They were marching through thin forest on more or less undulating ground. In some places, while the trees and bush offered few obstacles to men marching on foot, they would considerably impede horsemen. In others, the country was so open that mounted men would gain on them.
Whenever they passed over stretches of open ground, they would halt for a few minutes, and scan the country behind for signs of the enemy. It was on such clear spaces that most was to be feared.
In the forest land the party had a certain advantage over mounted pursuers. They could avail themselves of cover far more effectually than was possible for horsemen. They could move nearly as fast, and more safely and secretly. A tree or a bush that would conceal a man on foot might give little cover to a horse and its rider.
They had marched for two or three hours, and had just halted on the brink of a stream for rest and refreshment, when Royce, mounting to the crest of a low hillock, caught sight of three or four horsemen amid the scrub far in their rear, on the other side of the stream.
He watched them anxiously, hoping that they were not the forerunners of a more numerous body. In a few minutes his worst anticipations were confirmed. At a little distance behind the small group of horsemen stretched a long column, vastly more numerous than the band whom he had checked and put to flight. There could be no doubt that a large force of Tubus was in hot pursuit.
With a quick eye Royce examined the ground, calculating the chances of making a stand. The hillock was covered with brushwood that gave excellent cover; the enemy, on the other hand, before they could reach the stream, must pass over a wide space of almost open land.
They had evidently descried the fugitives. Royce felt very uneasy as he caught fleeting glimpses of horsemen moving among the tall grass for some distance up and down stream. It was clear that they were taking advantage of their superior numbers to try to outflank him. There was no time to be lost if a successful resistance were to be made.
He shouted to Challis to bring all the men from the low ground up the hillock.
"We must try to make a stand here," he said. "If we go on we are bound to be ridden down."
He placed the unarmed men well to the rear, and posted the others in a crescent line behind the scrub on the crest of the hillock, facing the enemy.