Challis wished to get as near as possible to the Tubus who were collecting the horses without being discovered. Accordingly he drew out his men in line over a long front, and passed the word along that they must keep a strict silence.
Then he signed to them to advance, and they moved forward swiftly, with the lightness of foot which is the negroes' birthright.
For some distance they were covered by the undergrowth. In spite of all their care, it was inevitable that the passage of so large a number of men should cause a slight rustling, and they were still nearly three hundred yards from the horses when the sound was heard.
The Tubus turned round, caught sight of them, and raised a shout of alarm. Concealment was no longer possible. Challis blew his whistle for the charge. His men answered with a fierce yell, and the whole line swept forward.
Challis had scarcely anticipated the effect of the shrill cries from hundreds of throats. The Tubus' horses were seized with panic and plunged wildly. Their riders, unable to control them, were themselves terror-stricken at the sight of the long line of warriors rushing towards them. Dropping the horses' bridles, they led the stampede.
The mob of men and horses surged towards the camp, where some of the Tubus were engaged in making new ladders, the rest cooking or idling. They dashed through and over them, scattering them right and left. Panic spread through the camp, and before the attackers were within striking distance, the whole force of the enemy was in headlong flight.
The horses in their blind charge dashed into the slight grass huts which the Tubus had built and razed them to the ground. Challis saw Goruba spring up from the ruins of one of them, catch at the bridle of a horse that was running by, and leap with extraordinary agility upon its back.
On went the torrent. The Tubus who had arms in their hands at the moment of alarm flung them away to speed their flight. Behind them panted Challis's men, shouting more and more loudly as they saw the dreaded enemy fleeing before them, and Challis rejoiced in the prospect of a bloodless victory.
For a little the course was uphill, towards the fort; but the slope gradually affected the direction, and the fugitives bore more and more to the right. At last they disappeared among the brushwood and woodland to the north of the fort, Goruba, conspicuous on his horse, striving vainly to check the flight.
When all the horses and men had vanished from sight, Goruba reappeared after a moment or two and galloped round the hill to the west, the direction of the second Tubu camp.
Challis had hard work, even with John's assistance, to keep his men in hand. Their instinct was to rush into the wood after the fleeing enemy, and they could not understand why the white man's whistle kept on calling them to halt.
Their line was quite broken, and it was some minutes before Challis could reform it. Even then it was incomplete, for many of the men, carried away by their ardour, had dashed among the trees.
But the line was reformed only just in time. Round the base of the hill galloped a force of Tubus from the second camp, led by Goruba. It was clear from the disorder of their ranks that they had mounted and rushed off without any attempt to form up.
Challis felt a good deal of anxiety about the result of the approaching collision until he saw that the Tubus were much fewer in number than his own men. Their lack of order also gave him a great advantage.
Shouting to his men to plant their pikes and stand firm, he awaited the onset. Goruba and the foremost of the Tubus charged straight upon the bristling barrier. Down they went, though the impact felled many of the pikemen. But their fall caused their comrades behind to hesitate. Challis was quick to seize the moment. With a shrill blast of his whistle he ordered his men to charge, and the willing negroes, always more ready to advance than to hold their ground, rushed forward with an impetuosity that carried all before it.
Some of the Tubus turned at once and galloped away. A few stood for several moments, as if weighing the chances of a countercharge; then they too, wheeled their horses about and urged them to a frantic gallop. Within a few minutes from the first dash, the hillside in this quarter was clear.
Challis again called off his men, and hastened to search for Goruba, whom he expected to find dead or at least seriously wounded on the ground. But among the fallen enemy there was no trace of the giant. He had disappeared.
Meanwhile, Royce, according to his arrangement with Challis, had dealt with the enemy in the third camp. He had almost given up hope when he heard the first sounds of the fray.
The third party of Tubus, when the alarm was raised, took a course which would have brought them on the rear of Challis's men. This had been foreseen by Royce. After Challis's departure in the night, he had had the gateway cleared, except for a light, movable barrier, in readiness for a sortie. He had seen from the walls the flight of the first party of the enemy, and the other two parties rushing to the rescue, one on Challis's front, the other on his rear. Leaving Challis to deal with the frontal attack, he led his men out through the gateway to head off the other party.
Unlike Challis, he had fewer men than the enemy, and less than a third of them were armed. But one rifle was of more value than many spears. The men lined up on the slope of the hill, where the advancing enemy must come within close range. At the word of command they fired.
The Tubus checked instantly. They appeared to hesitate whether to run the gauntlet of the attack and push on to the support of their comrades or to remain and fight it out with the garrison of the fort. It was evident that they had no leader of authority, and Royce, like Challis, was quick to profit by their hesitation.
"After me, boys!" he cried, and led the Hausas in a headlong charge down the hill.
Behind them, in a wild, tumultuous mob, swarmed the other men, some armed with stones, some with spears, some even with the Tubus' scaling ladders.
The very boldness of the movement decided the issue. If the Tubus stopped to think, they must have supposed that so small a body, in measuring themselves against overwhelming numbers, was covered by support from some other quarter. They fired one scattered volley. Royce did not halt his men to reply to it, but bounded on at their head whooping like a schoolboy, while the Tubus kicked their horses' flanks and bolted for cover to the nearest wood.
The fight was won.
