the wheels; and he was presently
able, by the dim light of the stars, to distinguish that the whole bush
was in barely perceptible motion. The attackers were at the very edge
of it, evidently only waiting for the command to commence operations;
the Englishman, therefore, determined, by being first, to secure the
advantage of surprise himself. At his shouted word the Koreans
discharged their rifles into the jungle at point-blank range, reloading
on the instant; while Frobisher heightened the effect by selecting a
spot where he could already see the glint of rifle barrels in the
starlight and discharging all six chambers of both his revolvers in that
direction.

The effect upon the attackers must have been considerable, for
immediately following the discharge there arose a tremendous outburst of
shrieks, yells, and groans, shouted orders, and cries of encouragement;
and Frobisher saw several forms leap out of the bush and go crashing to
earth in the clearing.

He had just time to re-load his revolvers before the surrounding bush
burst into a perfect tempest of flame and lead, indicating that the
Government troops must be present in force. One of the Sam-riek men,
right at his elbow, uttered a pitiful cry, clutched frenziedly at his
breast, from which the blood was spouting, and dropped to the ground,
his chest torn to pieces by five charges of pot-leg, or stout nails,
which had struck him at the same moment; while groans and screams from
various parts of the enclosure showed that the little force had suffered
pretty severely.

The men were now, however, re-loading and firing as rapidly as they
could, each independently of the other, and Frobisher, not knowing their
language, found it impossible to control them sufficiently to make them
fire only at the word of command. He realised that, at the rate at
which they were firing, an enormous wastage was taking place, but he was
powerless, and could only hope that the result would justify the
expenditure.

The attackers presently lighted a large fire at the edge of the
clearing, that they might have light to fight by; and what with the
ruddy flickering of the flames and the incessant flashing of the rifles,
the running crouching forms of the troops, and the desperate energy with
which the defenders fought, the scene was a fit subject for the brush of
a Wiertz or a Verestchagin. Men on both sides were falling fast, and
Frobisher himself was half-blinded by the blood fr