Tom Burnaby: A Story of Uganda and the Great Congo Forest

by Herbert Strang

  CHAPTER XIX

  Tom's Armada

  On the Trail--A Picked Force--Through the Great Forest--The Last ofMabruki--On the Lake Shore--Building a Flotilla--Floating Forts--TheIsland in the Lake--Forcing a Landing--A Parley--De Castro ExpressesHimself--Preparing for the Attack--Mwonda the Dauntless--Fire andSword--Rumaliza's House--De Castro's Last Shot

  It was now one o'clock in the afternoon. For nine hours Tom and all hismen had been afoot, engaged in one of the most arduous struggles thatnative Africa had known. The great fight so long anticipated was over;the dreaded power of Rumaliza, the centre of the hateful slave-traffic,was broken; Rumaliza himself, with his lieutenant Ahmed and many otherof his principal coadjutors, lay on the field, and the shattered remnantof the force that left its distant stronghold in such warlike ardour andconfidence was routed beyond hope of rallying. But Tom saw that hiswork was not yet completed. The fortress in the forest still remained.It was no doubt strongly garrisoned; the fugitives would naturallybetake themselves thither; the survivors of De Castro's force and DeCastro himself would gather there, and in course of time, though theycould never expect to recover their old strength and prestige, theymight repair their disaster sufficiently to menace for years to come thesecurity and happiness of the weaker tribes. "I must destroy theirscorpions' nest," said Tom to himself wearily; "when shall I see homeagain?"

  He saw that his force was too much exhausted to carry operations furtherthat day. Of less than four thousand men, at least five hundred laydead and wounded; and their exertions had been so violent and solong-continued that the living and unwounded were fit for nothing butrest. Mbutu and the eight hundred who had so opportunely arrived withhim were still apparently keeping up the pursuit, and it was impossibleto make any detailed arrangements until they returned. Tom, therefore,sent off a messenger to the village with news of the victory, and withorders to the katikiro to bring up two hundred men with a stock ofammunition. He then went with a few of his body-guard to the Arabs'camp, where their vast horde of slave carriers must now be dealt with.

  He found that the slaves, at least five thousand in number, had risenand overpowered their guards, and were working havoc among the effectsof their late masters. At Tom's appearance they crowded round him, someof them recognizing him as the prisoner who had escaped months beforefrom the clutches of Mustapha. The poor creatures were wild withdelight at the discomfiture of the Arabs, and many of them threwthemselves at Tom's feet and vowed that they were his, body and soul, todo with as he pleased. Seeing on them unmistakeable evidences ofterrible suffering during their recent march--open sores, mutilatedfeatures, scars and weals made by the lash--Tom lost all compassion forthe Arabs who had perished in the fight, and was strengthened in hisresolve to visit the Arab stronghold and there complete the work he hadbegun.

  He ordered his men to knock off the chains from their necks and ankles,and those who were thus liberated to assist in the work with theirfellows. He ordered them also to collect the ammunition, stores, andcamp furniture and carry them to the zariba, and then to dig deeptrenches and bury the dead. The slaves were suffering greatly from wantof water, and Tom informed them of the stream two miles to the south,and allowed them to go and refresh themselves at it, commanding them toreport themselves before nightfall at the zariba, where he intended tocamp for the night.

  Two hours later Mbutu returned, accompanied by a portion of his force.They gave a great shout when Tom welcomed them, and Mbutu, his facebeaming with joy, informed his master of his recent movements. With aquickness for grasping a military situation with which Tom had notcredited him, he had seen the importance of preventing any considerableconcentration of the fugitives, and sent small bodies of men to theright and left to guard the approaches to the forest, and thus preventany junction of the scattered bands of Arabs and Manyema who had spreadout fanwise in the course of their retreat.

  "You have done splendidly, Mbutu," said Tom, patting him on theshoulder. "But why were you so late in bringing up the eight hundredmen? We were almost at our last gasp."

  Mbutu explained that when his brother reached the volcano he found theeight hundred men in a state of great perplexity at the non-appearanceof Kuboko. They had waited and waited, expecting to be engaged in someenterprise of moment, and when hour after hour passed away, and dayfollowed day, without their receiving any orders, they had grown angry.Some of them had wandered miles away to the south of the mountain to seeif there was anything in that direction that seemed to call for them.When Mboda appeared and ordered them to return, it took some time tocollect the dispersed bands, and though they had made all haste, theyhad found it impossible to march with any great speed over the brokencountry between the volcano and the village. Mbutu had met them, indeed,a few miles north of the village, and had brought them on, with thefresh men drawn from the garrison, as rapidly as possible. He wasthankful "too much, too much," he said, that he had arrived at such acritical moment. To save time, he had chosen to risk wading across theswamp in preference to taking the longer circuit round it through theforest.

  "And you did well," said Tom. "If you had gone the farther way weshould have been overpowered, I fear. It was a stroke of genius, Mbutu.The art of generalship is to know when to take risks. Some people callit luck, but I can't see myself why luck should have such a happy knackof favouring the incapable."

  Mbutu did not understand this speech, but he saw that his master waspleased with him, and he went with all cheerfulness and contentment tosuperintend the camping arrangements for the night, receiving willingassistance from Msala, who came up presently in a state of greatdelight, tempered by regret at his own enforced absence from the sceneof the great battle. To please Mbutu, Tom then sent his brother Mbodawith a small force into the forest to build a new stockade on thefarther bank of the fordable stream, so as to block the way of any Arabswho might endeavour to retrace their steps over the central path.

  Next morning, before returning to the village, Tom sent eight hundred ofhis best men, divided into several bands under trusty leaders, to dogthe fugitive Arabs. Some were to scour the country on the outskirts ofthe forest, others to penetrate the forest itself, press forward beyondthe new stockade, and watch every narrow cross-track, every possiblealley, so as effectually to bar the retreat of the Arabs except by longcircuitous routes on which, as the news of their defeat spread, theywould be exposed to the attacks of the tribes they had ill-treated andoppressed. These scouting bodies were to carry with them sufficientfood for three days, and at the end of that time to return.

  Tom's march to the village was a triumphal progress. The people cameout in their thousands to meet him, and in a great glad throng, amid thedin of drums and loud songs of victory, escorted him to hishead-quarters. Mwonga ordered several of his finest oxen to be killedfor the victor's feast, and extensive preparations were made for highjubilation. Tom could not but be sympathetic towards the people'srejoicings, but he recognized the danger of their imagining that nothingremained to be done, and he determined at once to make the situationclear to them. Early in the afternoon he summoned all the chiefs to acouncil at some distance from the village, where they could deliberatewithout interrupting, or being interrupted by, the festal proceedings.When they were assembled he made a short address to them, in which hereviewed what had been accomplished, and clearly stated what had yet tobe done.

  "True, the Arabs are scattered," he said. "You have all done nobly.But many of your men have been killed; many of your women are widows andyour children fatherless to-day. If your sacrifices, your toils, yourwounds, are not to be useless, you must not stay your hands until thisnest of venomous snakes is utterly destroyed. You must make one moreeffort, my brothers. It may not be a great one. The flower of the Arabarmy is destroyed; there cannot be more than a handful at theirstronghold. Our successes hitherto will have encouraged you, and youwill not fail to see that by one final blow you may destroy your enemiesfor e
ver. If, however, you let slip this opportunity, the Arabs will intime recover even from this great defeat, as they have recovered fromdefeats in the past, and by and by the old evil work of raiding forivory and slaves will begin again. I myself will lead you to this Arabstronghold, and in a few weeks the impregnable fortress of which theyboast shall be a heap of smoking ruins."

  The majority of the chiefs shouted an instant assent to Kuboko'sproposal, but some murmured discontentedly, and declared that they haddone enough; the Arab stronghold was far away, and they wished to getback to their own villages and resume their ordinary life. Tom acceptedthe position good-humouredly.

  "Let those who wish to go to their homes go," he said. "I understandtheir feeling. I myself long ardently to see my own home again. Letthem go, then; and I thank them for their brave and willing services.But for the rest--I ask you, brothers, shall we sacrifice a little more,and make the Arabs drink to the dregs the bitter cup they have so oftenbrewed for you their victims?"

