Samba: A Story of the Rubber Slaves of the Congo

by Herbert Strang

While Jack was still with Makoko, another man came running up from the southern end of the fort and reported that he had heard the sound of many men advancing up the stream. Clearly a serious attack was intended at last. Sending word to Barney to remain on the qui vive at the southern wall, Jack waited anxiously for the glimmering light of dawn to reveal the enemy.

At last he could see them. They took little pains to conceal themselves. Elbel's riflemen were assembling on the ridge of the slope above. Among them were men carrying each a small barrel on his shoulder. They must have made a wide circuit from their camp below so that their movements might not be suspected until they were well in position.

The word was rapidly passed round the fort. In a few seconds every man was at his appointed place. The women and children had been bidden to remain in their huts, for a part of the enclosure being exposed to fire from the slope above, it would have been dangerous for any one to cross. Barney and his men at the southern wall were protected from this fire in their rear by the huts. At the northern wall Jack stood on a narrow platform by the gate, similar to that which he had used at his former camp near Ilola. His riflemen were posted below him, half of them at loop-holes left at intervals in the wall, the remainder just behind, ready to take their places at the word of command.

Jack was surprised to feel how little flustered he was. The responsibilities of the past months had bred self-control, and the capacity to grasp a situation quickly and act at once. And constant work with the same men, whom he had learned to know thoroughly, had created a mutual confidence which augured well for their success when put to the test.

A glance assured Jack that the main attack, if attack was intended, would be made by the riflemen. The spearmen in the valley of the river were designed to create a diversion and weaken the force available to oppose the principal assault. Barney could be trusted to hold his own against them.

So little did the enemy, having gained the position above, seek to conceal their movements, that Jack was tempted to salute them with a volley that must have done great execution—the range being scarcely two hundred yards. But Elbel seemed to know by instinct the feeling by which Jack would be animated. He evidently counted on being allowed to fire first. And indeed there was little time for Jack to consider the matter, for even as he made a mental note of the enemy's bravado, he heard a word of command given in a loud voice, and saw Elbel emerge from a small clump of bushes at the edge of the gully. The whole force, except ten men carrying barrels, flung themselves flat on their faces; and Jack had only time to give a rapid warning to his men when a scattered volley flashed from the line of prone figures, the bullets pattering on the stone wall like hail on a greenhouse.

Next moment the men with the barrels dashed forward, some making for the blockhouse above the gully, others for that at the opposite end of the northern wall. Through the clear space between the two parties the riflemen continued to fire as fast as they could reload. It was clear to Jack that Elbel expected the fire of his two hundred rifles, added to the unexpectedness of the movement, to keep down the fire of the defenders long enough to enable the barrel men to reach the blockhouses. But in this he was disappointed; nothing but a direct and combined assault on the wall would have gained the time he required. His rifle fire from a distance was quite ineffective. Jack had ordered his men to keep out of sight, and to fire through the loop-holes in the wall, aiming, not at the riflemen lying on the ground, but at the men sprinting with the barrels. Consequently, when the twenty-five rifles within the fort replied to the first volley, three of the runners fell on the one side and two on the other, their barrels rolling down the slope, some over the edge into the gully, others towards the copse on the east.

The other men, seeing the fate of their comrades, thought of nothing but their own safety. They dropped their barrels and rushed back. But even then they did not take the safe course. Instead of scattering and so lessening the chances of being hit, the two parties joined, and ran up the slope in a compact group. None of them reached the line of prostrate riflemen who were still blazing away ineffectually at the walls and blockhouses. The unfortunate men were caught in full flight and fell almost at the same moment, each man struck by several bullets.

Not till then did Jack allow his riflemen to turn their attention to the enemy's firing line. But one volley was sufficient. Elbel saw that his scheme had totally failed, and his position was untenable. Not a man of his opponents could be seen; his men had only small loop-holes to fire at, and the average negro is not a sufficiently good marksman to be formidable in such conditions. The defenders, on the other hand, found the enemy an excellent target; for, by some inexplicable piece of folly, Elbel had not ordered them to seek cover behind the many rocks and boulders that were scattered over the ground. He had lost all his barrel men and several of his riflemen, and within five minutes of the first volley he drew off his troops.

A yell of delight from the stockade followed his retirement. The men slapped their thighs and shouted "Yo! Yo!" until they were hoarse. The women and children poured out of the huts and danced about with wild enjoyment. Imbono's drummer banged with all his might. Some of the boys had made small trumpets of rolled banana leaves, and tootled away to their hearts' content, the sound being not unlike that made by blowing through tissue paper on a comb. Amid all the uproar Pat's joyous bark acclaimed the success.