Norfolk jacket over my mail shirt in order to have a pocket handy

to hold my cartridges, and buckled on my revolver. Good did
the same, but Sir Henry put on nothing except his mail shirt,

steel-lined cap, and a pair of 'veldt-schoons' or soft hide shoes,
his legs being bare from the knees down. His revolver he strapped

on round his middle outside the armoured shirt.
Meanwhile Umslopogaas was mustering the men in the square under

the big tree and going the rounds to see that each was properly
armed, etc. At the last moment we made one change. Finding

that two of the men who were to have gone with the firing parties
knew little or nothing of guns, but were good spearsmen, we took

away their rifles, supplied them with shields and long spears
of the Masai pattern, and took them off to join Curtis, Umslopogaas,

and the Askari in holding the wide opening; it having become
clear to us that three men, however brave and strong, were too

few for the work.
CHAPTER VII

A SLAUGHTER GRIM AND GREAT
Then there was a pause, and we stood there in the chilly silent

darkness waiting till the moment came to start. It was, perhaps,
the most trying time of all -- that slow, slow quarter of an

hour. The minutes seemed to drag along with leaden feet, and
the quiet, the solemn hush, that brooded over all -- big, as

it were, with a coming fate, was most oppressive to the spirits.
I once remember having to get up before dawn to see a man hanged,

and I then went through a very similar set of sensations, only
in the present instance my feelings were animated by that more

vivid and personal element which naturally appertains rather
to the person to be operated on than to the most sympathetic

spectator. The solemn faces of the men, well aware that the
short passage of an hour would mean for some, and perhaps all

of them, the last great passage to the unknown or oblivion; the
bated whispers in which they spoke; even Sir Henry's continuous

and thoughtfulexamination of his woodcutter's axe and the fidgety
way in which Good kept polishing his eyeglass, all told the same

tale of nerves stretched pretty nigh to breaking-point. Only
Umslopogaas, leaning as usual upon Inkosi-kaas and taking an

occasional pinch of snuff, was to all appearance perfectly and
completely unmoved. Nothing could touch his iron nerves.

The moon went down. For a long while she had been getting nearer
and nearer to the horizon. Now she finally sank and left the

world in darkness save for a faint grey tinge in the eastern
sky that palely heralded the dawn.

Mr Mackenzie stood, watch in hand, his wife clinging to his arm
and striving to stifle her sobs.

'Twenty minutes to four,' he said, 'it ought to be light enough
to attack at twenty minutes past four. Captain Good had better

be moving, he will want three or four minutes' start.'
Good gave one final polish to his eyeglass, nodded to us in a

jocular sort of way -- which I could not help feeling it must
have cost him something to muster up -- and, ever polite, took

off his steel-lined cap to Mrs Mackenzie and started for his
position at the head of the kraal, to reach which he had to make

a detour by some paths known to the natives.
Just then one of the boys came in and reported that everybody

in the Masai camp, with the exception of the two sentries who
were walking up and down in front of the respective entrances,

appeared to be fast asleep. Then the rest of us took the road.
First came the guide, then Sir Henry, Umslopogaas, the Wakwafi

Askari, and Mr Mackenzie's two mission natives armed with long
spears and shields. I followed immediately after with Alphonse

and five natives all armed with guns, and Mr Mackenzie brought
up the rear with the six remaining natives.

The cattle kraal where the Masai were camped lay at the foot
of the hill on which the house stood, or, roughlyspeaking, about

eight hundred yards from the Mission buildings. The first five
hundred yards of this distance we traversed quietly indeed, but

at a good pace; after that we crept forward as silently as a
leopard on his prey, gliding like ghosts from bush to bush and

stone to stone. When I had gone a little way I chanced to look
behind me, and saw the redoubtable Alphonse staggering along

with white face and trembling knees, and his rifle, which was
at full cock, pointed directly at the small of my back. Having

halted and carefully put the rifle at 'safety', we started again,
and all went well till we were within one hundred yards or so

of the kraal, when his teeth began to chatter in the most aggressive way.
'If you don't stop that I will kill you,' I whispered savagely;

for the idea of having all our lives sacrificed to a tooth-chattering
cook was too much for me. I began to fear that he would betray

us, and heartily wished we had left him behind.
'But, monsieur, I cannot help it,' he answered, 'it is the cold.'

Here was a dilemma, but fortunately I devised a plan. In the
pocket of the coat I had on was a small piece of dirty rag that

I had used some time before to clean a gun with. 'Put this in
your mouth,' I whispered again, giving him the rag; 'and if I

hear another sound you are a dead man.' I knew that that would
stifle the clatter of his teeth. I must have looked as if I

meant what I said, for he instantly obeyed me, and continued
his journey in silence.

Then we crept on again.
At last we were within fifty yards of the kraal. Between us

and it was an open space of sloping grass with only one mimosa
bush and a couple of tussocks of a sort of thistle for cover.

We were still hidden in fairly thick bush. It was beginning
to grow light. The stars had paled and a sickly gleam played

about the east and was reflected on the earth. We could see
the outline of the kraal clearly enough, and could also make

out the faint glimmer of the dying embers of the Masai camp-fires.
We halted and watched, for the sentry we knew was posted at

the opening. Presently he appeared, a fine tall fellow, walking
idly up and down within five paces of the thorn-stopped entrance.

We had hoped to catch him napping, but it was not to be. He
seemed particularly wide awake. If we could not kill that man,

and kill him silently, we were lost. There we crouched and watched
him. Presently Umslopogaas, who was a few paces ahead of me,

turned and made a sign, and next second I saw him go down on
his stomach like a snake, and, taking an opportunity when the

sentry's head was turned, begin to work his way through the grass
without a sound.

The unconscioussentry commenced to hum a little tune, and Umslopogaas
crept on. He reached the shelter of the mimosa bush unperceived

and there waited. Still the sentry walked up and down. Presently
he turned and looked over the wall into the camp. Instantly

the human snake who was stalking him glided on ten yards and
got behind one of the tussocks of the thistle-like plant, reaching

it as the Elmoran turned again. As he did so his eye fell upon
this patch of thistles, and it seemed to strike him that it did

not look quite right. He advanced a pace towards it -- halted,
yawned, stooped down, picked up a little pebble and threw it

at it. It hit Umslopogaas upon the head, luckily not upon the
armour shirt. Had it done so the clink would have betrayed us.

Luckily, too, the shirt was browned and not bright steel, which
would certainly have been detected. Apparently satisfied that

there was nothing wrong, he then gave over his investigations