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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Kopje Garrison, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Kopje Garrison
+       A Story of the Boer War
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: W. Boucher
+
+Release Date: January 26, 2009 [EBook #27897]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KOPJE GARRISON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+The Kopje Garrison, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+HOW DREW LENNOX AND BOB DICKENSON WENT A-FISHING.
+
+They did not look like fishermen, those two young men in khaki, for
+people do not generally go fishing with magazine-rifles instead of
+fishing-rods--certainly not in England.  But this was in South Africa,
+and that makes all the difference.  In addition, they were fishing in a
+South African river, where both of them were in profound ignorance as to
+what might take their bait first; and they were talking about this when
+they first reached the bank and saw the swift river flowing onward--a
+lovely river whose banks were like cliffs, consequent upon ages of the
+swift stream cutting its way downward through the soft earth, while here
+and there clumps of trees grew luxuriantly green, and refreshed the eyes
+of the lookers-on after a couple of months spent in riding over the drab
+and dreary veldt.
+
+"Tackle isn't half strong enough," said the younger of the two, who was
+nearly good-looking; in fact, he would have been handsome if he had not
+always worn so stupid an aspect.  "Think there are any crocodiles here?"
+
+"Likely enough, Bobby."
+
+"S'pose one of them takes the bait?"
+
+"Well, suppose he does!" said the other, who resembled his companion,
+minus the stupid look; for if the keen, dark-grey eyes were
+truth-tellers of what was behind them, he was, as the men in his company
+said, sharp as a needle.
+
+"S'pose he does!" said the young man addressed as Bobby--otherwise
+Robert Dickenson, second lieutenant in Her Majesty's --th Mounted
+Infantry.  "Well, that's a cool way of talking.  Suppose he does!  Why,
+suppose one of the great magnified efts swallows the bait?"
+
+"Suppose he does.  What then?"
+
+"Why, he'll be more likely to pull me in than let me pull him out."
+
+"No doubt about it, if the line doesn't break."
+
+"What should I do then, Drew, old man?"
+
+"I don't know what you'd do, my little man.  I know what I should do."
+
+"Yes.  What?"
+
+"Let go."
+
+"Ah, I didn't think of that," said the young officer quite calmly.  "I
+say, though, if it turned out to be a hippopotamus?"
+
+"I wish it would, Bobby--that is, so long as it was a nice fat calf.
+I'm so ragingly hungry that I should look upon a steak off one of those
+india-rubber gentlemen as the greatest delicacy under the sun."
+
+"Oh, don't talk nonsense.  One of those things wouldn't be likely to
+bite.  But I say, Drew, old chap, do you think there are any fish to be
+caught?"
+
+"I haven't the slightest idea, Bobby.  But here's a river; it looks
+likely.  Fishes live in rivers; why shouldn't they be here?"
+
+"To be sure; why not?" said the other, brightening up and looking
+better.  "Who knows?  There may be carp and tench, eels and pike."
+
+"Not likely, Bobby, my lad; but most probably there are fish of some
+kind, such as live on this side of the equator."
+
+"Mahseer, perhaps--eh?"
+
+"Bah!  This is Africa, not northern India.  Let's get down and make a
+beginning.  We had better get down through that woody rift."
+
+"I wish I'd got my six-jointed rod, old fellow."
+
+"But as you haven't, we must try what we can do with a line."
+
+"I say, it was lucky you thought to bring some hooks."
+
+"They were meant to try in the sea, old fellow, but I never had a
+chance.  Come softly, and be on the lookout."
+
+"Eh?" cried the young man addressed, bringing the rifle he carried to
+the ready.  "Boers?"
+
+"Oh no; our fellows are not likely to let any of those gentlemen
+approach.  I thought we might perhaps put up a deer, antelope, buck, or
+something."
+
+"Venison roast, hot, juicy!  Oh Drew, old man, don't; pray don't!  You
+gave me such an awful pang.  Oh dear! oh dear!"
+
+"Pst!  Quiet!  Don't build your hopes on anything, because I dare say we
+shall be disappointed; but still we might."
+
+"Ah, might!" said the young officer.  "Oh dear!  I thought we might get
+wounded, or have a touch of fever, but I never expected that we should
+run the risk of being starved to death."
+
+"Then give us a chance of escaping that fate by keeping your tongue
+quiet.  If we don't get a shot at something down there, we may still hit
+upon a bag of fish."
+
+"Forward!" whispered the young officer, and together the pair approached
+the wooded gully and cautiously began to descend it to reach the river;
+but all proved to be silent, and in spite of their caution not a bush
+rustled, and their patient movements were in vain.
+
+"I did expect a shot at something," said the elder officer in a
+disappointed tone.
+
+"Venison was too much," said Bobby.  "I expected it would be a sneaking
+leopard, or one of those doggy-looking monkeys."
+
+"The baboons?  Oh no; they'd be among the rocky hills.  But you need not
+be surprised, for this is the land of disappointments."
+
+"Oh, I say, don't talk like that, Drew, old chap," said the younger
+officer.  "Fishermen have bad luck enough always, without your
+prophesying ill before we begin."
+
+"One can't help it out here.  Hang it all! we've had nothing but
+misfortunes ever since we came.  Now then, you sit down on that rock,
+and I'll sit on this."
+
+"Why not keep close together?"
+
+"Because if we do we shall be getting our lines tangled."
+
+"Of course; I forgot that.  Here, you'll want some bait."
+
+The speaker took a small tin canister from his pocket, unscrewed the
+lid, and made by the help of his pocket-knife a fair division of some
+nasty, sticky-looking paste, which looked as if it would soon wash off
+the hook upon which it was placed; and then the two fishermen separated
+and took up their stations about fifty yards apart, the two stones
+standing well out in the rapid current which washed around them and
+proved advantageous, from the fact that they had only to drop the baited
+hook into the water at their feet, when the swift stream bore it outward
+and away, the fishers merely having to let out line and wait, watchful
+and patient, for a bite.
+
+It was very calm and beautiful in the bend of the river that they had
+chosen.  There was a faint breeze, apparently caused by the rush of the
+stream, whose rippling amongst the stones with which the shore beneath
+the cliff-like bank was strewed made pleasant music; and as soon as the
+whole of the line was paid out the two young men sat silent and
+watchful, waiting for the tug which should tell that there was a fish at
+work.  But a good ten minutes elapsed, and there was no sign.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Dickenson, after his patience was exhausted.  "No
+mistake about there being fish here."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"One of them has taken my bait."
+
+It was on Drew's lips to say, "Washed off by the stream;" but he
+remained silent as he softly pulled in his own line, to find nothing but
+the bare hook.
+
+"There! do you see?" he said softly, the sound of his voice passing over
+the water so that it was like a whisper at his friend's ear, as he
+dangled the bare hook.
+
+"Oh yes, I see: fish nibbled it off."
+
+"Hope you are right," said Drew softly, as he rebaited, dropped in the
+white marble of paste, and watched it glide down the stream, drawing out
+one by one the rings of line which he had carefully coiled up on the
+rock when he drew it out.
+
+Then stooping and picking a long, heavy, stream-washed, slaty fragment
+from out of the water by his side, he made the end of his line fast to
+it and laid it at his feet, so as to have his hands at liberty.  With
+these he drew out a cigarette-case and opened it, but his brow puckered
+up as he looked disconsolately at its contents.
+
+"The last two," he said softly.  "Better keep 'em.  Be more hungry
+perhaps by-and-by."
+
+Closing the case, he replaced it in his breast-pocket.
+
+"The hardest job I know of," he muttered, "practising self-denial."
+Then aloud, "Well, Bob, do they bite?"
+
+"No: only suck.  Lost two more baits; but I shall have a big one
+directly."
+
+"Glad of it.  How will you cook it--roast or boil?"
+
+"Don't chaff.  Mind your own line."
+
+Drew Lennox smiled, glanced down at his line, which the stream had now
+drawn out tight, and, satisfied that the stone to which it was tied
+would give him fair warning if he were fortunate enough to get a bite,
+he stepped back, picked up his rifle, and taking out his handkerchief,
+began to give it a rub here and a rub there, to add polish to the
+well-cleaned barrel, trigger-guard, and lock.
+
+He took some time over this, but at last all was to his satisfaction;
+and laying down the piece on the rock by his side, he once more drew up
+his line, glancing up-stream, to see that his companion was similarly
+occupied, both finding the bait gone.
+
+"I say, isn't it aggravating?" said Dickenson.  "I know what they are--
+sort of mullet-like fish with small mouths.  Put on a smaller bait."
+
+"All right; good plan," said Lennox.
+
+"Wish to goodness I'd a few well-scoured English worms.  I'd soon let
+the fish know!"
+
+"Ah, I suppose they would be useful," said Lennox, moulding up a piece
+of paste and trying to make it as hard as he could.  "I say, Bob."
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"I've read that you can dig up great fat worms here in South Africa,
+eighteen inches long."
+
+"Dig one up, then, and I'll cut it into eighteen inch-long baits."
+
+"I didn't bring a spade with me, old fellow," said Drew, smiling.
+
+"Humph!  Why didn't you?"
+
+"Same reason that you didn't bring out some worms in your kit.  I say,
+are you loaded?"
+
+"Of course.  You asked me before."
+
+Drew Lennox said no more, but glanced up-stream and down-stream, after
+starting his bait once again upon its swim.  Then, after watching the
+rings uncoil till the line was tight, he swept the edge of the opposite
+bank some fifty yards away, carefully searching the clumps of trees and
+bushes, partly in search of a lurking enemy or spying Kaffir, taught now
+by experience always to be on the alert, and partly in the faint hope of
+catching a glimpse of something in the shape of game such as would prove
+welcome in the famine that he and his comrades were experiencing.
+
+But, as he might have known in connection with game, their coming would
+have been quite sufficient to scare off the keen eared and eyed wild
+creatures; and he glanced down at his line again, thinking in a rather
+hopeless way that he and his friend might just as well have stayed in
+camp at the laager they had fortified with so much care.
+
+His next act was to open the flap of his belt holster and carefully
+withdraw the revolver which now rarely left his side.  After a short
+examination of the mechanism, this came in for a good rub and polish
+from the handkerchief before it was replaced.
+
+"Nearly had one," cried his companion, after a snatch at the line he
+held.
+
+"Didn't get a bite, did you?"
+
+"Bite?  A regular pull; but I was a bit too late.  Why don't you attend
+to your fishing instead of fiddle-faddling with that revolver?  Pull up
+your line."
+
+Drew Lennox smiled doubtingly as he drew the leather cover of the
+holster over the stud before stooping to take hold of the line at his
+feet.
+
+"I believe that was all fancy, Master Bobby," he said.  "If there have
+been any fish here, the crocodiles have cleared them out, or the Boers
+have netted them.  It will be dry biscuit for us again to-night, or--My
+word!"
+
+"Got one?" cried Dickenson, excited in turn, for his brother officer's
+manner had suddenly changed from resigned indifference to eager action,
+as he felt the violent jerk given to his line by something or other that
+he had hooked.
+
+"Got one?  Yes; a monster.  Look how he pulls."
+
+"Oh, be careful; be careful old chap!" cried Dickenson wildly, and he
+left the stone upon which he was standing to hurry to his friend's side.
+"That's a fifteen or twenty pound fish, and it means dinner for the
+mess."
+
+"I believe it's a young crocodile," said Lennox.  "My word, how it
+tugs!"
+
+"Play it--play it, man!  Don't pull, or you'll drag the hook out of its
+jaws.  Give it line."
+
+"Can't; he has it all out."
+
+"Then you'll have to follow it down-stream."
+
+"What! go into the water?  No, thanks."
+
+"What! shrink from wading when you've got on a fish like that at the end
+of your line?  Here, let me come."
+
+"No; I'll play the brute and land him myself.  But, I say, it's a fine
+one of some kind; pulls like an eel.  Look how it's wagging its head
+from side to side."
+
+"Better let me come," said Dickenson, whose face was scarlet from
+excitement.
+
+"Get out!"
+
+"I'll never forgive you if you lose that fish, Lennox, old man."
+
+"Not going to lose him.  Look; he has turned, and is coming up-stream;"
+for the line, which a few moments before was being violently jerked,
+suddenly grew slack.
+
+"Gone! gone! gone!" cried Dickenson, with something of a sob in his
+throat.
+
+"You be quiet!" said Drew.  "I thought, it was only a bit of wood a few
+minutes ago."
+
+"Fish, of course, and the hook's broken away."
+
+"Think so?" was the cool reply, as foot after foot of the line was drawn
+in.  "I was beginning to be of the opinion that he had given it up as a
+bad job and was swimming right in to surrender."
+
+"No; I told you so.  You've dragged the hook right out the fish's jaws,
+and--Oh, I'm blessed!"
+
+"With a good opinion of yourself, Bobby," said Drew, laughing; for after
+softly hauling in about eight or ten yards of the stout water-cord he
+felt the fish again, when it gave one smart tug at the line and dashed
+up past the stone, running out all that had been recovered in a very few
+seconds.
+
+Directly after there was a check and a jerk at the officer's hand, while
+a cry escaped his lips as he let the line go and stooped to pick up his
+rifle.
+
+"That's no good," began Dickenson.
+
+"Quick, man!  Down with you!--Ah! you've left your rifle.  Cover!"
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Dickenson; and his jaw dropped, and he stood
+motionless, staring across the river at the sight before him on the
+other bank.
+
+"Hands up!  Surrender!  You're surrounded!" shouted a rough voice.
+"Drop that rifle, or we fire."
+
+Drew Lennox was bent nearly double in the act of raising it as these
+words were uttered, and he saw before him some twenty or thirty barrels,
+whose holders had covered him, and apparently only awaited another
+movement on the young officer's part to shoot him down as they would
+have done a springbok.
+
+"Oh dear!" groaned Dickenson; "to come to this!"  And he was in the act
+of raising his hands in token of surrender when his comrade's head
+caught him full in the chest and drove him back among the bushes which
+grew densely at the mouth of the gully.
+
+_Crack! crack! crack! crack_! rang out half-a-dozen rifles, and Lennox,
+who as the consequence of his spring was lying right across his comrade,
+rolled off him.
+
+"Hurt?" panted the latter in agonised tones.
+
+"No.  Now then, crawl after me."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Creep up level with your rifle, and cover you while you get it."
+
+"Is it any use, old fellow?  There's about fifty of them over yonder."
+
+"I don't care if there are five hundred," growled Lennox through his
+teeth.  "Come along; we must keep it up till help comes from the
+laager."
+
+"Then you mean to fight?" panted Dickenson as he crawled after his
+leader; while the Boers from the other side kept up a dropping fire
+right into and up the gully, evidently under the impression that the two
+officers were making that their line of retreat instead of creeping
+under cover of the bushes at the foot of the cliff-like bank, till Drew
+stopped opposite where the abandoned rifle lay upon the stone Dickenson
+had left, so far unseen.
+
+Where they stopped the bushes were shorter and thinner, and they had a
+good view of the enemy, who had taken cover close to the edge of their
+bank and were keeping up a steady fire, sending their bullets searching
+the dense growth of the ravine, while about a dozen mounted men now
+appeared, cantering along towards where there was a ford about a mile
+lower down.
+
+"That's to surround us, old man," said Dickenson.  "The miserable liars!
+There isn't a man this side.  But oh, my chest!  You've knocked in some
+of my ribs."
+
+"Hang your ribs!  We must get that rifle."
+
+"Wait till I get my wind back," panted Dickenson.--"Oh, what a fool I
+was to lay it down!"
+
+"You were, Bobby; you were," said Drew quietly.  "Here, hold mine, and
+I'll dash out and bring it back."
+
+"No, you don't!" cried the young officer; and as he crouched there on
+all fours he bounded out like a bear, seized the rifle from where it
+lay, and rushed back, followed by the shouts and bullets of four or five
+Boers, who saw him, but not quickly enough to get an effective aim.
+
+"Now call me a fool again," panted Dickenson, shuffling himself behind a
+stone.
+
+It was Drew Lennox's rifle that spoke, not he, as in reply to the fire
+they had brought upon them he took careful aim and drew trigger, when
+one of the Boers sprang up fully into sight, turned half-round, threw up
+his rifle, and fell back over the edge of the cliff among the bushes
+similar to those which sheltered the young Englishmen.
+
+"Good shot, lad!"
+
+"Yes.  On his own head be it," said Lennox.  "A cowardly ambush.  Fire
+as soon as you can steady yourself.  Where are you?  I can't see you."
+
+"Ahint this stone, laddie," replied Dickenson coolly enough now.  "And
+you?"
+
+"Behind this one here."
+
+"That's right; I was afraid you were only bushed.  Ah! my
+turn,"--_crack_!--"now.  Bull's-eye, old man."
+
+As the words left his lips Lennox fired again, and another Boer who was
+badly hidden sprang up and dropped back.
+
+"Two less," said Drew in a husky whisper, while _crack! crack_! went the
+Boer rifles, and a peculiar shattering echo arose from the far side of
+the river as the bullets flattened upon the rocks or cut the bushes like
+knives; while from being few in number they rapidly became more, those
+of the enemy who had been searching the gully down which the young men
+had come now concentrating their fire upon the little cluster of rocks
+and trees behind which they were hidden.
+
+"Don't waste a cartridge, Bob lad," said Lennox, whose voice sounded
+strange to his companion, "and hold your magazine in case they try a
+rush."
+
+"Or for those fellows who'll come round by the ford," replied Dickenson.
+
+"Never mind them.  The firing will bring our lads out, and they'll
+tackle those gentlemen."
+
+"All right.--Ah!  I've been waiting for you, my friend," whispered
+Dickenson, and he fired quickly at one of the enemy who was creeping
+along towards a spot from which he probably thought he would be able to
+command the spot where the young Englishmen lay.  But he never reached
+it.  He just exposed himself once for a few moments, crawling like a
+short, thick snake.  Then his rifle was jerked upwards to the full
+extent of the poor wretch's arm and fell back.  He made no other
+movement, but lay quite still, while the rifles around him cracked and
+the bullets pattered faster and faster about where the two young men
+were hidden.
+
+"I say, how queer your voice is!" said Dickenson.  "Not hurt, are you?"
+
+"No, and yes.  This hurts me, Bob lad.  I almost wish I wasn't such a
+good shot."
+
+"I don't," muttered the other.  "I want to live."  Then aloud, "Don't
+talk like that, man!  It's their lives or ours.  Hit every one you
+can.--Phew! that was near my skull.  I say, I don't call this coming
+fishing."
+
+He turned towards his comrade with a comical look of dismay upon his
+countenance after a very narrow escape from death, a bullet having
+passed through his cap, when _whizz! whizz! whirr_! half-a-dozen more
+bullets passed dangerously near.
+
+"Mind, for goodness' sake!" shouted Lennox, in a voice full of the agony
+he felt.  "Don't you see that you are exposing yourself?"
+
+"What am I to do?" cried the young officer angrily.  "If I lean an inch
+that way they fire at me, and if I turn this way it's the same."
+
+"Creep closer to the stone."
+
+"Then I can't take aim."
+
+"Then don't try.  We've got to shelter till their firing brings help."
+
+"Oh, it's all very fine to talk, Drew, old chap, but I'm not going to
+lie here like a target for them to practise at without giving the
+beggars tit for tat.--Go it, you ugly Dutch ruffians!  There, how do you
+like that?"
+
+He fired as he spoke, after taking careful aim at another, who, from a
+post of vantage, kept on sending his bullets dangerously near.
+
+"Did you hit?" asked Lennox.
+
+"I think so," was the reply.  "He has backed away."
+
+"We must keep on firing at them," said Lennox; "but keep your shots for
+those who are highest up there among the trees."
+
+He set the example as he spoke, firing, after taking a long and careful
+aim, at a big-bearded fellow who had crawled some distance to his right
+so as to try and take the pair in the flank.  The Boer had reached his
+fresh position by making a rush, and his first shot struck the stones
+close to Drew's face, sending one up to inflict a stinging blow on the
+cheek, while in the ricochet it went whizzing by Dickenson's shoulder,
+making him start and utter an angry ejaculation, for he had again
+exposed himself.
+
+"Wish I could break myself off bad habits," he muttered, as a little
+shower of bullets came whizzing about them, but too late to harm.
+
+There was a certain amount of annoyance in his tones, for he noted that,
+while he had started up a little, his companion, in spite of the
+stinging blow he had received on the cheek, lay perfectly motionless
+upon his chest, waiting his time, finger on trigger, and ready to give
+it a gentle pressure when he had ceased to aim at one particular spot
+where he had seen the Boer's head for a moment.
+
+He did not have long to wait; for the moment the Boer had fired he
+slightly raised his head to try and mark the effect of his shot.
+
+That was sufficient.  Lennox squeezed rather than pulled the trigger,
+and as the smoke rose the bush which had sheltered the Boer moved
+violently for a few moments, and all was still there; while the young
+officer quickly reloaded and waited to see if another man took his
+enemy's place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+WHAT THEY CAUGHT.
+
+"Serve him right!"  Dickenson growled more than spoke.  "There's another
+chap creeping away yonder so as to enfilade us from the left."
+
+"Well, you know what to do," said Lennox grimly.
+
+Dickenson uttered a grunt, and, paying no further heed to the bullets
+that kept on spattering about the rocks, every now and then striking up
+a shower of loose stones, waited, patiently watching a spot that he had
+marked down a couple of hundred yards away up the river to his left.
+For he had seen one of the most pertinacious of their aggressors draw
+back, apparently without reason.
+
+"He couldn't have known that I meant to pick him out for my next shot,"
+the young officer said to himself, "and he couldn't have been hurt, so
+he's up to the same sort of game as that fellow old Lennox brought
+down."
+
+He turned his head sharply, not on account of a bullet coming too close,
+but to learn the effect of another shot from his companion.
+
+"Hit or miss?" he said gruffly.
+
+"Hit," was the laconic reply.
+
+Dickenson had only glanced round, and then fixed his eyes once more upon
+the little clump of bushes he had before noted.
+
+"That's the place he'll show at for certain," he muttered, and getting
+the sight of his rifle well upon one particular spot where a big grey
+stone reared itself up level with the tops of the bushes, he waited for
+quite five minutes, which were well dotted with leaden points.
+
+"Ha!  I was right," said Dickenson to himself, for all at once he caught
+a glimpse of the barrel of a rifle reared up and then lowered down over
+the top of the stone in his direction.
+
+The distance was great, and the rifle-barrel looked no larger than a
+metal ramrod, but the clearness of the South African air showed it
+plainly enough; and hugging himself closer together, the young officer
+laid his cheek close to the stock of his piece, closed his left eye, and
+glanced along the barrel, waiting for the opportunity he felt sure must
+come.
+
+The excitement of the moment made his heart beat fast, and his eyes
+glittered as he gazed; but there was nothing to see now save a beautiful
+green clump of thorn bush, with the great grey granite block in its
+midst.
+
+"I make it two hundred and fifty yards good," he said to himself, and he
+raised the sight of his rifle.  "I ought to be able to hit a steady mark
+at that distance when cool, and I feel as cool now as a cucumber.
+They're grand shots these chaps, and if he can make out my face he'll
+bring me down as sure as a gun; and if he does there's new mourning to
+be got at home, and a lot of crying, and the old lady and the girls
+breaking their hearts about stupid old me, so I must have first shot if
+I can get it.  Very stupid of them at home.  They don't know what a fool
+every one thinks me out here.  Nice, though, all the same, and I like
+'em--well, love 'em, say--love 'em all too well to let them go breaking
+their hearts about me; so here goes, Mr Boer.  But he doesn't go.  He
+must be waiting up there, because I saw his gun.  What a while he is!
+Or is it I'm impatient and think the time long?  Couldn't have been
+mistaken.  I'd speak to old Lennox, but if I do it's a chance if the
+enemy don't show and get first shot."
+
+Dickenson seemed to cease thinking for a few moments, and lay listening
+to the rattle of the Boers' guns across the river and the spattering
+echo-like sounds of the bullets striking around.  Then he began to think
+again, with his eyes fixed upon the top of the grey stone in the
+distance, and noting now that a clearly-cut shadow from a long strand
+was cast right across the top of the stone.
+
+"That's just in front of where his face ought to be when he takes aim,"
+thought the young officer.--"Aim at me, to put them at home in mourning
+and make them go to church the next Sunday and hear our old vicar say a
+kind word for our gallant young friend who died out in the Transvaal.
+But he sha'n't if I can help it.  Nasty, sneaking, cowardly beggar!  I
+never did him any harm, and I don't want to do him any harm; but as he
+means to shoot me dead, why, common-sense seems to say, `Have first shot
+at him, Bobby, old chap, if you can, for you're only twenty, and as the
+days of man are seventy years all told, he's going to do you out of
+fifty, which would be a dead robbery, of course; and in this case a dead
+robbery means murder into the bargain.'"
+
+Bob Dickenson's musings stopped short for a few moments while he looked
+in vain for some sign of his enemy.  Then he went on again in a
+desultory way, paying no heed to the bullets flying over and around him,
+and for the time being forgetting all about his comrade, who kept on
+firing whenever he had an opportunity.
+
+"What a pity it seems!" he mused.  "Birds flitting about, bees and
+butterflies sipping the honey out of the flowers, which are very
+beautiful; so is this gully, with the sparkling water and ferns and
+things all a-growing and a-blowing, as they say.  Why, I should like
+nothing better than loafing round here enjoying myself by looking about
+and doing no harm to anything.  I wouldn't even catch the fish if I
+wasn't so hungry; and yet, here I am with a magazine-rifle trying to
+shoot a Boer dead.
+
+"Humph! yes," he continued after a short pause; "but only so that he
+sha'n't shoot me dead.  This is being a soldier, this is.  Why was I
+such a fool as to be one?  The uniform and the band and the idea of
+being brave and all that sort of thing, I suppose.  Rather different out
+here.  No band; no uniform but this dirt-coloured khaki; no bed to sleep
+on; no cover but the tent; roasting by day, freezing by night: hardly a
+chance to wash one's self, and nothing to eat; and no one to look at you
+but the Boers, and when they come to see what the soldiers of the Queen
+are like they send word they are there with bullets, bless 'em!  Well, I
+suppose it's all right.  We must have soldiers, and I wanted to be one,
+and now I am one there does seem to be something more than the show in
+doing one's duty bravely, as they call it.
+
+"Well," he muttered at last, "this is getting monotonous, and I'm
+growing tired of it.  If they do shoot us both, they'll have had to pay
+for it.  Why, they must have used a couple of hundred cartridges.  Not
+very good work for such crack shots as they are said to be.  If they
+spend a hundred cartridges to shoot one buck, it would come cheaper to
+buy their meat.
+
+"All fancy," he muttered directly after; "that fellow couldn't have been
+going where I thought, and yet it seemed so likely.  There's the clump
+of trees, and the very stone a fellow would make for to rest his rifle
+on when he took aim from his snug hiding-place.  But there's no one
+there.  The sun shines right upon it, so that I could see in a moment if
+a Boer was there.  His face would be just beyond that shadow cast so
+clearly by what must be a dead bough.  Yes, all a fancy of mine."
+
+"Bob!" cried Lennox.
+
+"Hullo!"
+
+"I shall want some of your cartridges if help doesn't come soon."
+
+Bob Dickenson made no further reply, but lay gazing with one eye along
+the barrel of his rifle; for as his comrade spoke it suddenly occurred
+to him that the top of the grey block of granite looked a little
+different, but in what way he could not have explained.  He noted, too,
+that there was a tiny flash of light such as might have been thrown off
+a bright crystal of feldspar, and without pause now he held his rifle
+more firmly, laid the sight upon the flashing light, and the next moment
+he would have pulled the trigger.  But ere he could tighten his finger
+upon the little curved piece of steel within the guard of his piece,
+there was a flash, a puff of smoke, and a sensation as if a wasp had
+whizzed by his ear.  He did not move, only waited while one might have
+counted ten, and then tightened his grasp.
+
+"Bah!" he ejaculated as the little puff of smoke rose slowly, "how this
+rifle kicks!  Humph!" as the smoke cleared rapidly as soon as it rose
+enough for the wind to catch it, "I was right after all."
+
+"Hit?" asked Lennox.
+
+"Yes; and just in time, for we should have been in an awkward place
+directly."
+
+"Yes; and I'm afraid we shall be all the same," said Lennox.  "Try if
+you can do any good at a couple of fellows across yonder.  I can't touch
+them from where I lie, and if I move I shall shoot no more."
+
+Dickenson turned from where he was gazing hard at the top of the granite
+block, the appearance of which was now completely changed; for the Boer
+who, in accordance with what the young officer had anticipated, had sent
+so dangerous a bullet whizzing by his ear, had suddenly sprung up,
+fallen forward, and now lay there with outstretched hands still
+clutching his rifle, which rested upon the ground in front.
+
+"Mind me firing over you?" said the young officer.
+
+"No; but give me a hint first."
+
+"All right.  I shall have to--Stop a moment," he growled softly as a
+puff of smoke spurted up and another bullet came dangerously near.
+"That's the worst fellow, isn't he?"
+
+"One's as bad as the other.  Lie close."
+
+"Can't lie any closer, old man.  Skin seems to be growing to the rock as
+it is."
+
+_Crack_!
+
+There was another shot, the puff of smoke rising from close alongside
+the former one which Dickenson had seen.
+
+"I say," he cried, "which of us are they firing at?"
+
+"Both, I expect," said Lennox.  "They're sheltered by the same rock; one
+fires from one side, the other from the second.  I can't touch them.
+Try at once."
+
+"Don't you hurry me, or I shall muff it, old man," said Dickenson
+coolly.  "I want a better chance.  There's nothing but a bit of
+wideawake to fire at now.--Ha!  Lie still.  He's reaching out to fire at
+me, I think."
+
+Dickenson's rifle spurted, and their enemy's was like an echo; but the
+muzzle of the Boer's piece was suddenly jerked upward, and the bullet
+had an opportunity of proving how far a Mauser rifle would carry with a
+high trajectory.
+
+"Thanks, old fellow," said Lennox.  "That has halved the risk.  Perhaps
+the other fellow will think it too dangerous to stay."
+
+"Doesn't seem like it," said Dickenson, drawing in his breath sharply
+and clapping his left hand to his ear.
+
+"Don't say you're hit, Bob!" cried Lennox in an agonised tone.
+
+"All right; I won't if you don't want me to."
+
+"But are you?"
+
+"I suppose so.  There's a bit taken out of my left ear, and I can feel
+something trickling down inside my collar."
+
+"Oh Bob, old fellow!" cried Lennox.
+
+"Lie still, man!  What are you going to do?"
+
+"Bind up the place."
+
+"You won't if you stir."
+
+There was pretty good proof of this, for another shot whizzed between
+them.  But he who sent it had been too venturesome in taking aim to
+revenge his comrade's fall, and the result of Dickenson's return shot
+was fatal, for he too sprang up into a kneeling posture, and they saw
+him for a few moments trying to rise to his feet, but only to fall over
+to the left, right in view of the two officers.
+
+Drew uttered a sigh of relief.
+
+"If we are to escape," he said, "we must stop any one from getting into
+that position again."
+
+"Look sharp, then," said Dickenson, whose keen eyes detected a movement
+on the other side of the river.  "There's a chap creeping among the
+bushes on all fours."
+
+"I see him," cried Drew; and as he followed the enemy's movements and
+took aim, Dickenson, who was in the better position for commanding them,
+followed his example.
+
+"Missed!" cried Drew angrily as he fired and the Boer raised a hand and
+waved it derisively.
+
+"Hit!" exclaimed Dickenson the next instant.  For he too had fired, and
+with better aim, the Boer drawing himself together, springing up, and
+turning to run, but only to stagger the next minute and fall heavily
+among the bushes, which hid him from sight.
+
+"Now for the next," continued Dickenson, coolly reloading.  "Look out;
+I'm going to watch the other end."
+
+He turned sharply as a fresh shower of bullets came scattering around
+them, and looked keenly at the granite rock and its burden,
+half-expecting to see a fresh occupant taking aim.  But apparently no
+one seemed disposed to expose himself anew to the rifles of such deadly
+shots, and the terrible peril to which the two fishermen had been
+exposed ceased for the time being, though the pair waited in momentary
+expectation of its recurrence.
+
+But the enemy did not slacken their efforts to finish their task by
+easier means, and the firing from the front went on more briskly than
+ever, the young officers contenting themselves with holding theirs and
+displaying no excitement now, their shelter, so long as they lay close,
+being sufficient, the worst befalling them now being a sharp rap from a
+scrap of stone struck from the rocks, or the fall of a half-flattened
+bullet.
+
+"That's right; don't fire until we are in an emergency," said Drew at
+the end of a few minutes.
+
+"In a what?" cried Dickenson.
+
+"In regular peril."
