The first thing to be done was to disarm those who had guns, and
this seemed to scare the others, for in a short time the town was
almost entirely deserted. It was now fast getting dark, and the
troops bivouacked in the marketplace, which had so often been the
scene of human sacrifices on a large scale.
Their day's work had, indeed, been a heavy one. They had been
twelve hours on the road without rest or time to cook food. Water
was very scarce, no really drinkable water having been met with during
the day. In addition to this they had undergone the excitement of
a long and obstinate fight with an enemy concealed in the bush,
after work of almost equal severity upon the day before, and had
passed a sleepless night in a tropical rainstorm, yet with the
exception of a few fever stricken men not a single soldier fell
out from his place in the ranks.
Nor was the first night in Coomassie destined to be a quiet one.
Soon after two o'clock a fire broke out in one of the largest of
the collections of huts, which was soon in a blaze from end to end.
The engineers pulled down the huts on either side and with great
difficulty prevented the flames from spreading. These fires were the
result of carriers and others plundering, and one man, a policeman,
caught with loot upon him, was forthwith hung from a tree.
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