Evening star., 1924-08-03

tirely forgotten the lesson / had
given them before.
BY nightfall we had arrived within
few hours march of kisii Bona.
Fortunately, there was bright
moon. The war drums were beating
continuously all around US. and
could hear the war cries of the war
riors ahead of us and on both tanks
They seemed to be closing up.
CHORTLY after midnight they de-
A shower of arrows fell in our midst
but without touching any of us. 1t
was time to get busy again.
"Halt!-Independen firing!-Com
mence" I shouted. as ] brought the
Maxim gun into action.
For 10 minutes We fired steadily
in every direction. and then ! ordered
| the bugler to sound the cease fire
BY the dismayed shouts and groans
all around US, / knew that we had
given the warriors sharp lesson
More arrows fell among us, and then
all was still once more. We con-
tinued our march, ready to repel any
more attacks.
Just before daylight the Kisii de-
livered another attack and we re-
peated our former tactics. But the
| warriors had become bolder and now
came too close to be healthful We
could not see them. but could hear
| them distinctly. I halted and sprayed
the spot where the noise seemed to
come from with a few rounds from
the Maxim gun: The Kisii then
promptly withdrew out of range.
Again we e'continued our march. hear
ing loud shouts of lamentation and
dismay on all sides of us.
At daybreak we could see the kisii
thickly covering the hills in every
direction, but they were maintaining &
a respectful distance from US. They
did not molest us again. Just an
hour before noon, we topped a ridge
that overlooked Kisii Bona. To my
intense relief l saw the Union Jack
floating gayIy above Northcote's
house. He was safe. and so was the
bona,
We marched into the little post a
few minutes before midday, having
was a record march with porters for
East Africa at that time.
I found that Nothcote had been
speared through the back, the long
bladed spear just missing his spine.
1t had penetrated through his back.
just grazed his stomach, and had then
imbedded itself in his groin. He was
in bad way, but still very cheer
full. Leaving him to the care Of DIR.
Boedeker. ] set to work immediate tely
to prepare the defenses of kisii
Bona.
The hills all around US were black
with Kisii warriors. and we mo-
mentarily expected them to attack
the bona; but I felt confident that
| 1 could hold them off until the ar
rival Of the military force, for 1 now
had 80 Of my own men. 25 of Boe-
deker's and so of the normal gar
rison. With my machine gun and
1856 policemen, I felt a match for the
/ 10000 Kisii warriors, who were
arrows.
When I as satisfied that everything
possible had been done for the proper
defense of Kisii against attack, and
| that my men were on the alert,
| threw myself On a camp cot to snatch
| a couple of hours sleep. I was feel
| ing pretty well worn out. 1t seemed
| only q few minutes after l had
| dropped asleep that i was awakened
| by the sound of heavy firing.
| jumped to my feet and ra.. out of
my tent to see what had happened.
| X X X
THE warriors on the surrounding
hills were now crowding into the
| valley, steadily advancing to the at
| tack. could hear the war drums
| beating rhythmicalIy and the battle
| horns booming. I ordered the bugler
| to sound the assembly" and then
| the ALARM" The. small force ran
to take up their allotted posts. and
! 1 placed the machine gun in q good
position to command the approach to
I the bona.
| On came the black hordes of the
/ Kisii. My men started to fire into
| the masses, and I turned on the ma
1 chine gun. I could see that we were
| doing deadly execution, but the war;
| riors still kept on relentlessly toward
~ Two hundred yards-15o yards
and than 100 yards divided us Then