ng, if indeed they come at all. Therefore, I say, 'Wait till
the buffalo shall either charge or run.' But the word is with you,
Macumazana, wise Watcher-by-Night, not with me, your hunter. Speak, you
who are old in war, and I will obey."

"You argue well," I answered; "also another reason comes to my mind.
Those Arab brutes may get behind the slaves, of whom we should butcher
a lot without hurting them. Stephen, I think we had better see the thing
through here."

"All right, Quatermain. Only I hope that Mavovo is wrong in thinking
that those blackguards may change their minds and run away."

"Really, young man, you are becoming very blood-thirsty--for an orchid
grower," I remarked, looking at him. "Now, for my part, I devoutly hope
that Mavovo is right, for let me tell you, if he isn't it may be a nasty
job."

"I've always been peaceful enough up to the present," replied Stephen.
"But the sight of those unhappy wretches of slaves with their heads cut
open, and of the woman tied to a tree to starve----"

"Make you wish to usurp the functions of God Almighty," I said. "Well,
it is a natural impulse and perhaps, in the circumstances, one that will
not displease Him. And now, as we have made up our minds what we are
going to do, let's get to business so that these Arab gentlemen may find
their breakfast ready when they come to call."

CHAPTER VII

THE RUSH OF THE SLAVES

Well, we did all that we could in the way of making ready. After we had
strengthened the thorn fence of our _boma_ as much as possible and lit
several large fires outside of it to give us light, I allotted his place
to each of the hunters and saw that their rifles were in order and that
they had plenty of ammunition. Then I made Stephen lie down to sleep,
telling him that I would wake him to watch later on. This, however,
I had no intention of doing as I wanted him to rise fresh and with a
steady nerve on the occasion of his first fight.

As soon as I saw that his eyes were shut I sat down on a box to think.
To tell the truth, I was not altogether happy in my mind. To begin with
I did not know how the twenty bearers would behave under fire. They
might be seized with panic and rush about, in which case I determined to
let them out of the _boma_ to take their chance, for panic is a catching
thing.

A worse matter was our rather awkward position. There were a good many
trees round the camp among which an attacking forc