Hasty preparations were made for defence.

The ox-waggons of settlers were drawn up outside in little circles here and there, so as to form laagers, which acted practically as temporary forts for the protection of the outskirts.

In one of these I was posted.

With our company were two American scouts, named Colebrook and Doolittle, irregular fighters whose value in South African campaigns had already been tested in the old Matabele war against Lo-Bengula.

Colebrook, in particular, was an odd-looking creature--a tall, spare man, bodied like a weasel.