quartette conveyed to the native
mind the mistaken impression that the white men were afraid, or whether
it was that Lethbridge's intuition had rightly interpreted an already
fixed determination, it is impossible to say, but the fact remains that
as the four whites halted in line, a gigantic savage sprang to the front
and, waving his shield and spears above his head, shouted a few words to
the others as he started to run toward the little band.

"I will take the leader; the rest of you fire into the brown," cried
Lethbridge, levelling his rifle. As the words left his lips the _click,
click_ of the rifle-hammers sounded, and the leading savage and three
others stumbled and fell prone to the earth, their shields and spears
flying from their nerveless hands, and ere they were fairly down, four
others rolled over and lay motionless, followed by another and yet
another four, until, within the brief space of some twenty seconds, no
fewer than forty black warriors lay prostrate, either dead, or badly
wounded. And this had happened merely because those four terrible white
men had pointed at them with their long, straight, shining sticks!
There had been no fire, no smoke, no noise; the white men had simply
_pointed_ at them, and lo, forty of their best men were down! The
native mind is quick in its appreciation of the hard logic of facts; and
by the time that those forty warriors were prostrate, it had assimilated
the conviction that the inhabitants of that village had rashly embarked
upon a distinctly unhealthy enterprise when they undertook the seductive
pastime of attempting to massacre that apparently insignificant little
band of white men. And at this point in the drama the whole shouting,
yelling crowd suddenly became silent, pulled up short, and, as four more
of their number dropped, flung themselves o