  "We will! we will!" cried most of the chiefs.

  "It is well. Now, we have a long march before us, my brothers, but 'tisa long track that has no end. We shall reach their stronghold; we shallcapture it, and if perchance a great booty, stores of ivory stolen fromyou, should fall into our hands, I promise you it shall be divided amongyou in proportion to the number of men you severally furnish."

  The prospect of booty, conjoined with their deep-seated hatred of theArabs and their exultation at their recent victory, made the chiefs alleagerness to attempt the new enterprise. Many of the murmurers were nowamong the most anxious to volunteer, and Tom was intensely amused asthey tried with every appearance of artlessness to explain away theirprevious reluctance. He went on to say that he would not need all theirmen; he asked for only twelve hundred fighting men and as many carriers.But both carriers and warriors must be of the very best; he needed menwho were strong and active, and, above all, prompt to obey. He arrangedwith the chiefs to make a selection during the next few days from amongtheir contingents, and was secretly pleased when he found, as the workof selection proceeded, that the men who were not picked went about withdejected faces, and openly envied their comrades' good fortune.

  From prisoners who had fallen into his hands Tom learnt that when theArab force left, a garrison of about five hundred men remained in theisland fortress. They were all Arabs, well armed, under the command ofhis old enemy Mustapha, and secure in their possession of a post whichthey deemed impregnable. Before he could reach it, Tom had no doubtthat the garrison would be increased by the arrival of De Castro withthe survivors from his luckless expedition, and also by a certain numberof Rumaliza's force, who would succeed in evading pursuit and escapingthe perils of the forest. He might also have to reckon with the overdueraiding-party from the north. But even though the defenders of thefortress should number nearly a thousand, Tom was confident that twelvehundred of his disciplined and seasoned men would suffice to reduce theplace.

  Several days were spent in choosing men and collecting stores. Tomcould not resist Msala's plea to be allowed this time to take an activepart by his side. Mwonda was one of his lieutenants as a matter ofcourse, and Mbutu begged that his brother Mboda might accompany theexpedition. There was no lack of arms and ammunition; the chiefdifficulty that faced Tom was that of provisioning his force during themarch through the forest, which he expected, from information receivedfrom the prisoners, to occupy nearly a month. While the resources ofthe village and the surrounding country were being taxed to theuttermost, Tom sent a force of five hundred men into the forest to builda strong redoubt three days' march within its borders, and arranged withone of his allies, the chief of a small village still farther in theforest, destroyed by the Arabs in their advance, to return and rebuildhis village, with entrenchments and fortifications. Both these placeshe decided to make depots for large stores of grain, in order to reducethe work of the carriers with the expedition, and to form reserves incase of a check.

  It was a fine day in December, a week after the battle, when theexpedition started. Tom was convinced that in point of physique nofiner force ever set out on any military enterprise. During the week allthat good food and regular drill could do had been done to bring the meninto perfect condition, and, looking at their well-developed muscularframes and clear bright eyes, Tom felt proud to command them.

  The redoubt was already built and stocked when the column reached it atthe end of the third day's march. Two days later, on reaching thenative chief's village, Tom was surprised to see what progress had beenmade with its reconstruction. Men, women, and children were hard atwork, running up grass huts and stockading the whole enceinte. When theforce resumed their march next morning, Tom felt that the expedition wasbeginning in earnest.

  Then began the long march towards the Arab fortress, a march to whichTom always looked back with mingled pleasure and pain. His previousacquaintance with the great Congo Forest had been made in a time of suchstress, anxiety, and illness that he had missed many things which now,as he marched with a large confident force of warriors, he had moreleisure to notice. The column was led by a company of pioneers to clearthe path where it was overgrown with creepers and bush. Then came acompany of musketeers, followed by pikemen, among whom Tom kept hisplace, accompanied by the ever-faithful Mbutu. Behind these trudged thecarriers, strong straight men with no lumber about them, tramping alongsteadily beneath their burdens, poking fun at each other and at the menin front of them, laughing at any slight mishap that occurred duringtheir progress. After these came the rest of the force, the officersplaced among the men at intervals, big Mwonda being in command of therearguard. The march began each day at 6.30 and continued until 11,when the column halted for dinner and rest; it was resumed at 12.30, andended about 4 o'clock, to allow time for forming a camp before dark, andfor stragglers to rejoin. Ten miles a day was the longest distance thatcould be traversed through the denser undergrowth, and Tom learnt fromthe Arab prisoners whom he had brought with him as guides that, allowingfor delays caused by rivers to be crossed, felled trees to clamber over,detours to be made to avoid other obstacles, it would take him nearlythree weeks to reach the lake in the midst of which the island-fortressstood.

  Tom realized now for the first time what the worst difficulties offorest marching were. The ground was rank with vegetable corruption,the atmosphere with exhalations from myriads of dead insects, leaves,plants. At every pace his head, neck, arms, or clothes were caught by atough creeper, a calamus thorn, a coarse brier, or a giant thistle-likeplant, scratching and rending whatever portion they hooked on.Innumerable insects lent their aid to embarrass and worry him,especially the polished black ants, which dropped upon him from theleaves of trees as he passed, and inflicted bites worse than the wasp'ssting, till his skin was swollen up in large white blisters. Yellowants and termites also seemed to have an insatiable appetite, nibbling,gnawing, prowling all day long. There was the mantis, too, a strangeinsect five inches long, gaunt, weird, mysterious; and numbers ofladybirds, their brilliant red spotted with black. Tom heard therustling of millions of tiny wings, the garrulous chirp of crickets, thebuzz of ant-lions, the dull roar of bull-frogs. And over all the lowersounds was the crackle of twigs, the crash of falling branches, thecreaking of the huge, thick-clad stems as they were brushed by the wind.There were leopard-scratches on the boles; a genet cat was occasionallyseen; rhinoceroses and crocodiles were met at the broader streams; Tomwas told several marvellous stories of the incredible strength of thesokos; once or twice some of his men assured him that they had caughtsight of pigmies, who instantly disappeared as soon as they wereobserved. They gave no sign of hostility, and Tom congratulated himselfon the fact that his saving of the pigmy woman's child seemed to havewon for him the freedom of the forest.

  There was very little to indicate that the path had already beentraversed by a large Arab force. Occasionally the advance-guard cameupon the remains of a human body, sometimes a mere skeleton with chainsstill abou
t the neck and ankles--some poor slave left by the Arabs todie of starvation or by the more merciful agency of the wild beasts thathaunted the forest shades. The native habit was to walk round thesehorrible obstructions in the path, but Tom had ordered his men to removethem into the forest.

  On the sixth day of the march his foremost pioneer came running back tohim in great excitement. He had come upon a dead body lying across thepath, and he declared positively that it was the corpse of Mabruki.

  Tom was at first incredulous, but on reaching the spot he saw that thefigure stretched on the path was unmistakeably that of the medicine-man.He lay face downwards, and innumerable insects were already at work onhis body; but he could not have been dead long, for there was no sign ofmutilation by any wild beast. One of the men turned the body over, andthen Tom saw a pigmy spear transfixing the traitor's breast. The weaponwas evidently poisoned, for the twisted limbs and contorted featuresindicated that the hapless man had tasted death in one of its mostterrible forms.

  "Put him out of sight!" said Tom, shuddering as he passed on. Hesurmised that on escaping from the village to avoid the penalty due tohis treason, Mabruki had struck due north and had used his knowledge ofthe forest to make his way by side tracks into the depths far from themain path. He had struck into that path when all fear of meeting Tom'smen was gone, and then, while on his way to join the Arabs, or perhapsto foist his false magic upon some lesser chief, he had met with swiftdeath at the hands of the Bambute.

  The tragic end of the medicine-man made a deep impression on thenatives. Many of them had believed that he was invulnerable toeverything but superior magic, such as Kuboko's, and his death by sopaltry a weapon as a pigmy's spear destroyed the last shred of theirfaith in him. Hearing now for the first time the story of his treason,they were quick to connect his fate with his crime, and said amongthemselves that white man's medicine certainly reached far and neverfailed.

