is face to the foe under the keen stabbing-spears
of Lobengula's warriors.

The enemies that were threatening them were of a worse type. The
Askaris, naturally ferocious, were under German command, and the
German, whenever he is confident that he is on the winning side,
exhibited all the brutality and cruelty of his Hunnish ancestors.
Attila was a scourge; his modern descendants are simply imitators who,
having the thin veneer of civilisation, combine science with bestial
brutality in their methods of waging war.

Two of the troopers who were acquainted with the native dialect
proceeded to place the village under a rough form of organisation. In
spite of the severe restrictions laid upon the natives by their German
taskmasters--amongst others they were not allowed to carry arms--the
blacks managed to produce long-secreted numbers of spears, bows and
arrows and a few antiquated smooth-bore muskets.

Men were sent into the bush to cut down thorns and sharpened stakes.
These were set up in front of the existing stockade, the inner side of
which was still further strengthened by earth thrown up from a trench
three feet from its base. "Panjies" or sharpened bamboos were set
obliquely from the foot of the stockade, on the outside, to check a
rush at close quarters; the stockade itself, forming no protection
against modern rifle-fire, was to be used merely as an obstacle, the
defenders seeking cover in the ditch and behind the embankment formed
from the excavated material.

Hardly were these preparations completed when the shrill notes of a
bugle rang out, and a mounted officer, followed by a native orderly
bearing a white flag, appeared from the cover afforded by the bush.

Evidently the Huns had more faith in the Briton's respect for the flag
of truce than they had regard for that emblem in the hands of their
foes, for after a brief pause the officer, finding that his appearance
was not greeted with a volley of rifle-bullets, trotted boldly towards
the closed gate of the stockade.

"Halt!" ordered the Rhodesian officer, when the German drew within
audible distance. "Deliver your message."

The German, standing in his stirrups, shouted a demand for the instant
surrender of the garrison, promising honourable treatment if the terms
were complied with, and stating that the investing troops were fully
aware of the weak numbers of the British patrol.

"You might have spared yourself the trouble, Herr Offizier," replie