He had very kindly lent me
this old companion of his sports, and I had entrusted it to Richarn as
my most careful man: both man and gun were now lost.
Having vainly searched for two days, and my men having seen several
village dogs with their mouths and feet covered with blood, we came to
the conclusion that his body had been dragged into the grass jungle by
the natives, and there, concealed, it had been discovered and devoured
by the dogs.
No porters had arrived from Kamrasi, neither had any reply been sent to
the message I had forwarded by Eddrees;--the evening arrived, and,
much dispirited at the loss of my old servant, I lay down on my angarep
for the night. At about eight o'clock, in the stillness of our solitude,
my men asleep, with the exception of the sentry, we were startled by the
sound of a nogara at no great distance to the south of our huts. The two
natives who had remained with us immediately woke the men, and declared
that the drums we heard were those of the M'was, who were evidently
approaching our village;--the natives knew the peculiar sound of the
nogaras of the enemy, which were different to those of Kamrasi. This was
rather awkward--our ammunition was at Foweera, and we had no more than
the supply in our cartouche boxes, my men thirty rounds each, while I
carried in my pouch twenty-one.
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