We let the cattle through and lay hidden, waiting for the raiders.  They were in full war dress, which is to say as nearly naked as possible except for their spears, a leg ornament made from the hair of the colobus monkey, a leather apron hung on just as suited the individual wearer’s fancy, a great shield, and an enormous ostrich-feather head-dress.  They seemed in no hurry, for they probably guessed that the cattle would stop to graze again when the first scare was over; yet they came along as smoke comes, swiftly and easily, making no noise.

Suddenly those in the lead caught sight of our boys getting behind the cattle to herd them northward.  They halted to hold consultation—­apparently decided that they had only unarmed natives to deal with—­and came on again, faster than before.

“Better open fire now!” said Brown, when they were still a quarter of a mile away.

“Wait till you can see their eyes!” Will advised.  “An unexpected volley at close quarters will do more havoc than hours of long-range shooting.

“This ain’t a long range!” Brown objected.  “As for unexpected—­just watch me startle ’em!  My sight’s fixed at four hundred.  Watch!”

He fired—­we wished he had not.  The leading Masai of the right-hand column jerked his head sidewise as the whistling bullet passed, and then there was nothing for it but to follow his lead and blaze away for all we were worth.  If Brown had been willing to accept Will’s advice there is nothing more likely than that the close-quarter surprise would have won the day for us.  We would have done much more execution with three volleys at ten-yard range.  As it was, we all missed with our finest shots, and the Masai took heart and charged in open order.

The worst of it was that, although we dropped several of them, now the others had a chance to discover there were only three of us.  Their leader shouted.  The right-hand column continued to attack, but changed its tactics.  The left-hand party made a circuit at top speed, outflanked us, and pursued the cattle.

Supposing my count was right, we had laid out, either wounded or dead, seven of the crowd attacking us.  This left perhaps fourteen against us, to be dealt with before the others could come back with the cattle and take us in the rear.

Will brought another man down; I saw the blood splash on his forehead as the bullet drilled the skull cleanly.  Then one man shouted and they all lay prone, beginning to crawl toward us with their shields held before, not as protection against bullets (for as that they were utterly worthless) but as cover that made their exact position merest guesswork.

I fell back and took position on the ant-hill from which I had first seen them, thus making our position triangular and giving myself a chance to protect the other two should they feel forced to retire.  The extra height also gave me a distinct advantage, for I could see the legs of the Masai over the tops of their shields, and was able to wound more than one of them so severely that they crawled to the rear.