As it was, one of the hunters was killed, the bullet passing through
the loophole and striking him in the throat as he was about to fire,
while the unfortunate bearers who were on rather higher ground,
suffered a good deal, two of them being dispatched outright and four
wounded. After this I made the rest of them lie flat on the ground
close against the fence, in such a fashion that we could fire over
their bodies.
Soon it became evident that there were more of these Arabs than we had
thought, for quite fifty of them were firing from different places.
Moreover, by slow degrees they were advancing with the evident object
of outflanking us and gaining the high ground behind. Some of them, of
course, we stopped as they rushed from cover to cover, but this kind
of shooting was as difficult as that at bolting rabbits across a
woodland ride, and to be honest, I must say that I alone was much good
at the game, for here my quick eye and long practice told.
Within an hour the position had grown very serious indeed, so much so
that we found it necessary to consider what should be done.
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