GORUBA HAS A BLOW
Royce waited for Goruba to appear. When he saw the massive head rise above the wall he pulled the trigger of his revolver. There was no response; something had gone wrong.
Dropping the weapon, he snatched the rifle from the nearest Hausa and brought the butt down on Goruba's head with all his force. The man fell back among his followers, and Royce hoped that he had seen the last of him.
But he had underestimated the thickness of the African skull. For a time he was busy with the Tubus who had mounted on each side of their fallen leader, and had just succeeded in clearing the wall in his neighbourhood when he heard loud shouts from the wall behind.
Turning round, he saw that Goruba had mounted there and was laying about him with his clubbed rifle with undiminished vigour. Royce called to Gambaru and another man to follow him, sprang down to the inside of the ditch, and rushed across the fort.
They were just in time to fell two or three Tubus who had already dropped down from the wall, tumbled into the ditch, and were struggling to clamber up. The other Hausas were gallantly trying to beat the assailants from their ladders. The air rang with shouts, mingled with the dull thuds of the rifles as they fell on heads and shoulders. Goruba had managed to plant his feet on the wall, and was about to spring down when Royce thrust his rifle between the negro's legs and, with a sudden wrench, caused him to lose his balance. With a savage yell he fell backwards, and once more lay prostrate on the ground outside.
Reinforced by Royce and his two followers, the Hausas on their side fought with redoubled fury, and after a minute's hard fighting cleared the wall. But the weakening of the defence at his former post had enabled the enemy to press the attack there.
Leaving some of his men to re-open fire on the Tubus, if they returned to the assault, Royce hurried back. He found that during his absence the garrison had been driven from the ramparts. The enemy had drawn up their ladders, and, jumping down on the inner side, had begun to throw them as bridges across the ditch, in spite of the shower of stones which the men there were hurling at them.
Royce called up some men from the western side, where the attack had failed, and led them with a ringing cheer upon the flank of the invaders. Attacked thus from two sides, they gave way and were driven in a confused mass between the wall and the ramparts towards the bastion on which Royce had recently posted his riflemen.