+
+"Why, what do you call this?" cried Dickenson, with a laugh.  "I made my
+will half-an-hour ago--in fancy, of course."
+
+"Well, it is a hot corner," said Drew, joining in his companion's grim
+mirth; "but we haven't got to the worst of it yet."
+
+"What!" yelled Dickenson.  "Oh Drew, old man, you are about the coolest
+fish in the regiment.  It can't be worse than it has been."
+
+"Can't it?  Wait a few minutes, and the party who made for the ford will
+be at us."
+
+"But they can't get their horses down the way we came."
+
+"No; but they can leave them with a fourth of their fellows to hold
+while they get somewhere within shot, and then we're done.  What do you
+say to tying a handkerchief to a rifle-barrel and holding it up?  We've
+held out well."
+
+"Nothing!  What do you say?"
+
+"Same as you do; but I thought I'd give you the option if you did not
+feel as obstinate as I do."
+
+"Obstinate?  I don't call it obstinate to hold out now.  I've seen too
+many of our poor lads carried to the rear.  Here," continued the
+speaker, after feeling, "I haven't used half my cartridges yet.  Ask me
+again when they're all gone, and then I'll tell you the idea I've got."
+
+"What is it?  Tell me now."
+
+"Very well.  We'll fire the last cartridge at the cowardly brutes--fifty
+at least to two--and then give them a surprise."
+
+"What! walk out and hold up your hands?"
+
+"No; that would be a surprise, of course; but I've got a better."
+
+"Let's have it."
+
+"Walk in."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, crawl, then, into the river.  Get quietly in from behind some of
+the overhanging bushes, and float down with the stream."
+
+"Wouldn't do, Bobby; they wouldn't trust us.  They'd see us floating."
+
+"They'd think we were dead."
+
+"Not they.  The Boers are too slim, as they call it, and would pump a
+few bullets into us.  Besides, I have no fancy for being dragged down by
+a crocodile or grabbed by a hippo."
+
+"Think there are any crocs?"
+
+"Plenty in some of the rivers."
+
+"But the hippos, wouldn't touch us, would they?"
+
+"Very likely.  They don't hesitate about seizing a canoe and crunching
+it in two.  No, your plan won't do, lad.  I'd rather die ashore here."
+
+"Dry?" said Dickenson quietly.  "Well, I dare say it would be nicer.
+But there, we're not quite cornered yet."
+
+_Crack_ went a bullet overhead, and a report came from a fresh direction
+almost simultaneously.
+
+"Wrong!" said Drew coolly.  "We are cornered now.  That's the first shot
+from the men who have crossed to our side."
+
+"All right; I'm ready for them.  Let's finish our cartridges."
+
+"We will, Bob," said Drew quite calmly, in spite of their extremity.
+
+"What do you want?" said Dickenson.  "You haven't used all your
+cartridges?"
+
+"No; only about half."
+
+"Then why did you hold out your hand?"
+
+"Shake!  In case," said Drew laconically.
+
+"Sha'n't!  I'm not going to look upon the business as having come to
+that pitch yet.  Look out; we ought to see some of them soon."
+
+For shots were beginning to come about them to supplement those sent
+from across the river, but so ill directed that it was evident that
+their fresh assailants were guessing at their position below the
+perpendicular cliff-like bank.
+
+"This won't hurt us," said Dickenson coolly.
+
+"No; but some of them will be having their heads over the edge up there
+directly."
+
+"They can't while their friends are firing from the other side as they
+are.  But when they do look down it will be rather awkward for the first
+two."
+
+"Here, quick, look out, Bob!" cried Lennox, for the firing from the
+farther bank suddenly ceased, and the rustling and cracking of twigs
+somewhere overhead told that the fresh danger was very near.
+
+Dickenson's reply to his companion's order was to place himself quickly
+with his back to the rocks that had sheltered him, sitting with his
+rifle pointing upward.
+
+Drew took the same position, and none too soon; for, following closely
+upon the rustling sound, the makers of which were still invisible, a
+couple of shots were fired down at them, the bullets striking the stones
+just over their heads.
+
+No reply was made, for the enemy were quite hidden, and with beating
+hearts the two young Englishmen waited in horrible suspense for their
+chance--one which never came; for directly after quite a volley was
+fired, apparently from some distance back from the edge, and, to Drew's
+horror, a big burly Boer seemed to leap down from the top of the cliff
+to seize them for prisoners.
+
+That was his first surmise.  The next moment he knew the truth, for with
+a heavy thud the man struck the stones, falling sidewise, and then
+turned over upon his face, to lie with his limbs quivering slightly for
+a few moments before he lay perfectly still.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Dickenson, springing to his feet.
+
+"Down! down!" roared Drew, snatching at his brother officer's arm.
+
+But the need for caution was at an end, for volley after volley came
+rolling down into the river-bed, and proof of help being at hand was
+given by the rapid firing of the Boers on the other side of the river, a
+duel on a large scale being kept up for some ten minutes before the
+firing on the far side ceased.
+
+"Whopped!" shouted Dickenson excitedly.  "Look! look!" he cried,
+pointing down the river and across at an open spot where some dozens of
+the enemy were streaming away, galloping as hard as their little
+Bechuana ponies could go, but not escaping scatheless, four saddles
+being emptied by the fire from the cliff above the watchers' heads.
+
+"I wonder whether the other men who crossed have escaped," said Drew
+thoughtfully, as he took his whistle from his cross-belt and held it
+ready to blow.
+
+"Take it for granted they have, my son," said Dickenson.  "They really
+are clever at that sort of thing.  I say, I'm glad I didn't go through
+that performance."
+
+"What performance?" said Drew wonderingly.
+
+"Hand-shaking in that sentimental way."
+
+"It wouldn't have done you any harm."
+
+"Perhaps not; but, I say, don't stand fiddling about with that whistle.
+Blow, man, blow, and let the lads know where we are.  I don't want to be
+shot now by our own men: too degrading, that."
+
+Drew placed the whistle to his lips, and the shrill, penetrating,
+chirruping call rang out, while Dickenson stood looking upward towards
+the top of the bank.
+
+  Then Robin he put him his horn to his mouth
+  And a blast he did loudly blow,
+  While quick at the call his merry men all
+  Came tripping along in a row!
+
+He half-hummed, half-sang the old lines in a pleasant baritone voice,
+and then listened.
+
+"Don't see many _merry men_ tripping--poor, hungry beggars!  Blow again,
+Drew, old man.  Why don't they stop firing?"
+
+Drew blew again, and, to the intense satisfaction of both, the whistle
+was answered from among the trees above.
+
+"Ahoy there!  Where are you?"
+
+"Here! here!" shouted the young officers together.
+
+"Cease firing!" came now in a familiar voice, and the shots died out.
+
+"It's Roby," said Drew eagerly.
+
+"Never liked him so well before," said Dickenson, laughing.  "Ahoy!
+We're coming up."
+
+"Oh, there you are!" came from above, and a good, manly, sun-tanned face
+was thrust over the edge of the cliff.  "All right?"
+
+"Yes!  Yes!" was the reply.
+
+"That's better than I expected, lads," cried the officer.  "Does one
+good.  I thought we were avenging your death.  Well,"--the speaker's
+face expanded into a broad grin--"it's getting on towards dinner-time.
+What have you caught?"
+
+"Tartars!" growled Drew shortly.
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson; "a regular mess."
+
+The Kopje Garrison--by George Manville Fenn
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+ON THE QUI VIVE.
+
+"So it seems," said the officer above.  "But hullo, you!  You're
+wounded."
+
+"Pooh! stuff!" said Dickenson shortly; "bit picked out of my ear."
+
+"But,"--began the head of the rescue party.
+
+"Let it be," said Dickenson snappishly as he pressed his hand to the
+injured place.  "If I don't howl about it, I'm sure you needn't."
+
+"Very well, old fellow, I will not.  Ugh! what's that down there--that
+fellow dead?"
+
+The officer leaned out as far as he could so as to get a good look at
+the motionless figure at the foot of the cliff.
+
+Drew glanced at the figure too, and nodded his head.
+
+"Who shot him--you or Dickenson?"
+
+"Neither of us," said Drew gravely.  "It was the work of one of your
+fellows; he fell from up there.  But what about the party who crossed by
+the ford?"
+
+"Oh, we've accounted for them.  Cut them off from the ford and
+surrounded them.  Fifteen, and bagged the lot, horses and all."
+
+"You were a precious long time coming, though, Roby," grumbled
+Dickenson.  "We seem to have been firing here all day."
+
+"That's gratitude!" said the officer.  "We came as quickly as we could.
+Nice job, too, to advance on a gang well under cover and double covered
+by the strong body across the river.  There must have been sixty or
+seventy of them; but," added the captain meaningly, "sixty or seventy
+have not gone back.  How many do you think are down?  We've accounted
+for a dozen, I should say, _hors de combat_."
+
+"I don't know," said Drew shortly, "and don't want to."
+
+"What do you say, Dickenson?" asked the captain.
+
+"The same as Lennox here."
+
+"Come, come, speak out and don't be so thin-skinned.  We've got to
+report to Lindley."
+
+"Six haven't moved since," said Dickenson, looking uneasy now that the
+excitement of the fight was at an end; "and I should say twice as many
+more wounded."
+
+"Serve 'em right.  Their own fault," said the captain.
+
+It was decided to be too risky a proceeding to cross the river, for the
+Boers were certain to be only a short distance away, sheltered in some
+advantageous position, waiting to try and retrieve their dead and
+wounded; so a small party was posted by the ford to guard against any
+crossing of the river, and then the prisoners were marched off towards
+the village a couple of miles distant, where the detachment of infantry
+and mounted men had been holding the Boers across the river in check for
+some weeks past.
+
+A few shots followed them from a distance at first; but the enemy had
+received quite as much punishment as they desired upon that occasion,
+and soon ceased the aggressive, being eager for a truce to communicate
+with the little rear-guard posted in the scrub by the river so as to
+recover their wounded and dead.
+
+On the way back to the village the two young officer's had to relate in
+full their experience, which was given in a plain, unvarnished way; and
+then as a sharp descent was reached, and the rescued officers caught
+sight of the well-guarded prisoners marching on foot, their Bechuana
+ponies having been appropriated by their captors, Dickenson began to
+grow sarcastic.
+
+"Glad you've made such a nice lot of prisoners, Roby," he said.
+
+"Thanks," said the officer addressed, smiling contentedly.  "Not so
+bad--eh?  The colonel will be delighted.  Nice useful lot of ponies--
+eh?"
+
+"Ye-es.  The old man must be delighted.  We're all about starving, and
+you're taking him about a score more mouths to feed."
+
+"Eh?" cried the captain, aghast.  "Why, of course; I never thought of
+that."
+
+"Dickenson did," said Lennox, laughing.  "A thing like this touches him
+to the heart--I mean lower down."
+
+"You hold your tongue, my fine fellow," growled Dickenson.  "You're as
+bad as I am.  I don't like the fighting, but I'm ready to do my share if
+you'll only feed me well.  I feel as if I'd been losing flesh for
+weeks."
+
+"And done you good," said Lennox seriously.  "You were much too fat."
+
+"Look here, Drew," growled the young man addressed; "do you want to
+quarrel?"
+
+"Certainly not," was the reply.  "I've had quite enough for one day."
+
+Further conversation was prevented by their approach to the village,
+which was built at the foot of a precipitous kopje, the spot having been
+chosen originally for its fertility consequent upon the fact that a
+copious spring of fresh water rose high up among the rocks to form the
+little stream and gully at whose mouth the young officers had met with
+their fishing experience.
+
+This village, known as Groenfontein, had been held now for nearly two
+months by the little force, the idea being that it was to be occupied
+for a day at the most, and vacated after the Boers had been driven off.
+But though this had been done at once, the enemy had, as Drew Lennox
+said, a disgracefully unmilitary way of coming back after they had been
+thoroughly beaten.  They had come back here after the driving; others
+had come to help them from east, west, north, and south, and as soon as
+they were strengthened they had set to work to drive the British force
+away or capture it _en bloc_; but that was quite another thing.
+
+For, as Dickenson said, the colonel's instructions were to drive and not
+be driven.  So the Boers were driven as often as there was a chance; and
+then, as they kept on returning, the force had to stay, and did so,
+getting plenty of opportunities for making fresh drives, till the
+colonel felt that it was all labour in vain and waste of time.
+
+Under these circumstances he sent messengers explaining the position and
+asking for instructions.  But his despatches did not seem to have been
+delivered, for no orders came to him, and their bearers did not return.
+Consequently, like a sturdy British officer, he fell back upon his first
+command to hold the Boers in check at Groenfontein, soon finding that
+they held him in check as well, for even had he felt disposed to retire,
+it would have been impossible except at the cost of losing half his men;
+so he held on and waited for the relief which he felt would sooner or
+later come.
+
+But it did not come sooner, and he relied on the later, making the best
+of things.  Colonel Lindley's way of making the best of things was to
+return a contemptuous reply to the demands made from time to time for
+his surrender.
+
+The first time this demand was made was when the enemy had him in front
+and rear.  The envoys who came informed him that his position was
+perfectly hopeless, for he could not cross the river in face of the
+strong body the Boers had lining the banks; and that they had him in
+front, and if his people did not give up their arms they would be shot
+down to a man.
+
+The colonel's answer to this was, "Very well, gentlemen; shoot away."
+
+His officers were present, and Drew Lennox and Bob Dickenson exchanged
+glances at the word "gentlemen," for the embassy looked like anything
+but that; and they departed in an insolent, braggart way, and very soon
+after began to shoot, using up a great many cartridges, but doing very
+little harm.  Then, growing weary, they gave up, and the colonel set one
+part of his men to work with the spade till dark, making rifle-pit and
+trench; while as soon as it was dark he despatched fully half of his
+force to occupy the precipitous mound at the back of the village, making
+a natural stronghold which he intended to connect with the camp by means
+of stone walls the next day, having a shrewd notion that if he did not
+the Boers would, for the mound commanded the place, and would soon make
+it untenable.
+
+Captain Roby's company and another were sent to this duty, and the men
+were carefully posted--Lennox and Dickenson on the highest part, which
+was naturally the most windy and cold.  Their orders, which they
+conveyed to the men, were to keep the strictest lookout, though the
+enemy had retired far enough away; for the Boers had at that early
+period of the war already acquired the credit of being slim and clever
+at ambush and night attack.
+
+But the night was well advanced, and the two friends, after visiting
+post after post, were sitting huddled up in their greatcoats, longing
+for hot coffee or cigarettes, and feeling obliged to rub their sleepy
+and tired eyes from time to time, weary as they were with straining to
+see danger creeping up over the black, dark veldt, but straining in
+vain.
+
+"B-r-r-r!  What humbug it is to call this Africa!" growled Dickenson.
+
+"What do you mean?" replied Lennox.
+
+"Mean?  Why, it's so cold.  Where's your blazing heat and your sand?
+One might be at the North Pole.  Ow! don't do that."
+
+He started violently, for Lennox had suddenly stolen out a hand and
+pinched his arm sharply.
+
+"Quiet!  Listen!"
+
+Dickenson drew his breath hard and strained his ears instead of his
+eyes.
+
+"Well?  Can't hear anything."
+
+"Hist!  Listen again."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"Hear anything?"
+
+"Yes; but I don't know what it is," said Dickenson, laying a hand behind
+one ear and leaning forward with his head on one side.
+
+"What does it sound like?"
+
+"Something like a heavy wagon coming along a road with its wheels
+muffled."
+
+"Heavy wagon drawn by oxen?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dickenson.
+
+"Mightn't it be a big gun?"
+
+"It might," said Dickenson dubiously; "but what, could a big gun be
+doing out there on the open veldt?"
+
+"Lying still in its carriage, and letting itself be drawn to the place
+where it was to be mounted."
+
+"Yes, of course it might be; but it couldn't."
+
+"Why not?  Bob, old fellow," whispered Lennox in an excited whisper, "I
+believe the Boers are stealing a march upon us."
+
+"Well, they won't, because we're on the watch.  But out with it: what is
+it you think?"
+
+"They don't know that we are occupying the kopje to-night."
+
+"No; we came after it was dark."
+
+"Exactly.  Well, they're bringing up a big gun to mount up here and give
+us a surprise in the morning."
+
+"Phe-ew!" whistled Dickenson.  "Oh, surely not!"
+
+"I feel sure that they are."
+
+"Well, let's send word on to the old man.  Send one of the sergeants."
+
+"And by the time he got there with his news, and reinforcements could be
+sent, the enemy would have the gun here."
+
+"Let's tell Roby, then."
+
+"Yes; come on."
+
+In another minute they had told their officer their suspicions, and he
+hummed and ha'd a little after listening.
+
+"It hardly seems likely," he said, "and I don't want to raise a false
+alarm.  Besides, the outposts have given no notice; and hark!  I can
+hear nothing."
+
+"Now?"
+
+They listened in the darkness, and it was as their captain suggested:
+all perfectly still.
+
+"There," he said.  "It would be horrible to rouse up the colonel on
+account of a cock-and-bull story."
+
+"But it would be worse for him to be warned too late.  There it is
+again; hark!" whispered Lennox, stretching out a hand in the direction
+farthest from the village.
+
+"Can't hear anything," said the captain.
+
+"I can," growled Dickenson softly.
+
+"Yes, so can I now.  It's a wagon whose drivers have missed their way, I
+should say.  But we'll see."
+
+"Or feel," grunted the captain.  "It's as black as ink.--Here, Lennox,
+take a sergeant's guard and go forward softly to see if you can make
+anything out.  I don't know, though; it may be as you say, and if it
+is--"
+
+"We ought to bring in that gun," whispered Lennox.
+
+"Yes, at all hazards.  I don't know, though.  There, take
+five-and-twenty of the lads, and act as seems best.  If you can do it
+easily, force the drivers to come on, but don't run risks.  If the Boers
+are in strength fall back at once.  You understand?"
+
+"Quite," said Lennox softly.
+
+"Let me go with him, Roby?"
+
+"No; I can't spare you."
+
+"Yes, do; I can help him."
+
+"He can do what there is to do himself, and would rather be alone, for
+it is only a reconnaissance."
+
+"I should like him with me," said Lennox quietly, and he felt his arm
+nipped.
+
+"Very well; but don't waste time.  I can hear it quite plainly now.
+Mind, fall back at once if they are in force.  I'll be well on the alert
+to cover you and your party."
+
+The requisite number of men were soon under the young officer's orders,
+and they followed him softly down the rock-encumbered slope of the
+natural fortress--no easy task in the darkness; but the men were getting
+used to the gloom, and it was not long before the party was challenged
+by an outpost and received the word.  They passed on, getting well round
+to the farther side of the kopje before they were challenged again.
+
+"Glad you've come, sir," said the sentry; "I was just going to fire."
+
+"Why?" asked Lennox softly.
+
+"I can hear something coming out yonder in the darkness.  You listen,
+sir.  It's like a heavy wagon."
+
+The man spoke in a whisper; then for some moments all was perfectly
+still.
+
+"Can't hear it now, sir," whispered the sentry; "but I felt sure I heard
+something."
+
+"Wait again," said Lennox softly; and there was a good five minutes'
+interval of waiting, but not a sound could be heard.
+
+"Let's go forward, Bob," whispered Lennox; and after telling the sentry
+to be well upon the alert, he led his men slowly and cautiously straight
+away out into the black darkness of the veldt, but without hearing
+another sound till they were, as far as could be judged, a good two
+hundred yards from the last outpost, when the men were halted and stood
+in the black darkness listening once more, before swinging: round to the
+right and getting back by a curve to somewhere near the starting-place.
+
+The next moment the young men joined hands and stood listening to an
+unmistakable sound away to their right and nearer to the kopje.  The
+sound was distant enough to be very soft, but there it was, plainly
+enough--the calm, quiet crunching up of the food a span of oxen had
+eaten, indicative of the fact that they had been pulled up by their
+drivers and were utilising their waiting time by chewing the cud.
+
+"Forward!" whispered Lennox, and his men crept after him without a
+sound, every one full of excitement, for the general idea was that they
+were about to surprise some convoy wagon that had gone astray.
+
+A minute later the munching of the oxen sounded quite loudly, and the
+little party was brought to a halt by a deep, gruff voice saying in Boer
+Dutch:
+
+"What a while you've been!  How much higher can we get?"
+
+"Fix bayonets!" cried Lennox sharply, and a yell of dismay arose,
+followed by a dozen random shots, as the metallic clinking of the keen,
+dagger-like weapons was heard against the muzzles of the men's rifles.
+
+The shots fired seemed to cut the black darkness, and the exploded
+powder spread its dank, heavy fumes in the direction of the men's faces,
+but as far as Lennox could make out in the excitement of leading his
+party on in a charge, no one was hurt; and the next minute his little
+line was brought up short, several of the men littering angry
+ejaculations, and as many more bursting into a roar of laughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+WAYS AND MEANS.
+
+"Here, what in the name of wonder!" cried Dickenson angrily.  "Yah!
+Keep those horns quiet, you beast."
+
+"What is it?" cried Lennox excitedly.
+
+"Roast-beef, sir--leastwise to-morrow, sir," cried one of the men.
+"We've bay'neted a team of oxen."
+
+"Speak the truth, lad," cried another from Lennox's left.  "We've been
+giving point in a gun-carriage."
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" cried Lennox sternly as he felt about in the
+darkness, joined now by his comrade, and found that their charge had
+been checked by a big gun, its limber, and the span--six or eight and
+twenty oxen--several of the poor beasts having received thrusts from the
+men's bayonets.
+
+It was a strange breastwork to act as a protection, but from behind its
+shelter a couple of volleys were sent in the direction of the flashes of
+light which indicated the whereabouts of the enemy, and this made them
+continue their flight, the surprise having been too great for their
+nerves; while the right interpretation was placed upon the adventure at
+once--to wit, that in ignorance of the fact that Colonel Lindley had
+done in the darkness exactly what might have been expected, and occupied
+the kopje, the Boers had brought up a heavy gun with the intention of
+mounting it before morning, and had failed.
+
+"What's to be the next?" said Dickenson.
+
+"Next?" cried Lennox.  "You must cover us with three parts of the men
+while with the rest I try to get the gun right up to the kopje."
+
+It was no easy task, for the driver and foreloper of the team had fled
+with the artillerymen and the rest of the Boers, while the pricked oxen
+were disposed to be unmanageable.  But British soldiers are accustomed
+to struggle with difficulties of all kinds in war, and by the time the
+Boers had recovered somewhat from their surprise, and, urged by their
+leaders, were advancing again to try and recover the lost piece, the
+team of oxen were once more working together, and the ponderous gun was
+being slowly dragged onward towards the rocky eminence.
+
+It was terribly hard work in the darkness; for the way, after about a
+hundred yards or so over level veldt, began to ascend, and blocks of
+granite seemed to be constantly rising from the ground to impede the
+progress of the oxen.
+
+In spite of all, though, the gun and its limber were dragged on and on,
+while in the distance a line of tiny jets of fire kept on spurting out,
+showing that the enemy had recovered from the panic and were coming on,
+firing as they came, the bullets whizzing over the heads of our men, but
+doing no harm.
+
+"Steady! steady! and as quietly as you can," said Lennox in warning
+tones, as he kept on directing and encouraging his men.  "They are
+firing by guesswork.--Ah! that won't do any good," he muttered, for just
+as he was speaking Dickenson and his men, who had spread out widely,
+began to reply; "it will only show our weakness."
+
+He looked forward again in the direction the oxen were being driven; but
+the kopje was invisible, and now he altered his opinion about the firing
+of Dickenson's detachment, for he felt that it would let the captain
+know what was going on, and bring up support.
+
+He was quite right, for in a very little time Captain Roby had felt his
+way to them, learnt the cause of the firing, and carefully covered the
+retreat till the intricacies of the rocky ascent put a stop to further
+progress in the gloom, and a halt was called till morning.
+
+The rest of the night passed in the midst of a terrible suspense, for
+though the Boer firing gradually died out, as if the leaders had at last
+awakened to the fact of its being a mere waste of ammunition, the
+British detachment, scattered here and there about the captured gun, lay
+in momentary expectation of the enemy creeping up and then making a
+rush.
+
+"But they will not," said Lennox quietly.  "They'll wait till morning,
+and creep up from stone to stone and bush to bush, trying to pick us
+off."
+
+"You need not be so cock-sure about it," growled Dickenson.  "They are
+in force, and must have known from our fire how few we were.  A rush
+would do it."
+
+"Yes; but they will not rush," replied Lennox.  "They understand too
+well the meaning of the word _bayonet_.  Cock-sure or no, they'll make
+no dash; but as soon as it begins to be light we shall have a
+hailstorm."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Dickenson tetchily; "there's no sign of rain."
+
+"I did not say rain," replied Lennox, "but hail--leaden hail from every
+bit of cover round."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Dickenson.  "Well, two sides can play at that game;
+and I fancy we have most cover here."
+
+Lennox was quite right; for as soon as the first pale grey of a lovely
+dawn began to make objects stand up in an indistinct way upon the level
+veldt around the kopje, the sharp cracks of rifle after rifle began at
+every object that displayed movement upon the eminence, and the
+pattering of bullets among the rocks often preceded the reports of the
+Boer rifles.
+
+But by this time Captain Roby had communicated with the colonel in the
+village, and had taken his steps, sending his men well out in the
+enemy's direction to take advantage of every scrap of cover to reply
+wherever it was necessary, which they did, their efforts, as the time
+went on, to some extent keeping the Boer fire down.
+
+The colonel grasped the position at once and sent assistance, with the
+result that, in spite of terrible difficulties, by help of horse and
+mule to supplement the pulling powers of the ox-team, the big gun,
+limber, and an ammunition-wagon, which daylight showed lying deserted a
+quarter of a mile away among some bushes into which it had been dragged
+in the dark, were hauled to the flat top of the kopje, where they were
+surrounded with a rough but strong breastwork of the abundant stones,
+and by the men's breakfast-time a shell was sent well into the midst of
+a clump of bush which the Boers had made the centre of their advance.
+
+A better shot could not have been made, for as soon as the shell had
+burst, the defenders of the kopje had the satisfaction of seeing that
+the greater part of the Boers' ponies had been gathered into shelter
+there, and a perfect stampede had begun, hundreds of horses, mounted and
+empty of saddle, streaming away in every direction except that in which
+the kopje lay.
+
+There was no need for a second shell, for the sputtering rifle-fire
+ceased as if by magic, the Boers retiring, leaving the colonel's force
+at liberty to go on at leisure strengthening the emplacement of the
+enemy's heavy Creusot gun, and forming a magazine for the abundant
+supply of ammunition, also captured for its use.
+
+The rest of the day was occupied, by as many of the men as could be
+spared, building up sangars [loose stone walls for breastworks] and
+contriving rifle-pits and cover to such an extent that already it would
+have taken a strong and determined force to make any impression; while,
+when the officers met at the mess that night and the matter was under
+discussion, the colonel smiled.
+
+"Yes," he said, "pretty well for one day's work; but by the end of a
+week we shall have a little Gibraltar that will take all the men the
+Boers have in the field to capture--a regular stronghold, ready like a
+castle keep if we have to leave the village."
+
+"And may that never be, colonel," said Captain Roby.
+
+"Hear, hear!" cried every one present.
+
+"So I say," said the colonel; "but we may at any time be ordered to
+occupy some other position.  By the way, though, I should not dislike to
+send the Boer leader a letter of thanks for sending us that gun and a
+supply of oxen.  How many must be killed?"
+
+"Killed?" cried Captain Roby.
+
+"Yes; several were bayoneted in that charge."
+
+"Three only," replied the captain, "and they don't look much the worse
+for it.  Their flesh seems to close up again like india-rubber.  The vet
+says they will all heal up."
+
+"Good," said the colonel.  "Take it all together, I shall have a
+pleasant despatch to send to the general.  The capture of the big gun;
+not a man killed, and only three wounded.  How are they getting on,
+doctor?"
+
+"Capitally.  Nothing serious.  But, by the way--" The doctor stopped and
+began to clean out his pipe.
+
+"Yes, by the way?" said the colonel.  "Nothing unpleasant to report, I
+hope?"
+
+"Um--no," drawled the doctor.  "A fresh patient with a touch of fever;
+but it wasn't that.  I meant--that is, I wondered how you meant to send
+the despatch?"
+
+"Ha!  Yes," said the colonel thoughtfully; "how?  I don't feel disposed
+to risk any more men, and I hear that the Kaffirs do not seem to be
+tempted by the pay offered them, although I have offered double what I
+gave before."
+
+"That's bad," said the doctor.  "Well, I suppose you can hold this
+place?"
+
+"Tight!" said the colonel laconically.
+
+"So long as provisions and ammunition hold out?" said Captain Roby
+tentatively.
+
+"Yes," assented the colonel.
+
+"And when they are ended," cried Dickenson, who had sat listening in
+silence, "we can try a bit of sport.  There are herds of antelopes and
+flocks of guinea-fowl about, sir."
+
+"I doubt it, Dickenson," said the colonel, smiling; "and I fancy that
+the most profitable form of sport for us will be that followed out by
+our mounted men."
+
+"What's that, sir?" asked Dickenson.
+
+"Stalking the enemy's convoys.  These fellows have to be fed, hardy and
+self-supporting as they are.  But there, we are pretty well supplied as
+yet, and the great thing is that our water-supply is never likely to
+fail."
+
+The next morning the Boers made a fresh attack for the purpose of
+recapturing the gun or seizing the kopje where it was mounted.  But this
+advance, like several more which followed, only resulted in a severe
+repulse, and at last their attacks formed part of a long blockade in
+which they hoped to succeed by starving the little British force into
+subjection.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+THE BOER PRISONERS.
+
+It was to this village and kopje, turned after its long occupation into
+what proved to be an impregnable stronghold--one which so far, to the
+Boers' cost, maintained its promise--that Drew Lennox and Bob Dickenson
+returned after their unfortunate fishing expedition, the colonel, a
+bluff, sun-burnt, stern-looking officer, meeting them with a frown as
+they came up.  "How many men hurt, Roby?" he said.
+
+"Only one, sir.  Dickenson had his ear nicked by a bullet."
+
+"Humph!  Might have been worse, my lad," said the colonel.  "Show it to
+the doctor.--Where are your fish, Lennox?"
+
+"In the river, sir," said the young officer, with a shrug of the
+shoulders.  "How was that?"
+
+The young man briefly explained, and the colonel nodded his head.
+
+"Look here," he said, "we want some change from our monotonous fare; but
+if you two had come back loaded with salmon I should have forbidden any
+further fishing--so of course I do now.  I can't afford to have my
+officers setting themselves up as butts for the Boers to practise at."
+
+"We have taken fifteen prisoners and their horses, sir," interposed
+Captain Roby, making an effort to turn aside the wrath of their chief.
+
+"Yes, Mr Roby, I saw that you had some prisoners," replied the colonel
+meaningly; "but, excuse me, I had not finished addressing these two
+gentlemen."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir."
+
+"That will do," said the colonel.  "There, I need say no more.  Let's
+see the prisoners."
+
+"I don't think I like fishing as a sport, Drew, old man," said
+Dickenson, rubbing his ear, and then wincing with pain.  "Come on, and
+let's see the inspection of the enemy.  But the boss needn't have been
+so gruff.  We acted as bait, and he has caught fifteen Boers and their
+horses."
+
+"And how are we to feed them all now we have got them?" said Lennox,
+with a quaint smile.
+
+"Oh, that's what made the old man so waxy!" cried the other.  "I see
+now.  Well, let him set them up and have them shot."
+
+"Of course; according to our merciless custom," said Lennox
+sarcastically; and directly after the two friends closed up to where the
+prisoners were being paraded, their horses, clever, wiry-looking little
+cobs, being led up behind them by some of the men.
+
+It was almost the first time that the young men had been in such close
+contact with the sturdy, obstinate enemy they had so long kept at bay,
+and they stared eagerly at the rough, unshorn, ill-clad, farmer-like
+fellows, for the most part big-bearded, sun-tanned, and full of vigour,
+who met their gaze defiantly, but kept on directing uneasy glances at
+the other officers, more than once looking eagerly at their led horses
+as if mentally weighing whether by a bold rush they could reach their
+steeds, spring upon them, and gallop away.
+
+But a glance round showed them the impossibility of such a proceeding,
+for they were unarmed and surrounded by men with fixed bayonets, while,
+in addition, every pony had an armed man holding its bridle; and as
+their shifty eyes were turned from one to another in a questioning way,
+the prevailing thought seemed to be that any such proceeding would be
+mad in the extreme, and could only result in their being shot down.
+
+The inspection did not take long, and the colonel turned away to confer
+with the group of officers who followed him.
+
+"The sooner we get rid of these fellows the better," he said, "for we
+can't keep them here.  What shall I do?" he continued, in response to a
+question from the major of the regiment.  "Make them take the oaths to
+be on parole not to bear arms against us again?"
