Having reached the sandy plain, they very deliberately formed to the front, and then at the harsh call of a bugle they trotted forward in line, the parti-coloured figures all swaying and the sand smoking in a rolling yellow cloud at the heels of their camels.

At the same moment the six black soldiers doubled in from the front with their Martinis at the trail, and snuggled down like well-trained skirmishers behind the rocks upon the haunch of the hill.
Their breech blocks all snapped together as their corporal gave them the order to load.
And now suddenly the first stupor of the excursionists passed away, and was succeeded by a frantic and impotent energy.

They all ran about upon the plateau of rock in an aimless, foolish flurry, like frightened fowls in a yard.

They could not bring themselves to acknowledge that there was no possible escape for them.

Again and again they rushed to the edge of the great cliff which rose from the river, but the youngest and most daring of them could never have descended it.