Settlers and Scouts: A Tale of the African Highlands

by Herbert Strang

Again he was baulked by the prolonged resistance of the white men. But it happened that the combined force of natives which he had gathered about him ran short of food. In this circumstance he saw his opportunity. On the morning after John had left the fort, Juma set off with his own contingent before the escape had been discovered, ostensibly to go hunting for game. He took with him almost all the men who had rifles, and a large party to carry the game he promised to shoot. Striking at first to the west, he turned sharply northward, and pushed on with all speed towards the knoll where the hoard of ivory lay concealed. Had he secured it, his whilom enemies, his present allies, would have seen him no more. He would have taken the shortest route to the coast, to dispose of the ivory at one of the ports. His approach was hidden from the people in the village by the hill rising behind it, and being quite unaware that the village was now held by the white men, he felt that he had nothing to fear except chance discovery by some one who might happen to stray up the hill. To provide against this he had posted the two scouts whom John saw at the base of the knoll.

John perceived in a moment that the work of transporting the ivory across the river gave him an opportunity of taking the enemy at a disadvantage. Running back to the top of the hill, careful not to come within sight of the scouts, he reached a point whence he could overlook the village and where he was himself in full view from it. The moment he arrived there he knew that he had been seen, for Ferrier waved his hand above his head. John immediately semaphored with his arms, asking Ferrier to bring out all the men except a few left to guard the village, and to join him on the hill-top. In ten minutes they were with him. Then, descending the western slope of the hill, invisible to the enemy, they worked their way through the belt of trees on the river-bank until they arrived within a furlong of the ford. Juma's porters were staggering down the knoll under their loads--great tusks from six to nine feet long. To advance further without being discovered was impossible: the two scouts were full in the path.

John gathered his party just within the belt of trees, and in a whisper told them what to do. Then, at his word, they dashed after him from cover, yelling at the top of their voices, the askaris firing their rifles as they ran, and reloading. There was little chance of the shots taking effect, but John reckoned on them to demoralize the enemy. The result surpassed his anticipations. The scouts stood for a moment as if rooted to the ground with amazement; then they flung down their rifles and fled like hares to the spot where Juma was indicating the ford. At the same instant the porters dropped their loads with a yell of fright, and made for the river, into which they cast themselves, careless of its depth, and of the crocodiles that might be lurking expectant of a victim. Juma had his arm in a sling: the other Swahilis raised their rifles, and fired, each one wild ineffectual shot, at the advancing company. Then, utterly confounded by this amazing attack from an enemy whom they supposed to be far away, they rushed in a body to the river, sped by a volley of bullets and arrows. Half wading, half swimming, they gained the further bank, and by the time John and his men came to the ford, they had disappeared with all their men into the undergrowth.

Bill ran from one tusk to another, frantic with joy. But John was too much concerned with the serious work that lay before him to trouble himself for the present with the ivory, however valuable it might be. He saw at once that he must remove all his men from the village to the knoll if the plan of floating down the river was to be successfully initiated. After their fright, Juma and his men might for a time be disregarded; but the war-party of villagers could not now be far away, and the interval before their arrival might be all too short. The knoll not only formed a good defensible position, but it was the most convenient spot for the launching of the rafts, and the timber upon it offered material for the second raft yet to be constructed. Keeping part of his men to hack branches from the trees with their knives, he asked Ferrier to return with the rest to the village and bring over the hill the first raft and all the stores.

"Get the women to help," he said. "Promise that we'll do no more harm to the village if they'll work for us. They'll be glad enough to get rid of us, no doubt. I'd go myself, Charley, only my back is bothering me again, confound it."

Ferrier hurried off. In little more than half-an-hour he reappeared on the shoulder of the hill, followed by a long line of the men of the safari and the women of the village, carrying the loads of provisions, the impedimenta of the camp, and the raft, a cumbersome object which required twenty men to carry it. As they descended the slope, shots were fired at them from the trees bordering the river, but manifestly at so long a range that they were little likely to do any harm. They reached the knoll in safety; the baggage was piled up a short distance from the bank to form a sort of rampart: and then the whole party, including a crowd of women who were impressed to fetch and carry, worked rapidly at the construction of the raft.

"There'll be mighty little protection if they fire at us on the way down," said John gloomily.

"Yes," replied Ferrier, "we haven't got enough baggage to screen us. But look here! Why not make a sort of fence to go all round?"

"The very thing! The men are so used to making bomas that it won't give them any trouble."

While the second raft was being finished, the men who were not engaged upon it were set to weave a light framework of canes, rushes, and slender branches, about three feet high, and strong enough to be impenetrable by spears or arrows. As portions of this were completed, they were lashed to the edges of the first raft. Fore and aft the framework was raised to the height of six feet, and a hole was cut in it through which a pole might be thrust, to ward off rocks or other obstructions as the raft floated downstream, and to steer the unwieldy craft.