  Day followed day, and the march was little varied. Once or twice thecolumn passed the sites of what had been small villages, now waste anddesolate. The Arabs had burnt and destroyed every human habitation uponor near their path. There were streams here and there to be crossed,sometimes by fords, sometimes by tall trunks thrown across from bank tobank, once on a bridge consisting of a large tree submerged two feetbelow the surface. Whenever a temporary thinness in the foliageoverhead allowed the sunlight to stream fully on the path, the spiritsof the men seemed to respond, and they broke into song. Tom noticed theleader in these choruses, a tall handsome young fellow with a finemellow voice, clearly a prime favourite with the men. His songs werecomposed on the spur of the moment, but they were picked up at once byhis comrades, who raised the chorus in strange wild harmony, Tom hadbecome so accustomed to the ingenuous adulation of the negroes that itno longer caused a pang to his modesty to hear himself made the subjectof their paeans. One of their songs, roughly rendered in English,ran:--

  "Sing, O friends, sing! We are all warriors bold, and Kuboko is king. Aha! Aha! Strong is his arm and invincible; sing, brothers, sing! Blithely we march. Ah! what will the enemy say? On to the fortress; long is the way. Then we will eat and drink, dance all the livelong day. Aha! Aha!"

  Thanks to the slow rate of marching, regulated by the pace of thecarriers, to the good food-supply, and to the physical fitness of themen when they started, there had not been more than fifty cases ofsickness in the column, when, after twenty days' marching, Tom learntfrom his prisoners that he was but half a day from the lake in which theArab fort was situated. He pitched his camp that evening with even morecare than usual, and gave strict orders that no member of the force wasto stir beyond its bounds without permission. He sent forward a fewscouts to reconnoitre, and one of these reported, on his return to camp,that he had caught sight of several Arabs making their way rapidlytowards the lake.

  "The enemy's scouts!" thought Tom. "Well, we could not hope to surprisethem."

  He posted extra sentries that night, though he hardly expected anattack, and the hours of darkness passed without incident. By teno'clock next morning, Tom, with the head of the column, had reached thelake side. It was a larger sheet of water than he had expected to see,extending as far as the eye could reach in a north-westerly direction,bordered to the very edge with dense forest and extensive banks ofreeds. Some miles off, almost equidistant between the east and westshores, rose the island, a mass of dark green in the blue water. As thewarriors came in sight of it they raised great shouts. Not one of themhad seen it before, for the escape of a slave was an almost unknownevent. Tom himself felt a strange thrill as he looked over the placidwater and realized that that distant forest-covered islet was to be thescene of a stern fight. He stood gazing at it in silence, thinking ofthe long years during which it had been a hot-bed of cruelty and wrong,and he felt a thrill of joy at having attained the desire of hisheart--the opportunity to strike at the head of the slave-dragon."And," he said to himself, "please God, I will strike hard!"

  No well-trodden path led to the lake side. The men had had to make away for themselves through the underwood. On reaching the edge they cameupon clear signs of human activity--a rough landing-stage of boards,litter and debris of all kinds. But no human being except Tom's own menwas in sight, nor, so far as could be ascertained, was any boat mooredalong the shore, though the banks of reeds might well conceal manycraft.

  "Mbutu," said Tom, "clamber up that tall tree and tell me what you see."

  Mbutu, agile as a monkey, was soon swarming up a straight trunk.

  "I see a boat!" he cried, when he came near the top. "Long, long way;go dis way"--he waved his arm from east to west. "Go from shore toisland. Small canoe; four men. No more, sah."

  Tom called up a prisoner, and, questioning him, learnt that the canoewas probably crossing at the shortest passage, requiring only half thetime that would be taken from the point at which the expedition hadstruck the lake.

  "Anything more to be seen, Mbutu?"

  "No, sah, nuffin."

  "Come down, then; we'll have to do a little scouting."

  A path ran round the lake close to the edge, narrow and much overgrown,but evidently leading to the spot from which the canoe had started forthe island. Tom sent fifty of his best scouts, under Mboda, to explorethis path.

  "If you come across any canoes, seize them," he said. "Don't fight ifthey are defended in force; they probably won't be worth losing livesfor."

  While the scouts were gone he ordered the men to form an entrenchedcamp. For all he knew the enemy might be lurking in the forest ready totake advantage of any slip, any sign of unwariness; and until he hadlocated the Arabs, and, if possible, discovered what their strength was,it was impossible to form definite plans for an attack on the fortress.

  Towards dusk Mboda returned with his men and reported that the path grewwider and less obstructed as it bent northward. They had seen onecanoe, manned by a crew of half a dozen Manyema, who had shipped theirpaddles and jeered when they caught sight of the scouts. The bestmarksmen among these had tried a shot at the canoe, which, though it hadfallen short, had been sufficient to set the men hastily paddlingtowards the island. Mboda had tried to see exactly where theirlanding-place was, but the shore of the island appeared to be animpenetrable wall of jungle.

  When the evening meal had been eaten, and the camp-fires were lit, Tomsent for his prisoners again and subjected them to a furtherinterrogation. He learnt that the lake was fed by a small river flowingfrom the north-east, as well as by numerous rivulets at other points.The surplus water escaped on the left, where it formed a fairly largestream. The mouth of the river on the north-east was fringed with denseclumps of reeds.

  "Since there are apparently no canoes to be captured we shall have tomake some," said Tom to himself; "and that will take time. I hope ourstock of food will last till we capture the Arabs' stores. Dug-outswill be the easiest to make, I suppose. These men of mine have nevermade a canoe in th
eir lives, I suspect. Msala," he said aloud to thekatikiro, "could you make a canoe, do you think?"

  Msala looked doubtful, but at length said that he thought he could ifKuboko would show him the way!

  "Like the genius who had never played the fiddle, but thought he couldif he tried!" thought Tom. "O wise man!" he said. "That's a goodanswer. I'll try to show you the way, though I've done nothing of thesort since I broke a dozen pen-knives carving a sailing-boat when I wasa boy of twelve. The first question is, where are these canoes to bemade, eh?"

  Msala could give no assistance towards solving this problem, but Tomsoon thought it out for himself. The outlet on the west was wide, theprisoner had said, and comparatively free from reeds. Operations therewould run the risk of being disturbed, for no doubt the enemy possesseda considerable flotilla on the island. But the reeds at the mouth ofthe river on the north-east would serve as a screen, and a fewsharpshooters carefully posted would easily defend the position againstattack.

  "That's the place, evidently," said Tom. "To-morrow morning, Msala,we'll start building our fleet. Now for sleep, my men--we must be upearly in the morning."

  Next day he ordered his men to build a block-house where he had emergedfrom the forest, so as to intercept any fugitive Arabs who might havefound their way back to the lake, and to keep a general look-out.Leaving a garrison of two hundred men there, he started with the resttowards the north-east corner, which they reached after an arduous marchof fifteen miles, the path having to be cut after they left theprincipal landing-stage opposite the eastern shore of the island. Ithappened to be a particularly bright and clear day, and at differentpoints along the route Tom caught glimpses of the island, which enabledhim to form a fairly good idea of its character and extent. He judgedit to be about a mile long; it was covered with vegetation of the natureof jungle, tall forest-trees being conspicuously absent. The prisonerspointed out the exact spot, near the centre of the island, where thefort was situated, but so dense was the thicket that not a corner of itwas visible. They explained that, while the forest-growth at the shorewas allowed to remain in its pristine wildness, within this fringe andbehind some plantations the ground had been cleared, and the fort,capable of containing two thousand men, had been built on a slighteminence in the very centre of the island. It consisted of a double rowof palisades, fifteen feet in height, the exterior palisade beingdefended throughout its whole circuit by a glacis, with a slope of onefoot in four.

  "So there are two difficulties to surmount," thought Tom. "First, thedifficulty of reaching the island and landing my men; then thedifficulty of storming a fort defended by such high outworks and aglacis to boot. It's a case of scaling-ladders as well as canoes. Agreat piece of luck that I thought of bringing so many artificers amongthe carriers."

