Thus ended the first night's battle, since for this time the enemy hadfought enough. Nodwengo and his men had also had enough, for out ofthe five thousand of them some eleven hundred were killed or wounded.
Yet they might not rest, for all that night, assisted by the women,they laboured, building stone walls across the narrowest parts of thevalley. Also the cattle, women and children were moved along thegorge, which in shape may be compared to a bottle with two necks, oneat either end, and encamped in the opening of the second neck, wherewas the spring of water. This spot was chosen both because here alonewater could be obtained, without which they could not hold out morethan a single day, and because the koppie whereon grew the strange-looking euphorbia known as the Tree of Doom afforded a natural rampartagainst attack.
Shortly after dawn, while the soldiers were resting and eating of suchfood as could be procured--for the most part strips of raw or half-cooked meat cut from hastily killed cattle--the onslaught was renewedwith vigour, Hafela directing his efforts to the forcing of thenatural archway. But, strive as he would, this he could not do, for itwas choked with stones and thorns and guarded by brave men.
"You do but waste your labour, Hafela," said Noma, who stood by himwatching the assault.
"What then is to be done?" he asked, "for unless we come at them wecannot kill them. It was clever of them to take refuge in this hole. Ithought surely that they would fight it out yonder, beneath the fencesof the Great Place.""Ah!" she answered, "you forgot that they had Hokosa on their side.
Did you then think to catch him sleeping? This retreat was Hokosa'scounsel. I learned it from the lips of that wounded captain beforethey killed him. Now, it seems that there are but two paths to follow,and you can choose between them. The one is to send a regiment a dayand a half's journey across the cliff top to guard the further mouthof the valley and to wait till these jackals starve in their hole, forcertainly they can never come out.""It has started six hours since," said Hafela, "and though theprecipices are steep, having the moon to travel by, it should reachthe river mouth of the valley before dawn to-morrow, cutting Nodwengooff from the plains, if indeed he should dare to venture out uponthem, which, with so small a force, he will not do. Yet this firstplan of yours must fail, Noma, seeing that before they starve within,the generals of Nodwengo will be back upon us from the mountains,catching us between the hammer and the anvil, and I know not how thatfight would go.""Yet, soon or late, it must be fought.""Nay," he answered, "for my hope is that should the /impi/ return tofind Nodwengo dead, they will surrender and acknowledge me as king,who am the first of the blood royal. But what is your second plan?"By way of answer, she pointed to the cliff above them. On the right-hand side, facing the archway, was a flat ledge overhanging thevalley, at a height of about a hundred feet.
"If you can come yonder," she said, "it will be easy to storm thisgate, for there lie rocks in plenty, and men cannot fight when stonesare dropping on their heads.""But how can we come to that home of vultures, where never man has seta foot? Look, the cliff above is sheer; no rock-rabbit could standupon it."With her eye Noma measured the distance from the brink of theprecipice to the broad ledge commanding the valley.
"Sixty paces, not more," she said. "Well, yonder are oxen in plenty,and out of their hides ropes can be made, and out of ropes a ladder,down which men may pass; ten, or even five, would be enough.""Well thought of Noma," said Hafela. "Hokosa told us last night thatto him had passed the wisdom of the Messenger; but if this be so, Ithink that to you has passed the guile of Hokosa.""It seems to me that some of it abides with him," answered Nomalaughing.
Then the prince gave orders, and, with many workers of hides toilingat it, within two hours the ladder was ready, its staves, set twentyinches apart, being formed of knob-kerries, or the broken shafts ofstabbing spears. Now they lowered it from the top of the precipice sothat its end rested upon the ledge, and down it came several men, whoswung upon its giddy length like spiders on a web. Reaching this greatshelf in safety and advancing to the edge of it, these men started aboulder, which, although as it chanced it hurt no one, fell in themidst of a group of the defenders and bounded away through them.
"Now we must be going," said Hokosa, looking up, "for no man can fightagainst rocks, and our spears cannot reach those birds. Had the armybeen taught the use of the bow, as I counselled in the past days, wemight still have held the archway; but they called it a woman'sweapon, and would have none of it."As he spoke another stone fell, crushing the life out of a man whostood next to him. Then they retreated to the first wall, which hadbeen piled up during the night, where it was not possible to rollrocks upon them from the cliffs above. This wall, and others reared atintervals behind it, they set to work to strengthen as much as theycould, making the most of the time that was left to them before theenemy could clear the way and march on to attack.
Presently Hafela's men were through and sweeping down upon them with aroar, thinking to carry the wall at a single rush. But in this theyfailed; indeed, it as only after an hour's hard fighting and by theexpedient of continually attacking the work with fresh companies thatat length they stormed the wall.
When Hokosa saw that he could no longer hold the place, but before thefoe was upon him, he drew off his soldiers to the second wall, aquarter of a mile or more away, and here the fight began again. And soit went on for hour after hour, as one by one the fortifications werecarried by the weight of numbers, for the attackers fought desperatelyunder the eye of their prince, caring nothing for the terrible lossthey suffered in men. Twice the force of the defenders was changed byorder of Nodwengo, fresh men being sent from the companies held inreserve to take the places of those who had borne the brunt of thebattle. This indeed it was necessary to do, seeing that it wasimpossible to carry water to so many, and in that burning valley mencould not fight for long athirst. Only Hokosa stayed on, for theybrought him drink in a gourd, and wherever the fray was fiercest therehe was always; nor although spears were rained upon him by hundreds,was he touched by one of them.
At length as the night fell the king's men were driven back from theirlast scherm in the western half of the valley, across the open spaceback upon the koppie where stood the Tree of Doom. Here they stayed awhile till, overmatched and outworn, they were pushed from its rocksacross the narrow stretch of broken ground into the shelter of thegreat stone scherm or wall that ran from side to side of the furtherneck of the valley, whereon thousands of women and such men as couldbe spared had been working incessantly during the past night and day.
It was as he retreated among the last upon this wal............