+
+"Ready for them to go and break their word," grumbled the major.
+
+"Of course; after what has passed we can't trust them a bit.  But we
+can't keep them here an hour; half-an-hour is too much.  They will see
+far more of our weakness and the state of our defences in five minutes
+than I like."
+
+He turned to the heavy, big-bearded man who seemed to be the leader, and
+asked if he would take the oath not to fight against the Queen again.
+
+The man started and looked relieved, for he grasped all that was said to
+him--words which came while he was still in doubt as to what their fate
+was to be, his ideas tending towards a volley of rifles fired at ten
+paces.
+
+The next minute he was interpreting the colonel's words to his comrades
+in misfortune, and with a meaning smile each man willingly made the
+promise in Dutch that he would take no further part in the war.
+
+"Look here," said the colonel to their leader; "make them fully
+understand that if they are again taken in arms against the Queen--"
+
+"They have no Queen," said the Boer leader surlily.  "This is the
+Transvaal Republic."
+
+"Indeed!" said the colonel sternly.  "This is not the Transvaal
+Republic, but a part of the British Dominions now; and remember that you
+all owe allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, whose laws you have
+now sworn to obey."
+
+The man scowled.
+
+"And if, as I was telling you, any of you are again found fighting
+against our troops, you will not be treated as people at war against us,
+but as rebels liable to be tried by a short drum-head court-martial, and
+shot out of hand.  Do you understand?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"Make your companions fully understand it too."
+
+The Boer leader hesitated as if about to speak, but the colonel turned
+upon him sharply.
+
+"Quick, sir," he cried; "I have no time to waste.  Tell your companions
+this, so that there may be no mistake."
+
+The man stepped back, and his followers pressed round him talking
+eagerly, several of them understanding English to some extent, and for a
+few minutes they conversed together excitedly, till, with a shrug of the
+shoulders, the principal Boer turned and advanced to the colonel.
+
+"Well," said the latter, "do they fully grasp all this?"
+
+"Oh yes; they know," replied the man sourly.
+
+"That will do, then," said the colonel.  "No; stop.  You are no longer
+our enemies, and we have treated you well; henceforth act as friends.
+Go back to your farms, and collect and bring here corn, oxen, and sheep,
+as much as you like, and I will buy it of you at a good price."
+
+The Boer brightened up at this.
+
+"In money?" he said.  "Not in paper orders?"
+
+"In hard cash, my suspicious friend," said the colonel, with a look of
+contempt; "but it's time you had learnt that our government paper is as
+good as Transvaal gold."
+
+"We will be paid in gold," said the Boer, with a peculiar smile.
+
+"That will do, then," said the colonel.  "Now you can go, and the sooner
+you set to work to teach your fellow-countrymen to respect the British
+Government the better for you all.  Now, off at once."
+
+The Boer rejoined his companions, talked with them for a few minutes,
+and returned.
+
+"Back again?" said the colonel.  "Well, what is it?"
+
+"We are waiting to go," said the Boer coolly.
+
+"Very well; the way is open," said the colonel.  "Off with you, and
+think you are lucky that we do not keep you as prisoners."
+
+As he spoke he pointed out towards the open veldt; but the Boer shook
+his head.
+
+"Not that way," he said.  "We want to cross the spruit to join our
+friends."
+
+The colonel hesitated.
+
+"Well," he said, turning to the major, "perhaps it is not fair to send
+them out on the karoo."
+
+"But if you let them join their friends they will be fighting against us
+again to-morrow."
+
+"So they will be," said the colonel grimly, "if we send them in the
+other direction.  You don't suppose I have any faith in their parole, do
+you?"
+
+"I did not know," said the major.
+
+"There, I will send a picket with you to see you safely to the ford,"
+said the colonel.  "Now, off at once, and bring the forage as soon as
+you can."
+
+"To-morrow or next night," said the Boer, with a nod.
+
+"Here, Roby, send a sergeant's guard to see these people past the
+outposts.--Now, my good fellow, time is valuable here.  Follow that
+gentleman, and he will see that you are safely passed through our lines.
+Well, what now?"
+
+"You haven't given him orders to return us our horses and our rifles."
+
+"What!" cried the colonel.
+
+"We can't get about without them," said the Boer coolly.
+
+The colonel laughed.
+
+"Well, of all the cool impudence!" he cried.  "Why, you insolent dog!"
+he roared, "do you expect we are such children that we are going to give
+you the means of attacking us again directly you are safe?--Here, Roby,
+see these fellows out of the lines."
+
+The colonel turned away and walked back to his quarters, followed by a
+torrent of abuse, which was promptly checked by Captain Roby, who gave
+his orders sharply, and the prisoners were marched off in front of the
+sergeant's guard with fixed bayonets.
+
+But the incident was not quite at an end, for before a quarter of an
+hour had elapsed the crackling of rifle-fire was heard in the direction
+of the ford, towards which men were sent at once.  The alarm soon died
+out on the cause being known, the sergeant reporting that he had
+approached the ford with the prisoners and displayed a flag of truce,
+which brought out a party of five or six dozen Boers upon the farther
+side of the river, into whose charge the prisoners were given.  But no
+sooner were all across and seen to be talking to their friends than
+there was a rush for cover, and before the sergeant and the outposts
+stationed there could grasp what the movement meant the enemy's fire was
+opened upon them.
+
+"Any one hurt, sergeant?" said Captain Roby.
+
+"No, sir, wonderful to relate.  Our lads were too sharp for them, and
+dropped at once.  My heart rose to my mouth, sir, for I thought three of
+ours were hit; but it was only their sharpness, for they were returning
+the fire the next moment, and we kept it up as hot as the enemy did till
+they fell back."
+
+"Quite time the Boers were taught the meaning of civilised war, Bob,"
+said Lennox as they returned to their quarters.
+
+"Quite; but I'm out of heart with them," replied Dickenson.  "They're
+bad pupils--such a one-sided lot."
+
+"What about the corn and sheep and beef those fellows are to bring
+to-morrow or next night?" said Lennox grimly.
+
+"Well, what about it?  I'm afraid they'll be too much offended with the
+colonel's treatment to come."
+
+"Yes," said Lennox; "so am I."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+PLEASANT SUPPLIES.
+
+Matters looked anything but hopeful at Groenfontein, though the men were
+full of spirits and eager to respond to any of the attacks made by the
+Boers, who, with three commandos, thoroughly shut them in, joining hands
+and completely cutting off all communication.
+
+Time was gliding on without any sign of help from outside, and the
+beleaguered party would have concluded that they were quite forgotten by
+their friends if they had not felt certain that the different generals
+were fully engaged elsewhere.
+
+"Let's see," said Lennox one evening; "we've been attacked every day
+since our fishing-trip."
+
+"That's right; and the Boers have been beaten every day for a week."
+
+"And yet they are as impudent as over.  They think that we shall
+surrender as soon as we grow a little more hungry."
+
+"Then they'll be sold," said Dickenson, "for the hungrier I grow the
+more savage and full of fight I get.  You know about the old saying of
+some fellow, that when he had had a good dinner a child might play with
+him?"
+
+"Oh yes, I know," said Lennox.  "Well, these children of the desert had
+better not try to play with me."
+
+"Ought to have a notice on you, `Take care; he bites'--eh?" said Lennox
+merrily.
+
+"'M, yes; something of the kind.  I say, I wish, though, I could sleep
+without dreaming."
+
+"Can't you?"
+
+"No; it's horrible.  I go to sleep directly I lie down, and then the
+game begins.  I'm at Christmas dinners or banquets or parties, and the
+tables are covered with good things.  Then either they've got no taste
+in them, or else as soon as I try to cut a slice or take up a mouthful
+in a spoon it's either snatched or dragged away."
+
+"Oh, don't talk about food," said Lennox impatiently; "it makes me feel
+sick.  There's one comfort, though."
+
+"Is there?" cried Dickenson excitedly.  "Where?  Give us a bit."
+
+"Nonsense!  I mean we have plenty of that beautiful spring water."
+
+"Ugh!" cried Dickenson, with a shudder.  "Cold and clear, unsustaining.
+I saw some water once through a microscope, and it was full of live
+things twizzling about in all directions.  That's the sort of water we
+want now--something to eat in it as well as drink."
+
+Lennox made an irritable gesture.
+
+"Talk about something else, man," he cried.  "You think of nothing but
+eating and drinking."
+
+"That's true, old man.  Well, I'll say no more about drinking; but I
+wonder how cold roast prisoner would taste?"
+
+"Bob!" shouted Lennox.
+
+"Well, what shall I talk about?"
+
+"Look about you.  See how beautiful the kopjes and mountains look in the
+distance this evening; they seem to glow with orange and rose and gold."
+
+"There you go again!  You're always praising up this horrid place."
+
+"Well, isn't it beautiful?  See how clear the air is."
+
+"I dare say.  But I don't want clear air; I'd rather it was thick as
+soup if it tasted like it."
+
+"Soup!  There you go again.  Think of how lovely it is down by the
+river."
+
+"With the Boers popping at you?  I say, this ear of mine doesn't heal
+up."
+
+"You don't mind the doctor's orders."
+
+"So much fighting to do; haven't time."
+
+"But you grant it is beautiful down by the river?"
+
+"Yes, where only man is vile--very vile indeed; does nothing all day but
+try to commit murder.  But there, it's of no use for you to argue; I
+think South Africa is horrible.  Look at the miles of wretched dusty
+desert and stony waste.  I don't know what we English want with it."
+
+"Room for our colonists, and to develop the mines.  Look at the
+diamonds."
+
+"Look at our sparkling sea at home."
+
+"Look at the gold."
+
+"I like looking at a good golden furzy common in Surrey.  It's of no
+use, Drew, my lad; it's a dismal, burning, freezing place."
+
+"Why don't you throw it up and go home, then?"
+
+"What! before we've beaten the Boers into a state of decency?  No!"
+
+Bob Dickenson's "No!" was emphatic enough for anything, and brought the
+conversation between the two young men to an end; for it was close upon
+the time for the mess dinner, which, whatever its shortcomings, as Bob
+Dickenson said, was jolly punctual, even if there was no tablecloth.
+
+So they descended from where they had perched themselves close up to the
+big gun, where their commanding position gave them the opportunity for
+making a wide sweep round over the karoo, taking in, too, the wooded
+course of the river and the open country beyond in the possession of the
+Boers.
+
+But they had seen no sign of an enemy or grazing horse; though they well
+knew that if a company of their men set off in any direction, before
+they had gone a quarter of a mile they would be pelted with bullets by
+an unseen foe.
+
+They had seen the walls and rifle-pits which guarded the great gun so
+often that they hardly took their attention.  All the same, though,
+soldier-like, Drew Lennox could not help thinking how naturally strong
+the kopje was, how easy it would be for two or three companies of
+infantry to hold it against a force of ten times their number, and what
+tremendous advantages the Boers had possessed in the nature of their
+country.  For they had only had to sit down behind the natural
+fortifications and set an enemy at defiance.
+
+"It's our turn now," Lennox said to himself, "and we could laugh at them
+for months if only we had a supply of food."
+
+"Let's try this way," said Dickenson, bearing off to his left.
+
+"What for?  It's five times as hard as the regular track, and
+precipitous."
+
+"Not so bad but what we can do it.  We can let one another down if we
+come to one of the wall-like bits too big to jump."
+
+"But it's labour for nothing.  Only make you more hungry," added Lennox,
+with a laugh.
+
+"Never mind; I want to make sure that an enemy could not steal up in the
+dark and surprise the men in charge of the gun.  I'm always thinking
+that the Boers will steal a march on us and take it some day."
+
+"You might save yourself the trouble as far as the climbing up is
+concerned.  This is the worst bit; but they could do it, I feel sure, if
+our sentries were lax.  I don't think they'd get by them, though."
+
+"Well, let's have a good look what it is like, now all the crags are lit
+up."
+
+They were lit up in a most wonderful way by the sun, which was just
+about to dip below the horizon, and turned every lightning-shivered mass
+of tumbled-together rock into a glowing state, making it look as if it
+was red-hot, while the rifts and cracks which had been formed here and
+there were lit up so that their generally dark depths could be searched
+by the eye.
+
+"Do you know what this place looks like?" said Dickenson.
+
+"The roughest spot in the world," replied Drew as he lowered himself
+down a perpendicular, precipitous bit which necessitated his hanging by
+his hands, and then dropping four or five feet.
+
+"No!  It's just as if the giants of old had made a furnace at the top of
+the kopje, and had been pouring the red-hot clinkers down the side."
+
+"Or as if it was the slope of a volcano, and those were the masses of
+pumice which had fallen and rolled down."
+
+"So that we look like a couple of flies walking amongst lumps of sugar.
+Well, yours is a good simile, but not so romantic as mine.  That's a
+deep crack, Drew, old chap.  Like to see how far in it goes?"
+
+"No, thanks.  I want my dinner," said Lennox.
+
+"Dinner!  Mealie cake and tough stewed horse."
+
+"Wrong," said Lennox; "it's beef to-night, for I asked."
+
+"Beef!  Don't insult the muscle-giving food of a Briton by calling tough
+old draught-ox beef.  I don't know but what I would rather have a bit of
+_cheval_--_chevril_, or whatever they call it--if it wasn't for that
+oily fat.  But we might as well peep in that crack.  Perhaps there's a
+cavern."
+
+"Not to-day, Bob.  It's close upon mess-time."
+
+"Hark at him!  Prefers food for the body to food for the mind.  Very
+well.  Go on; I'm at your heels."
+
+They descended to the more level part of the granite-strewn eminence,
+acknowledged the salutes of the sentries they passed, and soon after
+reached the mean-looking collection of tin houses that formed the
+village--though there was very little tin visible, the only portion
+being a barricade or two formed of biscuit-tins, which had been made
+bullet-proof in building up a wall by filling them with earth or sand.
+The _tin_ houses, according to the popular term, were really the common
+grey corrugated iron so easily riveted or screwed together into a hut,
+and forming outer and partition walls, and fairly rain-proof roofing,
+but as ugly in appearance as hot beneath the torrid sun.
+
+Groenfontein consisted of a group of this class of house ranged about a
+wide market-square, while here and there outside were warehouses and
+sheds and a few farms.
+
+Bob Dickenson said it was the ugliest and dirtiest place that ever
+called itself a town; and he was fairly right about the former.  As to
+the latter, it might have been worse.  Its greatest defect was the
+litter of old meat and other tins, while there were broken bottles
+enough to act as a defence when attacked by strangers.
+
+The Boer inhabitants had for the most part fled; those who were left
+lived under the protection of the British force, which they preferred to
+being out on commando, using rifle, and risking their lives.
+
+The empty houses left by the former inhabitants had at once been taken
+possession of for officers' and soldiers' quarters; the long warehouses
+and barns for stabling; and a big wool warehouse, happily containing
+many bales of wool, had been turned into mess and club room, the great
+bales making excellent couches, and others forming breastworks inside
+the windows and the big double doors.
+
+Here the officers off duty lounged and rested, and here upon this
+particular night they were gathered round the social board to dine, each
+officer with his own servant; and it is worthy of remark that with
+officer and man, rifle, revolver, and sword were racked close at hand.
+
+"Round the social board" is a most appropriate term, though not quite
+correct; for, while social in the highest degree, quite a brotherly
+spirit influencing the officers present, the board was really two, held
+together by a couple of cross-pieces and laid upon barrels, while the
+seats were of all kinds, from cartridge-boxes to up-ended flour-barrels,
+branded _Na_. and _Pa_. and _Va_., and various other contractions of
+long-sounding United States names, which indicated where the fine white
+flour they once contained had been grown and ground.
+
+The mess cook had done the best he could, and provided some excellent
+bread, but it was rather short in quantity.  As to the meat, it was hot;
+but there were no dish-covers, which Bob Dickenson said did not matter
+in the least, for during the past few weeks they had been careful to
+draw a veil over the food.
+
+But of water, such as needed no filtering, there was ample, ready for
+quaffing out of tin mug, silver flask, cup, or horn.
+
+"And the beauty of our tipple now is," said Bob, "that it never does a
+fellow the least harm."
+
+It was a favourite remark of his, "an impromptu" that had been much
+admired.  He made the remark again on this particular evening, but his
+tones sounded dismal.
+
+"It's a great blessing, though," he added; "we might have none.  Yes,
+capital water," he continued, draining his cup and setting it down with
+a rap on his part of the board.  "Just think, Drew, old man, we might be
+forced to sit here drinking bad champagne."
+
+"I don't want to drink bad or good champagne, old fellow," said Lennox;
+"but I do wish we had a barrel of good, honest, home-brewed British ale,
+with--"
+
+"A brace of well-roasted pheasants between us two--eh?"
+
+"No; I was going to say, a good crusty loaf and a cut off a fine old
+Stilton cheese."
+
+"J-Ja!" sighed the next man.
+
+"Never mind, gentlemen," said the colonel; "what we have will do to work
+upon.  When we've done our work, and get back home, I'll be bound to say
+that John Bull will ask us to dinner oftener than will do us good.  What
+do you say, doctor?"
+
+"What do I say, Colonel Lindley?" cried the doctor, putting down his
+flask-cup.  "I say this Spartan fare agrees with us all admirably.  Look
+round the table, and see what splendid condition we are all in.  A bit
+spare, but brown, wiry, and active as men can be.  Never mind the food.
+You are all living a real life on the finest air I ever breathed.  We
+are all pictures of health now; and where I have a wound to deal with it
+heals fast--a sure sign that the patient's flesh is in a perfect state."
+
+"It's all very fine," said Bob Dickenson in a low voice to those about
+him.  "Old Bolus keeps himself up to the mark by taking nips; that's why
+he's so well and strong."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Lennox sharply.  "I don't believe he ever touches
+spirits except as a medicine."
+
+"Who said he did?" growled Dickenson.
+
+"You, Bob; we all heard you," chorused several near.
+
+"Take my oath I never mentioned spirits.  I said _nips_."
+
+"Well, you meant them," said Lennox.
+
+"I didn't.  Don't you jump at conclusions, Drew, old man.  I meant nips
+of tonics.  Old M.D. has got a lot of curious chemicals in that
+medicine-chest of his, and when he's a bit down he takes nips of them."
+
+"I don't believe it," said a brother officer, laughing.  "Old Emden,
+M.D., take his own physic?  Too clever for that!"
+
+The darkness had closed in soon after the officers had taken their
+seats--early, after tropic fashion--and one of the messmen had lit four
+common-looking paraffin-lamps, which swung from the rafters, smelt
+vilely of bad spirit, and smoked and cast down a dismal light; but the
+men were in high spirits, chatting away, and the meal being ended, many
+of them had started pipes or rolled up cigarettes, when an orderly was
+seen to enter by the door nearest the colonel's seat and make quickly
+for his place.
+
+There was a cessation of the conversation on the instant, and one motion
+made by every officer present--he glanced at the spot where his sword
+and revolver hung, while their servants turned their eyes to the
+rifle-stands and bandoliers, listening intently for the colonel's next
+order: for the coming of the orderly could only mean one thing under
+their circumstances--an advance of the Boers.
+
+They were right.  But the increased action of their pulses began to calm
+down again; for instead of standing up according to his wont and giving
+a few short, sharp orders, the colonel, after turning towards the
+orderly and hearing him out, merely raised his eyes and smiled.
+
+"Wonders will never cease, gentlemen," he said, and he sent a soft, grey
+cloud of cigarette smoke upward towards the roof of the barn.  "You all
+remember our prisoners, brought in after Lennox and Dickenson's fishing
+expedition?"
+
+There was an eager chorus of "Yes" from all present save the two young
+officers mentioned, and they were too eager in listening to speak.
+
+"Well, gentlemen, I told those men that the wisest thing they could do
+was to go back to their farms, give up fighting, and collect and bring
+into camp here a good supply of corn and beef."
+
+"Yes, sir, I heard you," said Captain Roby, for the colonel paused to
+take two or three whiffs from his cigarette.
+
+"Well, gentlemen, you will hardly credit the news I have received when
+you recall what took place, and be ready to place some faith in a Boer's
+sound common-sense."
+
+"Why doesn't he speak out at once?" said Dickenson in a whisper.  "Who
+wants all this rigmarole of a preface?"
+
+"What is it, colonel?" said the major.
+
+"That Boer, the leader of the little party of prisoners, evidently took
+my advice," continued the colonel; "and instead of rejoining his
+fighting friends, he has gone back to the ways of peace and trade, and
+they have just arrived at the outposts with a couple of wagon-loads of
+grain, a score of sheep, and ten oxen."
+
+The news was received with a shout, and as soon as silence was obtained
+the colonel continued: "It seems incredible; but, after all, it is only
+the beginning of what must come to pass.  For, once the Boer is
+convinced that it is of no use to fight, he will try his best to make
+all he can out of his enemies."
+
+"Well, it's splendid news," said the major; "but what about its being
+some cunning trap?"
+
+"That is what I am disposed to suspect," said the colonel; "so, quietly
+and without stir, double the outposts, send word to the men on the kopje
+to be on the alert, and let everything, without any display of force, be
+ready for what may come.  You, Captain Roby, take half a company to meet
+our visitors, and bring the welcome provender into the market-place
+here."
+
+"Bob," whispered Lennox, "if we could only go with Roby!  There'll be a
+couple of score of the enemy hiding amongst those sacks."
+
+"Get out!" responded Dickenson.  "I never did see such an old
+cock-and-bull inventor as you are.  It's stale, too.  You're thinking of
+the old story of the fellows who took the castle by riding in a wagon
+loaded with grass and them underneath.  Then it was driven in under the
+portcullis, which was dropped at the first alarm, and came down chop on
+the wagon and would go no farther, while the fellows hopped out through
+the grass and took the castle.  Pooh!  What's the good of being so
+suspicious?  These Boers are tired of fighting, and they've taken the
+old man's advice about trade."
+
+"I don't believe it," said Lennox firmly.  "I wouldn't trust the Boers a
+bit."
+
+"Well, don't believe it, then; but let's go and see what they've
+brought, all the same."
+
+"Yes, certainly; but let's put the colonel on his guard."
+
+"What!  Go and tell him what you think?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Thanks, no, dear boy.  I have only one nose, and I want it."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Lennox sharply.
+
+"Don't want it snapped off, as they say.  The idea of the cheek--going
+and teaching our military grandmother--father, I mean, how to suck
+eggs!"
+
+"You never will believe till the thing's rammed down your throat," said
+Lennox angrily.  "Well, come along as we have no orders."
+
+And without further discussion the two young men buckled on their belts
+and followed Captain Roby, who, while the colonel's other instructions
+were being carried out, marched his men down to where some of the Boer
+party, well-guarded by the outposts, could be dimly seen squatted about
+or seated on the fronts of two well-loaded wagons, whose teams were
+tying down contentedly chewing the cud.  Four more Boers kept the sheep
+and oxen in the rear of the wagons from straying away in search of a
+place to graze, for there was a tempting odour of fresh green herbage
+saluting their nostrils, along with the pleasant moisture rising from
+the trickling water hurrying away towards the gully where it found its
+way into the river.
+
+"What do you say to telling Roby to set a man to probe the sacks with a
+fixed bayonet?"
+
+"It would be wise," whispered back Lennox.
+
+"Tchah!" sneered Dickenson.  "How could a fellow exist under one of
+those sacks of corn?  Why, they must weigh on to a couple of
+hundredweight."
+
+"I don't care; there's some dodge, Bob, I'm sure."
+
+"Artful dodge, of course.  Here, let's see if we know the fellows
+again."
+
+"Very well; but be on your guard."
+
+"Bother!  Roby and his men will mind we are not hurt."
+
+As he spoke Dickenson led the way close up to the roughly-clad Boers
+about the wagons, where, in spite of the darkness, the face of their
+leader was easy to make out as he sat pulling away at a big German pipe
+well-filled with a most atrociously bad tobacco, evidently of home
+growth and make.
+
+"Hullo, old chap!" said Dickenson heartily; "so you've thought better of
+it?"
+
+The Boer looked at him sharply, and, recognising the speaker, favoured
+him with a nod.
+
+"Brought us some provender?" continued Dickenson; and he received
+another nod.
+
+"What have you got?"
+
+The Boer wagged his head sidewise towards the wagons and herds, and went
+on smoking.
+
+"Well done; that's better than trying to pot us.  But, I say, what about
+your commando fellows?  What will they say when you go back?"
+
+The Boer took his pipe out of his mouth and stuffed a finger into the
+bowl to thrust down the loose tobacco.
+
+"Nothing," he said shortly.  "Not going back."
+
+"What!" cried Lennox, joining in after pretty well satisfying himself
+that there could be no danger in the unarmed Boers and their wagons.
+
+"What's what?" said the Boer sourly.
+
+"You're not going back?" cried Dickenson, staring.
+
+"Well, we can't go back, of course.  If we tried they'd shoot us,
+wouldn't they?"
+
+The reply seemed to be unanswerable, and Dickenson merely uttered a
+grunt, just as Captain Roby and his men marched up to form an escort for
+the little convoy.
+
+"Well, commandant?" he said.
+
+The Boer grunted.  "Not commandant," he said; "field-cornet."
+
+"Very well, field-cornet; how did you manage to get here?"
+
+"'Cross the veldt," growled the man.
+
+"Didn't you see any of your friends?"
+
+"No," grumbled the Boer.  "If we had we shouldn't be here.  Have you got
+the money for what we've got?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Stop, then.  We're not going on."
+
+"But you must now.  The colonel will give you an order."
+
+"Paper?" said the Boer sharply.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then we don't go."
+
+"Yes, you do, my obstinate friend.  It will be an order to an official
+here, and he'll pay you a fair price at once--in gold."
+
+"My price?"
+
+"Oh, that I can't say," replied the captain.  "But I promise you will be
+fairly dealt with."
+
+The Boer put his burning pipe in his pocket, snatched off his battered
+slouch felt hat, and gave his shaggy head an angry rub, looking round at
+his companions as if for support, and then staring back at the way they
+had come, to see lanterns gleaming and the glint of bayonets dimly here
+and there, plainly showing him that retreat was out of the question.
+Then, like some bear at bay, he uttered what sounded like a low growl,
+though in fact it was only a remark to the man nearest to him, a similar
+growl coming in reply.
+
+"Come, sir, no nonsense," said the captain sternly.  "You have come to
+sell, I suppose?"
+
+"I shouldn't be here if I hadn't," growled the Boer.
+
+"Then come along.  You cannot go back now.  I have told you that you
+will be well treated.  Please to recollect that if our colonel chose he
+could commando everything you have brought for the use of our force; but
+he prefers to treat all of your people who bring supplies as
+straightforward traders.  Now come along."
+
+The Boer grunted, glanced back once more, and at last, as if he had
+thoroughly grasped his position, said a few words to his nearest
+companions and passed the word to trek, when, in answer to the crack of
+the huge whip, the bullocks sprang to their places along the trek-tows,
+the wagons creaked and groaned, and the little convoy was escorted into
+the market-place, where, as soon as he saw him, the field-cornet made
+for the colonel's side and began like one with a grievance.
+
+But the amount of cash to be paid was soon settled, and the Boer's
+objections died away.  The only difficulty then left was about the
+Boers' stay.
+
+"If we go back they'll shoot us," he said to the colonel.  "We've
+brought you the provisions you asked for, and when you've eaten all
+you'll want more, and we'll go and fetch everything; but you must have
+us here now."
+
+"My good sir," said the colonel, to the intense amusement of the
+officers assembled, who enjoyed seeing their chief, as they termed him,
+in a corner, "I have enough mouths to feed here; you must go back to the
+peaceable among your own people."
+
+"Peaceable?  There are none peaceable now.  Look here: do you want to
+send us back to fight against you?" cried the Boer cornet indignantly.
+
+"Certainly not," said the colonel; "and I would not advise you to, for
+your own sake."
+
+"Then what are we to do?  We got away with these loads of mealies, but
+it will be known to-morrow.  We can't go back, and it's all your doing."
+
+"Well, I confess that it is hard upon you," said the colonel; "but, as I
+have told you, I am not going to take the responsibility of feeding more
+mouths."
+
+"But we've just brought you plenty."
+
+"Which will soon be gone," cried the colonel.
+
+"Oh, that's nothing," said the Boer, with a grin full of cunning; "we
+know where to get plenty more."
+
+The colonel turned and looked at the major, who returned the look with
+interest, for these last words opened up plenty of possibilities for
+disposing of a terrible difficulty in the matter of supplies.
+
+"I don't much like the idea, major," he said in a low tone.
+
+"No; couldn't trust the fellow," was the reply.  "May be a ruse."
+
+"At the same time it may be simple fact," continued the colonel.  "Of
+course he would be well aware of the whereabouts of stores, for the
+enemy always seem to have abundance.  But no; it would be too great a
+risk."
+
+"All the same, though," said the major, who afterwards confessed to
+visions of steaks and roast mutton floating before his mind, "the fellow
+would be forced to be honest with us, for he would be holding his life
+by a very thin thread."
+
+"Exactly," said the colonel eagerly.  "We could let him know that at the
+slightest suggestion of treachery we should shoot him and his companions
+without mercy."
+
+"Make him understand that," said the major; and while the Boer party
+stood waiting and watching by the two wagons, which had been drawn into
+the square, a little council of war was held by the senior officers, in
+which the pros and cons were discussed.
+
+"It's a dangerous proceeding," said the colonel, in conclusion; "but one
+thing is certain--we cannot hold this place long without food, and it is
+all-important that it should be held, so we must risk it.  Perhaps the
+fellows are honest after all.  If they are not--"
+
+"Yes," said the major, giving his chief a meaning look; "if they are
+not--"
+
+And the unfinished sentence was mentally taken up by the other officers,
+both Lennox and Dickenson looking it at one another, so to speak.
+
+Then the colonel turned to the Boer cornet.
+
+"Look here, sir," he said; "I am a man of few words, but please
+understand that I mean exactly what I say.  You and your companions can
+stay here upon the condition that you are under military rule.  Your
+duty will be to forage for provisions when required.  You will be well
+treated, and have the same rations as the men; but you will only leave
+the place when my permission is given, and I warn you that if any of you
+are guilty of an act that suggests you are playing the spy, it will mean
+a spy's fate.  You know what I mean?"
+
+"Oh, of course I do," growled the Boer.  "Just as if it was likely!  You
+don't seem to have a very good opinion of us burghers."
+
+"You have not given us cause to think well of you," said the colonel
+sternly.  "Now we understand each other.  But of course you will have to
+work with the men, and now you had better help to unload the wagons."
+
+The cornet nodded, and turned to his companions, who had been watching
+anxiously at a little distance; and as soon as they heard the colonel's
+verdict they seemed at ease.
+
+A few minutes later the regimental butchers had taken charge of one of
+the oxen and a couple of sheep, whose fate was soon decided in the
+shambles, and the men gathered round to cheer at the unwonted sight of
+the carcasses hung up to cool.
+
+Meanwhile an end of one of the warehouses had been set apart for the new
+supply of grain, and the Boers worked readily enough with a batch of the
+soldiers at unloading and storing, with lanterns hung from the rafters
+to gleam on the bayonets of the appointed guard, the sergeant and his
+men keeping a strict lookout, in which they were imitated by the younger
+officers, Lennox and Dickenson waiting, as the latter laughingly said,
+for the smuggled-in Boers, who of course did not appear.
+
+Lennox made it his business to stand close to the tail-board of one of
+the wagons, in which another lantern was hung, and with the sergeant he
+gave every sack a heavy punch as it was dragged to the edge ready for
+the Boers to shoulder and walk off into the magazine.
+
+Seeing this, the Boer chief, now all smiles and good humour, made for
+the next sack, untied the tarred string which was tied round the mouth,
+opened it, and called to the sergeant to stand out of the light.
+
+"I want the officers to see what beautiful corn it is," he said.
+
+The sergeant reached up into the wagon-tilt to lift down the lantern
+from where he had hung it to one of the tilt-bows.
+
+"No, no," cried the Boer; "you needn't do that, boss.  They can see.
+There," he cried, thrusting in both hands and scooping as much as he
+could grasp, and letting the glistening yellow grains fall trickling
+back in a rivulet again and again.  "See that?  Hard as shot.  Smell it.
+Fresh.  This year's harvest.  I know where there's enough to feed four
+or five thousand men."
+
+"Yes, it looks good," said Dickenson, helping himself to a handful, and
+putting a grain into his mouth.  "Sweet as a nut, Drew, but as hard as
+flint.  Fine work for the teeth."
+
+"Yes," said the Boer, grinning.  "You English can't grind that up with
+your teeth.  Wait till it's boiled, though, or pounded up and made into
+mealie.  Ha!  Make yours skins shine like the Kaffirs'."
+
+"You don't want these sacks back, I suppose?" said the sergeant who was
+superintending.  "Because if you do I'd better have them emptied."
