148 THE WEST SIDE OF RUWENZORI 



At dawn we scrambled up to a little above ii,ooo 

 feet, in the hope of getting a good view of the 

 mountains ; but the clouds were already down upon 

 them, and we turned sadly downhill to the turmoil 

 of the camp at Kakalongo, where there were bullets 

 to be sought for and cuts to be bandaged. One 

 wretched fellow had two bullets in one of his lungs, 

 and a long iron slug had gone clean through the 

 body of another ; but though we could not do much 

 for them until we arrived at Beni, four days later, 

 both of them eventually recovered. It appeared 

 that the Belgian and his party had walked un- 

 suspecting into an am.bush close to the village, 

 where the banana shamba had been destroyed a few 

 days earlier. In the long grass and dense under- 

 growth it had been impossible to estimate the 

 number of the enemy — the Belgian said he thought 

 there were at least sixty guns, but that was probably 

 a great exaggeration — so it was decided that 

 discretion was the better part of valour, and a rapid 

 retreat was made. 



Our descent of the valley, hampered as we were 

 with the wounded men carried in hammocks, and 

 retarded by the careful skirmishing of scouts in 

 front and on either side, was made at the pace 

 of the slowest funeral procession, and soon it became 

 one in fact, for we picked up the body of the soldier 

 who had been killed the day before. His right 

 hand had been hacked off, and is doubtless treasured 

 somewhere as a trophy of victorious battle. As our 



