I could not see it, but instead I saw a lean and clutching black hand lifting itself above the gunwale of the little boat.
Surely it was a nightmare! At the same instant a dim but devilish-looking face appeared to rise out of the water, and then came a lurch of the canoe, the quick flash of a knife, and an awful yell from the Wakwafi who was sleeping by my side (the same poor fellow whose odour had been annoying me), and something warm spurted into my face.

In an instant the spell was broken; I knew that it was no nightmare, but that we were attacked by swimming Masai.

Snatching at the first weapon that came to hand, which happened to be Umslopogaas' battleaxe, I struck with all my force in the direction in which I had seen the flash of the knife.

The blow fell upon a man's arm, and, catching it against the thick wooden gunwale of the canoe, completely severed it from the body just above the wrist.

As for its owner, he uttered no sound or cry.