Oh God of battle, hear Thou our prayer!' He ceased, and after a moment's silence we all rose, and then began our preparations in good earnest.

As Umslopogaas said, it was time to stop 'talking' and get to business.

The men who were to form each little party were carefully selected, and still more carefully and minutely instructed as to what was to be done.
After much consideration it was agreed that the ten men led by Good, whose duty it was to stampede the camp, were not to carry firearms; that is, with the exception of Good himself, who had a revolver as well as a short sword -- the Masai 'sime' which I had taken from the body of our poor servant who was murdered in the canoe.

We feared that if they had firearms the result of three cross-fires carried on at once would be that some of our own people would be shot; besides, it appeared to all of us that the work they had to do would best be carried out with cold steel -- especially to Umslopogaas, who was, indeed, a great advocate of cold steel.

We had with us four Winchester repeating rifles, besides half a dozen Martinis.