+
+"Oh no, oh no," said the Boer.  "Keep it as it is; it will be cleaner."
+
+"Why are some of the sacks tied up with white string and some with
+black?" said Lennox suddenly.
+
+"Came from different farms," said the Boer, who overheard the remark.
+"Here, I'll open that one; it's smaller corn."
+
+He signed to one of his fellows to set down the sack he was about to
+shoulder, and opening it, he went through the same performance again,
+shovelling up the yellow grain with his hands.  "Not quite so good as
+the other sort," he said; "it's smaller, but it yields better in the
+fields."
+
+"Humph!  I don't see much difference in it," said Lennox, taking up a
+few grains and following his friend's example.
+
+"No?" said the Boer, chuckling as he scooped up a double handful and
+tossed it up, to shine like gold in the light.  "You are not a farmer,
+and have not grown thousands of sacks of it.  I have."
+
+He drew the mouth of the sack together again and tied it with its white
+string, when it too was borne off through the open doorway to follow its
+predecessors.
+
+"That roof sound?" said the Boer, pointing up at the corrugated iron
+sheeting.
+
+"Oh yes, that's all right," said the sergeant.
+
+"Good," said the Boer.  "Pity to let rain come through on grain like
+that.  Make it swell and shoot."
+
+The first wagon was emptied and the second begun, the Boers working
+splendidly till it was nearly emptied; and then the cornet turned to
+Captain Roby.
+
+"Don't you want some left out," he said, "to use at once?"
+
+"Yes," said the captain; "leave out six, and we'll hand them over to the
+bakers and cooks."
+
+Three of the white-tied and three of the black-tied sacks were selected
+by the field-cornet, who told his men to shoulder them, and they were
+borne off at once to the iron-roofed hut which was used as a store.
+Then the wagons being emptied, they were drawn on one side, and the
+captain turned to consult Lennox about what hut was to be apportioned to
+the Boers for quarters.
+
+"Why not make them take to the wagons?" said Dickenson.
+
+"Not a bad notion," replied Captain Roby; and just at that moment, well
+buttoned up in their greatcoats--for the night was cold--the colonel and
+major came round.
+
+"Where are you going to quarter these men, Roby?" said the former.
+
+"Mr Dickenson here, sir, has just suggested that they shall keep to
+their wagons."
+
+"Of course," said the colonel; "couldn't be better.  They'll be well
+under observation, major--eh?"
+
+"Yes," said that officer shortly; and it was announced to the
+field-cornet that his party were to make these their quarters.
+
+This was received with a smile of satisfaction, the Boers dividing into
+two parties, each going to a wagon quite as a matter of course, and
+taking a bag from where it hung.
+
+Ten minutes later they had dipped as much fresh water as they required
+from the barrels that swung beneath, and were seated, knife in hand,
+eating the provisions they had brought with them, while when the colonel
+and major came round again it was to find the lanterns out, the Dutchmen
+in their movable quarters, some smoking, others giving loud announcement
+that they were asleep, and close at hand and with all well under
+observation a couple of sentries marching up and down.
+
+"I think they're honest," said the colonel as the two officers walked
+away.
+
+"I'm beginning to think so too," was the reply.
+
+A short time before, Lennox and his companion had also taken a farewell
+glance at the bearers of so valuable an adjunct to the military larder,
+and Dickenson had made a similar remark to that of his chief, but in a
+more easy-going conversational way.
+
+"Those chaps mean to be square, Drew, old man," he said.
+
+"Think so?"
+
+"Yes; so do you.  What else could they mean?"
+
+"To round upon us."
+
+"How?  What could they do?"
+
+"Get back to their people and speak out, after spying out the weakness
+of the land."
+
+"Pooh!  What good would that do, you suspicious old scribe?  Their
+account's right enough; they proved it by the plunder they brought and
+their eagerness to sack as much tin as they could for it."
+
+"I don't know," said Lennox; "the Boers are very slim."
+
+"Mentally--granted; but certainly not bodily, old man.  Bah!  Pitch it
+over; you suspect every thing and everybody.  I know you believe I
+nobbled those last cigarettes of yours."
+
+"So you did."
+
+"Didn't," said Dickenson, throwing himself down upon the board which
+formed his bed, for they had returned to their quarters.  "You haven't a
+bit of faith in a fellow."
+
+"Well, the cigarettes were on that shelf the night before last, and the
+next morning they were gone."
+
+"In smoke," said Dickenson, with a yawn.
+
+"There, what did I say?"
+
+"You said I took them, and I didn't; but I've a shrewd suspicion that I
+know who did smoke them."
+
+"Who was it?" said Lennox shortly.
+
+"You."
+
+"I declare I didn't."
+
+"Declare away, old man.  I believe you went to sleep hungry."
+
+"Oh yes, you may believe that, and add `very' to it.  Well, what then?"
+
+"You went to sleep, began dreaming, and got up and smoked the lot in
+your sleep."
+
+"You're five feet ten of foolishness," said Lennox testily as he lay
+down in his greatcoat.
+
+"And you're an inch in height less of suspicion," said Dickenson, and he
+added a yawn.
+
+"Well, hang the cigarettes!  I am tired.  I say, I'm glad we have no
+posts to visit to-night."
+
+"Hubble, bubble, burr,"--said Dickenson indistinctly.
+
+"Bah! what a fellow you are to sleep!" said Lennox peevishly.  "I wanted
+to talk to you about--about--about--"
+
+Nothing; for in another moment he too was asleep and dreaming that the
+Boers had bounded out of their wagons, overcome the sentries, seized
+their rifles, and then gone on from post to post till all were well
+armed.  After that they had crept in single file up the kopje, mastered
+the men in charge of the captured gun, and then tied the two trek-tows
+together and carried it off to their friends, though he could not quite
+settle how it was they got the two spans of oxen up among the rocks
+ready when required.
+
+Not that this mattered, for when he woke in the morning at the reveille
+and looked out the oxen were absent certainly, being grazing in the
+river grass in charge of a guard; but the Boers were present, lighting a
+fire and getting their morning coffee ready, the pots beginning to send
+out a fragrant steam.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+FRIENDS ON THE FORAGE.
+
+There were too many "alarums and excursions" at Groenfontein for much
+more thought to be bestowed upon the friendly Boers, as the party of
+former prisoners were termed, in the days which ensued.  "Nobody can say
+but what they are quiet, well-behaved chaps," Bob Dickenson said, "for
+they do scarcely anything but sit and smoke that horrible nasty-smelling
+tobacco of theirs all day long.  They like to take it easy.  They're
+safe, and get their rations.  They don't have to fight, and I don't
+believe nine-tenths of the others do; but they are spurred on--
+sjambokked on to it.  Pah! what a language!  Sjambok! why can't they
+call it a whip?"
+
+"But I don't trust them, all the same," said Lennox.  "I quite hate that
+smiling field-cornet, who's always shifting and turning the corn-sacks
+to give them plenty of air, as he says, to keep the grain from heating."
+
+"Why, he hasn't been at it again, has he?" said Dickenson, laughing.
+
+"At it again?" said Lennox.  "What do you mean?"
+
+"Did he shout to you to come and look at it?"
+
+"Yes; only this morning, when the colonel was going by.  Asked us to go
+in and look, and shovelled up the yellow corn in one of the sacks.  He
+made the colonel handle some of it, and pointed out that he was holding
+back the corn tied up with the white strings because it lasted better."
+
+"What did the old man say?"
+
+"Told him that, as the stock was getting so low, he and his men must
+make a raid and get some more."
+
+"And what did Blackbeard say?"
+
+"Grumbled and shook his head, and talked about the danger of being shot
+by his old friends if they were caught."
+
+"Dodge, of course, to raise his price."
+
+"That's what the colonel said; and he told him that there must be no
+nonsense--he was fed here and protected so that he should keep up the
+supply, and that he must start the day after to-morrow at the latest to
+buy up more and bring it in.  Then, in a surly, unwilling way, he
+consented to go."
+
+"Buy up some more?" said Dickenson, with a chuckle.  "Yes, he'll buy a
+lot.  Commando it, he'll call it."
+
+That very day, growing weary of trying to starve out the garrison, the
+enemy made an attack from the south, and after a furious cannonading
+began to fall back in disorder, drawing out the mounted men and two
+troops of lancers in pursuit.
+
+As they fell back the disorder seemed to become a rout; but Colonel
+Lindley had grown, through a sharp lesson or two, pretty watchful and
+ready to meet manoeuvre with manoeuvre.  He saw almost directly that the
+enemy were overdoing their retreat; and he acted accordingly.
+Suspecting that it was a feint, he held his mounted troops in hand, and
+then made them fall back upon the village.
+
+It was none too soon, his men being just in time to fall on the flank of
+one of the other two commandos, whose leaders had only waited till the
+first had drawn the British force well out of their entrenchments before
+one attacked from the east, and the other drove back the defenders of
+the ford and crossed at once, but only to bring themselves well under
+the attention of their own captured gun on the kopje, its shells playing
+havoc amongst them, while the men of the colonel's regiment stood fast
+in their entrenchments.  The result was that in less than an hour the
+last two commandos retired in disorder and with heavy loss.
+
+"There," said Lennox as the events of the day were being discussed after
+the mess dinner, "you see, Bob, it doesn't do to trust the Boers."
+
+"Pooh!" replied the young officer.  "There are Boers and Boers, and one
+must trust them when they supply the larder.  Good-luck to our lot, I
+say, and may they bring in another big supply.  If they don't, we shall
+have to begin on those quadrupedal locomotives of horn, gristle, and
+skin they call spans.  Ugh! how I do loathe trek ox!"
+
+"Talking of that," said Lennox, "the cornet and his men ought to have
+been off to-night."
+
+"Why?" said Dickenson, staring.
+
+"Why?  Because the enemy will be in such a state of confusion after the
+check they had to-day."
+
+"To be sure; let's go and tell them so."
+
+"I was nearly suggesting it to the colonel, but he would only have given
+me one of his looks.  You know."
+
+"Yes; make you feel as if you're nine or ten, even if he hadn't
+sarcastically hinted that you had not been asked for your advice.  But I
+say, Drew, old fellow, I think you're right, and if Blackbeard thinks it
+would be best he'll go to the old man like a shot.  No bashfulness in
+him."
+
+Without further debate the two young men made their way across the
+market-square to the wagon where the Boers' dim lantern was swinging,
+passing two sentries on the way.
+
+"Not much need for a light," observed Dickenson; "one might smell one's
+way to their den.  Hang it all! if tobacco's poison those fellows ought
+to have been killed long ago."
+
+The cornet was seated on the wagon-box, with his legs inside, talking in
+a low tone to his fellows who shared the wagon with him, and so intent
+that he did not hear the young officers' approach till Lennox spoke,
+when he sprang forward into the wagon, and his companions began to climb
+out at the back.
+
+"Why, what's the matter with you?" said Dickenson laughingly as he
+stepped up and looked in.  "Think some of your friends were coming to
+fetch you?"
+
+"You crept up so quietly," grumbled the Boer, recovering himself, and
+calling gently to his companions to return.
+
+"Quietly?  Of course.  You didn't want us to send a trumpeter before us
+to say we were coming, did you?"
+
+"H'm!  No.  What were you doing?  Listening to find out whether we were
+going to run away?"
+
+"Psh!  No!" cried Dickenson.  "Here, Mr Lennox wants to say something
+to you."
+
+"What about?" said the man huskily.
+
+"I have been thinking that, as you are going on a foraging expedition,"
+said Lennox, "you ought to go at once.  It's a very dark night, and the
+enemy is completely demoralised by to-day's fight."
+
+"Demoralised?" said the Boer.
+
+"Well, scared--beaten--all in disorder."
+
+"Oh," said the Boer, nodding his head like an elephant.  "But what
+difference does that make?"
+
+"They would not be so likely to notice your wagons going through their
+lines."
+
+"Oh?" said the Boer.
+
+"We think it would be a good chance for you."
+
+"Does your general say so?"
+
+"No; our _colonel_ does not know that we have come."
+
+"So!  Yes, I see," said the Boer softly.
+
+"We think you ought to take advantage of their disorder and get through
+to-night."
+
+"Hah!  Yes."
+
+"You have only to go and see what the colonel says."
+
+"Why don't you go?" said the Boer suspiciously.
+
+"Because we think it would be better for you to go."
+
+"And fall into the Boers' hands and be shot?"
+
+"Bother!" cried Dickenson.  "Why, you are as suspicious as--as--well, as
+some one I know.  Now, my good fellow, don't you know that we've eaten
+the sheep?"
+
+"Yes, I know that," said the Boer.
+
+"Finished the last side of the last ox?"
+
+"Yes, I know that too," replied the Boer, nodding his head slowly and
+sagely.
+
+"And come down to the last ten sacks of the Indian corn?"
+
+"Mealies?  Yes, I know that too."
+
+"Well, in the name of all that's sensible, why should we want to get you
+taken by your own people?"
+
+"To be sure; I see now," said the cornet.  "Better for us to get the
+wagons full again, and drive in some more sheep and oxen."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, I don't know," said the man thoughtfully.  "They will be all on
+the lookout, thinking that you will attack them in the night, and twice
+as watchful.  I don't know, though.  There is no moon to-night, and it
+will be black darkness."
+
+"It is already," said Dickenson.
+
+"Ha!  Yes," said the Boer quietly, and he puffed at his pipe, which,
+after dropping in his fright, he had picked up, refilled, and relit at
+the lantern door.  "Yes, that is a very good way.  I shall go and tell
+the colonel that we will go to-night.  You will come with me?"
+
+"No," said Lennox; "the colonel does not like his young officers to
+interfere.  It would be better for you to go."
+
+"Your chief is right," said the Boer firmly.  "He thinks and acts for
+himself.  I do the same.  I do not let my men tell me what I should do."
+He spoke meaningly, as if he were giving a side-blow at some one or
+other of his companions.  "I think much and long, and when I have
+thought what is best I tell them what to do, and they do it.  Yes, I
+will go to the colonel now and speak to him.  Wait here."
+
+"No," said Dickenson quietly.  "Go, and we will come back and hear what
+the colonel thinks."
+
+The Boer nodded, thrust his pipe in the folds of the tilt, after tapping
+out the ashes, and went off, the two officers following him at a
+distance before stopping short, till they heard him challenged by a
+sentry, after which they struck off to their left to pass by the corn
+store, and being challenged again and again as they made a short tour
+round by the officers' quarters, going on the farther side of the
+corrugated iron huts and the principal ones, four close together, which
+were shared by the colonel, the doctor, and some of the senior officers.
+As they passed the back of the colonel's quarters there was the faint
+murmur of voices, one of which sounded peculiarly gruff, Dickenson said.
+
+"Nonsense!  You couldn't distinguish any difference at this distance,"
+said Lennox.  "Come along; we don't want to play eavesdroppers."
+
+"Certainly not on a wet night when the rain is rattling down on those
+roofs and pouring off the eaves in cascades," replied Dickenson; "but I
+never felt so strong a desire to listen before.  Wonder what the old man
+is saying to our smoky friend."
+
+"Talking to the point, you may be sure, my lad," replied Lennox.  "I
+say, though, he is safe to tell Lindley that I suggested it."
+
+"Well, what of that?"
+
+"Suppose the expedition turns out a failure, and they don't get back
+with the forage?"
+
+"Ha!  Bad for you, old man," said Dickenson, chuckling.  "Why, we shall
+all be ready to eat you.  Pity, too, for you're horribly skinny."
+
+"Out upon you for a gluttonous-minded cannibal," said Lennox merrily.
+"Well, there, I did it for the best.  But I say, Bob, we've come all
+this way round the back of the houses here, and haven't been challenged
+once."
+
+"What of that?  There are sentries all round the market-square."
+
+"Yes; but out here.  Surely a man or two ought to be placed somewhere
+about?"
+
+"Oh, hang it all, old fellow! the boys are harassed to death with
+keeping post.  You can't have all our detachment playing at sentry-go.
+Come along.  There's no fear of the enemy making a night attack: that's
+the only good thing in fighting Boers."
+
+"I don't see the goodness," said Lennox rather gloomily.
+
+"Ah, would you!" cried Dickenson.  "None of that!  It's bad enough to
+work hard, sleep hard, and eat hard."
+
+"I always thought you liked to eat hard," said Lennox.
+
+"Dear me: a joke!" said Dickenson.  "Very bad one, but it's better than
+going into the dumps.  As I was about to say, we've got trouble enough
+without your playing at being in low spirits."
+
+"Go on.  What were you going to say?"
+
+"I was going to remark that the best of fighting the Boers is, that they
+won't stir towards coming at us without they've got the daylight to help
+them to shoot.  We ought to do more in the way of night surprises.  I
+like the mystery and excitement of that sort of thing."
+
+"I don't," said Lennox shortly.  "It always seems to me cowardly and
+un-English to steal upon sleeping people, rifle and bayonet in hand."
+
+"Well, 'pon my word, we've got into a nice line of conversation," said
+Dickenson.  "Here we are, back in the market-square, brilliantly lighted
+by two of the dimmest lanterns that were ever made, and sentries galore
+to take care of us.  Wonder whether Blackbeard has finished his confab
+with the chief?"
+
+"Let's go and see," said Lennox, and he walked straight across,
+answering the sentry's challenge, and finding the Boer back in his
+former place, seated upon the wagon-box, and conversing in a low tone
+with the men within.
+
+He did not start when Lennox spoke to him this time, but swung himself
+deliberately round to face his questioner.
+
+"Well," said the latter, "what did the colonel say?"
+
+"He said it was a good thing, and that we should take our wagons,
+inspan, and be passed through the lines to-night."
+
+"Oh, come," said Dickenson; "that's good!  One to us."
+
+"Yes," grunted the Boer after puffing away; "he said it was very good,
+and that we were to go."
+
+"Then, why in the name of common-sense don't you get ready and go
+instead of sitting here smoking and talking?"
+
+"Oh, we know, the colonel and I," said the man quietly.  "We talked it
+over with the major and captains and another, and we all said that the
+Boers would be looking sharp out in the first part of the night,
+expecting to be attacked; but as they were not they would settle down,
+and that it would be best to wait till half the night had passed, and go
+then.  There would be three hours' darkness, and that would be plenty of
+time to get well past the Boer laagers before the sun rose; so we are
+resting till then."
+
+"That's right enough," said Dickenson, "so good-night, and luck go with
+you!  Bring twice as many sheep this time."
+
+"Yes, I know, captain," said the Boer.  "And wheat and rice and coffee
+and sugar."
+
+"Here, come along, Drew, old fellow; he's making my mouth water so
+dreadfully that I can't bear it."
+
+"You will come and see us go?" said the Boer.
+
+"No, thank you," replied Dickenson.  "I hope to be sleeping like a
+sweet, innocent child.--You'll see them off, Drew?"
+
+"No.  I expect that they will be well on their way by the time I am
+roused up to visit posts.--Good-night, cornet.  I hope to see you back
+safe."
+
+"Oh yes, we shall be quite safe," said the man; "but perhaps it will be
+three or four days before we get back.  Good-night, captains."
+
+"Lieutenants!" cried Dickenson, and he took his comrade's arm, and they
+marched away to their quarters, heartily tired out, and ready to drop
+asleep on the instant as weary people really can.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+"RUN, SIR, FOR YOUR LIFE!"
+
+"Eh?  Yes.  All right," cried Lennox, starting up, ready dressed as he
+was, to find himself half-blinded by the light of the lantern held close
+over him.  "Time, sergeant?"
+
+"Well, not quite, sir; but I want you to come and have a look at
+something."
+
+"Something wrong?" cried the young officer, taking his sword and belt,
+which were handed to him by the non-com, and rapidly buckling up.
+
+"Well, sir, I don't know about wrong; but it don't look right."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Stealing corn, I call it, sir; and it's being done in a horrid messy
+way, too."
+
+"What! from the stores?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man; "but come and look."
+
+"Ready," said Lennox, taking out and examining his revolver, and then
+thrusting it back into its holster.
+
+The next minute, after a glance at Dickenson, who was sleeping
+peacefully enough, Lennox was following the sergeant, whose dim lantern
+shed a curious-looking halo in the black darkness.  Then as they passed
+a sentry another idea flashed across the young officer's confused brain,
+brought forth by the sight of the guard, for on looking beyond the man
+there was no sign of the Boers' lantern hanging from the front bow of
+their wagon-tilts.
+
+"What about the Boers?" he said sharply.
+
+"Been gone about an hour, sir.  I suppose it was all right?  Captain
+Roby saw them start."
+
+"Oh yes, it is quite right," said Lennox.  "Now then, what about this
+corn?  Some of the Kaffirs been at it?"
+
+"What do you think, sir?" said the man, holding down the lantern to shed
+its light upon the ground, as they reached the open door of the store
+and showed a good sprinkling of the bright yellow grains scattered about
+to glisten in the pale light.
+
+"Think?  Well, it's plain enough," said Lennox.  "Thieves have been
+here."
+
+"Yes, sir.  The open door took my notice at once.  That chap ought to
+have seen it; but he didn't, or he'd have given the alarm."
+
+"Go on," said Lennox, and he followed the man right into the barn-like
+building, to stop short in front of the first of the half-dozen or so of
+sacks at the end, this having been thrown down and cut right open, so
+that a quantity of the maize had gushed out and was running like fine
+shingle on to the floor.
+
+"Kaffirs' work," said Lennox sharply.
+
+"Well, sir, if I may give you my opinion I should say it was those
+Boers," said the sergeant gruffly.
+
+"What!"
+
+"Man must eat, sir, and it strikes me that they, in their easy-going
+way, thought it was as much theirs as ours, and helped theirselves to
+enough to last them till they could get more."
+
+"Well, whoever has done it,"--began Lennox.
+
+Then he stopped short, and took a step forward.  "Here, sergeant," he
+cried, "hold the light higher."
+
+This was done, and then the pair bent down quickly over the sacks, each
+uttering an angry ejaculation.
+
+"Why, it's sheer mischief, sergeant," cried Lennox.  "Done with a sharp
+knife evidently."
+
+For the light now revealed something which the darkness had hitherto
+hidden from their notice.  Another sack had been ripped up, apparently
+with a sharp knife, from top nearly to bottom.  Another was in the same
+condition, and a little further investigation showed that every one had
+been cut, so that, on the farther side where all had been dark, there
+was a slope of the yellow grain which had flowed out, leaving the sacks
+one-third empty.
+
+"Well, this is a rum go, sir," said the sergeant, scratching his head
+with his unoccupied hand.  "They must have got a couple of sackfuls
+away."
+
+"But why slit them up, when they could have shouldered a couple and
+carried them off?"
+
+"Can't say, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+Lennox turned back to the doorway, and his companion followed with the
+light.
+
+"Hold it lower," said Lennox, and the man obeyed, showing the grain they
+had first noticed lying scattered about, while a little examination
+further showed the direction in which those who had carried it off had
+gone, leaving sign, as a tracker would call it, in the shape of a few
+grains which had fallen from the loads they carried.
+
+"Follow 'em up, sir?" said the sergeant.  "It would be easy enough if it
+keeps like this."
+
+"Yes," said Lennox.  "We should know then if it was the Boers."
+
+The man stepped forward with the door of the lantern opened and the
+light held close to the ground, making the bright yellow grains stand
+out clearly enough as he went on, though at the end of a minute instead
+of being in little clusters they diminished to one here and another
+there, all, however, running in one direction for some fifty yards; and
+then the sergeant stopped.
+
+"Seems rum, sir," he said.
+
+"You mean that the Boers would not have been going in this direction?"
+
+"That's so, sir.  I'm beginning to think that it couldn't have been
+them."
+
+"I'm glad of it," said Lennox, "for I want to feel that we can trust
+them.  Who could it have been, then?"
+
+"Some of the friendly natives, sir, I hope," replied the sergeant.
+
+"But they wouldn't have come this way, sergeant.  It looks more as if
+some of our own people had been at the corn."
+
+"That's just what I was thinking, sir," replied the sergeant, "only I
+didn't want to say it."
+
+"But that's impossible, sergeant.  A man might have slit up the sacks
+out of spite, or from sheer mischief, but he wouldn't have carried off
+any."
+
+"No, sir.  He wouldn't, would he?  Well, all I can say is that it's
+rather queer."
+
+"Well, go on," said Lennox; and the sergeant went on, tracing the grain
+right out to the back of the corrugated iron huts that formed one side
+of the square, and then past the angle and along the next side, now
+losing the traces, but soon picking them up again, the hard, dry earth
+completely refusing to give any trace of the bearer's feet.
+
+Then the next angle of the square was reached, turned, and the sergeant
+still passed on with the light.
+
+"Gets thicker here," he whispered, and directly after he stopped and
+pointed down at two or three handfuls of the bright grain.
+
+"Seem to have set down a basket here, sir," he said softly.  "Shall I go
+on?"
+
+"Go on?  Yes, and trace the robbery home.  The scoundrel who has
+tampered with the stores deserves the severest punishment."
+
+The sergeant proceeded, but more slowly now, for he had only a grain
+here and a grain there to act as his guide; but these still pointed out
+the direction taken by the marauders, till the trackers came suddenly
+upon a good-sized patch.
+
+"Tell you what, sir," whispered the sergeant; "there's only one chap in
+it, and he's got such a swag he's obliged to keep stopping to rest."
+
+"Yes, that seems to be the case, sergeant," said Lennox, looking
+carefully about.  "Let's see; we must be near the colonel's quarters,"
+he whispered.
+
+"That's right, sir.  About twenty yards over yonder; and the fellows on
+sentry ought to have seen the light and challenged us by now."
+
+"No," said Lennox; "the houses completely shut us off.  Go on."
+
+The light was held low down again and swung here and there in the
+direction that the marauder ought to have taken; but there was not a
+grain to be seen to indicate the track, and the sergeant had to hark
+back again and again without being able to find it.
+
+"Rum thing, sir," he whispered.  "He must have stopped here and found
+that his basket was leaking, and patched it up, for I can't see another
+grain anywhere."
+
+"Neither can I, sergeant; but try again.  Take a longer circle."
+
+"Right, sir; but it does seem queer that he should have stopped to make
+all fast just behind the colonel's quarters."
+
+"It seems to indicate that it was the work of some stranger; otherwise
+he would not have halted here."
+
+"P'r'aps so, sir; but if he was a stranger how did he know where the
+corn store was?"
+
+"Can't say, sergeant.  Try away."
+
+"Right, sir," said the man, proceeding slowly step by step, with the
+open lantern very close to the ground, and making a regular circle, in
+the hope of cutting the way at last by which the supposed thief had gone
+off after his last rest.
+
+But minute succeeded minute without success, and Lennox was about to
+urge his companion onward in another direction, when the sergeant
+uttered a sharp ejaculation as if of alarm, jerking up the lantern as he
+started back, and in the same movement blew out the light and shut the
+lantern door with a loud snap.
+
+Lennox, who was a couple of yards behind, sprang forward, unfastening
+the cover of his pistol-holster and catching his companion by the arm,
+while all around now was intensely dark.
+
+"Enemy coming?" he whispered.
+
+"Dunno yet, sir," panted the sergeant, whose voice sounded broken and
+strange.  "Something awfully wrong, sir."
+
+"Speak out, man!  What do you mean?" whispered Lennox, whose heart now
+began to beat heavily.
+
+"I've come upon something down here, sir."
+
+"Ah!  The thief--asleep?"
+
+"No, sir," said the sergeant, and his fingers were heard fumbling with
+the fastening of the lantern.
+
+"What are you doing, man?  Why don't you speak?"
+
+"Making sure the light's quite out, sir.  Can't speak for a moment--feel
+choking."
+
+"Then you hear the enemy approaching?"
+
+"No, sir.--Ha!  It's quite out!  Now, sir, just you go down on one knee
+and feel."
+
+"I don't understand you, sergeant," whispered Lennox; but all the same
+he bent down on one knee and felt about with his right hand, fully
+expecting to touch a heap of the stolen grain.
+
+"No corn," he said at the end of a few seconds; "but what's this--sand?"
+
+"Take a pinch up, and taste it, sir.  I hope it is."
+
+"Taste it?" said Lennox half-angrily.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the sergeant out of the darkness, and the faint rustle
+he made and then a peculiar sound from his lips indicated that he was
+setting the example.
+
+The young officer hesitated no longer, but gathering up a pinch of the
+dry sand from the ground, he just held it to the tip of his tongue.
+
+"Why, sergeant," he whispered excitedly, "it's powder!"
+
+"That's right, sir," replied the man.  "Gunpowder--a train; a heavy
+train running right and left."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Truth, sir.  I had the lantern close to it, and might have fired it if
+I'd dropped the lantern, as I nearly did."
+
+"But what does it mean?  Here, sergeant, that's what we have to see."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the sergeant in a hoarse whisper, "and don't you
+grasp it?  One way it goes off towards the veldt--"
+
+"And the other way towards the colonel's quarters," whispered Lennox.
+"Here, sergeant, there must be some desperate plot--a mine, perhaps,
+close up to that hut.  Quick!  Follow me."
+
+The sergeant did not need the order, for he was already moving in the
+direction of the cluster of huts, but going upon his hands and knees,
+leaving the lantern behind and feeling his way, guiding himself by his
+fingers so as to keep in touch with the coarse, sand-like powder, which
+went on in an easily followed line towards the back of the colonel's
+hut.
+
+It seemed long, but it was only a matter of a few seconds before they
+were both close up, feeling in the darkness for some trace of that which
+imagination had already supplied; and there it was in the darkness.
+
+"Here's a bag, sergeant," whispered Lennox.
+
+"A bag, sir?  Here's five or six, and one emptied out, and--Run, sir,
+for your life!  Look at that!"
+
+For there was a flash of light from somewhere behind them, and as, with
+a bag of powder which he had caught up in his hand, Lennox turned round,
+he could see what appeared to be a fiery serpent speeding at a rapid
+rate towards where, half-paralysed, he stood.
+
+The Kopje Garrison--by George Manville Fenn
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+GUY FAWKES WORK.
+
+The light of the fired train had hardly flashed before the first sentry
+who saw it, fired, to be followed by one after another, till the bugles
+rang out, first one and then another, whose notes were still ringing
+when there was a muffled roar, then another, and another, till six had
+shaken the earth and a series of peculiar metallic clashes deafened all
+around.
+
+But before the first sentry had raised his piece to his shoulder and
+drawn, the sergeant, seen in the brilliant light of the running train,
+seemed to have gone frantically mad.
+
+"Chuck, sir, chuck!" he yelled, though Lennox needed no telling.  The
+light which suddenly shone on the back of the cluster of sheet-iron huts
+had shown him what was necessary, and after raising the bag he had
+picked up with both hands high above his head, and hurling it as far as
+he could, he dashed at the others he could see packed close up against
+the colonel's hut, so that between him and the sergeant five had been
+torn from the ground and hurled in different directions outward from the
+buildings, leaving only the contents of a sixth and seventh bag which
+had been emptied in a heap connected with the long train before the
+others had been laid upon it in a little pile.
+
+They were none too soon, for the last bag had hardly been hurled away
+with all the strength that the young officer could command, and while
+the sergeant was yelling to him to run, before the hissing fiery serpent
+was close upon them.
+
+Fortunately the sergeant's crawling and the following trampling of the
+excited pair had broken up and crushed in the regularly laid train,
+scattering the powder in all directions, so that the rush of the hissing
+fire came momentarily to an end and gave place to a sputtering and
+sparkling here and there, giving Lennox and the sergeant time to rush a
+few yards away in headlong flight.  There was a terrific scorching
+blast, and a tremendous push sent them staggering onward in a series of
+bounds before they fell headlong upon their faces; while at intervals
+explosion after explosion followed the fiery blast, the burning
+fragments setting off three of the other bags, fortunately away from
+where the pair had fallen.
+
+The sergeant was the first to recover himself, and raising his face a
+little from the ground, he shouted, "Don't move, sir!  Don't move!
+There's two or three more to go off yet."
+
+Lennox said something, he did not know what, for he was half-stunned,
+the shock having had a peculiar bewildering effect.  But at the second
+warning from his companion he began to grasp what it meant, and lay
+still without speaking; but he raised his head a little, to see that
+beneath the great canopy of foul-smelling smoke that overhung them the
+earth was covered with little sputtering dots of fire, either of which,
+if it came in contact, was sufficient to explode any powder that might
+remain.
+
+But two bags had escaped, the explosive blast rising upward; and the
+danger being apparently at an end, the principal actors in the
+catastrophe roused to find officers hurrying to meet them, and men
+coming forward armed with pails of water to dash and scatter here and
+there till every spark was extinct and the remaining powder had been
+thoroughly drenched.
+
+"Much hurt, old chap?" cried Dickenson, who was the first to reach his
+friend, and he supplemented his question by eagerly feeling Lennox all
+over.
