CHAPTER XXVII
AN ATTACK IN FORCE
Kulana was doing his best to provide a meal—the last!—for the garrison, when Royce's thoughts were diverted from their gloomy situation by a sudden call for action.
His look-out men shouted, and rushing to the wall he saw that the great attack, which he had so long expected, was being made at last. The Tubus, dismounted, were rushing up the hill from three sides. Goruba was conspicuous at the head of the party from the north-east.
It was plain that the attack had been arranged. Probably only Goruba's absence had delayed it. The three columns were advancing in such a way that they would reach the fort at about the same moment, and a fact that for an instant struck Royce with the chill of dread was that some men in each party carried short ladders, which during these days of apparent inaction they had evidently been constructing in the woods.
The situation was one which might well cause the bravest heart to quail. The Tubus were two or three hundred in number; the garrison numbered only sixty, all suffering from the lack of sufficient food. Only fifteen had rifles; most of the Tubus carried firearms of a sort. The garrison's greatest defence was their walls, and these the enemy were coming prepared to scale.
"But we'll put up a fight," said Royce to himself.
He divided his riflemen into three sections, and posted one at each of the walls so soon to be assailed. Behind them he placed the rest of the garrison, of whom a few had spears, the remainder being armed only with stones. He himself took up a position on the bastion at the north-east corner.
The Tubus came leaping with immense strides up the hill. Royce waited until they were about two hundred yards away, then gave the order to fire. Three volleys flashed forth; some of the enemy dropped, but their leaders shouted words of encouragement, and the masses continued to sweep onward, as a stormy sea surges around an isolated rock.
The Hausas fired steadily at the word of command, but seemed to make little impression on the ranks of the Tubus. If a ladder-bearer fell, the man nearest to him snatched up the fallen burden and ran on. They did not even fire as they advanced—partly because the garrison were covered by the walls; chiefly, no doubt, because they hoped to overcome the defence by sheer weight of numbers.
Royce felt that the brunt of the attack would fall on that part of the fort against which Goruba was advancing in person. The gigantic negro seemed to bear a charmed life. Although he was bounding up the hill several paces ahead of his followers, and consequently drew the fire of two or three of the Hausas, he was untouched, though some of his men fell at every few yards.
With fierce yells the Tubus pressed on. Hitherto Royce had taken no active part in the fight, standing on the bastion and directing the men on each front. But now, thinking that if Goruba fell his followers might lose heart, he drew his revolver and flashed it at the giant. He was a good shot in general, but for some reason or other he missed, and before he could fire again Goruba was beneath the wall, hidden from him.
In a moment a score of ladders were placed against the wall on either side of the bastion. Royce had no doubt that an equal number was being employed behind him. The Tubus began to swarm up.
Royce saw that his men had done all that was possible with rifle fire; they could now only try to repulse the stormers hand to hand. He ordered his men to club their rifles and strike at every head they saw appear above the walls.
For some minutes there was desperate work, the Tubus striving to make a lodgment on the walls, the garrison to hurl them back. At first the struggle was not unequal. The enemy could only mount one by one; while mounting they could not use their weapons, and the defenders had the advantage of them in position.
Royce waited for Goruba to appear. When he saw the massive head rise above the wall he pulled the trigger of his revolver. There was no response; something had gone wrong.
Dropping the weapon, he snatched the rifle from the nearest Hausa and brought the butt down on Goruba's head with all his force. The man fell back among his followers, and Royce hoped that he had seen the last of him.
But he had underestimated the thickness of the African skull. For a time he was busy with the Tubus who had mounted on each side of their fallen leader, and had just succeeded in clearing the wall in his neighbourhood when he heard loud shouts from the wall behind.
Turning round, he saw that Goruba had mounted there and was laying about him with his clubbed rifle with undiminished vigour. Royce called to Gambaru and another man to follow him, sprang down to the inside of the ditch, and rushed across the fort.
They were just in time to fell two or three Tubus who had already dropped down from the wall, tumbled into the ditch, and were struggling to clamber up. The other Hausas were gallantly trying to beat the assailants from their ladders. The air rang with shouts, mingled with the dull thuds of the rifles as they fell on heads and shoulders. Goruba had managed to plant his feet on the wall, and was about to spring down when Royce thrust his rifle between the negro's legs and, with a sudden wrench, caused him to lose his balance. With a savage yell he fell backwards, and once more lay prostrate on the ground outside.
Reinforced by Royce and his two followers, the Hausas on their side fought with redoubled fury, and after a minute's hard fighting cleared the wall. But the weakening of the defence at his former post had enabled the enemy to press the attack there.
Leaving some of his men to re-open fire on the Tubus, if they returned to the assault, Royce hurried back. He found that during his absence the garrison had been driven from the ramparts. The enemy had drawn up their ladders, and, jumping down on the inner side, had begun to throw them as bridges across the ditch, in spite of the shower of stones which the men there were hurling at them.
Royce called up some men from the western side, where the attack had failed, and led them with a ringing cheer upon the flank of the invaders. Attacked thus from two sides, they gave way and were driven in a confused mass between the wall and the ramparts towards the bastion on which Royce had recently posted his riflemen.
Seized with panic and deprived of their leader, the Tubus tried to clamber up the wall. Some few succeeded, the greater number were knocked down with rifles or pulled back by the defenders, and fell cowering to the ground.
Again Royce had to turn back to deal with another crowd who had taken advantage of his absence to swarm up on the eastern rampart, from which they had driven the panting Hausas. But the men behind the ditch, seeing that they could now cast their stones without hitting their friends, flung the jagged missiles at the enemy just as they were raising their guns to fire.
"Well done!" cried Royce, rushing to their support.
This was enough for the Tubus. Only one of them managed to fire; then a stone struck him, and with his companions he leapt from the wall among the baffled men beneath.
Beaten on all sides, the Tubus took to their heels and fled as fast as they could down the hill which they had ascended with such confidence a quarter of an hour before.
