you
were in the know?"

"I did, and nobody more than half believed me--some not even that."

"I know now what you did on the day of the race meeting, Lamont," said
Fullerton gravely. "I consider we all owe our lives to you, and I, for
one, want to apologise sincerely for having misunderstood you--"

But his words were cut short. Lamont had risen in his stirrups and,
swift as thought, discharged his revolver. Fullerton had a quick
glancing vision of the head and shoulders of a savage twenty yards
distant above the tall grass, and of the flinging aloft of black hands,
and the upturned roll of white eyeballs, as, struck full and fair in the
chest, the warrior fell backward with a crash. At the same time the hum
of missiles overhead, and the report of firearms--but--not those of the
force.

"This is a fresh crowd," he cried. "Those who tackled us first hadn't a
gun among them."

Then, from among the grass and bushes, dark forms arose, and the spurt
of smoke and the `whigge' of great clumsy missiles accompanied the
appearance of each. But there were cool heads and fine shots among
those white men, and the dusky barbarian found in a surprisingly short
space of time that even momentary exposure meant almost certain death.
Moreover, from the hurry and flurry of it, all untrained to quick
shooting as he was, he could take no aim, and sent his bullet humming
away harmlessly to high heaven. Fortunately, too, the outfit had got
beyond the valley, and here in the open ground there was no elevated
point of vantage whence it could be raked.

Yet the situation was becoming serious. Heartened by their
reinforcement, and the moral effect of knowing that they, too, were
returning the fire of the Amakiwa, though as yet harmlessly, the
original attacking force was pressing forward under cover of the firing
and confusion, swarming up stealthily in the bush and long grass,
preparing for a final and decisive rush. But somehow that rush never
quite came off. The fire of those cool, experienced whites was too
determined, too hot, too deadly. Moving with judgment and rapidity, the
mounted men would dart right up to any massing of the dark crowd, and
pouring their fire literally into their faces would break up any attempt
at an organised charge. But they did not come off unscathed. Three
were wounded at close quarters, two had their horses stabbed right under
them, but with unfailing cool-headedness and magnificent valour these