Thirty long drawn-out minutes passed. According to plan the enveloping movement ought to have been completed an hour ago, but not a sign was given that "B" Company had arrived at their position—a sun-baked donga at a distance of fifteen hundred yards behind the kopje.
Up crept Bela Moshi, his ebony features distended in a most cheerful looking grin.
"Hun him lib for sit down, sah!" he reported. "Five Bosh-bosh (his rendering of the word Boche) an' heap Askari—say so many."
He opened and closed his fingers of both hands four times, meaning that the hostile post consisted of five Germans and forty native troops.
"They saw you?" asked the subaltern.
"Dem no look," replied the sergeant. "Too much busy make eat."
"How far away?"
"One tousand yards, sah," declared Bela Moshi.
Writing his report on a leaf of his pocketbook Wilmshurst gave the paper to Tari Barl with instructions to deliver it to the company commander.
Quickly the major's reply was received. The hostile post was to be surrounded, but no action taken until the order was given for the concentrated rush upon the Huns holding the kopje.