+
+"No!  No: I think not," said Lennox, "except my head, and that feels hot
+and scorched.  Can you see anything wrong?"
+
+"Not yet; it's so dark.  Here, let's take you to the doctor."
+
+"No, no!" cried Lennox.  "Not so bad as that.  But tell me--what about
+the officers sleeping in those huts?"
+
+"All right, I believe; but the backs of the houses are blown in, and the
+fellows at home were blown right out of their beds."
+
+"No one hurt?"
+
+"Oh yes; some of them are a bit hurt, but only bruised.  But you?  Oh,
+hang it all! somebody bring a light.  Hi, there, a lantern!"
+
+"No, no!" roared the colonel out of the darkness.  "Are you mad?  Who's
+that asking for a light?"
+
+"Mr Dickenson, sir."
+
+"Bah!  Keep every light away.  There may be another explosion."
+
+The colonel gave a few sharp orders respecting being on the alert for an
+expected attack to follow this attempt--one that he felt to have been
+arranged to throw the little camp into confusion; and with all lights
+out, and a wide berth given to the neighbourhood of the headquarters,
+the troops stood ready to receive the on-coming Boers with fixed
+bayonets.
+
+But an hour passed away, and the doubled outposts and those sent out to
+scout had nothing to report, while all remained dark and silent in the
+neighbourhood of the damaged huts.
+
+Meanwhile Dickenson had hurried Lennox and the sergeant off to the
+doctor's quarters, where they were examined by that gentleman and his
+aids.
+
+"Well, upon my word, you ought to congratulate yourself, Lennox."
+
+"I do, sir," was the reply, made calmly enough.
+
+"And you too, sergeant."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man stolidly.
+
+"Why, my good fellow, you ought to have been blown all to pieces."
+
+"Ought I, sir?"
+
+"Of course you ought.  It's a wonderful escape."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir.  What about my back hair, sir?"
+
+"Singed off, what there was of it; and yours too, Lennox.  Smart much?"
+
+"Oh yes, horribly," said the latter.
+
+"Oh, well, that will soon pass off.  Threw yourselves down on your
+faces--eh?"
+
+"No.  We were knocked down."
+
+"Good thing too," said the doctor.  "Saved your eyes, and the hair about
+them.  A wonderful escape, upon my word.  Yes: you ought to have been
+blown to atoms.--Eh?  What's that, sergeant?"
+
+"I say we should have been, sir, if we hadn't scattered the
+powder-bags."
+
+"Scattered the powder-bags?" said a voice from the door, and the colonel
+stepped into the circle of light spread by the doctor's lamp.  "Tell me
+what you know about this explosion, Lennox.  How came you to be there
+instead of visiting your posts?"
+
+Lennox briefly explained, and the colonel stood frowning.
+
+"I don't see all this very clearly," said the colonel.  "Somebody
+stealing the corn, and you were tracing the thieves and came upon a
+train laid up to my quarters.  There was a sentry there; what was he
+about?"
+
+"No, sir: no sentry there," said Lennox.
+
+"Nonsense!  I gave orders for a man to be posted there, and it was
+done."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said Lennox.  "No one was there to challenge us."
+
+"Indeed!" said the colonel.--"Who's that?  Oh, Mr Dickenson, examine
+the place as soon as it is light.  There was a man there, for I saw him
+myself.  But now then, I cannot understand how the enemy can have stolen
+through the lines and carried the powder where it was found.  What do
+you say, Lennox?"
+
+"Nothing, sir.  My head is so confused that I can hardly recall how it
+all happened."
+
+"Of course.  Well, you, sergeant.  You said that you scattered the
+powder-bags."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Threw 'em about as far as we could."
+
+"We?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Mr Lennox and me."
+
+"After the train was fired?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir; it was coming on at a great rate."
+
+"Humph!  Then you did a very brave action."
+
+"Oh no, sir," said the sergeant.  "We were obliged to.  Why, we should,
+as Dr Emden says, sir, have been blown all to bits if we hadn't.  We
+were obliged to do something sharp."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel dryly.  "It was sharp work, sergeant, and you
+saved my life and the major's."
+
+"Did we, sir?  Very glad of it, sir."
+
+"But about how the powder was conveyed there.  I can see nothing for it
+but treachery within the camp.--Of course!--Those Boers!"
+
+"But they had gone, sir," said Lennox.
+
+"Yes, and left us a memento of their visit."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said Dickenson.
+
+"Yes?  Go on, Mr Dickenson."
+
+"I think I can see through the mystery."
+
+"Then you have better eyes than I have," said the colonel.  "Proceed."
+
+"It was one of their tricks, sir," said Dickenson.  "They came into camp
+with their wagons and waited their chance."
+
+"But the powder, man, the powder?" said the colonel impatiently.
+
+"So many bags of it, sir, each inside one of the sacks of maize; and the
+night they were to go away they slit their sacks open, took out the
+powder, and planted it at the back of your quarters, sir."
+
+"That will do, Mr Dickenson," said the colonel dryly.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir.  I thought it a very likely explanation of the
+business."
+
+"Too likely, Mr Dickenson," said the colonel, "for it is undoubtedly
+the right one.  The misfortune is that the treacherous scoundrels have
+got away.  Bah!  They're worse than savages!  Well, let us all be
+thankful for our escape.  I thought I had taken every precaution I
+could, but one never knows.  Then you will not have to go into hospital,
+Lennox?"
+
+"Oh no, sir; I shall be all right in a few hours."
+
+"And you, Colour-Sergeant James?"
+
+"Beg pardon, sir?" said the blackened non-com, staring.
+
+"I say, and you, _Colour-Sergeant_ James," said the colonel, laying
+emphasis on the word colour.  "You feel that you need not go into the
+infirmary?"
+
+"Feel, sir?" cried the sergeant, drawing himself up as stiff as his
+rifle.  "Beg pardon, sir, but that's quite cured me.  I never felt so
+well in my life."
+
+"I am glad of it, my man," said the colonel quietly.--"Yes?" he added as
+one of the junior officers came to the door.
+
+"Two men come in from the kopje, sir: a message from the sergeant with
+the gun.  There's a strong body of the enemy close up between us and the
+lines on the slope.  The men had to go round a long way before they
+could get through."
+
+"I'll come," said the colonel, and he hurried out to make some fresh
+arrangements, the effect of which was that as soon as it was light the
+action of the Boers was precipitated by a counter-attack, and after an
+hour's firing they were driven out of their cover, to run streaming
+across the veldt, their flight hastened by a few well-planted shells
+from the big gun and the rapid fire of the Maxim which swept the plain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+TRACKING THE WAGONS.
+
+Lennox was well enough, when the sun was up, to accompany Dickenson to
+the examination of the scene of the explosion, but not in time to
+witness the discovery of two bags of unexploded powder, from where they
+had been hurled by Colour-Sergeant James, who was on the ground before
+it was light, as he explained to the two young officers.
+
+"You were early, sergeant," said Lennox.  "Yes, sir; to tell the truth,
+I was.  You see, I couldn't sleep a wink."
+
+"In so much pain?"
+
+"Well, the back of my head did smart pretty tidy, I must say, sir, and I
+couldn't lay flat on my back as I generally do; but it wasn't that,
+sir--it was the thought of the step up.  Just think of it, sir!  Only
+been full sergeant two years, and a step up all at once like that."
+
+"Well, you deserved it," said Lennox quietly.  "Deserved it, sir?  Well,
+what about you?"
+
+"Oh, I dare say I shall get my promotion when I've earned it," said
+Lennox.  "Now then, let's look round.  You found two bags of the powder,
+then?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man, pointing; "one down in that pit where they dug
+the soil for filling the biscuit-tins and baskets, and the other yonder
+behind that wall.  The blast must have blown right over them."
+
+"But how about the sentry the colonel said he saw here?" asked Lennox.
+
+The man's countenance changed, a fierce frown distorting it.
+
+"He was quite right, sir," said the sergeant, nodding his head.  "They
+found him this morning at his post."
+
+"Dead?" said Lennox in a hoarse whisper.
+
+"Yes, sir--dead.  Horrid!  Some one must have crept up behind him with a
+blanket and thrown it over him while some one else used an iron bar.  He
+couldn't have spoken a word after the first blow."
+
+"But why do you say that?" said Dickenson.  "I understand the sentry was
+found dead, but--"
+
+"There was the blanket and the iron bar, sir--the one over him and the
+other at his side.  I don't call that fair fighting, sir; do you?"
+
+The answer consisted of a sharp drawing in of the breath; and the
+officers turned away to examine the mischief done by the explosion, the
+backs of two houses having been blown right in.
+
+"Well," said Dickenson dryly, "it's awkward, because they've got to be
+made up again; but one can't say they're spoiled."
+
+"Not spoiled?" said Lennox, looking wonderingly at the speaker.
+
+"No; they were so horribly straight and blank and square before.  They
+do look a little more picturesque now.  Oh, he was a wicked wretch who
+invented corrugated iron!"
+
+"Nonsense!" said Lennox.
+
+"But it does keep the wet out well, sir," put in the sergeant.  "I don't
+know what we should have done sometimes without it."
+
+Further conversation was stopped by the coming towards camp of a couple
+of Boers bearing a white flag; but they were only allowed to approach
+within the first line of defence.
+
+"Want to have a look at the mischief they have done," said Dickenson
+bitterly, "and they will not have a chance.  My word, what they don't
+deserve!"
+
+The permission they had come to ask was given, and they were turned back
+at once, to signal for their ambulance-wagons to approach, these being
+busy for quite an hour picking up the dead and wounded; while the
+murdered sentry was the only loss suffered by the defenders of
+Groenfontein and the kopje.
+
+As soon as suspicion was firmly fixed upon the party of non-combatant
+Boers who had departed upon their mission to obtain fresh supplies, one
+of the first orders issued by the colonel was for a patrol of mounted
+men to go in pursuit and, if possible, bring them back.
+
+"There is not much chance of overtaking them," he said to the officers
+present; "but with a couple of teams of slow-going oxen they cannot make
+their own pace.  Then this is the last time I'll trust a Boer."
+
+"The worst of it is," said the major, "that we have let them carry off
+those two spans of bullocks.  Tut, tut, tut!  Forty of them; tough as
+leather, of course, but toothsome when you have nothing else."
+
+"Toothsome!" said Captain Roby, laughing.  "A capital term, for the poor
+teeth of those who tried to eat them would have to work pretty hard--
+eh,--Dickenson?"
+
+"Better than nothing," said the young lieutenant--a decision with which
+all agreed.
+
+That day passed off without further attack from the enemy, who seemed to
+have drawn off to a distance; and as night fell the colonel became very
+anxious about the patrol, which had not returned.  Dickenson, who had
+the credit of being the longest-sighted man in the regiment, had spent
+the day on the highest point of the kopje, armed with a powerful
+telescope, and from his point of vantage, where he could command the
+country in that wonderfully clear atmosphere for miles round, had swept
+every bit of plain, and searched bush and pile of granite again and
+again, till the darkness of evening began to fill up the bush like a
+flood of something fluid.  When he could do no more he left the crew of
+the gun and began to descend by what he considered the nearest way to
+headquarters, and soon found it the longest, for he had delayed his
+return too long.
+
+"Hang it all!" he muttered.  "What a pile of shin-breaking rocks it is!
+I've a jolly good mind to go back and take the regular path; seems so
+stupid, though, now."
+
+In this spirit he persevered, wandering in and out among the piled-up
+blocks, all of which seemed in the darkness to be exactly alike, often
+making him think that he was going over the same ground again and again.
+But he was still descending, for when he climbed up the next suitable
+place to try and get a view of the lights of the camp he could see them
+beneath him and certainly nearer than when he started.
+
+"Shall manage it somehow," he muttered; "but, hang it! how hungry I am!
+There, I'll have a pipe."
+
+He fumbled in his pocket as he stood in the lee of a block of granite,
+sheltered from the cold night wind, found the pipe, and raised it to his
+lips to blow through the stem, but stopped short with every sense on the
+alert, for from below to his left he heard a light chirp such as might
+have been given by a bird, but which he argued certainly was not, for he
+knew of no bird likely to utter such a note at that time of the evening,
+when the flood of darkness had risen and risen till it had filled up
+everything high above the highest kopje that dotted the plain.
+
+"Couldn't be a signal, could it?" he said to himself.  "Yes," he said
+directly after, for the chirp was answered from lower down.
+
+Dickenson softly swung the case of his telescope round to his back out
+of the way, and took out his revolver without making a sound, listening
+intently the while, and at the end of a long minute he made out a low
+whispering close at hand; but he could not place it exactly, for the
+sounds seemed to be reflected back from the face of the rock directly in
+front of him.
+
+"I wish it wasn't so dark," he said, and screwing up his lips, he tried
+to imitate the chirp, and so successfully that it was answered.
+
+"Must be one of our sentries," he thought, and he hesitated as to his
+next proceeding.
+
+"Don't want to challenge and raise a false alarm," he said; "but last
+night's work makes one so suspicious.  I'll let them challenge me."
+
+He turned to descend softly from where he had climbed to, and his foot
+slipped on the weather-worn stone, so that he made a loud scraping sound
+in saving himself from a fall; but not so loud that he was unable to
+hear the scuffling of feet close at hand, followed directly after by
+dead silence.
+
+His finger was on the trigger of his pistol, and he was within an ace of
+firing in the direction of the noise, but refrained, and contented
+himself with walking as sharply as he could towards it with outstretched
+hands, for overhanging rocks made the place he was in darker than ever,
+and he was reduced to feeling his way.  Then stopping short with a sense
+of danger being close at hand, he gave the customary challenge, to have
+it answered from behind him; and the next minute he was face to face
+with a sentry.
+
+"I thought I heard something, sir," said the man.  "Then it was you?"
+
+"No, no," said Dickenson; "I heard it too--a low chirp like a bird."
+
+"No, no, sir; not that--a sound as if some one slipped."
+
+"Yes, that was I," said Dickenson; "but there was a chirp.  Did you hear
+that?"
+
+"Oh yes, I heard that, sir; and another one answered it."
+
+"And then there was talking."
+
+"Oh no, sir, I heard no talking.  Sound like a bird; but I think it's a
+little guinea-piggy sort of thing.  I believe they live in holes like
+rats, and come out and call to one another in the dark."
+
+"Well, perhaps it may be; but keep a sharp lookout."
+
+"I'll keep my ears well open, sir," said the man; "there's no seeing
+anything in a night like this."
+
+The sentry was able to put his visitor in the right direction, and
+Dickenson went on, forgetting the incident and wondering how Lennox was
+getting on; then about what the colonel would say to his ill-success;
+and lastly, the needs of his being filled up all his thoughts, making
+him wonder what he should get from the mess in order to satisfy the
+ravenous hunger that troubled him after his long abstinence.
+
+He reached the square at last, but not without being challenged three
+times over.  Then making his way to the colonel's patched-up quarters,
+he was just in time to meet the patrol coming into the opening, their
+leader going straight to the mess-room, where the officers were
+gathered.
+
+"Any luck?" said Dickenson.  "I was on the lookout for you up yonder
+till I couldn't see."
+
+"Yes, and no," said the officer.  "Come on and you'll hear."
+
+Dickenson followed his companion into the long, dreary-looking,
+ill-lighted barn, where they were both warmly welcomed; and the officer
+announced that he had gone as near the Boers' laagers as he could,
+drawing fire each time; but he had not been able to either overtake or
+trace the plotters till close upon evening, when on the return.  They
+had found a sign, but there was so much crossing and recrossing that the
+best of scouts could have made nothing of it; and he concluded that the
+party he sought had got well away, when all at once they came upon the
+undoubted spoor of the two teams of oxen, followed it into the bush, and
+just at dusk came upon the two wagons in a bush-like patch among the
+trees.
+
+"And what had the men to say for themselves?" said the colonel eagerly.
+
+"The men had gone, sir," said the officer.
+
+"Ah!  Bolted at the sight of you?"
+
+"Oh no, sir; they were gone."
+
+"What! and left the wagons?"
+
+"Yes, sir; they had left the wagons, but they had carried off the
+teams."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+THE COLONEL'S PLANS.
+
+The effects of the night alarm were dying out, for there was plenty to
+take the attention of the defenders of Groenfontein every day--days full
+of expectancy--for a Boer attack might take place at any moment, while
+every now and then some one at an outpost had a narrow escape; and two
+men were hit by long-range bullets, fired perhaps a mile away by some
+prowling Boer who elevated his piece and fired on chance at the
+buildings in the village.
+
+"Sniping," the men termed it, and all efforts to suppress this cowardly
+way of carrying on the war were vain, for in most cases there was no
+chance of making out from what scrap of cover the shots had been
+despatched; while it became evident that, from sheer malignity, the
+undisciplined members of the enemy's force would crawl in the darkness
+to some clump of rocks, or into some ditch-like donga, or behind one of
+the many ant-hills, and lie there invisible, firing as he saw a chance,
+and only leaving it when the darkness came on again.
+
+The rations issued grew poorer; but the men only laughed and chaffed,
+ridiculing one another and finding nicknames for them.
+
+Colour-Sergeant James, the sturdy non-commissioned officer, the back of
+whose head still showed the blasting effects of the explosion which he
+had shared with Lennox, was known as the "Fat Boy," on account of the
+general shrinking that had gone on in his person till he seemed to be
+all bone and sinew, covered with a very brown skin; another man came to
+be known as the "Greyhound;" while Captain Roby's favourite corporal, an
+unpleasant-looking fellow, much disliked by Lennox and Dickenson for his
+smooth, servile ways, had grown so hollow-cheeked that he was always
+spoken of as the "Lantern," after being so dubbed by the joker of his
+company.
+
+In fact, the men generally had been brought down to attenuation by the
+scarcity of their food; while their khaki uniforms were not uniform in
+the least, the men for the most part looking, as Bob Dickenson put it,
+"like scarecrows in their Sunday clothes."
+
+"The lads are getting terribly thin, sergeant," said Lennox one day,
+after the men had been dismissed from parade.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir," said the sergeant; "a bit fine, sir, but in
+magnificent condition.  Look at the colour of them--regular good warm
+tan."
+
+"But the Boers haven't tanned them, all the same, sergeant," put in
+Dickenson, who was listening.
+
+"No, sir, and never will," said the sergeant proudly.  "As to their
+being thin, that's nothing; they're as healthy as can be.  A soldier
+don't want to be carrying a lot of unnecessary meat about with him; and
+as to fat, it only makes 'em short-winded.  See how they can go at the
+double now, and come up smiling.  They're all right, sir, and we can
+feed 'em up again fast enough when the work's done.  Beg pardon, sir:
+any likelihood of a reinforcement soon?"
+
+"You know just as much as I do, sergeant," said Lennox.  "Our orders are
+to hold this place, and we've got to hold it.  Some day I suppose the
+general will send and fetch us out; till then we shall have to do our
+best."
+
+"Yes, sir, that's right; but I do wish the enemy would give us a real
+good chance of showing them what our lads are made of."
+
+But the Boers had had too many of what Dickenson called "smacks in the
+face" during their open attacks, and seemed disposed now to give
+starvation a chance of doing the work for them.  At least, that was the
+young officer's openly expressed opinion.
+
+"But they're making a great mistake, Drew, my lad," he said one evening
+as he and his friend sat chatting together.  "An Englishman takes a
+great deal of starving before he'll give in.  They're only making the
+boys savage, and they'll reap the consequences one day.  My word,
+though, what a blessing a good spring of water is!"
+
+As he spoke he picked up the tin can standing upon the end of a
+flour-barrel that formed their table, had a good hearty drink, set it
+down again, and replaced his pipe between his lips.  "I used to think
+that bitter beer was the only thing a man could drink with his pipe; but
+_tlat_! how good and fresh and cool this water is, and how the Boers
+must wish they had the run of it!"
+
+"It helps us to set them at defiance," said Lennox.  "They might well
+call the place `Green Fountain.'  It might be made a lovely spot if it
+wasn't for the Boer."
+
+"Yes, I suppose anything would grow here in the heat and moisture.  I
+suppose the spring comes gurgling up somewhere in the middle of the
+kopje."
+
+"It must," said Lennox, "and then makes its way amongst the stones to
+spread out below there and flow on to the river."
+
+"Seems rum, though," said Dickenson.  "I never did understand why water
+should shoot up here at the highest part of a flat country.  It ought to
+be found low down in the holes.  What makes it shoot up?"
+
+"The weight and pressure of the country round, I suppose," said Lennox.
+"Hullo!  What does that mean?"
+
+"Business," cried Dickenson, as both the young men sprang to their feet
+and seized belts and weapons.  For the report of a rifle was followed by
+others, coming apparently from the direction of the kopje near to where
+the stream came rushing out between two rugged natural walls of piled-up
+stone.  Every one was on the alert directly, fully in the expectation
+that the enemy we're about to act in non-accordance with their regular
+custom and make an attack in the dark.
+
+But the firing ceased almost as suddenly as it had begun; and after a
+time the alarm was traced back to a sentry who had been on duty at the
+lower part of the west side of the kopje, near by where the water gushed
+up at the foot of a huge mass of granite, where the most precipitous
+part stretched upward half-way to the summit.
+
+Captain Roby's company held the kopje that night, and consequently both
+of the young officers were present at the tracing of the cause of the
+alarm, when it seemed to have been proved that it was only false.
+
+The sentry who fired was examined by Captain Roby, and was certain that
+he had not given any alarm without cause, for he said he had heard steps
+as of more than one person approaching him as if going to the water.
+
+"And you challenged?" asked the captain.
+
+"Yes, sir; and then all was quite quiet for a few moments, but I heard
+the sounds again as if they were coming closer to me, and I fired, and
+there was a rush of feet."
+
+"A party of baboons going down to drink," said the captain
+contemptuously.
+
+"There have been no baboons seen since we occupied the kopje," said
+Lennox.
+
+"Perhaps not; but when they were driven off they must have gone
+somewhere, and what more likely than that they should come back to the
+spot where they could get water?--Come, my man, you felt frightened,
+didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the sentry; "I was a bit scared."
+
+"And you think now that all you heard was a party of those big dog-like
+monkeys--eh?"
+
+"No, sir; it was men, and only three or four."
+
+"Ha!  How do you know?"
+
+"Because the baboons go on all fours, sir; and I could make out one man
+standing up as he ran off along the rocky bit of path."
+
+"What!  You saw one man?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"But it was dark?"
+
+"I could see the figure of a man for a moment just against the sky,
+sir."
+
+"But mightn't that have been one of the apes reared up for the time?"
+
+"Oh no, sir," said the sentry.  "I shouldn't mistake a monkey for a man;
+and besides, they don't wear boots."
+
+"Ah! and do you say these people who came near you wore boots?"
+
+"Well, it sounded like it, sir, for when I fired I could hear the
+leather squeak."
+
+"Humph!" grunted Captain Roby; and Dickenson, who was full now of his
+adventure in what seemed to have been near the same place, spoke out:
+
+"I think there's something in what he says:" and he related his own
+experience.  "At the time, I was so occupied in getting back for
+something to eat that I forgot all about the matter after dinner.  But
+now this has occurred I begin to feel that the chirping sounds I heard
+really were signals, and that I did hear voices talking together
+afterwards."
+
+"Then it must have been Kaffirs sneaking there for water after it was
+dark."
+
+"But the footsteps?" said Lennox.
+
+"Well, Kaffirs have feet."
+
+"But not boots," said Lennox quietly.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the captain warmly; "I could pick out a dozen
+of the black hangers-on who have boots which they have obtained from the
+men."
+
+Just then an orderly arrived from the colonel to know what Captain Roby
+had made out respecting the alarm; and upon a full report being given,
+the colonel sent orders for Captain Roby to march his company to the
+foot of the kopje, surround it, and thoroughly search it from top to
+bottom.
+
+This search was commenced as soon as it was light, the men having been
+led to the foot and stationed before day broke; and the arduous task
+seemed to be thoroughly enjoyed by the men, who, as they slowly ascended
+the rough cone, naturally closed in so that the prospect of missing any
+one hiding among the cracks and chasms grew less and less.  To the
+soldiers it was like a game of hide-and-seek held upon a gigantic scale,
+and they shouted to one another in the excitement of the hunt.  Every
+now and then a rift would be found which promised to be the entrance to
+a cavern such as abounded in many of the granite and ironstone piles;
+but in every instance, after the men had plunged in boldly with bayonets
+fixed, they found the holes empty and were brought up directly, not even
+finding a sign of the place having been occupied.
+
+The officers advanced from four different places, but the incurvation of
+the mount, and its being only practicable for climbing here and there,
+caused Lennox and Dickenson to approach more rapidly than the others;
+hence it happened that by the time they were half-way to the top they
+were within talking distance, as they kept on trying to keep their men
+in line, and at the end of another hundred feet they were side by side,
+panting and hot from their efforts, and ready to give one another a hand
+or a leg up in difficult parts.
+
+"Well, Drew, old man," cried Dickenson as they both paused to wipe their
+faces and give their men time to breathe, "nice job this!  I suppose the
+old man meant it to give us an appetite for breakfast."
+
+Lennox laughed.
+
+"He ought to have given us a task to take away the sharpness; but it's
+all right.  I shouldn't be at all surprised if we started two or three
+Kaffirs from some hole higher up."
+
+"Why, what would they be doing there?"
+
+"Keeping their gregarious home tidy for their tribe to come back to when
+we are gone."
+
+"Well, plenty do live in these kopjes.  Remember about that one up in
+the Matabele country that was full of cracks and passages, and had four
+or five caves one above another?"
+
+"Oh yes, I remember it."
+
+"This might be the same some day, but I believe it's all a reservoir of
+water inside."
+
+"Or else solid, for there seems to be no door.  We may find a way in
+yet; I shouldn't wonder."
+
+"I should," said Dickenson; "and I believe after all now that the
+chirping I heard was made by some rat-like creature."
+
+"The more I think about it," continued Lennox, "the more I feel ready to
+believe that two or three of the Kaffirs are here, and in communication
+with the Boers."
+
+"What! acting as spies?"
+
+Lennox nodded; he was still too short of breath to talk much.
+
+"Well, now you come to talk like that, it does appear possible, for the
+Boers do seem to have known pretty well how and when to attack us."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Of course!  Why, there was the night when they were bringing up the big
+gun.  They must have had guides."
+
+"Oh, if you come to that, they may have people with them who used to
+live here."
+
+"Yes, they may have," said Dickenson; "but it isn't likely.  Depend upon
+it, there are two or three Kaffirs somewhere about here, and we have
+them to thank for some of our misfortunes.  If we do catch them they'll
+have it pretty sharp."
+
+"Not they," said Lennox.  "We shall treat them as prisoners of war."
+
+"As spies," said Dickenson, "and you know their lot."
+
+"Psh!  The colonel would not shoot a set of poor ignorant blacks."
+
+"Browns--browns, browns."
+
+"For a reward they'd fight for us just as they may have been fighting
+for the Boers."
+
+"But we don't want them to fight for us.  If they'd try and feed us
+they'd be doing some good.--Yes, all right.  Ahoy there!" shouted the
+speaker, for a hail came from higher up.  "Forward, my lads; forward!"
+
+This last to the men on either side, who had snapped at the chance of a
+few minutes' rest, after the fashion displayed by their officers.
+
+The climbing advance went on again till the level patch at the top,
+which had been turned into a gun-platform, was reached, and the men
+halted in the bright sunshine, to group about the huge gun after they
+had been ordered to break off.  They rested, enjoying the cool breeze
+and gazing eagerly about in search of enemies, seeing, however, nothing
+but the surrounding prospect all looking bright and peaceful in the
+morning sun.
+
+"`Brayvo!  Werry pretty!' as Sam Weller would have said," cried
+Dickenson as Captain Roby closed the field-glass he had been using and
+joined his junior officers, frowning and looking impatient.
+
+"Look here, Mr Dickenson," he said sourly, "a little of that
+commonplace, slangy quotation may be tolerated sometimes after the mess
+dinner if it's witty--mind, I say if it's witty--but such language as
+this seems to me quite out of place, especially if spoken in the hearing
+of the men when on service."
+
+"Yes, of course," replied Dickenson shortly; "but I took care that they
+were out of hearing."
+
+"They are not out of hearing, sir," retorted Roby; "as Mr Lennox here
+will bear me witness, Sergeant James and Corporal May must have heard
+every word."
+
+He turned to Lennox with a questioning look and waited for him to, as he
+termed it, bear witness.
+
+"Well, really, I don't think they could have heard," said Lennox.
+
+"What!" cried Roby indignantly.  "Here, sergeant, you heard--you,
+Corporal May, you heard what Mr Dickenson said?"
+
+"Yes, sir, everything," replied the corporal smartly.
+
+"And you, sergeant?"
+
+"I heard Mr Dickenson saying something, sir," replied the sergeant
+bluntly, "but I was looking along the gun here and did not catch a
+word."
+
+"You mean you would not hear," cried the captain angrily.--"Look here,
+Mr Dickenson, don't let it occur again."
+
+He jerked at the case of his field-glass and took it out again, then
+crossed to the other end of the roughly-made gun-platform and directed
+the telescope upon some object near the horizon.
+
+The two subalterns exchanged glances.
+
+"Mr Lennox--Mr Dickenson," said the latter in a low tone.  "Poor old
+chap, he's regularly upset.  Well, no wonder; wants his breakfast.  I'm
+just as grumpy underneath for the same reason, but I keep it down--with
+my belt.  Look here, Drew; go and prescribe for him.  Tell him to buckle
+himself up a couple of holes tighter and he'll feel all the better."
+
+"Hold your tongue!  He isn't well, and he's put out about this
+mare's-nest hunt."
+
+"Well, yes; we haven't done much good."
+
+"Not a bit.  How do you feel?"
+
+"As if I should like to kick that time-serving corporal."
+
+"What! the `Lantern'?  Yes: brute!  Anything to curry favour with his
+master."
+
+"Look here, don't forget.  Mind I give old James two ounces of the best
+tobacco first time I have any--which I'm afraid will not be just yet."
+
+"Mare's-nest," said Lennox thoughtfully.  "Yes, I suppose it is a
+mare's-nest.  Nobody could have been about here without being caught by
+the sentries."
+
+"I don't know," said Dickenson, looking about him; "these niggers are
+very clever at hiding and sneaking about.  I felt certain after what I
+had experienced that we should find a way into a passage and some caves.
+Here, 'tention; the general's coming back."
+
+Captain Roby returned, replacing his glass, and gave a few sharp orders
+for the men to take their places once more and commence the descent,
+searching every crevice among the rocks as they went down.
+
+This was carefully done, and the men reached the foot of the granite
+pile, formed up, and marched back to the market-place, where they were
+dismissed to their meagre breakfast, while the captain sought the
+colonel's quarters without a word to his subordinates.
+
+"The doctor says fasting's very good for a man; but one man's meat, or
+want of it, is another man's poison, Drew, my boy, and starvation does
+not agree with Roby."
+
+"No," replied Lennox.  "I've noticed that he has been a bit queer for a
+week past."
+
+"Say a fortnight, and I'll agree with you.  Why, he has been like a bear
+with a sore head.  Never said a civil word to any one, and I've heard
+him bully the poor boys shamefully."
+
+"Yes; it is a pity, too, for they've behaved splendidly."
+
+"Right you are.  I always liked them, but I'm quite proud of the poor
+fellows now.  I say though, hang it all! talking must be bad on an empty
+stomach.  Lead on, my lord; the banquet waits."
+
+"Banquet!" said Lennox, with a sigh.
+
+"Yes.  Oh, how tired I am of that mealie pap!  It puts me in mind of
+Brahma fowls, and that maddens me."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I used to keep some of the great, feather-breeched, lumbering
+things to send to poultry shows.  Some one told me that Indian corn was a
+fine thing for them--made their plumage bright and gave them bone; so I
+ordered a lot."
+
+"And did it answer the purpose?"
+
+"Answer the purpose?" cried Dickenson indignantly.  "Why, the beggars
+picked it up grain by grain and put it down again.  Pampered Sybarites!
+Then the cock cocked his eye up at me and said, `_Tuck, tuck, tuck!
+Caro, waro, ware_!' which being interpreted from the Chick-chuck
+language which is alone spoken by the gallinaceous tribe, means, `None
+of your larks: yellow pebbles for food?  Not to-day, thankye!'"
+
+"I say, Bob, what a boy you do keep!" said Lennox.
+
+"The sweet youthfulness of my nature, lad.  But, as I was telling you,
+the beggars wouldn't touch it, and I had to get our cook to boil it
+soft.  Our mealie pap has just the same smell.  That makes me think of
+being a real boy with my poultry pen: the Brahmas make me think of the
+young cockerels who did not feather well for show and were condemned to
+go to pot--that is to say, to the kitchen; and _that_ brings up their
+legs and wings peppered and salted before broiling for breakfast,
+finished off with a sprinkle of Worcester sauce, and then--oh, luscious!
