It was a flight, pell-mell--and the devil take the hindmost.
Not until then had I leisure to THINK, and to realise my position.

This was the first and only time I had ever seen a battle.

I am a bit of a coward, I believe--like most other men--though I have courage enough to confess it; and I expected to find myself terribly afraid when it came to fighting.

Instead of that, to my immense surprise, once the Matabele had swarmed over the laager, and were upon us in their thousands, I had no time to be frightened.

The absolute necessity for keeping cool, for loading and reloading, for aiming and firing, for beating them off at close quarters--all this so occupied one's mind, and still more one's hands, that one couldn't find room for any personal terrors.