More than once he had wished for the companionship of a man of his own race. Mirambo was a devoted lieutenant, but consultation with him could only be carried on through Mwesa, and his range of ideas was as limited as the boy’s command of English. Tom felt the lack of an equal, a man of like upbringing and education, with whom he might have had those long and intimate talks in which mind reacts on mind with mutual helpfulness. More than ever he wished it now. An advancing enemy should be harassed; but Tom dared not leave the nullah himself, and neither Mirambo nor any other native had the cool judgment and the self-control necessary in the commander of even a disciplined force, much more in one who had only half-trained negroes under his leadership. Pitted against well-drilled askaris under capable German officers, the Wahehe would be hopelessly overmatched; they would almost certainly be outflanked and cut off, and Tom could not afford to lose men. Under a white man the risks would not have been so great. But it is idle to long for the impossible, and Tom realised that the only safe course was to keep the men with him. He gave orders to his scouts to fall back upon the nullah when the enemy advanced, but slowly, and noting their progress from point to point. It was on the third day after the little action at the bridge that his furthermost scout reported the enemy were on the move. They had marched two miles along the track from the spot on which they had encamped beside the Neu Langenburg road. There was a great host of askaris, a great host of porters, and several white men. Some of the porters were dragging a long green bottle on wheels. A long green bottle on wheels! Tom felt a sinking at heart. What could this be but a field gun? The hosts of askaris did not dismay him: their numbers were, no doubt, exaggerated by the natives as usual; but he recognized that his barricade of trees would be a poor defence against shell-fire. There was little time to improvise adequate protection; but he set almost the whole of his men to work at once in digging a deep trench a few yards behind the barricade.