After this the Arabs took cover, getting behind trees and, as I had feared, hiding in the reeds on the banks of the stream.  Thence they harassed us a great deal, for amongst them were some very decent shots.  Indeed, had we not taken the precaution of lining the thorn fence with a thick bank of earth and sods, we should have fared badly.  As it was, one of the hunters was killed, the bullet passing through the loophole and striking him in the throat as he was about to fire, while the unfortunate bearers who were on rather higher ground, suffered a good deal, two of them being dispatched outright and four wounded.  After this I made the rest of them lie flat on the ground close against the fence, in such a fashion that we could fire over their bodies.

Soon it became evident that there were more of these Arabs than we had thought, for quite fifty of them were firing from different places.  Moreover, by slow degrees they were advancing with the evident object of outflanking us and gaining the high ground behind.  Some of them, of course, we stopped as they rushed from cover to cover, but this kind of shooting was as difficult as that at bolting rabbits across a woodland ride, and to be honest, I must say that I alone was much good at the game, for here my quick eye and long practice told.

Within an hour the position had grown very serious indeed, so much so that we found it necessary to consider what should be done.  I pointed out that with our small number a charge against the scattered riflemen, who were gradually surrounding us, would be worse than useless, while it was almost hopeless to expect to hold the boma till nightfall.  Once the Arabs got behind us, they could rake us from the higher ground.  Indeed, for the last half-hour we had directed all our efforts to preventing them from passing this boma, which, fortunately, the stream on the one side and a stretch of quite open land on the other made it very difficult for them to do without more loss than they cared to face.

“I fear there is only one thing for it,” I said at length, during a pause in the attack while the Arabs were either taking counsel or waiting for more ammunition, “to abandon the camp and everything and bolt up the hill.  As those fellows must be tired and we are all good runners, we may save our lives in that way.”

“How about the wounded,” asked Stephen, “and the slave-woman and child?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, looking down.

Of course I did know very well, but here, in an acute form, arose the ancient question:  Were we to perish for the sake of certain individuals in whom we had no great interest and whom we could not save by remaining with them?  If we stayed where we were our end seemed fairly certain, whereas if we ran for it, we had a good chance of escape.  But this involved the desertion of several injured bearers and a woman and child whom we had picked up starving, all of whom would certainly be massacred, save perhaps the woman and child.