Whether or not the sudden halt of the quartette conveyed to the native mind the mistaken impression that the white men were afraid, or whether it was that Lethbridge's intuition had rightly interpreted an already fixed determination, it is impossible to say, but the fact remains that as the four whites halted in line, a gigantic savage sprang to the front and, waving his shield and spears above his head, shouted a few words to the others as he started to run toward the little band. "I will take the leader; the rest of you fire into the brown," cried Lethbridge, levelling his rifle. As the words left his lips the _click, click_ of the rifle-hammers sounded, and the leading savage and three others stumbled and fell prone to the earth, their shields and spears flying from their nerveless hands, and ere they were fairly down, four others rolled over and lay motionless, followed by another and yet another four, until, within the brief space of some twenty seconds, no fewer than forty black warriors lay prostrate, either dead, or badly wounded. And this had happened merely because those four terrible white men had pointed at them with their long, straight, shining sticks! There had been no fire, no smoke, no noise; the white men had simply _pointed_ at them, and lo, forty of their best men were down! The native mind is quick in its appreciation of the hard logic of facts; and by the time that those forty warriors were prostrate, it had assimilated the conviction that the inhabitants of that village had rashly embarked upon a distinctly unhealthy enterprise when they undertook the seductive pastime of attempting to massacre that apparently insignificant little band of white men. And at this point in the drama the whole shouting, yelling crowd suddenly became silent, pulled up short, and, as four more of their number dropped, flung themselves on their faces to the earth, grovelling and howling loudly for mercy. And only just in the nick of time, too, so far as the white men were concerned, for had the courage of the savages lasted long enough to carry them a further fifty yards, they would have arrived within striking distance, and a most distinguished scientist, in the person of Professor Heinrich von Schalckenberg, would have been "wiped out," and his three friends with him. "Ah!" ejaculated Sir Reginald, "that was `touch and go' with us, and no mistake! Now, Professor, if you can make them understand you, just ask them what the dickens they mean by attacking white men in that gratuitous and light-hearted fashion; and then explain to them that we have no desire at all to do them the slightest harm if they will but behave civilly to us."