CHAPTER XI
A STRATEGIC RETREAT
John, the headman, was very intelligent. His sense of locality and direction appeared to be good. But Royce felt a little anxious about his ability to act as guide in their march towards the fort. The man had only visited it once. Hurrying to the head of the column, he said:
"You are quite sure you can find the way?"
"Nebber lose it, sah!" replied John, with a gurgling laugh at his own simple joke. "Savvy way all same quite correct."
"Very well. Remember that we all depend on you. You will save time by getting some of these new men to take turns with our boys in carrying the stuff. I leave you to arrange that."
The party now consisted of more than forty men. John went ahead with two or three of his original gang and the released prisoners, who numbered over a score. Some distance in the rear came Royce and Challis with the rest of their boys, armed.
"I'm a little doubtful whether we are doing the right thing," Royce remarked to his companion.
"Why?" asked Challis.
"Because I'm out of my element. I don't know in the least how these Tubus are likely to act. If they were a civilised enemy, I should be sure that the check we have just inflicted would not choke off the pursuit. In that case we should be doing the right thing—the only thing, in fact, to avoid extermination."
"You mean that if we have choked them off, we ought to be hurrying away to the south?"
"That's it. My experience in field days with the Scouts and the O.T.C. doesn't help much now."
"I'm not so sure of that," said Challis. "I think you have done jolly well so far."
"Well, looking at matters from the worst point of view, and assuming that the Tubus will still come after us, I don't see that we could do better than we are doing. The difficulty is this: if we get into the fort, we escape immediate destruction, but we are in no position to stand a siege. Our ammunition will hold out a good while, but our food won't."
"Still, we shall gain a little time. Perhaps they won't pursue us farther. If they do, they may sheer off when they find us behind defences. Let us hope for the best."
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.
"Lie flat on your faces," he said, "and fire when I give the word."
The Tubus had been advancing in column at a trot, but within a few hundred yards of the hillock they opened out into line, and came on at a gallop with fierce cries. In the centre was a gigantic negro whom Royce recognised as Goruba.
The Hausas kept absolute silence, awaiting their leader's command. It came when the Tubus were no more than two hundred yards distant. The rifles flashed; several of the horsemen fell; some halted behind the largest bushes near to them; others turned and galloped to the shelter of a clump of trees.
Royce rose on his knees, and peering over the brushwood, anxiously scanned the farther bank up and down stream. In both directions the flanking movement was continuing, and what was more serious, in response to a mighty shout from Goruba, whose tall form could be seen threading its way between the bushes in the distance, the Tubus dismounted, and tethering their horses, began to work their way forward on foot.
Royce tried to pick off the leader, who was clearly something of a strategist. But the negro took such skilful advantage of the bushes that Royce was never able to get a clear shot at him.
His intention was obvious. It was to hold the party in front, while his men crept round on each flank, and enveloped them.
"We run the risk of being surrounded," Royce called to Challis at the other end of the line; "there's nothing for it but to retreat."
To retreat, even with a disciplined force, is, as Royce knew, one of the most hazardous operations of warfare. The risks were tenfold with his Hausas, none of whom had served in the West African Rifles, who have become such excellent soldiers under the training of their British officers. But they were a compact little band, all devoted to him, and he decided to take the risk.
First sending word to the unarmed men to make all speed to the rear with their loads, he divided his little force into two parties.
"You see that ridge yonder?" he said to Challis, pointing to a bush-covered position some distance away. "Fall back to that slowly with your lot. I'll join you as soon as I can."
Challis set off. Meanwhile Royce retained his position, and kept up a steady fire on the enemy as they advanced, creeping on yard by yard under cover of the bushes.
"Whenever you see a man, shoot!" said Royce to the Hausas. "Don't shoot without marking your man."
The Tubus made no use of their firearms. Royce and his men were hidden from them by the brushwood, and they did not waste their shots on an enemy whom they could not see. No doubt, Royce reflected, this was a mode of warfare to which they were unaccustomed. They were used to carry all before them in a dashing charge, and he wondered at their persistence under the new conditions.
Presently a shrill whistle from the rear announced that Challis had taken up his position on the ridge. The space between was a long undulation, only a few yards of which, at the rearward end, were in view of the enemy.
"Now, boys, run!" said Royce.
Heading his men, he sprinted down the incline, rushed up the farther acclivity, and dashed past Challis and his party, calling to Challis to hold the Tubus until he had gained a new position still farther to the rear.
He noticed a clump of trees a little to the right, nearer the bank of the river, and made straight for that. As he ran towards it, he came within view of the horsemen working round on the left flank. They immediately wheeled round, and galloped hard in pursuit.
But their course brought them below the ridge on which, all unknown to them, Challis and his band lay concealed. As they rode past, within range of about a hundred yards, a sudden volley on their right flank sent some of them reeling to the ground. The rest, taken all aback, swerved to the left, and dashed frantically away towards their main body, who had now become aware that the hillock was deserted, and were surging up it.
"Well done, Tom!"
The ringing words came faintly from the rear. Challis brushed his sleeve across his sweating brow, and ordered his men to run with him.
It was something to have gained half-an-hour without the loss of a man.