All was quiet within the boma. Ferrier maintains to this day that snoring is an infirmity of civilization, for the sleepers emitted no sound. He lost no time in completing his task. First he soaked the bundles of grass thoroughly with methylated spirit, having postponed this until he reached the boma, lest evaporation should diminish the effect. Then he thrust them beneath the boma, choosing a place where it was thick and the light from the fires shone through less freely than elsewhere. Then he struck a match and applied it. Instantly there was a great flame; the dry thornbushes of the boma took fire readily. Ferrier slipped away to be out of the glare, but had gone only a few steps when he heard a soft patter of feet behind him. A moment after, the air was rent with rifle cracks and a din of shouting, from within the boma and from a distance. He turned to meet the man approaching, and saw the form of a big negro silhouetted against the glare. Ferrier was unarmed save for his clasp-knife, and he had not made up his mind what to do when a shot whistled past him: the negro had fired at him while still running. Before the man could draw a knife or turn in his tracks Ferrier threw himself upon him, trying to wrest the rifle from his hand. The two fell together; the rifle dropped to the ground; and black man and white were locked in a desperate wrestle. Ferrier felt the negro’s arms about him, straining to crush him or to break his back. Oblivious of the tumult around him--the yells and shots within the boma, the shouts of the assailants, the crackle and roar of the flames--Ferrier strove to free himself from the strangling embrace, conscious that he was no match in muscle for his powerful opponent. He had almost given himself up for lost when the man’s grip relaxed, and with a heavy groan he lay still. Ferrier sprang up. By the light of the blazing boma he saw the men of his party at two points of the outer hedge, some leaping over it, some slashing at it with their knives and tearing it down. None of them were firing; after the first discharge of their rifles John had ordered them to rush for the camp. Evidently the big negro had been struck down by a shot from his own friends.