  When the force reached the mouth of the river, it was too late to beginthe work of constructing canoes. Tom ordered his men to make anentrenched camp, and to throw up a special earthwork behind the screenof reeds, where a company of picked marksmen could easily defend thecanoe-makers from attack. Early next morning Tom set all his men whohad axes to fell the largest and straightest teak in the forest, a fewhundred feet from the shore. When the trees were felled, another bandof men was set to strip off the foliage and bark, and so quickly didthey work that by nightfall a large number of huge logs lay ready forscooping out, varying in length from forty to sixty-five feet. Tom sawthat he would need a fleet of about forty-five canoes if he intended toconvey all his force to the island at one time, as would probably benecessary. He therefore selected the requisite number of trees himself,and while the carriers were felling these he instructed the warriors howto dig them out. He divided them into gangs of twenty to thirty, eachgang to form one canoe crew, and he set these to fashion their owncraft. He marked off equal lengths along the logs, and gave each manhis own portion to scoop out with knife or pike-head, encouraging themto work hard by the promise of a reward to the man who finished hisportion first. They all worked with a will, driving their tools intothe wood with unfaltering zeal, and showing much interest in their novelwork.

  While the digging-out was in progress, Tom employed other men in makingthwarts and rough paddles, and the best carpenters in constructingscaling-ladders. After ten days' work he was in possession offorty-five dug-outs, with their due equipment of paddles, and fiftyladders ten feet high. The canoes were, of course, keelless, and Tomknew that they were bound to sway and roll with the slightest movementof the body; but fortunately there was little likelihood of their havingto encounter rough weather, and he hoped that they would suffice toconvey his men across the four miles separating the lake shore at thispoint from the island. "They'll do as well as Napoleon's flat-bottomboats, I expect," he thought; "or better, for his invasion never cameoff, and mine will."

  The work had not been carried on for ten days without molestation.Every day canoes came from the island, filled with armed men, evidentlycurious to learn what was going on out of sight. On the first day theypaddled towards the mouth of the river, and Tom ordered his men behindthe earthwork to allow them to approach well within gunshot, and then tolet them have a sharp volley. The canoes came within fifty yards of theconcealed marksmen without suspecting their danger, and at least halfthe men on board were hit when the Bahima opened fire. The survivorspaddled away in frantic haste, and ever after that the canoes kept outof harm's way, the Arabs contenting themselves with patrolling the lake,in cheerful assurance that their fortress was impregnable. All thistime Tom sent scouting-parties regularly along the shore, from whom helearnt that at several points on the western side there were largeclearings, which appeared to have been slave settlements, and heconcluded that the slaves had either been withdrawn into the island orsent deeper into the forest.

  His preparations so far being complete--and none too soon, for the stockof food was running low,--Tom decided to make a reconnaissance towardsthe island. He first tested some of his canoes on the river, out ofsight from the Arabs, employing a few men who knew how to paddle, andfound to his great pleasure that, though clumsy and incapable of beingpropelled swiftly, they rode the water fairly upright, and were safeenough in a calm. He therefore ordered his men to launch half a dozenof the canoes at the mouth of the river, and with these fully mannedwith riflemen he moved slowly towards the island. The movement wasinstantly observed; hardly a minute had elapsed before a fleet of twentylight, swift canoes, filled with armed Manyema, shot out from the islandand made towards him. Recognizing that he could not hope to vie withthem in speed, and that he could not approach the island so closely ashe wished without running great risks, Tom ordered his men to paddleback, and regained his camp. A tremendous yell of delight from theArabs' canoes, ringing clear over the still water, bore witness to theenemy's confidence, but Tom only smiled. He remembered reading, in oneof Stanley's books, an account of how that great explorer had defendedsome canoes from attack in precisely similar circumstances, and oncemore he found his recollection serve him well. He sent his men into theforest, some to cut long poles an inch thick, others to cut poles threeinches thick and seven feet long, a third band to cut straight longtrees four inches thick, and a fourth to remove the bark from all theseand make bark-rope. While this was being done Tom selected three of thelongest canoes, and had them drawn up parallel to one another near thewater's edge, and four feet apart. As the stripped trees were broughtup they were laid across the canoes, and lashed firmly to the thwartswith the bark-rope. Then the seven-foot poles were lashed in an uprightposition to the thwarts of the outer canoes at the extreme edge, and theinch-thick rods were twisted in and out among these uprights, just asgipsies make baskets. After this, thin saplings were woven in throughany remaining interstices, and at the end of the day the structureresembled a huge oblong stockade of basket-work, sixty-five feet longand twenty-seven feet wide. A gap having been cut in one of its faces,and a rough gate made, the contrivance was complete.

  Next morning Tom went to a distance of th
ree hundred yards and tried ashot at the stockade with one of his men's rifles. The bulletpenetrated the wall, but fell dead inside. He then ordered his men tocollect reeds and large leaves from the toughest plants they could find,and with these to line the inside of the palisade. When this was donehe tried another shot, and found that the bullet embedded itself in thelining. Delighted with the assurance that the structure was practicallybullet-proof, he next instructed his men to make loopholes at intervalsalong the sides, and then ordered eight hundred of the carriers to hauland push the strange, awkward-looking fort to the water. He then sentsixty paddlers to take their places on the thwarts, and a hundred andfifty musketeers to find room among them. He was in some anxiety lestwith its full complement of men the fort should be too heavy to float,but a few moments' paddling convinced him that, unwieldy as it was, itwould ride the water, though to propel it with any speed was out of thequestion. A great shout of applause burst from the onlookers as thefloating fort moved a few yards towards the lake. Tom ordered it back,stepped on board, closed the gate, and started on his reconnaissance.

  The warriors left on shore watched the progress of the strange craftacross the lake. It went on slowly and steadily towards the island, andreached the middle of the channel before any sign of movement was madeby the enemy. Then forty canoes swept out swiftly from the island'sgreen bank, and in one of the foremost, as it came more clearly insight, Tom, spying through one of the loopholes, saw his old enemy DeCastro. The canoes came on rapidly; when within four hundred yards theystopped dead, and the men on board of them opened fire. The worstmarksman could hardly have missed so huge a target, and the exposed wallof the redoubt rang with the impact of hundreds of bullets, only a fewof which penetrated, to fall quite harmlessly in the water between thecanoes. Tom then ordered the paddlers to slew the fort round, so thatit presented one of its longer sides to the enemy, and a few momentslater a volley burst from the loopholes, doing considerable damage amongthe crowded craft of the Arabs. Seeing that the inventiveness of theEnglish lad had once more proved too much for him, De Castro, with acurse, ordered his men to paddle back to the island, and Tom was left tomake his reconnaissance unmolested.

  Slowly the unwieldy mass moved round the island--slowly, steadily, likesome uncouth leviathan. Even Tom's own men on shore, who had seen itmade, watched it with awe, and some of them cried out that it was aspirit in monstrous shape. As he circumnavigated the island, Tom kept akeen look-out towards it, and found that there were several possiblelanding-places, the shore being comparatively low. Deciding that themost convenient point of debarkation was a sparsely wooded tongue ofland at the south-east corner, Tom made a careful mental note of thewhole position, and returned to his own quarters, well satisfied withhis day's work.

  The next two days were spent in constructing two similar floatingredoubts, and in practising the men in paddling, for the majority ofthem were helpless on the water. Tom was loth to delay his attack, andfeared that De Castro might make an attempt to escape. He thereforewithdrew half the men from the block-house at the edge of the forest,and kept them, along with men from his force, constantly patrolling theshores of the lake, to watch for any movement from the island. Hisfears were groundless, as he afterwards discovered. De Castro did indeedsuggest to Mustapha that the principal men should decamp with thetreasure, leaving the fort to its fate, but the Arab curtly refused. Hehad sworn an oath on the Koran before Rumaliza's departure to defend thetreasure till the last, and he himself had a bone to pick with theaudacious English youth who had tied him up with his own rope in his ownhut. He was, besides, so positive that the enemy, even if he effected alanding, would fling himself in vain against the defences, that hescoffed at De Castro's fears and taunted him with cowardice.

