The leading Masai of the right-hand column jerked his head sidewise as the whistling bullet passed, and then there was nothing for it but to follow his lead and blaze away for all we were worth.

If Brown had been willing to accept Will's advice there is nothing more likely than that the close-quarter surprise would have won the day for us.

We would have done much more execution with three volleys at ten-yard range.

As it was, we all missed with our finest shots, and the Masai took heart and charged in open order.
The worst of it was that, although we dropped several of them, now the others had a chance to discover there were only three of us.

Their leader shouted.