Then we parted, poor Savage looking very limp indeed, for this was his first experience of war.  Ragnall, however, who came of an old fighting stock, seemed to be happy as a king.  I who had known so many battles, was the reverse of happy, for inconveniently enough there flashed into my mind at this juncture the dying words of the Zulu captain and seer, Mavovo, which foretold that I too should fall far away in war; and I wondered whether this were the occasion that had been present to his foreseeing mind.

Only Hans seemed quite unconcerned.  Indeed I noted that he took the opportunity of the halt to fill and light his large corn-cob pipe, a bit of bravado in the face of Providence for which I could have kicked him had he not been perched in his usual monkey fashion on the top of a very tall camel.  The act, however, excited the admiration of the Kendah, for I heard one of them call to the others: 

“Look!  He is not a monkey after all, but a man—­more of a man than his master.”

The arrangements were soon made.  Within a quarter of an hour of the departure of the messengers Harut, after bowing thrice towards the Holy Mountain, rose in his stirrups and shaking a long spear above his head, shouted a single word: 

“Charge!”

CHAPTER XI

ALLAN IS CAPTURED

The ride that followed was really quite exhilarating.  The camels, notwithstanding their long journey, seemed to have caught some of the enthusiasm of the war-horse as described in the Book of Job; indeed I had no idea that they could travel at such a rate.  On we swung down the slope, keeping excellent order, the forest of tall spears shining and the little lancer-like pennons fluttering on the breeze in a very gallant way.  In silence we went save for the thudding of the hoofs of the camels and an occasional squeal of anger as some rider drove his lance handle into their ribs.  Not until we actually joined battle did a single man open his lips.  Then, it is true, there went up one simultaneous and mighty roar of: 

“The Child!  Death to Jana!  The Child!  The Child!”

But this happened a few minutes later.

As we drew near the enemy I saw that they had massed their footmen in a dense body, six or eight lines thick.  There they stood to receive the impact of our charge, or rather they did not all stand, for the first two ranks were kneeling with long spears stretched out in front of them.  I imagine that their appearance must have greatly resembled that of the Greek phalanx, or that of the Swiss prepared to receive cavalry in the Middle Ages.  On either side of this formidable body, which by now must have numbered four or five hundred men, and at a distance perhaps of a quarter of a mile from them, were gathered the horsemen of the Black Kendah, divided into two bodies of nearly equal strength, say about a hundred horse in each body.