"The cold is extreme," he went on in his copybook English by way of explaining these physical symptoms which he saw I had observed.
"Mr.Quatermain, it is all very well for you to paw the ground and smell the battle from afar, as is written in the Book of Job.

But I was not brought up to the trade and take it otherwise.

Indeed I wish I was back at the Cape, yes, even within the whitewashed walls of the Place of Detention." "So do I," I muttered, keeping my right foot on the ground with difficulty.
But Stephen laughed outright and asked: "What will you do, Sammy, when the fighting begins ?" "Mr.Somers," he answered, "I have employed some wakeful hours in making a hole behind that tree-trunk, through which I hope bullets will not pass.

There, being a man of peace, I shall pray for our success." "And if the Arabs get in, Sammy ?" "Then, sir, under Heaven, I shall trust to the fleetness of my legs." I could stand it no longer, my right foot flew up and caught Sammy in the place at which I had aimed.

He vanished, casting a reproachful look behind him.
Just then a terrible clamour arose in the slavers' camp which hitherto had been very silent, and just then also the first light of dawn glinted on the barrels of our guns.
"Look out!" I cried, as I gulped down the last of my coffee, "there's something going on there." The clamour grew louder and louder till it seemed to fill the skies with a concentrated noise of curses and shrieking.