+oh, tender juiciness!  Oh! hold me up, old man, or I shall faint.
+There, sniff!  Can't you smell?  Yes, of course; mealie pap in a tin,
+and--Oh, here's the colonel eating his.  Roby will have to give his
+report now."
+
+"Good--morning, gentlemen," said the colonel.  "Just in time for
+breakfast.  Well, what have you found?"
+
+He had hardly asked the question before Captain Roby hurried in, to go
+up to his side at once and make his report.
+
+"I'm sorry; but no more than I expected.--Here," he said, turning to his
+servant, after making a brave show of eating the meagre tin of Indian
+corn porridge; "bring me a little cocoa."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said the man, bending over him from behind; "very
+sorry, but last of the cocoa was finished yesterday."
+
+"Humph!  Yes; I had forgotten," said the colonel, and he took up his
+spoon and began to play with the porridge remaining in his tin.
+
+The breakfast was soon ended, and the officers made a show of chatting
+cheerfully together, while the colonel sat tapping the edge of his tin
+softly with his canteen spoon, looking thoughtfully into the bottom of
+the cleaned-out vessel the while.  Then every eye was turned to him as
+he straightened himself up, for they judged that he was going to make
+some communication.  They were right, for he threw down his spoon on the
+clothless board and said suddenly:
+
+"Well, gentlemen, the French proverb says, _Il faut manger_."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, with a grim smile; "but it is necessary to have
+something in the manger."
+
+"Quite so, doctor," said the colonel, with a good-humoured nod; "so I
+may as well open a discussion on the position at once, and tell you that
+while Roby and his company have been searching the kopje the major and I
+have formed ourselves into a committee of ways and means, and gone round
+the stores.--Tell them, major."
+
+The gentleman addressed shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"There is so little to tell," he replied; "only that with about
+quarter-rations we can hold out for another week.  That's all."
+
+"Not all," said the colonel.  "We have the horses as a last resource;
+but they are life to us in another way, and must be left till the very
+end."
+
+Dead silence reigned, every man looking down at the rough table.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," continued the colonel, "after giving every thought to
+our position I come to the conclusion that at all hazards I must hold
+this place."
+
+"Hear, hear!" came from every lip.
+
+"We are keeping three commandos fully employed, and that is something."
+
+There was a sound like a murmur of satisfaction.
+
+"I might determine," said the colonel, "to try and reach Rudolfsberg,
+and somehow or another we would cut our way there; but our losses would
+be terrible, and we should reach safety--some of us--with the feeling
+that we had not done our duty by holding Groenfontein at all hazards."
+
+"That's quite right," said the major as his chief paused, and a murmur
+of assent followed the major's words.
+
+"Then, gentlemen, that brings me back again to the French proverb.  We
+must eat, so the first thing to do is to decide on which direction a
+raid is to be made: that means scouting, and the discovery of the
+nearest Boer store of provisions, with sheep and cattle.  We are quite
+alone here, without the possibility of my words being heard, so I can
+speak out freely.  Scouting parties must go out at once in the direction
+of each of the three commandos, and on the strength of their reports the
+expedition will be made."
+
+"To-night?" said the major.
+
+"Yes," replied the colonel.  "Hush!  Don't cheer!  Let matters go on as
+if nothing fresh were on the way.  We cannot afford to have our
+proceedings carried out of the lines by Kaffir spies."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+THE BOER ADVANCE.
+
+The scouting parties went out in three different directions after a long
+survey from the top of the kopje, the routes being marked out for the
+leaders in consultation with the colonel, who, glass in hand, selected
+the most likely routes to be followed so that the enemy might be
+avoided, and the more distant country reached where two or three Boer
+farms were known to be situated.
+
+Then, with three of the best mounted men in each, they set off; and the
+colonel took especial care that no one of the many friendly--said to be
+friendly--natives who hung about the camp should follow.  It was a
+necessary precaution, for the outposts stopped no less than a dozen men
+stealing through the long grass on both sides of the river, and, to
+their great disappointment, turned them back to go and squat down
+sulkily in such shade as they could find.
+
+The instructions given were that at the latest the scouts were to be
+back at sundown, so as to give ample time for pointing out the route to
+be followed and preparations made for the raid to come.
+
+Plenty of discussion ensued when the scouts had ridden off at a walk,
+opening out so as not to take the attention of the Boers; and as far as
+could be made out by the watchers there was not a sign of an enemy upon
+either of the hills.
+
+The question of the discussion was which company of the regiment would
+be called upon to start upon the raid, the members of each hoping to be
+selected; and Captain Roby maintaining loudly, in a sharp, snappish way,
+that without doubt his company would be chosen, and turning fiercely
+upon any of his brother officers who differed from him.
+
+"He's precious cock-sure, Drew," said Dickenson later on, as they
+strolled together up the steep sides of the kopje; "but we had our bit
+of work this morning, and it is not likely that the old man will send
+us."
+
+"Of course not; but it was of no use to say anything.  Our failure has
+had a strange effect upon the poor fellow, and a word would act upon him
+like fire upon tinder."
+
+"Yes; but the starvation picnic has had its effect on other people too.
+Who's he that he should have the monopoly of getting into a passion
+about nothing?  I say, though, as we were up there this morning I don't
+see what is the use of our going up again; there'll be no shade at the
+top, and we shall be half-roasted."
+
+"Don't come, then," said Lennox quietly.  "I'm going up to see if I can
+follow the scouts with a glass."
+
+"Don't come?" cried Dickenson sharply.  "Well, I like that!  Here's
+another one touched by the sun.  Old Roby is not to have the monopoly of
+getting into a fantigue."
+
+"Nonsense!  I'm not out of temper," said Lennox.
+
+"Not out of temper?  Well, upon my word!  But I shall come all the same.
+I would now if it were ten times as hot."
+
+"Very well," said Lennox, drawing his breath hard so as to command his
+temper, for he felt really ruffled now by the heat and his comrade's way
+of talking.
+
+They climbed slowly on, step for step, till, as they zigzagged up into a
+good position which displayed the sun-bathed landscape shimmering in the
+heat, Lennox caught a glimpse of one of the scouting parties in the
+distance, and was about to draw his companion's attention to it when
+Dickenson suddenly caught at his arm and pointed to a glowing patch of
+the rock in the full blaze of the sun.
+
+"Look," he said.  "Big snake."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Lennox angrily; "there are no snakes up here."
+
+Their eyes met the next instant with so meaning a look in them that both
+burst out laughing, Dickenson holding out his hand, which was taken at
+once.
+
+"I forgive old Roby," he said.
+
+"So do I," said Lennox frankly.  "Heat and hunger do upset a man's
+temper.  See our fellows out there?"
+
+He pointed in the direction where he had seen the mounted figures,
+feeling for his glass the while.
+
+"Not our men," said Dickenson, following his example, and together they
+produced their glasses.
+
+"Oh yes," said Lennox.  "I am certain it was they."
+
+"And I'm as certain it was not," cried Dickenson.
+
+Their eyes met again; but this time they felt too serious to laugh, and
+were silent for some moments.
+
+Dickenson then said frankly:
+
+"Look here, old chap, there's something wrong with us.  We've got the
+new complaint--the Robitis; and we'd better not argue about anything, or
+we shall have a fight.  My temper feels as if it had got all the skin
+off."
+
+"And I'm as irritable as Roby was this morning.  Never mind.  Can you
+make out the mounted men now?"
+
+"No," said Dickenson after a pause.  "Can you?"
+
+"No.  They're gone behind that patch of forest.  There," he continued,
+closing his glass, "let's get up to the top and sit in the men's
+shelter; there'll be a bit of air up there."
+
+He proved to be right, for a pleasant breeze, comparatively cool, was
+blowing on the other side of the mountain and tempering the glare of the
+sunshine, while they found that there was a bit of shade behind a
+turret-like projection standing out of the granite, looking as if it had
+been built up by human hands.
+
+There they sat and watched for hours, scanning the veldt, which
+literally quivered in the heat; but they looked in vain for any movement
+on the part of the enemy, who had been disturbed by the scouts, and at
+last made up their minds to go down--truth to tell, moved by the same
+reason, the pangs of hunger asserting themselves in a way almost too
+painful to be borne.
+
+"Let's go," said Dickenson; "they've got right away in safety.  I
+believe the Boers are all asleep this hot day, and in the right of it:
+plenty to eat and nothing to do."
+
+"Yes, let's go.  I'm longing for a long cool drink down below there.
+Pst!  What's that?"
+
+"One of the fellows round there by the gun," said Dickenson.
+
+"No," whispered Lennox decidedly; "it was close at hand.  Did you hear
+it?"
+
+"Yes.  Sounded like the rock splitting in this fiery sunshine."
+
+"More like a piece falling somewhere inside--beneath our feet--and I
+distinctly heard a soft, echoing rumble."
+
+"Come along down, old man," said Dickenson.  "It's too hot to be up
+here, and if we stop any longer we shall have something worse than being
+hungry--a bad touch of the sun.  I feel quite ready to go off my head
+and imagine all sorts of things.  For instance, there's a swimming
+before my eyes which makes me fancy I can see puffs of smoke rising out
+yonder, and a singing and cracking in my ears like distant firing."
+
+"Where?" cried Lennox excitedly.  "Yes, of course.  I can see the puffs
+plainly, and hear the faint cracking of the fire.  Bob, my lad, then
+that sharp sound we heard must have been the reverberation of a gun."
+
+"Oh dear!" groaned Dickenson.  "Come along down, and let's get our heads
+in the cool stream and drink like fishes."
+
+"Don't be foolish!  Get out your glass."
+
+"To drink with?"
+
+"No!  Absurd!  To watch the firing."
+
+"There is no firing, man," cried Dickenson.
+
+"There is, I tell you."
+
+"Oh, he has got it too," groaned Dickenson.  "Very well; all right--
+there is fighting going on out there a couple of miles away, and I can
+see the smoke and hear the cracking of the rifles.  But come on down and
+let's have a drink of water all the same; there's plenty of that."
+
+"You're saying that to humour me," said Lennox, with his glass to his
+eyes; "but I'm not half-delirious from sunstroke.  Get out your glass
+and look.  The Boers are coming on in a long extended line, and they
+must be driving in our scouts."
+
+"You don't mean it, do you, old chap?" cried Dickenson, dragging out his
+glass.
+
+"Yes; there's no mistake about it."
+
+_Crack_! went a rifle from behind the projection, a few yards away; and
+directly after, as the two officers began scurrying down, the bugles
+were ringing out in the market-square, and the colonel gave his orders
+for supports to go out, check the Boer advance, and bring the scouting
+party or parties in.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+SOMETHING IN THE HEAD.
+
+It was a narrow escape, but the nine men got safely back to quarters,
+but minus two of their horses.  For the Boers had in every case been
+well upon the alert; their lines had not been pierced, and they followed
+up the retreating scouts till the searching fire from the kopje began to
+tell upon their long line of skirmishers, and then they sullenly drew
+back, but not before they had learnt that there were marksmen in the
+regiment at Groenfontein as well as in their own ranks.
+
+"That's something, Drew," said Dickenson as he watched the slow movement
+of a light wagon drawn by mules.  "But only to think of it: all that
+trouble for nothing--worse than nothing, for they have shot those two
+horses.  Yes, worse than nothing," he continued, "for they would have
+been something for the pot."
+
+Each of the scouting parties gave the same account of the state of
+affairs; that is to say, that though to all appearances the country
+round was clear of the enemy, a keen watch was being kept up, and, turn
+which way they would, Boers were ready to spring up in the most
+unexpected places to arrest their course and render it impossible to
+reach supplies and bring them in.
+
+Their report cast a damp on the whole camp.  For bad news travels fast,
+and this was soon known.
+
+"Sounds bad," said Dickenson cheerfully, "and just like them.  They are
+not going to run their heads into danger unless obliged.  They mean to
+lie low and wait for us, then turn us back to starve and surrender."
+
+"And they'll find that we shall take a great deal of starving first,"
+replied Lennox bitterly.  "But I don't agree with you altogether.  I
+fully expect that, in spite of their failure to blow us up, it will not
+be long before they contrive something else."
+
+"Well, we shall not quarrel about that, old man," said Dickenson
+cheerily.  "If they do come on in some attack, every one here will be
+delighted to see them.  We should enjoy a good honest fight.  What I
+don't like is this going on shrinking and pulling the tongue farther
+through the buckle.  If it goes on like this much longer I shall have to
+go to our saddler to punch a few more holes in my belt.  I say, though,
+one feels better after that draught of water.  I believe if I had stayed
+up yonder much longer I should have gone quite off my head, through
+fancying things, for it was only imagination after all."
+
+A fresh company occupied the kopje that evening, and once more perfect
+silence reigned.  There was one of the glorious displays of stars seen
+so often in those clear latitudes, when the great dome of heaven seems
+to be one mass of sparkling, encrusted gems.
+
+Lennox had been standing outside his quarters for some time, enjoying
+the coolness, and shrinking from going in to where the hut was hot and
+stuffy and smelling strongly of the now extinguished paraffin-lamp,
+mingled with a dash of the burned tobacco in Dickenson's pipe.
+
+"I say," said the latter, "hadn't you better come in and perch?  Nothing
+like making your hay when the sun shines, and getting your forty winks
+while you can."
+
+"Quite right," replied Lennox in a low, dreamy voice; "but it's very
+pleasant out here."
+
+"That's true enough, no doubt, old man; but you'll be on duty to-morrow
+night out yonder, and you can go on star-gazing then.  Yah!  Oh--oh dear
+me, how sleepy I do feel!" he continued, yawning.  "I'll bet a penny
+that I don't dream once.  Regularly worn out, that's how I am.  There,
+good-night if you won't come and lie down.  I shall just allow myself
+half a--Oh, hang it!  I do call that too bad!"
+
+For ere he could finish his sentence a rifle cracked somewhere near the
+top of the kopje, followed by another and another; the bugles rang out,
+and from the continued firing it seemed evident that the Boers were
+going against their ordinary custom and making a night attack.
+
+If they did, though, they were to find the camp ready for them, every
+man and officer springing to his place and waiting for orders--those
+given to Captain Roby being, as his men were so familiar with the spot,
+to take half a company and reinforce the detachment on the kopje.
+
+They found that the firing had completely ceased by the time they were
+half-way up, and upon joining the officer in command there, to Captain
+Roby's great satisfaction, he found a similar scene being enacted to
+that which had taken place before him.
+
+"Another false alarm, Roby," the officer said angrily.  "Your fellows
+started the cock-and-bull nonsense, and it has become catching.  The
+sentry here declares he saw a couple of figures coming down in the
+darkness, and he fired.  The idiot!  There is nothing, of course, and
+the colonel shall make an example of him."
+
+Lennox was standing close up to the offender, and in spite of the
+darkness could make out that the man was shivering.
+
+"Come, come," said the young officer in a half-whisper; "don't go on
+like that.  You fancy you saw something?"
+
+"I'm sure I did, sir," replied the sentry, grateful for a kind word
+after the severe bullying he had received for doing what he believed to
+be his duty.  "I saw two of them, as plain as I can see you now.  I was
+regularly took aback, sir, for I hadn't heard a sound; but as soon as I
+fired I could hear them rush off."
+
+"You feel certain?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and the captain says it was all fancy.  If it was, sir, I
+know--"
+
+"Know what?" said Lennox, impressed by the man's manner.  "Speak out."
+
+"Oh, I know, sir," said the man again, with a shudder.
+
+"Well, speak out; don't be afraid."
+
+"Enough to make any man feel afraid, sir," half whimpered the man.  "I
+don't mind going into action, sir.  I've shown afore now as I'd follow
+my officers anywhere."
+
+"Of course you would, my lad," said Lennox, patting the young fellow
+encouragingly on the shoulder, for he could see that he was suffering
+from a shock, and, doubtless from abstinence and weakness, was
+half-hysterical.
+
+"It's bad enough, sir, to be posted in the darkness upon a shelf like
+that over there, expecting every moment to get a bullet in you; but when
+it comes to anything like this, it makes a fellow feel like a coward."
+
+"Who said coward?" said Dickenson, who had followed his companion and
+now came up.
+
+"I did, sir," said the man through his chattering teeth.
+
+"Where is he?" said Dickenson.  "I should like to look at him.  I
+haven't seen one lately."
+
+"Here he is, sir," said the poor fellow, growing more agitated; "it's
+me."
+
+"Get out!" cried Dickenson good-humouredly.  "You're not a coward.
+There isn't such a thing in the regiment."
+
+"Oh yes, there is, sir," whimpered the man.  "It's all right, sir.  I'm
+the chap: look at me."
+
+"Stop a moment," said Lennox quickly; "aren't you one of the men who
+have been in the infirmary?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  This is the first time I've been on duty since."
+
+"What was the matter with you?"
+
+"Doctor said it was all on account of weakness, sir, but that I should
+be better back in the fresh air--in the ranks."
+
+"And you feel weak now?"
+
+"Yes, sir; horrid.  I'm ashamed of myself for being such a coward.  But
+I know now."
+
+"Well, what do you know?" asked Lennox, more for the sake of calming the
+man than from curiosity.
+
+"I thought I was going to get all right again and see the war through,
+if I didn't get an unlucky ball; but it's all over now.  I've seen 'em,
+and it's a fetch."
+
+"A what?" cried Dickenson, laughing.
+
+"Don't laugh, sir, please;" said the man imploringly.  "It's too awful.
+I see 'em as plain as I see you two gentlemen standing there."
+
+"And who were they?" continued Dickenson; "the brothers Fetch?"
+
+"No, sir; two old comrades of mine who 'listed down Plymouth way when I
+did.  We used to be in the same football team.  They both got it at
+Magersfontein, and they've come to tell me it's going to be my turn
+now."
+
+"Bah!" growled Dickenson.  "Did they say so?"
+
+"No, sir; they didn't speak," said the man, shivering; "but there they
+were.  I knew Tom Longford by his big short beard, and the other must
+have been Mike Lamb."
+
+"Oh, here you are," said the captain of the company.  "You can go back
+to quarters, and be ready to appear before the colonel in the morning."
+
+"One moment, Captain Edwards," said Lennox gravely.  "You'll excuse me
+for speaking.  This man is only just off the sick list; he is evidently
+very ill."
+
+"Oh yes, I know that, Mr Lennox," said the officer coldly; "he has a
+very bad complaint for a soldier.  Look at him.  Has he told you that he
+has seen a couple of ghosts?"
+
+"Yes.  He is weak from sickness and fasting, and imagined all that; but
+I feel perfectly certain that he has seen some one prowling about here."
+
+"Ghosts?" said the captain mockingly.
+
+"No; spies."
+
+"Psh!  It's a disease the men have got.  Fancy.  Every fellow on duty
+will be seeing the same thing now.  There, that's enough of it."
+
+"Look out!" cried Lennox angrily; and then in the same breath, "What's
+that?"
+
+For there was a sharp, grating sound as of stone against stone, and then
+silence.
+
+"Stand fast, every man," cried Lennox excitedly, seizing his revolver
+and looking along the broad, rugged shelf upon which they stood in the
+direction from which the sound had come.
+
+"A lantern here," cried the captain as a sharp movement was heard, and
+half-a-dozen men at a word from their officer doubled along the shelf
+for a couple of dozen yards and then stood fast, while the other end of
+the path was blocked in the same way.
+
+Lennox's heart was beating hard with excitement, and he started as he
+felt Dickenson grip his arm firmly.
+
+Then all stood fast, listening, as they waited for the lantern to be
+brought.  Quite ten minutes of painful silence elapsed before a couple
+of dim lights were seen approaching, the bearers having to come down
+from the gun-platform; and when the two non-commissioned officers who
+bore them approached, and in obedience to orders held them up, they
+displayed nothing but swarthy, eager-looking faces, and the piled-up
+rugged and weathered rocks on one side, the black darkness on the other.
+
+"Come this way, sergeant," said Captain Edwards, and he, as officer in
+command of the detachment that night, led on, followed closely by
+Captain Roby and the two subalterns.
+
+They went along in perfect silence, the lanterns here being alternately
+held up and down so that the rugged shelf and the piled-up masses of
+rock which formed the nearly perpendicular side of the kopje in that
+part might be carefully examined.
+
+This was done twice over, the party passing each time where their men
+were blocking the ends of the shelf which had been selected for one of
+the posts.
+
+"It's strange," said Captain Roby at last.  "I can see no loose stone."
+
+"No," said Captain Edwards.  "It was just as if a good-sized block had
+slipped down from above.  Let's have another look."
+
+This was done, with no better result, and once more the party stood fast
+in the dim light, gazing in a puzzled way.
+
+"Can any one suggest anything?" said Captain Roby.
+
+There was silence for a few moments, and then Lennox caught hold of
+Dickenson's arm and gave it a meaning pressure as he turned to the two
+captains, who were close together.
+
+"I have an idea," he whispered.  "Give the orders loudly for the men to
+march off.  Take them round to the south, and wait."
+
+"What for?" said Captain Roby snappishly.
+
+"I should like Dickenson and me to be left behind.  I'll fire if there
+is anything."
+
+"Oh, rubbish!" said Captain Roby contemptuously.
+
+"No," said his brother officer quietly.  "It is worth trying."  Then
+turning to the two sergeants who bore the lanterns, he said, "When I say
+put out those lights, don't do it; cover them sharply with greatcoats."
+
+Directly after he gave his first order, when the lanterns rattled, and
+all was dark.
+
+Then followed the next orders, and tramp! tramp! tramp! the men marched
+away like a relieving guard, Lennox and Dickenson standing fast with
+their backs leaning against the rugged wall of rock, perfectly
+motionless in the black darkness, and looking outward and down at the
+faint light or two visible below in the camp.
+
+As they drew back against the rock Lennox felt for his companion's hand,
+which gripped his directly, and so they stood waiting.
+
+To them the silence seemed quite appalling, for they felt as if they
+were on the eve of some discovery--what, neither could have said; but
+upon comparing notes afterwards each said he felt convinced that
+something was about to happen, but paradoxically, at the same time, as
+if it never would; and when a quarter of an hour must have passed, the
+excitement grew more intense, as the pressure of their hot, wet hands
+told, for they felt then that whatever was about to happen must befall
+them then, if they were not interrupted by the return of their officers.
+
+Each tried to telegraph to his companion the intensity of feeling from
+which he suffered, and after a fashion one did communicate to the other
+something of his sensations.
+
+But nothing came to break the intense silence, and they stood with
+strained ears, now gazing up at the glittering stars, and now down
+through the darkness at the two feeble lights that they felt must be
+those outside the colonel's quarters in the market-square.
+
+"I don't know how it was," said Lennox afterwards, "but just at the last
+I began somehow to think of being at the back of the colonel's hut that
+night just after Sergeant James had put out the light upon discovering
+the train."
+
+"I felt that if the business went on much longer, something--some of my
+strings that were all on the strain--would crack," interrupted
+Dickenson.
+
+"Yes," said Lennox; "I felt so too."
+
+And this was how he was feeling--strained--till something seemed to be
+urging him to cry out or move in the midst of that intense period, when
+all at once he turned cold all down the back, for a long-drawn, dismal,
+howling wail rose in the distance, making him shudder just as he had
+seen the sentry quiver in his horror and dread.
+
+"Bah!  Hyena," he said to himself the next moment; and then a thrill ran
+through him as he felt Dickenson's grip increase suddenly with quite a
+painful pressure.
+
+He responded to it directly, every nerve in his body quivering with the
+greater strain placed upon it by what was happening, till every nerve
+and muscle seemed to harden into steel.  For the long expected--whatever
+it might prove to be--the mystery was about to unfold itself, and in his
+intense feeling it seemed to Lennox as if the glittering stars were
+flashing out more light.
+
+It was only a noise, but a noise such as Lennox felt that he must hear--
+a low, dull, harsh, grating noise as of stone passing over stone; and
+though he could see nothing with his eyes, mentally he knew that one of
+the great time-bleached and weathered blocks of granite that helped to
+form the cyclopean face of the kopje wall had begun to turn as on a
+pivot.
+
+This grating sound lasted for a few seconds only, and it came apparently
+from a couple of yards away to his right, as he stood with his back
+pressed against the rugged natural stones.
+
+Then the noise ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and he listened, now
+holding his breath in the vain hope that it would silence the heavy,
+dull beating of his heart, whose throbs seemed to echo painfully in his
+brain.
+
+He pressed Dickenson's hand again, to feel from the return grip how
+thoroughly his comrade was on the alert.
+
+Then all was perfectly silent again, while a dull feeling of despair
+began to assert itself as he felt that they were going to hear no more.
+
+At last, with head wrenched round to the right, his revolver feeling wet
+in his fingers and his eyes seeming to start with the strain of gazing
+along the shelf at the brilliant stars before him, his nerves literally
+jerked and he felt perfectly paralysed and unable to stir, for here, not
+six feet away, he could make out against the starry sky the dimly-marked
+silhouette of a heavily-built man.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+A STRANGE FIND.
+
+It seemed to Drew Lennox that he was staring helplessly at the dark
+shadowy shape for quite a minute--but it was only a matter of a few
+seconds--before, snatching his left hand from his companion's grasp, he
+let his revolver drop to the full extent of its lanyard, and sprang
+open-handed at the man.
+
+The movement warned the latter of his danger, and turning sharply round
+from where he was watching the direction taken by the detachment, he
+made a desperate effort to catch the young officer by the throat.
+
+But Lennox was springing at him, and the weight of his impact drove the
+man back for a yard or two; but he recovered himself, got a grip, and
+then a desperate struggle commenced at the edge of the rugged shelf of
+rock just where the kopje went down for some fifty feet almost
+perpendicularly, while a pile of heaped-up fragments which had lodged
+after falling from above stood out ready to receive the unfortunate who
+fell.
+
+Neither spoke as they gripped, but stood panting heavily as if gathering
+breath for the terrible struggle that threatened death to one if not
+both combatants.  They were not well matched.  Lennox seemed to be
+slightly the taller, but he was young, slight, and not fully knit; while
+his adversary was broad-shouldered, and possessed limbs that were
+heavily coated with hardened muscles, so that in spite of the weight
+brought to bear in the young officer's sprint he recovered himself where
+a weaker man must have been driven backward to the ground.
+
+Dickenson sprang forward to his comrade's help, but stopped short as he
+realised that in that narrow space there was only room for a struggle
+between two, and by interfering he would be more likely to hinder his
+friend than help.  Hence it was that he stood waiting for his
+opportunity, listening to the hoarse breathing of the wrestlers and
+watching the faintly seen struggle--for capture on the one part, for
+ridding himself of his adversary by pushing him off the shelf on the
+other.
+
+In a very few moments Lennox had recognised the fact that he was
+overmatched; but this only roused the stubborn bull-dog nature of the
+young Englishman, and setting his teeth hard, he brought to bear every
+feint and manoeuvre he had learnt at his old Devon school, where
+wrestling was popular, and in the struggles of the football field.
+
+But all in vain: his adversary was far too heavy for him, and, to his
+rage and discomfiture, in spite of all his efforts he found one great
+arm tightening about his ribs with crushing pressure, while the man was
+bending down to lift him from the shelf, evidently to hurl him off into
+space.
+
+The position was desperate, and in its brief moments Lennox did all that
+was in his power, tightening his grasp in the desperate resolve that if
+so savage a plan was carried out he would not go alone.
+
+It might have been supposed that in his emergency-he would have called
+to Dickenson for help, but the fact was that his adversary so filled his
+thoughts that there was no room for his comrade's presence, and he
+struggled on, straining every muscle and nerve.
+
+But, to repeat the previous assertion, he was completely overmatched by
+a desperate man; and, unless Dickenson could have interfered and saved
+him, Lennox's fate was to be thrown from the rocky ledge out into the
+black shadowy air, to fall heavily, crushed and broken, upon the stones
+below.
+
+But fate favoured him at the last pinch, for as his enemy by sheer
+weight and pressure bore him back and then lifted him from the shelf
+preparatory to hurling him outward, Lennox suddenly gave up resisting,
+loosening his grasp so as to take fast hold round his enemy's neck, when
+the sudden cessation of resistance had the effect of throwing the latter
+off his balance just when he was very near the edge where he intended to
+plant his foot down and check his farther progress.  The result was that
+he put his foot down a few inches too far, his heel pressing down upon
+the rock where his toes should have been, and before he could recover
+himself his foot was down over the side, while by a frantic wrench
+Lennox flung himself sidewise inward.
+
+They fell sidewise upon the shelf, Lennox uppermost, his enemy half over
+the edge and gliding rapidly down, his weight drawing his adversary
+after him slowly, inch by inch, for the hitter's position debarred his
+making any successful effort to escape.  For the enemy not only had him
+tightly clasped, but, feeling his disadvantage, had wrenched his face
+round so that he could savagely seize hold of the young officer's khaki
+jacket with his teeth.  And there he hung on, doubtless intending to
+speak and declare that if he was to fall his enemy should share his
+fate.  But no coherent words were uttered; nothing was to be made out
+but a savage growling as of some fierce wild beast.
+
+The action took less time than the telling, and, fortunately for all,
+now was Dickenson's opportunity.
+
+The darkness had prevented his seeing the whole of the varying phases of
+the struggle; but the latter part was plain enough, and fully grasping
+the position and the emergency of the case, he sprang upon the
+contending couple just at the right moment, adding his weight, which
+from his position of vantage completely checked the gradual gliding
+movement in which Lennox was being drawn onward to his death.
+
+"Give up, you brute!" roared Dickenson now.  "Surrender!"
+
+For response the prostrate man, who was vainly striving to find foothold
+below the edge of the shelf, let go with one hand and quick as thought
+flung it over the speaker so that he got hold tightly by the tunic,
+growling fiercely the while.
+
+"Yah!  That's flesh!" roared Dickenson, and in his rage and pain he
+struck down heavily with his doubled fist.  "You brute!" he cried.
+"Give up, or I'll shove you down."
+
+The prisoner gave up struggling for a moment or two, and seemed to be
+trying to get a hold of some projecting stone.
+
+"There," cried Dickenson, "let go.  Give up; you're a prisoner.  Leave
+off struggling, and I'll haul you back on to the shelf.  It's no good to
+fight any more.  That's right.  You surrender, then?  Mind, if you try
+any of your confounded Boer treachery I'll send a bullet through your
+skull."
+
+_Crack_!
+
+"Oh!"
+
+The shot from a revolver, and a cry of pain from Dickenson, who at the
+same moment realised the fact that the prisoner's last movements had
+meant not giving up or getting a safer position on the ledge, but an
+effort to get at his revolver and fire at so close quarters that the
+condensed flame from the pistol's muzzle burned the young man's cheek,
+the bullet barely touching the skin as it flew off into space.
+
+"Beast!" cried Dickenson savagely, and he struck wildly at the revolver
+as it was fired again, and fortunately diverted the clumsy attempt at an
+aim, but at the expense of his knuckles, two of which were cut against
+the chambers of the revolver.
+
+As he uttered the word the young officer was recalling the fact that
+this made two shots, and he felt that in all probability there were four
+more to come.  His hand was busy as well as his head, for he struck out
+again and again in an effort to get hold of the pistol; but he could not
+prevent the firing of another shot, which struck the rock beside him
+with a loud pat.
+
+"Ha!" cried Dickenson in a tone full of satisfaction; "got you!"  For
+his efforts in the darkness had been at last rewarded by his fingers
+coming in contact with the barrel of the little weapon, which he clasped
+tightly and held on to, in spite of jerk and snatch, feeling the barrel
+heat as it was fired again, and again, and again, but with the muzzle
+forced upward so that the bullets flew harmlessly away.
+
+"That's better," growled Dickenson.  "Now, you spiteful savage, will you
+give up--will you surrender?"
+
+A savage growling was the only answer.
+
+"You brute!" muttered Dickenson.  "'Pon my word, if it wasn't for poor
+old Drew I believe I should let you go over, and see how you liked
+that.--Here, Drew," he cried aloud, "how is it?  What are you doing?"
+
+"Holding his left hand down.  He has got hold of my revolver."
+
+"Bless him for a beauty!  Can you stop him?"
+
+"I don't know yet; I'm so awkwardly situated.  Can you keep us from
+going over?"
+
+"Oh yes, I can do that.  Here, I've got at my six-shooter now; hold
+still, and I'll put something through his head."
+
+"No, no; we must take him alive," cried Lennox.
+
+"It's all very fine, but he's going to take us dead.  Better let me
+cripple him.  Shall I light a match?"
+
+"No, no.  I've got tight hold of his wrist now, so that he can't use my
+revolver.  Ha!  Look out!"
