"Come here, Major," he said in a solemn voice, "I got something pretty
show you," and he led him to the foot of an old willow tree, adding,
"now up you go, Major, and look."
So Alan went up and from the topmost fork of that tree saw a sight at
which his blood turned cold. For there, not five miles behind them,
on either side of the river bank, the light gleaming on their spears,
marched two endless columns of men, who from their head-dresses he
took to be Asiki. For a minute he looked, then descended the tree and
approaching the others, asked what was to be done.
"Hook, scoot, bolt, leg it!" exclaimed Jeekie emphatically; then he
licked his finger, held it up to the wind and added, "but first fire
reeds and make it hot for Bonsa crowd."
This was a good suggestion and one on which they acted without delay.
Taking red embers, they blew them into a flame and lit torches, which
they applied to the reeds over a width of several hundred yards. The
strong northward wind soon did the rest; indeed with a quarter of an
hour a vast sheet of flame twenty or thirty feet in height was rushing
towards the Asiki columns. Then they began their advance along the river
bank, running at a steady trot, for here the ground was open.
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