They might be seized with panic and rush about, in which case I determined to let them out of the _boma_ to take their chance, for panic is a catching thing.
A worse matter was our rather awkward position.

There were a good many trees round the camp among which an attacking force could take cover.
But what I feared much more than this, or even than the reedy banks of the stream along which they could creep out of reach of our bullets, was a sloping stretch of land behind us, covered with thick grass and scrub and rising to a crest about two hundred yards away.

Now if the Arabs got round to this crest they would fire straight into our _boma_ and make it untenable.

Also if the wind were in their favour, they might burn us out or attack under the clouds of smoke.

As a matter of fact, by the special mercy of Providence, none of these things happened, for a reason which I will explain presently.
In the case of a night, or rather a dawn attack, I have always found that hour before the sky begins to lighten very trying indeed.