We had now 650 men to collect the corn. I noticed an
extraordinary diminution in the crop during my absence of only two days,
but not a corresponding increase in the store collected by the troops
left under the command of Raouf Bey.
I had occupied the valley by a line of three stockaded positions, at
intervals of about a mile and a half; thus a very large area of corn was
commanded, and if the patrols had done their duty, it would have been
impossible for the natives to have carried it off.
Nothing had been heard of the missing major, Achmet Rafik; he had not
returned to Gondokoro as I had hoped. I now discovered, through the
native women, that he had been killed by the Baris on the same day that
we had arrived at Belinian. It appeared that the unfortunate officer had
steered his course for the Belinian mountain peak, in the hope of
overtaking the troops. This route through the forest led him to the
extreme end of the valley at the foot of the mountain, quite in the
wrong direction. Having arrived at the nearly dry bed of the Belinian
river, he sat beneath a tree to rest. The natives quickly observed him,
and stalked him as though he had been a wild animal.
It appeared that, when attacked, he had wounded one native in the head
with his "little gun," as the Baris termed his revolver; and this man
was still alive with the bullet in his skull, which the women declared
was swollen as large as a pumpkin.
