ered by his great war-shield, he made
for a tall ruffian, whose head was streaming with long black feathers,
and who seemed to be directing the charge. Like lightning he was upon
him, and beneath the shearing flash of the great assegai, down went the
man, his trunk wellnigh ripped in twain.

"_Usutu! 'Sutu_!" roared the Zulu, as, whirling round, he struck
another to the heart with his reeking spear, at the same time bringing
another to the earth with a mighty slap of his great shield. Like
lightning he moved. Never still for a second, he avoided the lunges
made at him, always to strike fatally in his turn, and soon a ring of
assailants round him was a ring of ripped and struggling corpses
deluging the earth in torrents of blood. Whirling here, darting there,
and ever roaring the war-cry of his late king, the towering Zulu was to
these dismayed savages the very embodiment of irresistible destruction.
With yells of dismay they fled before him in a broken, demoralised
crowd, and into their front the fire of those behind the breastwork
played upon their thickest masses.

"Come back, Kumbelwa," commanded Haviland, in Zulu.

Like magic the trained and disciplined warrior halted at the word of his
chief. In a second he was within the breastwork again.

"Thou wert being led on too far, my friend," said Haviland, all aglow
with admiration. "In a moment yon dogs would have turned upon thee, and
even a lion cannot stand against a hundred dogs."

"_Nkose_! Yet had I but half the Umbonambi regiment here with me, we
would eat the whole of these jackals at one bite!" exclaimed Kumbelwa,
his great chest heaving with excitement and his recent exertions.

"By Jove! I never saw such a sight as that! Magnificent!" cried
Oakley, who was taking advantage of the lull to light his pipe.

On the other side, too, hostilities seemed to have slackened, but here,
whatever damage had been inflicted by the defenders they were unable to
estimate with any certainty. It was evident that Mushad had chosen that
the least esteemed of his followers--the black savages, to wit--should
bear the brunt of the first attack, not from any lack of courage, but
from sheer cold calculating economy. Their lives were worth the least
to him, therefore let them bear the lion's share of the risk. And this
they had assuredly done, if the black bodies which strewed the earth on
their side of the breastwork were any criterion. Within, one of
Somala's clan