"John, send a man to fetch Kulana," said Royce. "It is time we were off."
Before the Hausa dispatched by John had gone out of sight, he met Kulana hurrying back from the northward post to which he had been sent to watch the progress of the enemy.
Kulana reported that a small party of Tubus had caught sight of him as they emerged from a clump of trees some distance away. They had pursued him and almost run him down when the rush of stampeding elephants caused them to wheel their horses and flee for their lives. He himself only escaped being trampled to death by taking shelter behind a large tree, where he had remained until the storm swept by.
Learning from John that the course taken by the elephants was almost the direction of the fort, Royce had an idea.
"Why not follow in the track of the elephants?" he said to Challis. "They will clear the Tubus off our line of march, at least for a time, and if we march rapidly we may get through before they have rallied."
"We can try, but I doubt it," replied Challis. "The elephants are going at such a thundering speed that they are miles away by this time, and the Tubus won't have any reason to be afraid of them. Still, there's nothing else to be done, and we had better start at once."
In a few minutes the baggage was loaded on to the released prisoners, and the party set off, John leading the way with Royce and half the Hausas, the carriers following, and Challis with the rest of the armed men bringing up the rear.
There was no difficulty in following the track of the elephants. It was as though a tornado had swept over the country. A path several yards wide had been cut through the scrub and the thin forest. Tall grass and shrubs had been crushed flat, saplings broken off like matchwood. Only large trees had survived the rush, and the ground was strewn with the lower branches of these.
Royce went a good distance ahead of the carriers. They marched as quickly as possible, but, laden as they were, their pace did not exceed the rate of two and a half miles an hour. If the fort, as Royce believed, were still about five miles away, he could not but confess to himself that Challis's doubt was justified. He repressed his anxiety and impatience, keeping as careful a lookout as the nature of the country permitted.
When they had followed the track for a little more than a mile, John caught sight of an object in the distance that caused him to halt. At first he was unable to determine what the object was, but when Royce persuaded him to advance a few paces he declared excitedly that it was a fallen horse.
Royce ordered his men to extend and scout carefully forward. Coming presently to the horse he saw that it was dead, and beyond it, hitherto hidden from sight, lay a dead negro, his body terribly crushed.
What had happened was clear. The hapless rider had been caught by the elephants, and overthrown before he could extricate himself from the undergrowth. With a shudder Royce passed on.
Some little distance farther on John halted again.
"What is it now?" asked Royce, whom the slow progress was making more and more uneasy.
"No go fort way, sah," replied the man. "Fort dat way, elephants go dis."
He pointed first straight ahead through the forest, then to the right, the direction in which the elephants had rushed. It was clear from the marks of devastation that the beasts had not yet checked their furious pace. Royce wondered what had caused a panic which was so persistent.
"We had better go after the elephants," he said after a few moments' consideration. "It is out of our way, you say, but it will be at any rate clear of Tubus."
Accordingly they struck off to the right. The forest here was somewhat denser, and though the small trees and undergrowth had been pretty well levelled by the elephants' ponderous bodies, the tangle made marching very difficult. Royce halted several times in order that he might not altogether lose touch with the carriers behind.
After another half-hour's tramp the course of the elephants took another turn to the right.
"We simply daren't follow it any longer," said Royce, mopping his wet brow. "It will take us much too far out of our way. In fact, I daresay you have lost your way already."
John did not repeat his little joke. His downcast expression indicated plainly enough that he was now at fault. He glanced up at the sun through the over-arching trees, and at last hesitatingly suggested a direction in which they might proceed.
"Unless you have been quite wrong all along, we can't be very far from the fort now," said Royce. "But as we couldn't see it for the trees we might go right past it without knowing. Perhaps the country opens out, however, so let us try it."
Leaving the track they plunged through the forest, dodging the thorns and forcing their way through the entanglements of undergrowth and creepers. It was very hot work, and Royce felt as tired as if he had marched twenty miles on end.
After a quarter of an hours' toilsome progress they came suddenly to the edge of the forest; and there, almost straight ahead, less than a mile away, they saw the fort, a brown, sunlit patch on the hillock.
"Savvy all same, sah," cried John in delight.
"Yes, you are either very clever or very lucky," said Royce. "I hope our troubles are now over for a time. We must wait here, just within the forest line, until the others come up."
He leant against a tree, looking out over the space of rolling country between him and his goal. It was open save for scrub; there was no sign of man or beast.
But he had waited only a few minutes when two negro horsemen came out from behind a distant clump of trees, crossed the open space, and disappeared to the westward.
Royce's anxiety returned with doubled force. It was almost certain that these Tubus had been lurking on the watch in the neighbourhood of the fort. They might indeed have been sent ahead by Goruba to ascertain whether the fort was yet occupied. In all probability a larger party of their people was not far away.
It seemed hours before the carriers came up. Challis was close behind them with his party.
"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Royce. "There's the fort, as you see. But we must let the men rest awhile, and then make a dash for it."
"Why not go straight on?"
"I saw two Tubus cross yonder. If we're to get there safely we must put on our best speed; we can't go at this terrible dawdle—less than two miles an hour lately."
"I am sure we had better go on. If the men drop their loads they will become noisy, and the Tubus may hear them. Let's take the bull by the horns, old man."
"Very well, then. We must keep close together; it would be fatal to get scattered. But we'll go in the same order. John, tell the carriers they must move quickly and silently. Now, are you ready?"
He led the way from the forest into the scrub, the rest of the party forming a compact column behind him. Keeping an eye fixed on the clump behind which the Tubus had disappeared, he made straight for the fort.
As yard after yard of the ground was covered, he became more and more hopeful of gaining the shelter of the walls unmolested. But when the party was within less than half a mile of their goal there were shouts in the distance. Immediately afterwards, from the forest on the left, a cloud of horsemen dashed out and galloped straight towards them. At the same time a smaller party, farther ahead, rode diagonally across the open ground to cut them off.
It was a critical moment. There was just time, Royce thought, to reach the small belt of woodland below the hillock. Calling on the carriers to hurry, he placed the Hausas to guard their flank.
"Tell the men to go straight up to the fort," he said to John, adding to Challis: "We must try to keep the enemy off until the men are safe."
Spurred on by fear, the carriers quickened their pace. The Tubus, uttering fierce yells, dashed on, firing their guns aimlessly. Tense with anxiety, Royce measured with his eye the distances between his party, the woodland, and the horsemen, and it was with a gasp of relief that he gained the trees while the Tubus were still a hundred yards away.
The two bands of horsemen closed in, and rode towards the woodland. At the edge of the belt Royce had drawn up his little party of riflemen. They fired two volleys in quick succession at the charging crowd. Remembering what they had suffered in the previous attacks, the Tubus, seeing several of their numbers fall, checked their horses and withdrew a short distance.
"Goruba isn't with them," said Royce.
But at that moment the tall negro came galloping from the rear, and, brandishing a huge scimitar, began to harangue his hesitating men.
"Come!" said Royce quietly.
Without waiting to see the inevitable result of Goruba's furious words, he withdrew his men quickly through the wood, splashed through the little stream that bathed the foot of the hillock, and climbed up to the fort. The carriers had already disappeared within the walls.
"Only by the skin of our teeth!" panted Challis, as he stumbled into the entrance.
"And this is only the beginning of things!" returned Royce. "What is to follow?"