Adrian's Letter Home
My Dear Cousin,
A couple of nights ago we had a most a most marvellous rumble with the brigand Ruba bin Qstard's slavers. Such a night it was full of excitement and bravery the like of which I've seldom seen.
It all started the day before. We were travelling over this parched stony land when just out of nowhere a native king appeared. Straight out of the ground I tell you. One minute the whole place was empty except for dust devils and mirages the next we were surrounded by a host of savage warriors. Big fellows they were and in full battle regalia too. Binky, never flustered, went straight up to him and engaged him in conversation.
It turns out that he was the chief of a local kingdom. A fiercely independent one at that. He was not used to asking for help and you could see that in his gestures. However, Binky reassured the fellow and promised our help when he heard that his land had been attacked by slavers. When he mentioned that Ruba bin Qstard, the Snikabari that had caused us so much grief but a few short days ago we were all ready to have a go.
Well to cut a long story short we decided to attack that very night. We wanted to make maximum use of the cover of darkness and also catch the Snikabaris while they were revelling in their loot. Well I had Mahmud, my boys and some of the King's men as well as Maina. I'm not sure whether he is what he says he is very deep. We formed the right wing of the attack, Gerald was the main attack force and Binky, wounded as he was, insisted upon leading the support party himself.
On the way in I had to deal with sentries. The whole valley was ringed by big Snikabaris at guard fires. I did not know it at the time but Gerald was a bit ahead and had dealt with one sentry early on. The whole show kicked off when Binky fired a white rocket at precisely 30 minutes past 5 in the morning. The Snikabaris were mostly dozing and seemed to miss it! Lady Luck was with us!
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The sentry blocking our path was dealt with quietly by one of the King's archers. At about this time a shot rang out over by Gerald's force. The Snikabaris were alerted. We could see then tumbling out of their huts by the light of their fires. Binky added to the confusion with his Nordenfelt. I don't think he did much damage but he did scare them a lot! They started banging off into the night in all directions and I'm sure they shot more of their own than Binky did!
I sent the King's men, 2 archers and the spearmen to deal with the sentry over to our right. In moments he was dead. Never knew what hit him. Sterling fellows these!
In the centre Binky was doing a marvellous job of keeping the attention and drawing the fire of the slavers. There was a glorious symphony of machine guns, dynamite and rockets. It was like that music by the Russian chappie that Aunt Celia took us to in the park years ago. The 1815 overture or some such and the gunners fired blanks - exciting stuff what?
By the way I potted a Snikabari guard at nearly 400 yards in the dark with one shot! He was lit up only by his sentry fire.
One of Binky's rockets blasted a hole in the stockade of a small village and another blew up a hut. Later we found out that an unlucky shot had killed an askari and another wounded poor old Henry Jones. Just as it fell quiet I heard this awful war cry, turned my blood cold, it did and I've heard war cries before. It was King and his men charging into the first huts. My goodness, they fought like demons. I'm glad they were on our side. The Snikabaris fought hard but they were no match for the King's men. Gerald brought up his machine gun and did some execution on the Snikabaris in the King's stockade. The Snikabaris there were made of sterner stuff and a fierce gun battle developed and Gerald lost 3 men including Ali and his faithful Sergeant.
Then came that awful cry again - this time there was no holding the King's men with me back. The King, Ribi N'Aa, himself led the attack on his stockade and put every single Snikabari to the spear. The boys with me raced ahead and took on the slavers under Ruba bin Qstard. And though they were outnumbered they put all except one to the spear and the survivors fled. The must have been Ruba bin Qstard himself because we could not find his body amongst the slain.
When it was all done we counted up our casualties; Ali and one askari lay dead and the sergeant, at first sight dead, was in fact seriously wounded and deaf. The King's men lost only three spearmen and an archer. The Snikabaris were wiped out - we counted up 30 bodies including their chief. Ruba bin Qstard's brigands left 11 dead on the field and several trails of blood led off into the brush. We could hear the lions and the screams for hours afterwards.
The King was delighted and entertained us right royally for a couple of days while we built up our strength. He had recovered his Royal Regalia, his people and his home. He has promised us an escort to edge of his land and supplies for our journey. He even tried to marry Binky off to one of his daughters! A beauty of about 16 summers.