  At dawn on a bright January day Tom set forth on his momentousenterprise. The three redoubts, each with two hundred men on board, ledthe way, followed by thirty canoes fully manned, these last containingthe worst marksmen in the force. Tom half expected that the enemy,having already proved their helplessness against the floating forts,would make no attempt to oppose his landing; but he soon saw that hispassage was not to be uncontested. Forty-five canoes came out to meethim. At a distance of a thousand yards the Arabs' flotilla divided intotwo squadrons, and, rowing three strokes to the one of Tom's paddlers,evidently intended to sweep behind the cumbrous redoubts and fall uponthe canoes, a design which Tom at once took steps to defeat. He washimself in the centre redoubt. He ordered the other two to move off toright and left until there was a clear quarter of a mile between him andthem. The formation of his flotilla had then roughly the shape of abent bow, the three redoubts representing the arc and the canoes theangle formed by the stretched string. By thus extending his front, Tomcompelled the Arabs to make a wide circuit. Even then they passedwithin range of the loopholed faces of the floating forts, and sufferedseverely from the merciless volleys poured out by the Bahima. Drawingout of range, they had just begun to converge behind the redoubts whenTom ordered these to stop, thus allowing time for his canoes behind toclose up and pass between them. The position was now reversed, the bowbeing pointed in exactly the opposite direction, Tom's canoes nearestthe island, and the Arabs' farthest away. Within his redoubt Tom coulddistinctly hear the wild threats and cries of De Castro as he orderedhis men to swing round and paddle back to the island.

  "He's afraid we shall be there first," said Tom with a smile to Mbutu.

  His move had completely disconcerted the enemy, who abandoned outrightthe attempt to delay the progress of the flotilla, and made off at fullspeed to the island. There most of the armed men disembarked, and theunarmed paddlers, with a few Arab marksmen as guard, withdrew the canoestowards the north.

  The Fight on the Lake]

  Tom's redoubt arrived without mishap off the spot selected for thelanding, and was there met by a tremendous fusillade from the enemyconcealed in the wood. Thanks to the stoutness of his palisade, hesustained no casualties, but it was evident that his men would sufferseverely if they landed before the woods were cleared. He knew from hisprisoners that thick copses stretched northwards and westwards from thetongue of land he had arrived at; about a hundred and fifty yards inlandthey gave place to plantations of pine-apples, bananas, and otherfruits; then came another belt of wild woodland fifty yards deep.Judging from the hotness of the enemy's fire that the woods coming downto the shore were full of marksmen, he decided that these must at oncebe cleared. He ordered the separate canoes to stand off for the presentout of range, and then sent two of the redoubts northwards to hug theshore, and halt about a hundred yards up, while he had his own redoubtpropelled for the same distance to the west. At a given signal, the menin the redoubts opened fire through the loopholes, their fire crossingover the south-east corner of the island, enfilading the copses thatcommanded the landing-place. After half an hour of this, Tom came tothe conclusion, from the sudden cessation of the enemy's fire, that theyhad abandoned their positions and fallen back into the belt of woodlandnearer the fort. He therefore landed two hundred fighting-men from eachof the two redoubts, unperceived by the Arabs, and sent one redoubt upcoast northwards, and another to the west, to divert, if possible, theenemy's attention from movements in their front. Then, running his ownredoubt on to the tongue of land, he ordered the canoes in the offing topaddle up swiftly and disembark their men, retaining the men in his ownredoubt to protect the landing-parties. But no attack was made; thelanding was quickly effected. Tom then threw open the gate of hisredoubt, disembarked his fighting-men, and sent the redoubt back to themainland to fetch the scaling-ladders, and a supply of food andammunition, including a number of fire-balls he had brought with himfrom the village.

  He had now more than a thousand men safely on the island. As soon asthey were formed up, he led eight hundred forward to penetrate thecopse, and, after discovering by means of skirmishers that the movementsof the redoubts had, as he hoped, drawn off a large body of the enemyfrom his front, he threw his men a
cross the plantations and into thefarther wood. There, after a sharp fight, in which his mendistinguished themselves by the nimbleness with which they workedforward under cover of the trees, he had the satisfaction of seeing theArabs bolt across the open space beyond, and enter the fort by the gatein the outer stockade. Between himself and the glacis the land wasabsolutely clear of trees.

  There were three gates to the fort, as Tom had learnt from theprisoners, one at the north, one at the east, and the one at the southby which the Arabs had just entered. Before sunset he had formed anentrenched camp opposite the eastern gate, into which he drew the wholeof his force. Next morning he sent one redoubt, accompanied by fivecanoes, each way round the island to search for the Arab flotilla,surmising that the enemy, fearing an assault in front, would not ventureto despatch a sufficient force to protect their boats. It turned out ashe hoped. The redoubts returned in the afternoon, and reported that theenemy's canoes were found moored along the northern shore, under thecharge of a mere handful of Manyema, who, when they saw the mysteriousforts bearing remorselessly down upon them, did not wait to fire evenone volley, but incontinently fled. Mwonda, who had been in command ofthe expedition, gleefully pointed to the long lines of canoes which hehad brought back with him, towed by the redoubts and by the ten canoeswhich had accompanied them.

  "Well done, Mwonda!" said Tom. "Now we will keep twenty of the capturedcanoes for our own use; the rest you can tow out into the lake and seton fire. We shall thus effectually prevent any of our enemy fromescaping."

  The men cheered wildly as they saw the blaze on the surface of thewater, and clamoured to be led against the fort. But Tom called thekatikiro, the kasegara, and other chief men to his side.

  "My friends," he said to them, "I have come to beat the Arabs, as youknow. But in the fights we have already had much blood has been shed.It would be right, I think, t avoid further loss of life, both amongourselves and among the enemy, for many of them, as you know, areManyema, who only fight for the Arabs their masters, and would beincapable of mischief without their leaders. I propose, therefore, toinvite Mustapha, the chief in command, to surrender."

  Every member of the little council was absolutely averse to thisunexpected proposal. Msala declared that he had come to kill Arabs; hewould rather kill them in fair stand-up fight, but if they surrenderedhe would kill them all the same, so that no bloodshed would be savedamong them at any rate.

  "Msala," said Tom sternly, "you have ill learnt the lessons I have triedto teach you. If the Arabs surrender they shall not escape altogether,but they must not be killed. I should hand the leaders over to theCongo Free State to be tried by its courts, like the court of justice inour village, of which you are such an ornament, Msala. The rest of theenemy I should allow to go free, but without firearms, and thusincapable of doing further mischief."

  The katikiro still raised objections, but Tom combated them one by one,and at last brought all the officials to agree to his proposal.Accordingly he called up Mboda, Mbutu's brother, as one of the mostintelligent of the men with him, and sent him forward under a white flagto the gate of the fort, with directions to ask for Mustapha himself,and to deliver to him in form the summons to surrender. The messengerreturned in about half an hour. He had spoken with Mustapha, who wasaccompanied by a little dark man with evil face. Mustapha had at firstrefused to treat, but at De Castro's request had at length agreed that ameeting should take place between the opposing leaders half-way betweenthe camp and the fort. He proposed to come himself with two of his chiefmen, all unarmed, and he invited Kuboko to do likewise. Mboda had onlyjust delivered this message when Mbutu broke in impetuously:

  "Not go, sah," he said. "De Castro bad man; him come; him remember sahknock him down; him no friend; him no speak good words. Mustapha too;him tied; him berrah mad, oh yes! Not go, sah."

  "Don't be afraid, Mbutu. There is honour among thieves. They havethemselves proposed to come without arms. We shall merely have a talk,and be done with it. Go back, Mboda, and say that I agree to theproposal, and will meet Mustapha and his friends in an hour's timemidway between our positions. Both sides, it is understood, will comeunarmed."

  An hour later Tom set off to the meeting, accompanied by Mwonda, and byMboda as interpreter. He thought it well not to provoke the two hostilechiefs unnecessarily by bringing Mbutu before them, and Mbutu, muchagainst his will, remained in the camp, his heart filled with misgiving.To relieve him, Tom said, just before he started:

  "You can keep a sharp look-out, Mbutu, and if you do see any openmovement of treachery, which for my part I do not expect, you will ordera company of men to fire, taking care not to hit me or my friends, youknow."

