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Page 71
Ignosi, who was standing by me, took in the situation at a glance, and
issued a rapid order. Instantly the reserve regiment around us, the
Greys, extended itself.
Again Ignosi gave a word of command, which was taken up and repeated
by the captains, and in another second, to my intense disgust, I found
myself involved in a furious onslaught upon the advancing foe. Getting
as much as I could behind Ignosi's huge frame, I made the best of a
bad job, and toddled along to be killed as though I liked it. In a
minute or two--we were plunging through the flying groups of our men,
who at once began to re-form behind us, and then I am sure I do not
know what happened. All I can remember is a dreadful rolling noise of
the meeting of shields, and the sudden apparition of a huge ruffian,
whose eyes seemed literally to be starting out of his head, making
straight at me with a bloody spear. But--I say it with pride--I rose--
or rather sank--to the occasion. It was one before which most people
would have collapsed once and for all. Seeing that if I stood where I
was I must be killed, as the horrid apparition came I flung myself
down in front of him so cleverly that, being unable to stop himself,
he took a header right over my prostrate form. Before he could rise
again, /I/ had risen and settled the matter from behind with my
revolver.
Shortly after this somebody knocked me down, and I remember no more of
that charge.
When I came to I found myself back at the koppie, with Good bending
over me holding some water in a gourd.
"How do you feel, old fellow?" he asked anxiously.
I got up and shook myself before replying.
"Pretty well, thank you," I answered.
"Thank Heaven! When I saw them carry you in, I felt quite sick; I
thought you were done for."
"Not this time, my boy. I fancy I only got a rap on the head, which
knocked me stupid. How has it ended?"
"They are repulsed at every point for a while. The loss is dreadfully
heavy; we have quite two thousand killed and wounded, and they must
have lost three. Looks, there's a sight!" and he pointed to long lines
of men advancing by fours.
In the centre of every group of four, and being borne by it, was a
kind of hide tray, of which a Kukuana force always carries a quantity,
with a loop for a handle at each corner. On these trays--and their
number seemed endless--lay wounded men, who as they arrived were
hastily examined by the medicine men, of whom ten were attached to a
regiment. If the wound was not of a fatal character the sufferer was
taken away and attended to as carefully as circumstances would allow.
But if, on the other hand, the injured man's condition proved
hopeless, what followed was very dreadful, though doubtless it may
have been the truest mercy. One of the doctors, under pretence of
carrying out an examination, swiftly opened an artery with a sharp
knife, and in a minute or two the sufferer expired painlessly. There
were many cases that day in which this was done. In fact, it was done
in the majority of cases when the wound was in the body, for the gash
made by the entry of the enormously broad spears used by the Kukuanas
generally rendered recovery impossible. In most instances the poor
sufferers were already unconscious, and in others the fatal "nick" of
the artery was inflicted so swiftly and painlessly that they did not
seem to notice it. Still it was a ghastly sight, and one from which we
were glad to escape; indeed, I never remember anything of the kind
that affected me more than seeing those gallant soldiers thus put out
of pain by the red-handed medicine men, except, indeed, on one
occasion when, after an attack, I saw a force of Swazis burying their
hopelessly wounded /alive/.
Hurrying from this dreadful scene to the further side of the koppie,
we found Sir Henry, who still held a battle-axe in his hand, Ignosi,
Infadoos, and one or two of the chiefs in deep consultation.
"Thank Heaven, here you are, Quatermain! I can't quite make out what
Ignosi wants to do. It seems that though we have beaten off the
attack, Twala is now receiving large reinforcements, and is showing a
disposition to invest us, with the view of starving us out."
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