“At this point, looking behind me, I saw the Matukus streaming up the slope in a rough extended order, and not more than a hundred yards away.  Cocking the Winchester I turned and opened fire on them.  I don’t quite know how many I missed, but I do know that I never shot better in my life.  I had to keep shifting myself from one enemy to the other, firing almost without getting a sight, that is, by the eye alone, after the fashion of the experts who break glass balls.  But quick as the work was, men fell thick, and by the time that I had emptied the carbine of its twelve cartridges, for the moment the advance was checked.  I rapidly pushed in some more cartridges, and hardly had I done so when the enemy, seeing that we were about to escape them altogether, came on once more with a tremendous yell.  By this time the two halves of the single tusk of the great bull alone remained to be passed up.  I fired and fired as effectively as before, but notwithstanding all that I could do, some men escaped my hail of bullets and began to ascend the cliff.  Presently my rifle was again empty.  I slung it over my back, and, drawing my revolver, turned to run for it, the attackers being now quite close.  As I did so, a spear struck the cliff close to my head.

“The last half of the tusk was now vanishing over the rock, and I sung out to Gobo and the other man who had been pushing it up to vanish after it.  Gobo, poor fellow, required no second invitation; indeed, his haste was his undoing.  He went at the projecting rock with a bound.  The end of the tusk was still hanging over, and instead of grasping the rock he caught at it.  It twisted in his hand—­he slipped—­he fell; with one wild shriek he vanished into the abyss beneath, his falling body brushing me as it passed.  For a moment we stood aghast, and presently the dull thud of his fall smote heavily upon our ears.  Poor fellow, he had met the Fate which, as he declared, walked about loose in Wambe’s country.  Then with an oath the remaining man sprung at the rock and clambered over it in safety.  Aghast at the awfulness of what had happened, I stood still, till I saw the great blade of a Matuku spear pass up between my feet.  That brought me to my senses, and I began to clamber up the rock like a cat.  I was half way round it.  Already I had clasped the hand of that brave girl Maiwa, who came down to help me, the men having scrambled forward with the ivory, when I felt some one seize my ankle.

“‘Pull, Maiwa, pull,’ I gasped, and she certainly did pull.  Maiwa was a very muscular woman, and never before did I appreciate the advantages of the physical development of females so keenly.  She tugged at my left arm, the savage below tugged at my right leg, till I began to realize that something must give way ere long.  Luckily I retained my presence of mind, like the man who threw his mother-in-law out of the window, and carried the mattress down-stairs, when a fire broke out in his house.  My right hand was still free, and in it