We shall be attacked in overwhelming force, and it is quite a chance if we can hold this place." "We'll give a good account of some of them, at any rate.

Look here, Quatermain, this business is nasty, and one with which, properly speaking, we ought not to be mixed up, but we are in for it, so we must make the best of our job.

Speaking personally, I had rather be killed fighting than any other way, and now that there seems little chance of our finding my poor brother, it makes the idea easier to me.

But fortune favours the brave, and we may succeed.

Anyway, the battle will be awful, and having a reputation to keep up, we shall need to be in the thick of the thing." He made this last remark in a mournful voice, but there was a gleam in his eye which belied its melancholy.