+
+"I shall have to shoot him," cried Dickenson; for, foiled in his effort
+to get hold of the fresh weapon, the man began to struggle again
+fiercely, heaving himself up and wrenching himself to right and left in
+a way that threatened to result in the whole party going over into the
+black gulf below.
+
+Lennox uttered another warning cry.
+
+"Take care?" growled Dickenson.  "Who's to take care in the dark?  Here,
+tell the brute in Dutch that if he doesn't give up I'll send a bullet
+through his head.  He doesn't seem to understand plain English."
+
+"Yes, he does, for he spoke in English just now."
+
+This was too true, for just then the prisoner suddenly yelled out,
+"Dirck!  Dirck!  Help!  The cursed rooineks have got me down."
+
+"Oho!  Then there are more than one of you, my beauty!" cried Dickenson.
+"Now then, this is a gag; hold still or I'll pull the trigger."
+
+There was a clinking sound caused by the rattling of the desperate
+prisoner's teeth against the barrel of the pistol which Dickenson thrust
+into his mouth just as he was about to speak.  But he wrenched his head
+round and began to struggle again so desperately that Lennox's temper
+got the upper hand and he began to grow merciless to a degree that
+tempted him to bid his comrade fire.
+
+"Look here," roared Dickenson at the same moment, "I've had enough of
+this, my fine fellow.  Surrender, or I'll fire without mercy."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Lennox in a sigh of relief, for those six shots had not
+been fired in vain.  The prisoner had unconsciously summoned assistance
+to complete his capture, and Lennox's sigh had been produced by the
+sight of a flash of light and the sound of hurrying feet, the two
+sergeants with their lanterns reaching the spot first, closely followed
+by the officers and men, who gazed down in wonder at the human knot
+composed of the wondrously tied up three lying at the edge of the
+precipice.
+
+"Come on," shouted Dickenson.  "We've caught the ghost.  Don't let him
+go."
+
+"Here, hold these, some one," cried Sergeant James, and as soon as he
+had got rid of his lantern he made fast, as a sailor would say, to the
+prisoner and held on; while, to use his words, his mate pulled out the
+prisoner's stings, for he had three--two revolvers (one of course
+discharged) and a keen-bladed sheath-knife, something like an American
+bowie.
+
+Five minutes later the light of the held-up lanterns fell upon a
+fierce-looking, much bruised and battered, black-bearded Boer, lying
+upon the rocky shelf, tied hand and foot, his face so smeared and
+disfigured by blood that it acted like a mask.
+
+"Carry him down at once," said Captain Roby; "he is evidently badly
+wounded."
+
+"Not he," growled Dickenson savagely.  "He hurt me more than I hurt him.
+He used pistol; I only used fist and punched him in the nose."
+
+Sergeant James smiled grimly, and drawing a roll of bandage from his
+wallet, tore off a bit and wiped the blood from the prisoner's face.
+
+"Hullo!" he cried.--"Hooray, Captain Roby, sir!  This is our Boer friend
+who tried to blow us up."
+
+Lennox stopped forward eagerly, and signed for the lantern to be
+lowered.
+
+"Yes," he cried wonderingly; "that is the man."
+
+"And no mistake," said Dickenson.  "Come, I call this a good catch."
+
+The other officers looked down at the dark eyes scowling up at them.
+
+"Yes," he growled fiercely, "I am the man; and I'll do it yet."
+
+"Perhaps your precious game may be stopped now, my good fellow," said
+Captain Roby meaningly.
+
+"Yes," said Captain Edwards sternly.  "You were treated well and
+generously the first time; this time you may find that the English
+officers can be stern as well as generous to a beaten enemy.--Well,
+Captain Roby," he continued, "there was no mistake, you see, about the
+alarm."
+
+"So I see," said the latter officer coldly.
+
+"The thing is, what was he doing here?"
+
+"Playing the spy, or hiding and waiting for a chance to get away, I
+suppose."
+
+"Well, you will take him down with you, and report to the colonel," said
+Captain Edwards.
+
+"Stop a bit," cried Dickenson.  "You haven't got the other."
+
+"What other?" cried the two captains in a breath.
+
+"This fellow's comrade."
+
+"Has he one?"
+
+"You heard what the private said about seeing two," cried Dickenson.
+
+"Oh, the words of a man in a scare go for nothing," said Captain Roby
+contemptuously.
+
+"Perhaps not; but this fellow was in no scare when he called for his
+companion--Dirck, did he call him, Lennox?"
+
+"Yes, Dirck; and he must be somewhere close at hand.  Look, Bob."
+
+He touched his comrade's arm to draw his attention to the sneering smile
+on the prisoner's face.
+
+"And where do you think his friend is?" said Captain Edwards.
+
+"In the same place as this man came from.  They have a hiding-place
+somewhere close by."
+
+"Yes," cried Dickenson; "one that enables them to play a regular
+Jack-in-the-box trick."
+
+"But how?  Where?" said Captain Edwards.
+
+"I don't know how, and I don't know where it is," replied Lennox; "but I
+do know that they have a hiding-place somewhere here amongst the rocks.
+This Boer was not here one minute; then we heard the creaking and
+grinding of a stone door close at hand, and he was standing out against
+the sky."
+
+"Whereabouts?" said Captain Roby.
+
+"About here," said Lennox, stepping to the rock close at hand.--"Bring
+the lantern, quick."
+
+Sergeant James stepped forward with his and held it up for his officer,
+who began to examine the rock; but Dickenson paid no heed.  He employed
+himself in watching the prostrate Boer attentively, and noticed that his
+eyes were being blinked violently, as if the man were in a great state
+of excitement.  But he seemed to calm down rapidly as the young
+subaltern walked to and fro, holding the light up, then down, and always
+coming back to the starting-place.
+
+"Well, can't you find it?" said Captain Roby, with a sneer.
+
+"No," replied Lennox frankly.  "I can see no signs of it."
+
+"And are not likely to," replied Captain Roby, with a grunt indicative
+of the contempt he felt.  "It's all absurd.  What did you expect to
+find?  A hidden Aladdin's cave, with genii keeping the door?--Here,
+Dickenson, you are a gentleman of fine imagination.  Go and help him.
+Expand your lungs, and cry _Open Sesame_!"
+
+"Why don't you," said Dickenson, "as you know Persian, or whatever it
+is, so well?"
+
+Captain Roby was about to make an angry retort, but Captain Edwards now
+interfered.
+
+"I don't think there is any hiding-place along here," he said.  "There
+may be a rift or cave somewhere about the kopje, but certainly there
+does not seem to be one in this part."
+
+"I am not satisfied," said Lennox, who was busy still directing the
+light in and out among the crevices of the rocks.  "It hardly seems
+possible, but the natural form of the granite is in blocks which look as
+if they had been piled-up by the hand of man.  Could any one of these be
+a rough door?"
+
+"No; absurd," said Captain Roby.  "There, we have captured our prisoner;
+let's get him down to the colonel."
+
+"But what about his calling for Dirck to help him?" said Lennox eagerly.
+
+"I did not hear him call for Dirck to help him," said Roby
+contemptuously.
+
+"No, but we did," cried Lennox, as he went on tapping the granite blocks
+with the butt of his revolver, curiously watched the while by the
+prisoner, who was in complete ignorance of the fact that Dickenson, who
+stood half behind, was intently watching him in turn.
+
+"Give it up, Lennox," said Captain Roby.  "You are doing no good there."
+
+"Burning!" cried Dickenson so suddenly that every one turned and stared.
+
+"What is burning?" cried Captain Edwards.
+
+"Drew Lennox is."
+
+"Burning?"
+
+"Hang it all, sir! have you forgotten all your childish games?" cried
+Dickenson impatiently.  "`Hot boiled beans,' you know.  Lennox is
+seeking, and he's burning."
+
+"Am I?" cried Lennox excitedly, and the grim faces of the men thrown up
+by the lanterns grew eager and excited too.
+
+"To be sure you are," said Dickenson.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"By my lord the prisoner's phiz here.  He gave quite a twitch when you
+tapped that last rock but one."
+
+"Ha!" cried Lennox; "then there is a way in here.  I thought it sounded
+hollow."
+
+He stepped back and began to tap the rough stone again to prove his
+words, every one now noticing that the rock gave out a dull, hollow
+tone; while, unable to contain himself, the prisoner, as he lay tightly
+bound upon his back, uttered a low, hissing sound as he drew in a deep
+breath.
+
+"Here we are," cried Lennox, more excited than ever.  "Sergeant, give
+some one else that lantern; take a man with you up there by the gun, and
+bring back a crowbar or two, and one of the engineers' picks."
+
+The men went off at once, and while the party awaited their return
+Lennox went on examining the rough block of granite by which he stood,
+but looked in vain for any sign of hinge or fastening.
+
+"I hope you are right, Lennox," said Captain Edwards, who had stepped to
+his side; and he spoke in a low voice.
+
+"So do I," was the reply; "but I feel sure that there is, for there must
+be a hiding-place somewhere.  Wait a bit, and we shall capture the
+prisoner's mate."
+
+Lennox involuntarily glanced down at where the carefully bound Boer lay
+with the light shining full upon his eyes, and he could not repress a
+start as he saw the malignant flash that seemed to dart from them into
+his own.  It affected him so that he ceased his examination for the
+moment, waiting impatiently till the distant sound of steps announced
+the return of the sergeant and the man bearing the implements he had
+sought.
+
+"Got the crowbar?" cried Lennox eagerly.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then bring it here.  Thrust it in under the stone at this natural
+crevice."
+
+"Why?" said Captain Roby sharply.--"Here, sergeant, try higher up."
+
+But before the words were fully uttered the sergeant had driven the
+chisel-edge of the iron bar into the horizontal crevice about on a level
+with his knees, with the result that the men cheered so loudly that they
+drowned the angry curse which escaped the Boer's lips.  For, to the
+surprise of all, no sooner had the sergeant pressed down the wedged-in
+bar than it acted as a lever would, lifting one corner of the stone so
+that it slipped away, the great block turning easily upon a central
+pivot, and leaving an opening some four feet high and just wide enough
+for a man to pass through.
+
+"The light, sergeant.--Bayonets, my lads!" shouted Lennox, springing
+forward; but his cry was mingled with one from the prisoner, who yelled
+out:
+
+"Fire, Dirck; fire!  Never mind yourself; blow them all into the air."
+
+It was an order which was full of suggestion, coming as it did so soon
+after the cowardly attempt to kill the colonel and his chief officers;
+but not a man shrank from the task before him, nor hesitated to take the
+risk, whatever it might be.  Lennox was in first, closely followed by
+the sergeant, lantern in his left hand, iron bar in his right, ready to
+strike down the first man who resisted, while the light was directed
+here and there in eager search for bag or barrel that might contain the
+elements of destruction.
+
+The lantern lit up one of the typical caverns of the country, so many of
+which have been utilised for strongholds by the Matabele, Mashona, and
+other chiefs, and Lennox found himself in a rift of the stone which ran
+right up overhead, a vast crack which the light of the lantern was too
+feeble to pierce, while away to the right ran a low-roofed passage,
+striking off almost at right angles, but only to _zigzag_ farther on and
+die away in the darkness.
+
+"Bayonets, lads!" cried Lennox again; "the other man must be down here."
+
+"Look out!" cried Captain Roby, who was close behind.  "Mind that open
+lantern there.  Hi, sergeant! is there any sign of powder or dynamite?"
+
+"No, sir," cried the non-com sharply, as he held the lantern as high as
+he could and made its light play in every direction.  "All a bam to
+scare us, sir.  No, no!" he yelled.  "Keep back, every one.  Up here,
+sir, in this hole.  There's a bag that looks like those we found.  Take
+the lantern, Mr Lennox, sir."
+
+"No," cried the young officer; "keep it, and light me.  The other fellow
+can't get away; we'll have him afterwards.  Here we are," he continued,
+reaching up to a niche and drawing out a powder-bag.  "Will you have it
+passed out, Mr Roby?"
+
+"Yes: take hold, one of you.--Captain Edwards."
+
+"Here you are."
+
+"See that the powder-bag is put well out of the prisoner's reach.  He is
+fast bound, but he might try to play us some trick."
+
+"Yes, all right," said the captain; and then to the two men left on
+guard by the prisoner, "Keep a sharp eye on this man; don't let him
+stir."
+
+"No, sir," was the reply; and then the order was given for the powder to
+be guarded.
+
+As the captain returned it was to meet a man bearing out another bag,
+and he entered the cavern in time to see Lennox draw out another, and
+again another, till eight had been dragged out of the place into which
+they had been packed and carried out into the open air.
+
+"Why, Lennox, man," he said laughingly, "you handle those bags as if
+they were tea.  Aren't you afraid that some of them will explode?"
+
+"Not he," said Dickenson, who was looking on and holding up the second
+lantern.  "No danger.  I'm here.  I've been watching so that he
+shouldn't light a cigarette."
+
+There was a titter from the men near, and Captain Roby cried
+impatiently, "Why, there's enough to have blown the top off the kopje
+and destroyed the big gun."
+
+"Thoroughly, I should say, wedged-in there as it was," said Dickenson.
+"How much more is there, Lennox?"
+
+"That's all," was the reply.  "No, no.  There's a great rift here to the
+right, full too."
+
+"Hand it out, then, quickly," said Captain Roby.  "Be careful there with
+your rifles; if a man lets his off by accident we shall all be blown to
+atoms."
+
+"They'll take care," said Captain Edwards; "eh, my lads?"
+
+"Rather, sir!" said the sergeant grimly; and all worked hard and
+carefully avoided the lanterns, till Lennox announced that the second
+rift had given out its last bag.
+
+"Yes, that's all," he said; "but I want to know how they got it up
+here."
+
+"They managed to get it up in the dark," said Captain Roby.  "There, you
+may open a lantern now.  Is there any sign of a train, Lennox?"
+
+"Not the ghost of one.  But I expect our friend meant to blow up the gun
+and do as much damage as he could besides.  We were none too soon.  Now
+what about the other? he must be in here somewhere.  Shall I lead on,
+sir?"
+
+"Yes," said Captain Roby sharply.  "Take the sergeant with one lantern
+and ten men.  I'll follow with the other lantern and ten more.  You,
+Captain Edwards, keep a guard over the powder and the prisoner.  Of
+course your men will be ready to receive any one trying to escape after
+avoiding our search."
+
+"Right," was the answer; and sword in one hand, revolver in the other,
+Lennox and Dickenson began their advance into the maze-like cavern,
+closely followed by the sergeant holding the lantern well on high so
+that its rays kept on flashing from the men's bayonets.
+
+"Keep your eyes well skinned, Drew, old chap," whispered Dickenson, "and
+never mind your revolver.  You're sure to miss in a place like this.--
+You behind, lads.  The bayonet, mind, whenever our friend here makes a
+rush; he must be stopped."
+
+There was a low murmur of assent from the men, and then, with eyes and
+bayonets gleaming strangely in the dancing light, the party moved
+steadily on into the weird darkness of the cave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+THE PLOT THAT FAILED.
+
+The searchers' way was now a narrow crack such as might have been formed
+by some mighty convulsion of nature which tore apart a gigantic mass of
+stone, the fracture running here and there where veins of some softer
+material had yielded, to be separated sometimes only two or three feet,
+and at others opening out to form rugged chambers as much as twenty feet
+in extent, whose roofs ran up so high, that the dim light from the
+lanterns failed to reach them.  Here and there were niches and crevices
+which were carefully searched in the expectation of their proving to be
+hiding-places; but the men, who forced their way in without hesitation,
+failed to obtain any result.
+
+Upon reaching one which seemed to be the deepest, Dickenson, who was
+first to notice it, paused to shout, "Now, Dirck, old chap, come out and
+surrender before we fire."
+
+"No, no," cried Lennox; "how do we know but what there may be quite a
+store of powder farther in?"
+
+"But it looks such an awkward place," said Dickenson.  "A fellow with a
+bayonet might keep a regiment at bay."
+
+"Yes," said Lennox coolly; "it looks awkward, but come on."
+
+As he spoke he pushed by, sword in hand, and began to explore the
+suspicious-looking rift.
+
+"Oh, come; play fair," cried Dickenson.  "I was first."
+
+"Come along," said Lennox, with his voice sounding smothered.
+
+"Oh, very well," grumbled Dickenson.  "Bring the lantern, sergeant.  We
+may as well see ourselves skewered."
+
+He plunged in hastily, closely followed by the lantern-bearer, and as it
+seemed to be an extremely likely hiding-place, the rest of the party
+were halted ready to give assistance.  But at the end of a minute the
+lantern had shown that it was a blind lead, and the explorers hurried
+back, and the advance was continued through narrow crack and rough
+opening, till the lights threw up the blank stone where the rift
+suddenly contracted.
+
+"Why, here's the end of the cave!" cried Captain Roby.  "We must have
+passed him somewhere."
+
+"Then he is hiding somewhere high up on a shelf by the roof."
+
+"No, no; look here," cried Lennox, stepping in advance.  "Lantern--
+quick!"
+
+Sergeant James stepped forward to where the young lieutenant was
+standing by a rough opening in the floor of the cavern, and upon the
+light being directed downward, to the surprise of all, the rugged branch
+of a small tree could be seen lowered down into a sloping position, with
+its boughs cut short off to form rough steps, their regularity
+suggesting that they were near akin in their growth to those of a fir,
+and affording good foot and hand hold to any one wishing to descend.
+
+"We're on his track, sure enough," said Lennox, letting his blade hang
+from his wrist by the sword-knot, and beginning to descend quickly, the
+sergeant with the light closely following.
+
+The next minute the leaders of the party were in a wide and spacious
+chamber, fairly level as to its floor, with the sides running into
+rugged niches and holes, all of which were well searched, without avail,
+a couple of men being left, sentry-like, at one which ran down like a
+sloping passage into some lower place.
+
+Along this, as soon as the big chamber had proved to be empty, Lennox
+hurried.  The descent was very steep and rugged, and necessitated his
+lowering himself down by his hands in two or three places, till a lower
+story, so to speak, was reached, in the shape of a vast chamber of the
+most irregular form, the whole party assembling about the entrance,
+where the lights were held-up, to show dimly what seemed to be huge,
+rounded lumps placed here and there upon heaps of broken stones or
+blocks which had fallen from the roof some ten or a dozen feet overhead,
+while at one end the top of the cave sloped down to join the rising
+floor.
+
+"This seems to be the bottom of the cave," said Captain Roby.  "Now,
+sharp, my lads.  Keep that way out safe."
+
+"Which?" said Dickenson.  "Here's another hole in the floor.  Lantern
+here.  Yes, there's another private staircase with a flight of steps
+ready.  This ought to be the well.  Yes; come and listen.  You can hear
+water rushing."
+
+Sure enough, as they bent over the gloomy, mysterious-looking hole, up
+which a cool, moist breath of air arose, they could hear the gurgling
+rush of hurrying water, while the light held down showed the rugged bark
+of another tree ready for descent.
+
+"Will you go down, Lennox?" said the captain.
+
+"Oh yes, I'll go down," was the reply.
+
+"Well, undress," said Dickenson banteringly.  "It means a swim.  Don't
+spoil your neat uniform."
+
+"Will you go?" asked Lennox sharply.
+
+"Oh yes, I'll go," said Dickenson.
+
+"Thank you," replied Lennox through his set teeth.--"Here, sergeant,
+give me the lantern."
+
+Catching it from the man, he planted his foot upon the first branch
+stump a foot below the edge of the yawning hole; but the moment he
+touched it a violent jerk was given to the tree-trunk, just as if it had
+been seized by some one below and wrenched round.
+
+Lennox's position was so insecure, with one hand holding the lantern,
+that he was thrown off his balance, and he would have fallen headlong
+down but for the snatch he made at the sergeant, who also caught at him,
+slipped, and the two were nearly precipitated down the horrible place at
+the bottom of which the water was rushing with a hollow, echoing,
+whispering sound.
+
+The tree saved them, the sergeant getting a firm hold; but between them
+the light of the lantern was shut off, hidden between the two men for
+the moment, and an attempt was made by Dickenson to reach and drag it
+up.
+
+"I've got it," he cried.  "Let it come.  No, I haven't; mind."
+
+For it had slipped through his fingers, and it went clattering down the
+rough, well-like place, striking against one of the projecting stumps of
+the tree-trunk, which turned it right over and threw it with an echoing
+crash against the wall, lit it up for a moment, and then the flame
+within was extinguished.
+
+"Yah!" roared Captain Roby as the place was plunged into absolute
+darkness.  "Here, bring up the other lantern."
+
+There was silence, broken by panting and scuffling as of two men engaged
+in a struggle.
+
+Then Sergeant James said hoarsely, "All right, sir?"
+
+"Yes," panted Lennox, "but I thought I was gone."
+
+"Who has got that other lantern?" asked the captain.
+
+"It went out, sir," came in a husky tone from its bearer.
+
+"Bah!" exclaimed Captain Roby.  "Here, two of you make your way back to
+the top; be smart, and bring two more lanterns."
+
+There was a low, hissing sound as of men all drawing in a deep breath at
+the same time, and before the captain could repeat his command a
+peculiar sound came up the hole.
+
+"Look out!" cried Lennox.  "Bayonets here!  Some one is coming up."
+
+Sergeant James sank upon his knees in the darkness, felt about for the
+edge of the hole, and then leaning over, seized hold of the tree-trunk,
+and whispered, "Some one's trying to drag it down, sir."  Then in a
+stentorian voice: "Ahoy there!  Fire straight down, my lads!"
+
+There was a final jerk given to the trunk, next a grating and scratching
+sound against the wall, and then a rushing noise caused by the
+dislodging of a stone which fell with a crash, sending echoes repeating
+themselves far below, and after what seemed to be a measurable space of
+time there was a dull _plosh_ as the stone plunged into water.
+
+"Well," said Dickenson, breaking the silence as all about him stood
+breathlessly listening for the next sound, "I'm rather glad that wasn't
+I."
+
+"Attention!" cried Captain Roby angrily as two or three of the men burst
+into a half-smothered guffaw.  "Who has a match?"
+
+"I have," said Dickenson, striking a wax vesta as he spoke, the bright
+flash being followed by the feeble little taper flame; "but it's nearly
+the last.  Bring that lantern here."
+
+There was a quick response, the bearer opening the door with fumbling
+fingers, and as he held the rapidly burning-down match Dickenson drew
+the pricker from his belt, held the light close, and began to operate on
+the wick of the little lamp inside the lantern.
+
+"Only slipped down," he said.  "Wick was too small.  Hold the lantern
+still, man.  That's better.  I shall get it up directly."
+
+The scratching of the sharp steel point sounded quite loudly on the
+socket of the lamp as the wick kept eluding the efforts made, and the
+faint light threw up the grim faces around in a strangely weird way,
+while not another sound was heard but the hissing rush of the water far
+below, till suddenly there was a sharp bang, the lantern was nearly
+knocked out of its holder's hand, and Dickenson yelled, "Oh Gemini!"
+
+They were in utter darkness once more.
+
+"Bah!" cried Roby.  "How careless!"
+
+"Burned down to my fingers," said Dickenson coolly out of the black
+darkness.  "Do you know, I don't believe a bullet going into you hurts a
+bit more than being burned like that."
+
+"For goodness' sake strike another match, Mr Dickenson," cried the
+captain angrily.
+
+"Fumbling for it now, sir.  Doesn't seem as if there are any more.  Yes,
+here's one little joker hiding in a corner.  Got him!"
+
+_Scr-r-r-itch_! went the little match, and flashed into a bright flame
+which formed an arch in the air and disappeared down the yawning pit.
+
+"Why, you left go!" cried Captain Roby.
+
+"No wonder if I did, after burning my fingers so," grumbled Dickenson;
+"but I didn't, for I've got the wax here.  Top jumped off."
+
+Then there was a tinkling sound as he shook the little silver box he
+held.
+
+"Hurrah!" he cried.  "Here's one more.  Ready with that lantern, my
+lad?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Take the lamp out and let me try if I can get the wick up with the
+pricker before I strike the match."
+
+The men's breathing could be heard as they stood, with every nerve on
+the strain, listening to the scraping, scratching sound made in the
+excitement and dread caused by the horrible darkness; for there was not
+a man present, from officer to the youngest private, who had much faith
+that they would find the way back to the mouth of the cavern.
+
+"For goodness' sake mind you don't drop the match, Mr Dickenson," said
+the captain suddenly.
+
+"Trust me, sir," said Dickenson coolly.--"Ah, would you slip back into
+the paraffin.  Come out," he continued, apostrophising the wick he was
+pricking at.  "Phew!  How nasty it makes one's fingers smell!  Bravo!
+Got him at last."
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated the captain impatiently.
+
+"Wait till I've opened the wick a little more.  That's it!  Here, what
+am I to wipe my fingers on?"
+
+"Oh, never mind your fingers, man," cried Captain Roby.
+
+"But they're quite slippery, sir."
+
+"Rub 'em on my sleeve, sir," growled Sergeant James.
+
+"Thankye, sergeant, but I've just polished them on my own."
+
+_Click! click_! went the lamp as it was thrust back into the lantern,
+and there was once more the sound of men drawing their breath hard--a
+sound that was checked suddenly as the last match was heard to tinkle in
+the silver box.
+
+"Got him!" said Dickenson audibly as he talked to himself.  "Now then,
+ready with the lantern?" he said aloud.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Give me elbow-room, all of you."
+
+There was the sound of men shrinking back.
+
+"Now then," said Dickenson, "here goes!  I hope the head won't come off
+this time."
+
+_Fuzz_! and directly after _fuzz_! but no light followed the rubbing of
+the match.
+
+"Why, it has got no head," cried the striker in dismay, and at this
+announcement the men uttered a groan.  "All right," cried Dickenson
+cheerily.  "I was rubbing its tail instead of the head."
+
+_Cr-r-r-r-r-r-ch_! went the match; there was a burst of flame, followed
+at a trifling interval by the steady glow of the tiny taper, and the
+young officer's fingers were lit up and seen to bear the flame to the
+lantern lamp, which caught at once and blazed up, when the door was shut
+with a click, and the men exhaled their pent-up breath in a hearty
+cheer.
+
+"Well done!" said Captain Roby.  "Here, I'll lead now; or would you like
+to continue what you began, Mr Lennox?"
+
+The latter looked at him, and seemed to hesitate.
+
+"Oh, very well," said Roby rather contemptuously.  "I'll lead myself."
+
+"No, no; you misunderstood me," cried Lennox as Dickenson turned upon
+him wonderingly.  "I want to go on."
+
+"I don't want to rob you of your chance," said Roby.--"Here, Mr
+Dickenson, what two men went back to fetch those lights?"
+
+"Corporal May and Channings tried to feel their way, sir, but they found
+the job hopeless."
+
+"But I gave orders."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dickenson; "but they could not find their way."
+
+"I'll speak about this later on," said Roby.  "Now then, Mr Lennox, are
+you ready?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply as the young officer stood waiting for
+Sergeant James, who had slipped off his scarf, passed it through the
+handle of the lantern, and was securing it to his waist.
+
+"Then forward!" cried Roby.
+
+"Better let me lead, sir, on account of the light," half-whispered the
+sergeant; "then you can be ready to give point at any one who comes at
+me."
+
+"No," said Lennox firmly; "I must lead.  Leave your rifle, and follow
+me, bayonet in hand."
+
+He stepped to the mouth of the pit, tried the ladder-like contrivance,
+found it fairly firm, and began to descend as fast as he could; while,
+risking the strength of the wood, the sergeant stepped on as soon as
+there was room and followed, shedding the dancing light's rays on the
+weird-looking walls of the place.
+
+Dickenson went next, and the captain followed, to find those in front
+waiting upon a fairly wide shelf, upon which the bottom of the tree was
+propped, while beneath it, and sloping now, the well-like pit went down
+into the black darkness, up from which the hollow, echoing rush of water
+came in a way which made some of the stoutest present shudder.
+
+The shelf was at the mouth of a low archway which proved, upon the
+lantern being held up, to be the entrance to another of the
+ramifications of the great series of caves with which the kopje was
+honeycombed.  Here within a few yards lay the first lantern, which had
+rebounded on falling and rolled down into a narrow crack in the
+flooring, a rift which ran from somewhere ahead, draining the interior
+of the cavern passage, and bearing a tiny stream of water to join the
+rushing waters below, these being undoubtedly the source of the
+perennial stream which issued from the foot of the kopje.
+
+One of the men pounced upon the lantern at once, to find that, though
+the glass was much cracked, it was perfectly ready for use; and there
+was a short delay while it was relit without application to the one the
+sergeant had just detached, one of the men having now recalled that he
+had a tin box of matches nearly full.
+
+The moment this was done Captain Roby gave the order to advance.  He
+sent the lantern-bearers forward with orders to keep to right and left;
+and at the end of about a hundred feet, where the cavern chamber was
+beginning to contract, he called aloud for them to halt.
+
+"Now, Mr Lennox," he cried, "advance with six men abreast in a line
+with the lights, and make ready to fire if the man in front does not
+surrender.  Attention!"
+
+His orders echoed along the roof of what seemed to be quite a narrow
+passage in front, and the men listened till the last echoes died out,
+when Captain Roby spoke again.
+
+"Hoi, there, you Boer in hiding!" he cried.  "Your comrade's a prisoner,
+and if you wish to save your life, surrender too."
+
+The captain waited, but there was no reply, and the word was given to
+advance again, when suddenly from out of the darkness beyond the range
+of the lights there came the sharp, clear _click! click_! of a piece
+being cocked.
+
+"There's the answer, Mr Lennox," said the captain.  "Give your orders,
+and clear the place."
+
+"No, stop; I surrender," came from a hoarse voice speaking in broken
+English.  "Tell your men not to shoot."
+
+"Come forward," cried Lennox, "and give up your piece."
+
+He stepped towards the spot from whence the voice had come, to see the
+crossing lights of the two lanterns centre upon the broad, familiar face
+of one of the Boers who had been captured, and who had returned with the
+loaded wagons and the powder-bags, of which the last portion had been
+secured a short time before.
+
+The man halted, and stood with his rifle presented at the young
+officer's breast.
+
+"One man can't fight against a hundred," he growled.
+
+"Only with treachery and deceit," said Lennox sternly.  "Give up your
+rifle, you cowardly dog."
+
+"Not till you give your English word that I shall not be shot," replied
+the Boer.
+
+"I'll give the order for you to be shot down if you don't give up your
+piece," cried Lennox angrily.
+
+"You give the word that I shall only be a prisoner, or I'll shoot you
+through the heart," cried the Boer harshly.
+
+"I give no word.  Surrender unconditionally," cried Lennox, whose blood
+was up.
+
+"Give your word, you miserable rooinek!" growled the Boer, whose teeth
+shone in the light, giving him the aspect of some fierce beast at bay.
+"Give your word.  You're covered--your word of honour, or I'll fire."
+
+"Fire!" shouted Captain Roby from behind; but the six men halted before
+obeying the ill-judged command.  For, in response to the Boer's threat,
+Lennox had sprung forward to strike at the presented piece, the edge of
+his sword clicking loudly against the barrel of the rifle, turning it
+sufficiently aside to disorder the desperate man's aim, so that the
+bullet whistled by him and over the heads of his men, before sending a
+little shower of granite splinters and dust from the side of the cavern.
+
+Before the Boer could fire again Lennox had him by the throat, and in
+another minute he was held up against the cavern wall by three men with
+their bayonets, while the sergeant wrested the rifle from his hands and
+tore away the man's well-filled bandolier.
+
+"Ah!" he snarled; "cowards again.  Always cowards, since the day when
+you ran away from us at Majuba."
+
+"Hold your tongue, sir, before you are hurt by some of the men who know
+that they have one of the bravo miscreants before them who lay
+powder-mines ready to destroy those they dare not fight in the open
+field."
+
+"Tell the dog I'll have him gagged as well as bound if he does not keep
+his tongue quiet," said Captain Roby, coming up.
+
+The Boer laughed mockingly; and Captain Roby, who seemed unable to
+restrain the anger rising within him, turned away.
+
+"See that he has no revolver, Lennox," he said hoarsely, "and try to
+find out whether he has any companions."
+
+"He wouldn't say if he had," replied Lennox; "but we'll soon search and
+see.  Sergeant James is making him fast.  Yes, he had a revolver," he
+continued as he saw the sergeant take the weapon and thrust it inside
+his belt.
+
+The next minute the prisoner was secure between two men, and the
+light-bearers went forward, to be brought to a standstill almost
+directly by the contraction of the cellar-like place, out of which there
+was no way in that direction.
