Reassured though he was, Royce spent an uneasy night. After setting a double watch at each corner of the fort, he turned in, but set his alarm clock to wake him in an hour. He then made a round of the fort, to assure himself that the sentries were not asleep.
It was not easy, as he knew, to keep negroes awake on guard. The necessity of waking so frequently, after short naps, was very wearing.
"By the time Tom gets back," he thought, "I shall be half dead with fatigue."
About dawn he had reason to be glad that he had not spared himself. He found the men on duty at the south-west corner fast asleep. Rousing them, not too gently, he looked out over the wall to see for himself whether there was any sign of the enemy.
His first impression was one of relief. There was no indication of anything unusual, so far as he could see in the grey dawn.
A second glance, however, raised a doubt. There seemed to be more bushes on the slope than he remembered on this side of the fort. Here and there, projecting slightly above the general contour, there were dark, shapeless masses.
He called up Kulana, who acted as interpreter in John's absence.
"You see those?" he said quietly. "What are they?"
The objects were very dim and indistinct. The man peered at them, and in a moment said, in the same hushed tone as Royce had used:
"Dem bushes, sah."