Shat-mo-koor!"
which is the order, "Make ready;" They accordingly always brought their
rifles on full cock when they heard the signal.
There was something puzzling this day respecting the distance. According
to my calculation, we should leave reached Koki. Still we marched on
through high forest and the interminable grass. My wife was dreadfully
fatigued. The constant marching in wet boots, which became filled with
sand when crossing the small streams and wading through muddy hollows,
had made her terribly foot-sore. She walked on with pain and difficulty.
I was sure that we had passed the village of Koki, which was surrounded
by much open ground and cultivation; and I now felt certain that the
broad road, which had been constructed to mislead us, had taken us by
the rear of Koki, which we had thus over-shot.
We were marching forward in perfect silence, when I heard a bird cry
"Co-co-me! Co-co-me"!
That instant the spears came among us, and the rifles replied as quick
as lightning!
The bugle of the advance-guard sounded "halt". I never liked to hear
that order, as something must have gone wrong.
I immediately walked forward, and found that Lieutenant Mohammed
Mustapha had been wounded. The spear had struck him just behind the
shoulderjoint of the left arm, and had passed over the blade-bone and
spine previous to making its exit by the right arm.