  As he approached the meeting-place he saw three men issue from the gateof the fort. He looked at them with interest. There was his old enemyMustapha, his opponent in single-handed fight, his captor, and hisvictim. By his side, dwarfed by the Arab's giant frame, was De Castro,his red shirt and yellow breeches seeming all the more gaudy beside thewhite robes of the Arabs. The third figure--it was with a start thatTom recognized Mahmoud the hakim, who had befriended him to the utmostof his power during his short captivity months before. The two littlegroups met in the open field, and bowed ceremoniously, no outward signof recognition passing between Tom and the other side. Curiouslyscanning the features of the Portuguese, Tom almost found it in hisheart to pity him. His face was lined and haggard, its expression wasfierce and darker than ever; the iron of disappointment and defeat hadevidently entered deep into his soul. He eyed Tom with an insolent andmalignant scowl, and kept clenching and unclenching his fists. Mustaphawas much more composed, preserving the impassivity so characteristic ofhis race.

  Tom wasted no time in preliminaries. He gave no explanation of hispresence there at the head of a great force of armed Bahima; hecourteously but plainly stated the terms he had come topropose--unconditional surrender, the leaders to be placed in the handsof the Free State Government, their followers to be disarmed anddismissed. If these terms were not accepted the fort would be stormed.Mustapha looked at him in silence for a moment; then his eyes flashed,and he cried:

  "You come to me to propose terms? You, my enemy! Know that you are inmy power. You will storm my fort? You shall never enter it alive. Ihave waited for this day; my revenge has been long in coming, but it hascome at last. I fought you by the river; would to Allah I had slainyou! I kept you a captive and fed you; would that I had slain you then!Now is the third time; you shall not escape me."

  De Castro, who had ill concealed his impatience, here took a stepforward, spat upon the ground, and began to speak in broken English.

  "I mock at you, I laugh at you, Inglese," he cried. "You dare threatus? Who has the greater army, I like to know? You take the fort! Bah!Is it a dog's kennel? You talk to me, eh? I talk to you, so; I say,you insolent puppy; you no take fort; no. You go back to your camp, andin a little while our army will come to you and drive you into thewater. Bah, I spit at you!"

  Tom paid no heed to the furious man's insolence. He turned quietlytowards Mustapha, and with unruffled courtesy said:

  "Have I your final answer?"

  His manner evoked a corresponding politeness from the Arab, whose reply,as translated by Mboda, was simply:

  "I have sworn an oath. I will not surrender. I will fight you."

  Tom decided to make one more appeal. Addressing the hakim, who hadstood hitherto gravely silent, he said in German:

  "Mahmoud, my friend, cannot you persuade Mustapha, to abstain from ahopeless contest? You have all heard of my success till now. You,surely, do not doubt that I shall succeed again? You yourself were kindto me; I should be deeply grieved if, during the struggle that seemsinevitable, any harm came to you. Will you not induce your chief togive way?"

  The stately hakim looked with kindly eyes upon the young Englishman,whose earnest and friendly tone had touched him. Then he shook hishead.

  "I am an Arab," he said. "Whether we win
or lose, whether we live ordie, all rests with Allah. I am Mustapha's man."

  "I am sorry," replied Tom, and was about to take leave when De Castrosaid suddenly:

  "You speak French?"

  "Yes."

  Then, speaking rapidly in that language, De Castro suggested that Tomshould give him a safe-conduct for himself and his property. In thatcase he promised to deliver up the fort; he cared nothing, he said, whatthen became of the Arabs. Tom looked at the traitor with silent scorn.The Portuguese quailed for a moment; then, his face livid with rage andmortification, he glared at Tom's accusing face, and burst out inSwahili, clearly for the benefit of Mustapha, who was looking at himwith suspicion:

  "Have you your answer, puppy? Will you go? To-morrow I will have youin the fort, tied to a post, and you shall not escape me again. Now Imake you my bow."

  With a low mocking inclination he turned away. Tom bowed to the Arabs,and also turned. At that instant De Castro wheeled round, whipped arevolver from his pocket, and fired point-blank at Tom. The shotmissed, but struck Mwonda, immediately in front of Tom, and wounded himin the shoulder. The giant turned round with a roar like a bull's, andsprang towards his treacherous assailant. De Castro pointed hisrevolver again at Tom; the bullet whistled past his ear. Cursing hisill-luck, the Portuguese turned just in time to elude the raised arm ofMwonda, and at that moment a volley rang out from the camp; one of thebullets sped past Tom and hit De Castro's left arm. The revolver fellfrom his right hand, and with a howl of agony and rage he bolted up thefield into the fort. Mustapha disdained to run; he walked back in hisstately way, and escaped. The hakim was not so fortunate. As he wasreturning to the fort, a little behind Mustapha, he was shot through theback, and fell. Tom sprang to the fallen man, and at the same momentMbutu, at the head of a hundred musketeers, came running out of the campin desperate fear for his master's safety. Tom reached the hakim,lifted him in his arms, carried him a few steps, called Mboda to assisthim, and hurried with the heavy burden towards his own camp just as avolley flashed from the fort. The shots were hasty and ill-directed,and, covered by Mbutu's company, who halted and poured a steady firetowards the fort, Tom and his two companions safely reached the shelterof their entrenchments, and, panting with their exertions, laid theunconscious hakim on the ground. Mbutu returned with his menimmediately afterwards, the whole incident having occupied little morethan a minute. Tom had much trouble in restraining his infuriatedtroops from rushing upon the fort without further delay.

  "Wait, my men," he cried; "they shall pay to-morrow." And he turned toexamine the hakim's wound.

  Mahmoud died at dawn, having recovered consciousness for but one briefmoment, during which he pressed Tom's hand, smiled at him with the samegrave, wise smile, and murmured: "It is the will of Allah; all is well."

  Tom buried him on a little hillock at the lake side. Then he set abouthis preparations for the final struggle, with a fierceness foreign tohis nature. His heart was filled with bitter resentment against thedastard whose treachery had brought unnecessary death upon an innocentman. "Within twenty-four hours it shall be finished," he said tohimself with grim resolution.

  He did not underrate the difficulty of the task before him. From thenumber of canoes that had met him on the lake, and the number of men inthem, he calculated that the garrison in the fort amounted to at least athousand men. The five hundred left by Rumaliza had been increased byfugitives from his own and from De Castro's force, and further by acompletely equipped force of two hundred and fifty men who had returned,a few days before Tom's arrival, from an expedition northwards. Withsuch a garrison, and the advantage of a strong position behind a glaciswhich could be swept from end to end by rifle fire, the fort wasobviously secure against direct attack with a force of only elevenhundred and fifty men. Investment, again, would not only be a veryprotracted affair, but was likely to fail, for the Arabs were no doubtwell provisioned, while Tom had only a scanty stock of food. If theycould have been deprived of water a siege would soon terminate, but Tomhad learned from the prisoners that a constant supply was obtained froma deep well within the fort. The only method left was a night-attack,and after his previous experience De Castro would unquestionably be onhis guard against surprise. Still, it seemed the only possible course,and Tom, after breakfast, sat down to think out the points involved.

  The most common danger attending a night-attack--the risk of losing theway and stumbling on the enemy unawares--was absent. Further, theattackers could approach the palisade under cover of darkness with lessrisk of suffering serious loss by rifle fire than if the assault weremade by daylight. By making feints in two or three quarters Tom couldthrow his main force in overwhelming strength on the real point ofattack. And, last consideration of all, the Arabs had an inveteraterepugnance to fighting by night, whereas his own troops had by repeatedsuccesses gained confidence in this respect. The only greatdisadvantage was that, unfamiliar as he was with the interior of thefort, he could not be sure in the darkness of directing the attacktowards the most vulnerable points; but this drawback might beneutralized by a simple means he had at hand.

