Captain Rees glanced in the direction of the "Aphrodite," which was moored by a pair of stout chain cables, since her patent anchoring device was useless when afloat. He gave another look, this time at the slender mounds of sand that had been hastily heaped over the victims of the Somalis.
Quickly the landing-party and the crew of the "Iticaba" embarked. Polglaze, still lingering longingly over his array of spanners and other armourers’ tools, accompanied the gun to the beach.
Just as the gun’s crew were about to unmount the heavy weapon from its carriage a blood-curdling roar of mingled yells and shouts burst from a dense body of Somalis, who, observing the embarkation in progress, had crept up the remote side of the dunes, and barely a hundred yards from the shore.
Three of the seamen who had not yet embarked dropped on one knee, and using their rifles, strove to check the furious rush. Others in the boats joined in the firing, while from the deck of the "Aphrodite" every man left on board hastened to aid their comrades with well-aimed volleys.
Coolly Polglaze attempted to adjust the small pieces of mechanism necessary to make the automatic gun serviceable, while Gwennap stood ready to thrust the end of the ammunition belt into the breech-block feeder.
The next instant Polglaze dropped limply across the trail with a broad-bladed spear thrown at less than ten yards’ distance sticking into his body. Gwennap, using the butt-end of his rifle, stood over his comrade till, desperately fighting, he fell. The gun was surrounded by a swarm of blood-thirsty foes.
Seeing this the men who still remained ashore made a wild scramble for the boats, and the fire in consequence slackened. Revolver in hand, Hythe called to them to make an effort to recover the gun. The call was promptly obeyed, and a dozen men, comprising several of the "Iticaba’s" crew, in addition to those of the "Aphrodite" jumped ashore, pouring in a hot fire as fast as they could handle the bolts of their magazine rifles.
Unable to withstand so concentrated a fire the horde of Somalis melted away. The gun stood alone with a score or more of corpses to bear testimony to the efficacy of the rifle-fire.
But there was no time to be lost. Already a swarm of the enemy, four or five times as numerous as the crowd that had just been driven off, were racing like furies to renew the conflict.