noon before
The ground was difficult ; every spot likely to afford concealment to a hostile sniper had to be carefully examined . The absence of bird life was ominous . It meant that either the returning Huns had disturbed the feathered denizens or else the advance of the Haussas had driven them over the enemy position , in which case the wily Hun would `` smell a rat . '' It was noon before Wilmshurst gained his preliminary objective . The tropical sun was beating down with terrific violence , the scrub offering scant shelter from its scorching rays . Already the previously-dew-sodden ground was baked stone-hard , the radiating heat imparting an appearance of motion to every object within sight . Literally stewing , the subaltern threw himself flat on the ground under the slight shadow of a dried thorn bush , and waited , at intervals sweeping the bare outlines of the kopje with his prismatic glasses .