  A night-attack was therefore decided on. Tom prayed that the nightmight be dark. He called up one of the prisoners, and made him draw arough plan of the fort on a leaf torn from his pocket-book. Then hesent one of the redoubts to the mainland to fetch further stores and tobring back a number of carriers with knives and axes. When thesearrived he set them to work in cutting a path through the bush on theeast side of the island in order that his troops might move rapidly fromplace to place without being seen. While the carriers were engaged inthis task a sudden shout from the south apprised him that something washappening in that quarter. In a few moments a messenger came up withthe news that the enemy had made a sortie from the south gate with theevident intention of capturing the canoes, and had driven back the postplaced between the plantations and the belt of copse. But this move hadbeen already provided against. When the Arabs reached the shore theysaw, to their chagrin, that the canoes lay two hundred yards out on thelake, under the protection of one of the floating forts. Tom sent threehundred men under the kasegara to intercept the enemy as they returned.The Bahima placed themselves just within the copse in a line parallel tothe path leading to the gate, and poured in a hot fire at the Arabs asthey hastened back. Mustapha, in the fort, was on the alert; he threwout a large force to cover the retreat of his men, and but for this itseemed likely that the sortie-party would have been cut off from theirbase and annihilated. As it was, they lost heavily, and no similarorganized attempt was made during the rest of the day, though occasionalshots were fired from the fort as if to show that the enemy was notnapping.

  Taking advantage of the freedom from serious interference, Tom devotedhimself to his plan of operations. He decided that the real attackshould be made, not from his camp, east of the fort, as the Arabs wouldno doubt expect, but from the south. The katikiro with two hundred menwould make a feigned attack from a point north of the fort, and thekasegara with another two hundred would demonstrate vigorously againstthe east. Each of these feigned attacks would be accompanied with heavyrifle-fire, and, while they were in progress, Tom himself would lead astrong force against the southern portion of the palisade, from which heexpected that most of the defenders would have been drawn off towardsthe apparent danger north and east.

  At nightfall, then, Tom called his officers together and explained hisplans. He was somewhat surprised to see Mwonda among them, for thegiant had been badly wounded in the right shoulder. He was still moresurprised to learn that the heroic negro had got a companion to cut thebullet out of his flesh, and had borne the terrible pain without so muchas a groan. He came now, with his right shoulder bound up, and hismusket in his left hand, determined to wreak vengeance in person for thetreacherous blow dealt him.

  "You are a brave fellow, Mwonda," said Tom. "You shall be in command ofthe northern force, and the katikiro shall stay with me. The kasegarawill attack fi
rst, on the east, when I send him word, an hour beforedawn. When you hear his rifles in play, Mwonda, you will make a shamattack on the north gate. Understand, you are both to keep up a heavyfire, and shout as loud as you like; but you are not to make a realattack until you get orders from me."

  Since his arrival on the island Tom had taken no pains to preservesilence in the camp, and on this night he ordered companies of a hundredmen, in addition to the usual sentries, to be kept awake in turn, eachfor an hour, so that their chatter might delude the enemy and cover upany sounds made by his troops as they moved to their positions. Twohours before dawn the movements began. Mwonda led his men northwards,being instructed to march as silently as possible. Tom, accompanied byMbutu and Msala, went southwards with seven hundred men, leaving thekasegara in charge of the camp with orders to keep his men talking untilhe received the signal for beginning the sham attack. With Tom's menwent fifty carriers with scaling-ladders, and before starting he orderedone man in five to take a fire-ball in addition to his gun or pike.When they reached the position he had decided on, he briefly explainedwhat they were to do. Then he turned to Mbutu and the katikiro and saidquietly:

  "If I fall, press home the attack with all your might. The men willfollow you if you only show them strong leadership. And, Mbutu, when thefight is over, if I am not alive, I trust to you to make your way toKisumu, and tell my uncle, if he is there, or the English commander ifhe is not, all that has happened to me. That is my last request."

  Then he sent a messenger to the kasegara. Ten minutes later a sharpvolley was heard in the direction of the camp, accompanied by savageyells. Immediately afterwards shouts and the crackle of rifles wereheard, less distinctly, from the north.

  "My men," said Tom, "now is our turn. Go quietly through the copse,make a rush to the foot of the slope; scramble up, on hands and knees ifyou must, and make for the palisade. No firing, mind; nothing butbayonets and pikes at first. Don't fire till I give the word. Now,advance!"

  Two hundred men being left in reserve, Tom's little force consisted offive hundred musketeers and pikemen, and the fifty carriers with thescaling-ladders. These latter held the ladders in front of them as apartial protection from rifle fire. The whole force moved quicklythrough the woodland, gained the bottom of the glacis with a rush, andbegan the ascent. The front ranks were half-way up before their presencewas discovered. Then a brisk fusillade broke out from the fort, andseveral men fell. The rest threw themselves on their hands and knees,and finished the ascent at a scramble. The point made for was a fewyards to the left of the gateway. While the bullets were flyingerratically over the palisade, the carriers placed their ladders againstit, and as, owing to the slope, they stood somewhat insecurely, Tomordered four men to hold each while the rest mounted. In hardly morethan a minute a hundred men were within the palisade, to find themselvesexposed to cross-fires from the gate and from a line of fencing thrownacross from the inner stockade to the outer, thus dividing the spacebetween them into compartments. But faster than the gaps were made theywere filled by fresh men swarming over the fencing. Tom was over amongthe first. He ordered some of the ladders to be hauled across andplanted against the inner palisade, now more strongly defended byreinforcements which the first alarm had drawn from north and east. TheArabs were firing not only over the palisade, but through loopholes init. Luckily the invaders had already spread, so that there were noclose ranks to be decimated by the fusillade, and in the darkness andthe flurry the defenders' fire was necessarily ill-aimed.

  "Light fire-balls!" cried Tom in a clear voice. In half a minute twentyflaming balls whizzed through the air and over the inner stockade,lighting up the interior of the fort with its huts and tents, andshowing the loopholes in the fencing. These became the target for Tom'sbest marksmen as he now at last gave the order to fire. Bullets flewfast; war-cries seemed to split the air; the defenders were alreadyverging on panic. Some were making desperate attempts to extinguish thefire-balls, only to become the marks for more of those flaming missiles.A hut was already alight, and Tom's men were now swarming almostunchecked over the palisade. A few fire-balls had speedily cleared outthe enemy from the cross fence, and this position was immediatelyoccupied by the Bahima. The katikiro, at Tom's orders, had led a partyof men with scaling-ladders to the left along the enclosure between thepalisades to a point opposite the eastern gate, and cries from thatquarter told that a position had been occupied there. Thus in less thanhalf an hour three positions were held by the attackers. Several hutsin the interior of the fort were in flames, and the defenders wererushing hither and thither, exposed to destructive rifle-fire from theirown palisades.

  Tom had already sent instructions to the kasegara and Mwonda to ceasetheir demonstrations as soon as they saw a strong light in the fort, andto move towards each other and join forces. When the junction was made,and as soon as carriers with scaling-ladders arrived, they were to makea vigorous attack in real earnest at a point midway between their formerpositions, that is, from the north-east. Profiting by the respite fromattack on the north and east, Mustapha and De Castro, who had giventheir orders hitherto from the very centre of the fort, now began to gettheir men into some sort of order, rallying them around Rumaliza'shouse. Hardly had this been done when a great din to the north-eastannounced that an assault was commencing there.

  "Over into the fort, men!" cried Tom as soon as he heard the welcomesound. Up they clambered, up the ladders already planted against theinner palisade, up and over, hundreds of eager men pouring into theenclosure, no obstacle now between them and their enemy. Brought tobay, the Arabs fought desperately, dodging behind huts, seizing everypoint of vantage, knowing well that their former victims would sparenone of them. Many of their dwellings were now ablaze, and in thebrilliant illumination scores of the Manyema could be seen using theBahima's scaling-ladders to escape over the palisades into the darkness.The Arabs themselves held their ground more stubbornly, but theirenemies were now closing all round them. The attackers under Mwonda hadmet with but feeble resistance, for the majority of the defenders at thenorth-east had been withdrawn to withstand the earlier attack from thesouth. Mwonda himself, whose bellow could be heard above all othernoises, plunged along at the head of his men, swinging his heavy musket,disdaining the few bullets that fell around him, and searchingeverywhere for the wretch who had shot him when he was unarmed.

  As the space between the stockades filled with the exultant Bahima,hundreds of the enemy flung down their arms and begged for mercy.

  "Spare all who surrender!" shouted Tom, and the order was repeatedthrough the ranks of his men. Some of the enemy, however, scorning toyield, fought with the courage of despair to the bitter end, and wereshot down or speared after they had themselves done great execution onthe now crowded ranks of their assailants. Tom had several times caughtsight of Mustapha moving about among his men, but not once had De Castrobeen visible. The centre of the fortress was occupied by a range ofbuildings of more solid construction than the huts nearer the stockade.It was Rumaliza's own house, a substantial stone structure of twostories, with a veranda running around the upper story, obviously aneffort after comfort amid savage surroundings, and modelled on theresidences of merchants on the coast. Tom, joined by Mwonda, andaccompanied by Mbutu and the katikiro, led a small force of Bahimatowards this building, in which he conjectured that some of the enemy,perhaps De Castro himself, had taken refuge. The walls were loopholed,and from these, as well as from the veranda, a hot fire met the littlegroup. Two of the men fell. The door was of stout oak.

  "We must burst it in," said Tom. "Find a stout beam, Mbutu. Quick!"

  Mbutu darted away, and soon returned with three men hauling a massivebeam, obtained by cutting down the post supporting the roof of aneighbouring hut. Just as they reached the door one of the three menwas shot through the heart, and a bullet from above struck Tom in thethigh.

  "I'm hit, Mbutu," he said. "Bind this strip of linen tightly round myleg; there's t
he place."

  "Come away, sah, come away!" cried Mbutu pleadingly.

  "Not yet. This door must come down first. Msala, batter the door in.Come, lift the battering-ram, men! Now then, one, two, three--that'sit! The door's started. Now again, one, two, three! Ah! it's down.In you go, men! I'm coming!"

  As the door fell in with a crash, the party of twenty men poured in, Tomlimping painfully after them. There was no resistance; the room wasempty.

  "Up the stairs!" cried Tom. "Don't waste a minute!"

  Mwonda was already springing up the ladder in the corner of the room,taking three steps at a time. In twenty seconds he came tumbling backinto the room, yelling that the upper floor also was empty. At thatmoment there was a shout from the rear of the house. Bushing out, theBahima found themselves in a sort of yard. The gate was open, andbeyond were evidently outhouses and store-rooms. At one side of theyard was a man chained to a post, and yelling with all his might. Bythe feeble light from the now diminishing conflagration outside, Tom ashe hastened up recognized Herr Schwab. The recognition was mutual.

  "Out, out!" cried the German. "Zey are outside."

  "Cut him loose," cried Tom to one of his men as he passed by, heedlessof further cries from the German.

  Mwonda and Msala were already in the narrow lane beyond the yard. Therewas no sign of the enemy.

  "After them!" cried Tom. "Don't wait for me; I'll follow as quickly asI can."

  The little band swept on, out of the lane, past the outhouses, into theopen ground again. There they learnt that some twelve men had suddenlydashed out into the open, headed by Mustapha and the "small devil", asthe Bahima called De Castro. The Arabs had rushed across towards thewestern part of the palisade, burst open a gate which had hithertoescaped the notice of the attackers, and clambered over the outerstockade. Six of their number were shot as they mounted, but the restsucceeded in getting clear away and disappeared.

  Hearing this, Mwonda dashed in hot pursuit with his party. But though,utterly regardless of their own safety, they ran madly down the glacis,into the copse, through the plantation, down to the shore, they saw notrace of the enemy, who, knowing the ground perfectly, had made goodtheir escape. Mbutu had hurried after the pursuers at Tom's command, andordered them to waste no time in searching. Tom was himself unable towalk farther than the stockade, where he met them as they returned, and,learning that they had failed to find the fugitives, he instantlyinstructed Mbutu to hurry down to the landing-place and order ten canoesto be manned and to patrol round the island.

  "Let them go in opposite directions, and watch every yard of the shore,"he said. "I will come myself immediately."

  The sky was now lightening with the dawn. Tom ordered four of his mento carry him down to the landing-place on one of the scaling-ladders.His wound was giving him intense pain, but feeling that if Mustapha, andabove all De Castro, escaped, his victory would be shorn of half of itsglory, and his work be left incomplete, he resolved that at whatevercost he would personally direct the search for the fugitives. While hewas being carried to the shore he ordered the katikiro to despatchparties into every corner of the island to search the woods thoroughly.

  Just as he arrived at the landing-place, Mbutu came hastily to his side,and declared that he had that instant seen a small canoe stealingwestward. It was now half a mile from the shore.

  "Put me into one of the Arab canoes," said Tom; "the lightest you canfind to hold twenty paddlers. Order two other canoes to follow."

  A few minutes later his canoe was being rapidly propelled in thedirection of the chase, which Tom could now see was manned by a crew ofsix, and had one man in the stern who was not paddling and who had abandage on one arm.

  "Paddle your hardest, men," cried Tom; "that is our arch enemy."

  The negroes responded vigorously, and it was soon evident that the chasewas being gradually overhauled. The crew of six were straining everynerve to escape, and every now and then the man in the stern turned hishead to look at the pursuing craft, and then cried aloud to his men toincrease their efforts. Tom fixed his eyes unswervingly on the stern ofthe fleeing canoe.

  "It is De Castro unmistakeably," he said to himself, as the man turnedonce more. The expression of mingled despair, rage, and fright on hisface was fearful to behold. Suddenly he turned completely round, leantover the stern of the canoe, and took aim with his rifle at the canoenow so rapidly overtaking him. The bullet whizzed past Tom's ear. Tomlooked round for a weapon with which to return the fire, but saw thatnot one of his crew was armed with a musket, so great had been the hasteof the embarkation. But from the first of the other pursuing canoes,now close up to Tom's, a shot rang out. It struck the side of DeCastro's canoe. The Portuguese took aim again, and this time the bulletstruck one of Tom's men, who screamed and dropped his paddle. A rain ofbullets from the other canoes fell around the fugitive, but he seemed tobear a charmed life.

  "He is a devil," said one of Tom's men; "shots cannot hurt him."

  Suddenly Tom observed a commotion among the six Arabs. A man that lookedlike Mustapha rose in the boat, raised his paddle above his head, and,just as De Castro was about to fire a third time, brought it down withtremendous force upon his unsuspecting head. He was leaning forwardover the stern; his head fell on the edge, and in an instant the Arabhad caught his legs and thrown him over into the water. He sank like astone, and a dark circle formed in the frothing wash of the canoe.Within two minutes Tom's canoe arrived at the scene of the tragedy, butthere was no sign of the victim. Tom stopped the canoe, to cruise roundon the chance of De Castro reappearing. The other canoes stopped also,and loud cries of satisfaction rose from their crews. But when after aminute or two it became evident that the Portuguese would be seen nomore, Mwonda uttered a yell of rage at his being thus snatched frompersonal vengeance. Tom meanwhile had ordered two canoes to continuethe chase after the Arabs; but their craft, lightened by the loss of DeCastro, was bounding over the water, the paddlers profiting by thetemporary cessation of the pursuit. The Bahima paddled hard, and calledto the crew of one of the patrol-canoes approaching from the north tojoin in the chase. But their efforts were vain. The fugitives gainedthe western shore, ran the canoe between two banks of reeds, and plungedinto cover before the pursuers could overtake them. Mwonda dropped hishead on his sound arm, and burst into tears. Then, lifting his hugebody, and standing to his full height in the canoe, he passionatelycalled upon all the evil spirits of his tribe by name, and adjured themto shrivel up the escaped Arabs with their blighting influence, and toinflict upon them tortures unspeakable until they were dead. Then thecanoes were put about. Mwonda uttered one more bitter malediction as hepassed over the spot where De Castro had sunk, and was still bemoaninghis ill-luck when he overtook his victorious but weary and faintingmaster.