+
+Having satisfied themselves of this, the party hastened back to the
+tree, and stood looking about for a time, examining a few cracks and
+rifts, before the orders were given to mount to the upper cave--a risky
+and unpleasant task, for the tree-trunk was loose.  The men, however,
+for the most part made light of it, and as soon as the big chamber was
+reached they proceeded to thoroughly examine that, when, to the delight
+of all, its real character of a hiding-place and storehouse belonging to
+one of the native tribes was revealed: for scores of huge woven baskets
+were piled-up, looking at a few yards' distance, with no better
+illumination than the military lamps, like masses of rock, but
+containing hundreds upon hundreds of bushels of hard, sweet corn,
+failing which there would soon have been only one chance of escape for
+the detachment, and that by a bold attempt to cut their way through.
+
+The search was continued, but nothing more rewarded their efforts.
+There was the ample supply of corn, stored up by some tribe, and outside
+the bags of gunpowder hidden by the Boers, whose plan was quite evident,
+and thoroughly realised by all who had discovered the entrance--to blow
+up the great gun captured from them and destroy the stronghold that
+checked their advance.
+
+Before long a sentry was marching up and down in front of that ingenious
+specimen of native work, the big stone entrance to the cave which ran so
+easily upon a pivot; while the detachment in charge of the big gun
+talked shudderingly of the risk they had unknowingly been running, for,
+given a little longer time and the right opportunity, their two crafty
+enemies would undoubtedly have fired their mine and blown the greater
+part of the kopje-top into the air.
+
+"I was growing anxious over the long silence," said the colonel,
+smiling, after he had been made aware or the success attending the party
+that had hurried up at the alarm, and after he had examined the
+prisoners; "but you have done a splendid night's work--cleared away an
+impending danger, and secured a storehouse of corn sufficient for a whole
+month."
+
+"A month or more," said Captain Roby.
+
+"Ha!  Then we can hold out and wait.  But about these prisoners.  Here,
+major, what do you say?"
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the major.  "Two of the treacherous hounds who
+deceived us, and whom we let go to fetch us supplies."
+
+"And came back to blow us up," said the colonel.
+
+"Failed in that," said Captain Roby, "and then started another
+cold-blooded, treacherous plan."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel, "based upon the knowledge they must have wrung
+from one of the native tribes they have oppressed.  Well, gentlemen, we
+have two of the miscreant spies.  What next?"
+
+"The fate of spies," said Captain Roby.  "I think it is due to our men
+that they should be shot."
+
+"Kept prisoners till we can hand them over to the general, and let him
+decide," said the major.  "What do you say, Edwards?"
+
+"They are prisoners, and beaten," said the captain.  "Yes, I side with
+you."
+
+"Two against you, Roby," said the colonel.--"Well, Lennox--and you,
+Dickenson--you may as well give your opinion.  What do you say,
+Dickenson?"
+
+"I should like to see that black-haired brute tied up and flogged, sir."
+
+"Should you?" said the colonel, smiling.  "Well, I dare say he deserves
+it; but it is not the punishment we can give a prisoner, so your opinion
+will stand alone.--Well, Lennox?"
+
+"Oh, it's all war, sir; and the fellows are half-savage peasants who
+hate us like poison.  You can't shoot them, sir, for fighting their
+best--their way."
+
+"No, Mr Lennox, I can't shoot them; but it will be a horrible nuisance
+to have to keep them as prisoners.  I wish they had died fighting like
+brave men.  As it is they will have to live prisoners till the war is at
+an end.  Now then, about where to place them."
+
+"Here, I know, sir," said Dickenson, laughing.  "Shut them up in the
+kopje.  They'll be quite at home there."
+
+"No," said Lennox, joining in his comrade's merriment; "don't trust them
+there, sir.  They're malicious enough to spend their time destroying all
+the corn."
+
+"Well done, Lennox!" said the colonel emphatically.  "I'm glad you
+spoke, for before anything was said I had determined to make their
+hiding-place their prison.  You are right.  That would not do at all.--
+Roby, you must have your prisoners placed in the safest hut that you can
+find, and let a sentry share their prison, for they must never be left
+alone.  Now, gentlemen: bed."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+THE LOST MAN.
+
+"Yes, sir, I'm very sorry, and feel that it's a great disgrace," said
+Colour-Sergeant James.
+
+"Sorry!" said Captain Roby contemptuously.
+
+"It's all I can be, sir," said the sergeant sadly.  "I'm not going to
+defend myself."
+
+"But how could you miss him when the roll was called?"
+
+"I don't know, sir.  I suppose it was all due to the excitement and
+being fagged out with what we'd gone through in that black hole."
+
+"Black hole!" cried Roby.  "You deserve the Black Hole yourself,
+sergeant."
+
+"Yes, sir.  I thought he answered, but the poor fellow must have lost
+his way somehow, and have got left behind."
+
+"It's horrible," cried Roby.  "I don't know what's to be done."
+
+"Go in search of the poor fellow at once.  It's enough to send a man out
+of his mind," broke in Lennox impatiently.
+
+"I did not ask you for your opinion, Mr Lennox," said the captain
+coldly.--"Here, James, come with me to the colonel at once."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the sergeant, and he followed his superior.
+
+"What nonsense!" cried Dickenson.  "Here, Drew, old man, let's go on up
+to the hole at once with half-a-dozen men and lanterns."
+
+"That's what I wanted to do," said Lennox bitterly; "but I suppose it
+would be going against discipline."
+
+"Going against your grandmother!  Hesitate, when the poor fellow may be
+dying of fright?  He is rather a chicken-hearted sort of a customer."
+
+"So would you be if you lost yourself in that dismal hole."
+
+"True, oh king!  I should sit down in a fit of the horrors, and howl for
+my mother till I cried myself to sleep."
+
+"No, you wouldn't, Bob.  But old Roby does make me set up my bristles
+sometimes.  I don't know what's come to him lately."
+
+"I know what I should like to see come to him."
+
+"What?"
+
+"A good licking."
+
+"Yes, to be followed by court-martial."
+
+"Not if a Boer did it," said Dickenson, chuckling.
+
+"What are you laughing at?"
+
+"Thoughts, dear boy.  Only thinking of what a lark it would be if he
+began bullying one of our prisoners--say Blackbeard--and the savage old
+Boer slipped into him with his fists.  I shouldn't hurry to help him
+more than I could help."
+
+"Don't humbug," said Lennox.
+
+"I tell you I shouldn't.  Look here, Drew, old chap, you haven't found
+me out yet.  I'm not half such a nice young angel as you think."
+
+"Hold your row; here's James."  For the sergeant came hurrying
+in.--"Well?"
+
+"Search party of twenty directly, gentlemen.  Colonel sends word that
+you two are to come with us."
+
+"Right," cried Lennox excitedly.  "What did the colonel say?"
+
+"`Poor fellow!' sir; and then he turned on the captain, sir."
+
+"Yes," cried Dickenson eagerly, "What did he say to him?"
+
+"Why the something or another hadn't he gone to look for Corporal May at
+once?"
+
+"Bravo!" said Dickenson; and Lennox, who was buckling on his sword
+hurriedly, felt better.
+
+"But how about you, James?  Are you going to be degraded for neglect?"
+said Dickenson as they hurried out to join the men already assembled.
+
+"No, sir," replied the sergeant, with a broad smile spreading over his
+manly countenance.  "The colonel heard all I had to say in defence, and
+he just says, `Bad job, sergeant--accident.'--You know his short way,
+sir?--Then, `Be off and get your men together; find the poor fellow as
+soon as you can.'"
+
+Captain Roby was just hurrying to a group of men waiting to make the
+start, when Sergeant James came up, carrying all the lanterns he could
+muster in a bunch.  "Come, gentlemen," he said sharply; "make haste,
+please.  Have you plenty of matches, sergeant?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Fall in, my lads.  Here, stop.  No rifles; only your bayonets."
+
+The firearms were returned to their quarters, and a couple of minutes
+later the search party were on their way to the kopje.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said the sergeant, suddenly breaking from his place
+to address the captain; "wouldn't it be better to take a long rope with
+us?"
+
+"What for?" said Roby angrily.  "For the men to hold on by in case any
+one should be lost?  Absurd!"
+
+The sergeant was returning to his place, and Lennox and Dickenson
+exchanging glances, when the captain altered his mind.
+
+"Yes," he said; "on second thoughts, we may as well take a coil.  Hurry
+back and fetch one, sergeant."
+
+The latter handed his bunch of lanterns to one of the men, and went off
+back to quarters at the double, while the party marched on.
+
+"Fasting doesn't do old Cantankerous any good," said Dickenson in a
+half-whisper.
+
+"Quiet!  Quiet!  He'll be hearing you and getting worse," said Lennox.
+
+"Impossible!" grunted Dickenson.  "He wants a week's good feeding or a
+fit of illness to do him good.  He's going sour all over."
+
+The sergeant did not overtake the party till they were close upon the
+entrance to the cave, where a sentry was pacing up and down; and now a
+sudden thought struck Roby.
+
+"Here, sergeant," he cried angrily as the latter hurried up, rather
+breathless with his exertions.  "How are we to get into the place?  You
+haven't brought a crowbar to move the stone."
+
+"No, sir.  Left it hidden close by last night."
+
+"Oh!" grunted Roby, halting the men; while the sergeant handed the coil
+of rope to one of them, who slipped it on over head and one shoulder, to
+wear it like a scarf; and James went on a few yards to a crack in the
+side of the rocky wall, thrust in his arm, drew out the bar, and trotted
+back to the opening, inserted the chisel, and raised the stone about an
+inch, when it turned upon its pivot directly.
+
+"Wonderfully well made," said Dickenson.  "One might have passed it a
+hundred times."
+
+"Silence in the ranks!" cried Roby sternly; and the sergeant stepped
+into the dark hole at once, placed his hands one on either side of his
+lips, and gave a tremendous hail.
+
+All listened to the shout, which went echoing through the passages and
+chambers of the cavern; but there was no reply, nor yet to half-a-dozen
+more hails.
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated Roby.  "I expected to find him waiting close
+to the entrance.  Lanterns."
+
+The men were already inside lighting them, eight being rapidly got
+ready; and once more the party began to traverse the weird place, but
+under far more favourable circumstances, the line of golden dots formed
+by the lanterns giving every one a far better opportunity of judging
+what the place was like.
+
+At every turn in the crooked way a halt was called, and a fresh series
+of hails went echoing on before them; but not so much as a whisper of an
+answer greeted their ears.
+
+"The poor fellow must have become tired out with waiting," said Captain
+Roby, "and dropped off to sleep."
+
+"He sleeps pretty soundly, then," whispered Dickenson, who was in front
+with Lennox, following the sergeant, who carried the first lantern.
+
+"Ought to have been woke up by that last shout, though," said Lennox.
+"What do you say, sergeant?"
+
+"I'm afraid we shall come upon him soon regularly off his head,
+gentlemen," said the sergeant, "He isn't the pluckiest chap in his
+company."
+
+"Don't talk like that, sergeant," said Lennox sharply.  "It's enough to
+drive any poor fellow crazy to find himself shut up in a place like this
+and feel that he may never be found."
+
+"Well, yes," added Dickenson, "it is; without counting all the horrors
+he'd conjure up about bogies and things coming after him in the dark."
+
+"I dare say, sir," said the sergeant; "though I don't suppose there's
+anything worse here than bats."
+
+"Halt!  Now, all together," cried the captain from behind, and another
+series of shouts were given.
+
+There was no response, and the party went spreading out and examining
+every nook as they passed through the echoing chambers, but found
+nothing.
+
+"Is it likely that he did come out with us?" said Lennox as they neared
+the second well-like opening over the rushing water.
+
+"Can't say, sir," said the sergeant.  "The last I saw of him was when we
+were down in the lowest place, advancing to meet the second prisoner.  I
+just had a squint of his face then by the lantern, and it looked like
+tallow."
+
+"Effect of the light," said Dickenson.
+
+"No, sir.  It was the getting down that tree and hearing the water."
+
+"That's it, sergeant," said the nearest man behind.  "I never thought of
+it till you said that."
+
+"Thought of what?" said the sergeant roughly.
+
+"'Bout what Corporal May said to me."
+
+"What was it?"
+
+"That it was enough to scare any one getting down such a ladder as that,
+and if he'd known, he'd have seen the service anywhere before he'd have
+come."
+
+"Yes, he looked regularly scared, gentlemen," said the sergeant; and
+then he stopped short, swinging his lantern over the hole before him and
+showing the top of the tree ladder, while the gurgling, echoing whisper
+of the running water seemed to fill the air with strange sounds.  But
+these were drowned directly by a fresh burst of hails, which went
+echoing away.
+
+"Forward!" said the captain at last.  "Steady in front, there.  Be
+careful how you go down, men."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, dear Roby," whispered Dickenson.  "Just as if we
+shouldn't be careful of our invaluable necks."
+
+There was plenty of light now, for Lennox carried a lantern on going
+down after the sergeant, who had gone first, and stood at the bottom
+holding up his own, while four more were held over the yawning pit from
+the top.  The men, too, were in better trim for the descent, knowing as
+they did the worst of what they had to encounter, so that they went down
+pluckily enough, in spite of the tree quivering and threatening to turn
+round, till it was held more steadily at both ends.
+
+Then, as all crowded into the archway and hailed once more, their shouts
+seemed to return to them faintly from the arrow-shaped hollow, which
+from being broad at first went off nearly to a point, and more weirdly
+still from the continuation of the pit where the water ran.
+
+"I'm beginning to be afraid he is not here," said the captain.  "Open
+out, my lads, and thoroughly search every hollow and corner."
+
+The men shouted again, with no result; and then they spread out like a
+fan and advanced, searching behind every stone, right on past the spot
+where the second Boer had been captured, and on once more till the
+cavern narrowed in and there was only room to creep.
+
+"Hold the light closer, sergeant," said Lennox.
+
+"See anything?" cried Roby from just behind him.
+
+"Can't tell yet, sir.--What's that, sergeant?"
+
+For answer the sergeant went down on his hands and knees and advanced,
+pushing his lantern before him.
+
+"There, you needn't do that," said Roby impatiently.  "The man's not
+here.  It's a false alarm.  He wasn't left behind, and we shall find him
+somewhere, when we get back to quarters.  Come out, sergeant.  I'm sick
+of this."
+
+"But there's something here, sir."
+
+"Eh?  What is it?"
+
+The sergeant thrust something behind him, and Lennox went down on hands
+and knees, reached into the narrow hole, which the sergeant nearly
+filled, and snatched the object from the man's hand.
+
+"His helmet!" cried Lennox excitedly, and he too passed it back to where
+Roby and Dickenson were, and they examined the recovered headpiece.
+
+"Oh, there's no doubt about it," said Dickenson.  "Look here," he cried
+as Lennox and the sergeant came back; "what do you make of this?"
+
+"Oh! it's the poor fellow's helmet, gentlemen," said the sergeant.
+"Look at his number, sir."
+
+"Then where is he?  Is there any opening in yonder?"
+
+"Not room for a rat, sir.  Seems as if he must have been left behind and
+felt his way in there to sleep.  Look here, sir; I found these too."
+
+The speaker held out a short black pipe with a little blackened,
+lately-smoked tobacco at the bottom, and a tin box containing plenty of
+matches.
+
+"Why, he had all these and never said a word when I was so hard pushed,"
+cried Dickenson.
+
+"I expect he was in too much of a stoo to remember them, sir," said the
+sergeant.  "He must have been precious queer, or he wouldn't have left
+these and his helmet behind."
+
+"He was nearly off his chump, sergeant, with having to come down," said
+the man with the short memory.
+
+"Then he has been here!" cried Captain Roby.  "But where is he now?"
+
+As if moved by one impulse, every one present turned sharply round to
+look in the direction of the archway beyond which the sloping
+continuation of the entrance-pit went on down to the running water.  No
+one spoke, but all thought horrors; and Lennox acted, for, snatching a
+lantern from the nearest bearer, he ran as fast as the rugged floor
+would let him, back to the archway, took hold of the tree-trunk, and
+leaned over the horrible hole, swinging the light downward, while those
+who watched him, looking weird and strange in the distance, heard him
+shout loudly, and listened to hear, very faintly rising from far below,
+a faintly uttered, hollow moan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+FISHING WITH A ROPE.
+
+"Forward!" cried Captain Roby loudly.
+
+"Forward!" said a wonderfully exact echo from the pit, and the cavern
+chamber seemed to burst into strange, echoing repetitions of the
+confused trampling and rushing and thundering of feet, as, with the
+dancing lanterns, the men sprang forward to render help.
+
+"He's down here," cried Lennox in excitement.  "Silence, all of you!"
+
+Captain Roby looked annoyed at the way in which his subaltern officer
+seemed to take the lead; but he said nothing then, only stood frowning,
+while in the midst of a breathless silence Lennox leaned over the
+dangerous-looking place and hailed again.
+
+"Corporal!  Are you down there?"
+
+There was no response, and once more he hailed.
+
+"Corporal May!"
+
+This time there was a piteous moan.
+
+"Oh! there's no doubt about it," cried Lennox.  "Tie a lantern to the
+rope and lower it down.  Let's see where he is."
+
+"Thank you, Mr Lennox," said Roby coldly.  "I will give the necessary
+orders."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said Lennox, drawing back; but as he glanced aside
+he saw that the sergeant was busy with the end of the rope, fastening it
+to the handle of one of the lanterns, and the man who had slipped it off
+his shoulder was rapidly uncoiling the ring.
+
+"Anybody got a flask?" said Dickenson.  "We might send him down a
+reviver with the light."
+
+But there was no reply, flasks being rarities at Groenfontein, and such
+as there were did not contain a drop.  By this time the lantern was
+ready, and Sergeant James glanced at the captain, who signed to him to
+lower away.
+
+Directly after, the descending lantern was lighting up the sides of the
+gulf, which were not six feet apart; but how far the great crack-like
+place extended they could not see, the light penetrating but a little
+distance, and then all was black darkness, out of which, from far below,
+there came up the murmuring, gurgling rush of the running water.
+
+As for the lantern, as soon as it was lowered down it ceased swinging,
+coming with a sharp tap against smooth rock which went downward in a
+pretty regular slope, but so steep that the lantern lay upon its side
+and glided down as fast as the men could pay out the rope.
+
+"I sha'n't have length enough, I'm afraid, sir," said the sergeant, who
+leaned over the edge.
+
+"Then why didn't you bring more?" cried the captain angrily.
+
+The sergeant was silent, and _grate! grate! grate_! the lantern went on
+down over the rock face, which sparkled with moisture, for an
+exceedingly thin sheet of water glistened and went on wearing it down as
+it probably had from the time the great kopje cavern was formed.
+
+But still there was no sign of the missing man--nothing but glistening
+rock, and beyond that darkness.
+
+"How much more rope have you?" said the sergeant in a whisper.
+
+"'Bout a dozen feet," said the man who was passing it to him from
+behind.
+
+"Swing the lantern to and fro," cried the captain sharply.
+
+"It won't swing, sir," replied the sergeant.  "If I try, it will only
+roll over on to its face."
+
+"Never mind; you haven't tried.  Now swing it," cried Roby.
+
+"Bottom," cried the sergeant, for the lantern stopped short, and down
+beneath it there was a flash and a quivering reflection, showing that it
+was close to the flowing water.
+
+"What is it resting on?" said Lennox eagerly, for he had forgotten the
+snub he had received and was all eagerness to help.  "I didn't hear it
+click on rock."
+
+"Just what I was thinking, sir," replied the sergeant, lifting the
+suspended lantern again and letting it descend once more.
+
+"I wish to goodness, Mr Lennox, that you would not keep on
+interfering," cried Captain Roby angrily.--"Now, sergeant, what do you
+make out?"
+
+"Rests on something soft, sir.  No; it's hit against something hard.
+Why, it's metal--a buckle."
+
+"I know," cried Lennox, forgetting himself again.  "You've lowered it
+right down on to the poor fellow, and he's above the water."
+
+"Mr--" began the captain angrily, but his words were drowned in the
+hearty cheer given by the men.--"Silence!" cried Captain Roby, and
+leaning over, he shouted down the horrible-looking pit.--"Unfasten the
+rope from the lantern," he said, "and tie it tightly round your breast.
+Don't be frightened now: we'll soon have you out."
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!" went the captain again.  "Some one will have to go
+down.  Who'll volunteer?"
+
+"I will, sir," cried Lennox excitedly, before any one else could answer.
+
+The captain was silent for a few moments, and then, in a way that seemed
+to suggest that he had been trying to find some objection to giving his
+consent, "Very well, Mr Lennox," he said.--"Here, sergeant, haul up the
+light again."
+
+This was rapidly done, the lantern set free, and the rope tied securely
+just beneath the young man's arms.
+
+"How will you have the lantern, sir?" said the sergeant.
+
+"I will see to that, James," said the captain.  "Unfasten your belt, Mr
+Lennox, and pass it through the ring of the lantern so that it can hang
+to your waist and leave your hands free."
+
+"Just as if we didn't know!" said the sergeant to himself as he helped
+in this arrangement.
+
+"Sure the knot will not slip, sergeant?" said Lennox.
+
+"Oh, it won't come undone, sir.  If it moves at all, it will be to get
+tighter."
+
+"That is what I meant.  I want to breathe."
+
+"Less talking there," said the captain.  "Recollect that a man's life is
+in danger.  If you feel any compunction about going, Mr Lennox, make
+way for one of the men."
+
+"Ready, sir, and waiting for your orders," said Lennox quietly.
+
+"Very well.  Now then, lower away."
+
+The sergeant took a firm hold of the rope, and whispered "Trust me,
+sir," to the explorer, who nodded and looked calmly enough in the
+sergeant's eyes, and gave way as he felt himself lifted off the stones
+upon which he stood and gently lowered down till he was half-hanging,
+half-sitting, against the sloping side of the rock.  Then a few feet of
+the rope glided through the sergeant's hands, and Lennox stiffened
+himself out, to hang rigidly, feeling his back rest against the wet
+rock, over which he began to glide slowly, and then faster and faster as
+he was let down hand over hand, seeing nothing but the black darkness
+lit up like a quaint halo in front of him, and going down what he felt
+to be a terrible depth.  He fought hard against one horrible thought
+which would trouble him: should he ever be pulled up again?  And no
+sooner had he mastered this than another gruesome idea forced itself as
+it were out of the darkness in front, the words to his excited
+imagination seeming to be luminous: suppose the rope should break!
+
+It is wonderful how much thought will compress itself into a minute.  It
+was so here, these ideas repeating themselves again and again before the
+young man's feet touched something soft and yielding, and upon his
+stretching his legs wide he felt slippery rock.
+
+"Hold on!" he shouted, and there was what sounded like a mocking chorus
+of "On--on--on--on!" beginning loudly and distinctly, and going right
+away into a faint whisper.
+
+Turning himself a little on one side, Lennox bent outward so that the
+light of the lantern flashed from a narrow stream of water which, from
+the bubbles and foam, he could see was rushing towards him, to pass down
+under the ledge of rock upon which one foot rested; but now he was able
+to see what he wanted, and that was the missing corporal hanging face
+upward, but with head and neck over the edge of a block of stone which
+had checked his rapid slide down into the gulf, while the next moment
+the light showed that the poor fellow's legs were also hanging downward,
+the ledge being exceedingly narrow.
+
+"Well?" cried Captain Roby.  "Found him?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Seems to be quite insensible.  I can get my arms round him
+and hold him if you can haul us up.  Will the rope bear us both?"
+
+"No!" came in a roar from up above, every man, in his excitement,
+negativing the proposal.
+
+"Silence, men!" cried the captain angrily.  Then he shouted down, "It
+would be too risky.  Here, I'll have the rope slackened, and you can
+untie it and make it fast round May's chest.  I'll have him hauled up,
+and send the rope down again for you.--Slacken away, my lads."
+
+The pressure on the rope ceased for a moment as it was slackened, and
+then it tightened with a jerk, and there was a loud, echoing splash as
+Lennox was plunged into rushing water to the waist, the sensation being
+as if he had been suddenly seized and was being dragged under into some
+great hole.
+
+"Hold hard!" he roared, and the echoes seized upon the last
+word--"Hard--hard--hard!"--running right away again till it was a
+whisper.
+
+"Why, what are you about?" cried Roby.
+
+"Trying to save the light," panted Lennox.  "There is no room to stand
+on the ledge with the poor fellow.  Haul up a little more.  My face is
+on a level with him now.  Haul! haul!  The water seems to suck me down.
+Ha!" he gasped; "that's better," and he wrenched himself round, catching
+at a piece of slippery rock that was against his waist, and looking for
+foothold, for a few moments in vain, till he saw a way out of his
+difficulty.
+
+"How are you getting on?" cried the captain excitedly.
+
+"I'm obliged to kneel right on the poor fellow," said Lennox; "there's
+so little room.  He's alive--I can feel his heart beating.  Keep the
+rope tight for a few minutes."
+
+"Tight it is, sir," shouted Sergeant James.
+
+"Look here, Lennox," cried Roby hoarsely; "can you unfasten the rope and
+tie it to the corporal?  We can see nothing from up here."
+
+"That's what I'm trying to find out, sir," replied Lennox.--"Yes, I
+think so."
+
+"Think!  You must be sure," cried Dickenson, whose voice sounded husky
+and strange.  "Look here, I'm going to slide down to you."
+
+"Silence!" roared the captain.  "You will do nothing of the kind.--Look
+here, Lennox."
+
+"I'm all attention, sir."
+
+"If you can't do as I say I must send for another rope."
+
+"No, no, it would be horrible to leave the poor fellow; he'd slip off
+the rock."
+
+"Then you must stay with him."
+
+"Very well, sir," said Lennox after a short pause.
+
+"Ha!  I think I can do it now I've found room to kneel."
+
+"Bravo!" shouted Dickenson.
+
+"Will you be silent, Mr Dickenson?" cried the captain.--"Now, Lennox,
+what are you doing?"
+
+"Trying to get this knot undone, sir; it's so tight."  At the end of a
+minute he cried, "I can't move the knot.  I'm going to pass it over my
+head, and then make a noose and slip it round the corporal."
+
+"Can you do that?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I think so.  Now slacken away all you can, but keep a tight
+hold in case I have to snatch at it again."
+
+"Oh yes, they'll keep a tight hold.--Do you hear, Sergeant James?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir, I hear," growled the sergeant, whose face glistened with
+the perspiration that streamed down from the gathering-place--his brow.
+
+"How are you getting on?" cried the captain.
+
+"Don't talk to me, please," panted Lennox.  "I'm doing my best."  There
+was a pause, and then, "I've got it off, and I'm going to pass it over
+his neck and shoulders now.  It will compress his chest, but I can't
+help it."
+
+"Don't study that; only get it fast.  Ready?" continued the captain
+after another pause.
+
+"Not quite yet.  It is hard to get the loop over.  I have to bend down
+to reach with one hand, and hold on with the other."
+
+"Go on," said the captain.
+
+A strange rustling sound came up, and then it seemed as if the rope was
+being flapped against the rock.
+
+"Can't you do it?" shouted the captain.
+
+"Not yet.  I'm obliged to rest a minute."
+
+"Oh dear! oh dear me!" panted Captain Roby in a tone of voice that
+seemed to suggest other words which indicated his idea that the young
+subaltern was very awkward.
+
+"Got it at last!" came up.  "I think so.  Yes, I have him tight--right
+past his arms; he can't slip.  Now, haul!"
+
+"Haul!" echoed Captain Roby.  "Quick!"
+
+But Sergeant James knew better than that.  The rope had to pass through
+his cautious hands, and he raised it gently.
+
+"All right, sir?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; haul," cried Lennox.  "You have him now.  Right; you're lifting
+him right off.  I'll hold on to the rock.  Be sharp, for it's a very
+awkward--"
+
+The young subaltern's words were cut short at that moment by a most
+horrible, unearthly-sounding yell; for the tightening of the rope about
+the unfortunate corporal, and the steady strain as he was lifted from
+where he had lain so long, had the effect of arousing his dormant
+energies.  Not realising that he was being helped, he had no sooner
+uttered his cry of horror than, as if suddenly galvanised into life, he
+began to struggle violently, tearing, kicking, and catching at something
+to hold on to for dear life.
+
+Unfortunately, and consequent upon the slow way in which the rope was
+being drawn up, the first thing his right hand came in contact with was
+one of Lennox's arms, round which his fingers fastened as if they were
+of steel.  The next moment his right hand was joined by his left and he
+clung desperately, dragging the young officer from the slippery edge of
+rock, and before Lennox could raise a hand to help himself and hold on
+in turn, and cling desperately in the hope that after all perhaps the
+rope might bear them both, the corporal's spasmodic clasp ended as
+quickly as it came.  Those at the top felt the strain on the rope less,
+and those who were gazing down unoccupied saw the light suddenly
+extinguished, heard a terrible, echoing splash, followed by suckings and
+whisperings that seemed as if they would have no end.
+
+For Lennox did not rise again, the rush of water bearing him rapidly
+down into the very bowels of the cavernous mass of rock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+THE CORPORAL RELATES.
+
+The party at the head of the cavern stood for a few moments perfectly
+motionless, listening to the dying away of the strange gurglings and
+whispering echoes which followed the heavy splash, and then Dickenson
+uttered a wild cry of horror and despair.
+
+"Pull!" he shouted.  "Pull up!" and, spurred into action by his order,
+Sergeant James and the two men behind him who helped with the rope
+hauled away rapidly, till the rigid-looking form of the corporal rose
+out of the darkness into the light shed by the lanterns, to be seized by
+the sergeant and dragged into safety.
+
+"Is he dead?" said Captain Roby hoarsely.  "I dunno, sir," growled the
+sergeant, loosening the noose around the rigid sufferer, and then with a
+few quick drags unfastening the knot which had troubled Lennox in his
+helpless state.
+
+"Silence a moment," cried the captain, "while I hail!" and he made the
+place echo with his repetitions of the subaltern's name.
+
+There were answers enough, but given only by the mocking echoes;
+otherwise all below was still save the weird, rushing sound of the
+water.
+
+"Here, what are you doing, Dickenson?" cried the captain, who suddenly
+became aware of the fact that the young lieutenant had seized the
+sergeant and was hindering him from securing the end of the rope about
+his chest.
+
+"He's not going down: I am," cried Dickenson hoarsely.
+
+"You?"
+
+"Yes; I think I'm going to leave my friend in a hole like this?"
+
+"Hole indeed!" thought the captain.  Then aloud: "Let him go down,
+sergeant.  Here, two lanterns this time;" and as the sergeant obeyed and
+began securing the rope about Dickenson, Roby seized and began
+unbuckling the young officer's belt, and himself passed the stiff
+leather through the ring-handles of a couple of lanterns, and rebuckled
+the belt, adjusting it so that Dickenson had a light on either side.
+
+"Ready, sergeant?" said the young officer sharply.
+
+"All right, sir; that'll hold you safe."
+
+"What are you going to do, Dickenson?" said Roby, in a voice that did
+not sound like his own.
+
+"I don't know," cried the young officer, with a curious hysterical ring
+in his voice.  "Go down.--See when I get below.--Now then, quick!--Lower
+away.--Fast!"
+
+He began gliding down the sharp slope directly after.
+
+"Faster!" shouted Dickenson before he was half-way down; and the
+sergeant let the rope pass through his hands as quickly as he could with
+safety let it go, while the lanterns lit up the glistening sides with
+weirdly-strange, flickering rays, till the rope was nearly all out and
+Dickenson stopped with a sudden jerk.
+
+"Got him?" shouted Roby.
+
+"No!" came up in a despairing groan.  "I'm on a dripping ledge.  Lower
+me a few feet more till I call to you to stop."
+
+The sergeant obeyed, and the call came directly after.  For there was a
+splash and the lights disappeared--not extinguished, but they seemed to
+glide under a black projection that stood out plainly as a rugged edge
+against the light, which made the water flash and sparkle as it could be
+seen gliding swiftly by.
+
+"Well?" shouted Roby again.
+
+"Hold on with the rope," came up.  "The water's close up to the foot of
+the lanterns.  If you let it any lower they will go out."
+
+"Right, sir," roared Sergeant James.
+
+"Now," shouted Roby; "see him?"
+
+"No; the water goes down here in a whirlpool, round and round, and I can
+feel it sucking at me to drag me below."
+
+"Yes, sir; I can feel it along the rope.  Look at my arms," growled the
+sergeant.
+
+There was a quick glance directed at the sergeant, and those who were
+nearest could see that, while his arms jerked and kept giving a little,
+the rope was playing and quivering in the light.
+
+"Can't you see anything?" cried Roby wildly.
+
+"Place like a big well ground in the rock," came up in hollow tones;
+"the water all comes here, and goes down a great sink-hole.  Shall I cut
+myself free and dive?"
+
+"No!" came simultaneously, in a hoarse yell, from a dozen throats.
+
+"Madness!" shouted Roby.  "Look round again; he may be clinging to the
+rocks somewhere."
+
+Dickenson uttered a strange, mocking laugh, so loud and thrilling that
+it made his hearers shudder.
+
+"There's nothing but this hole, smoothed round by the water.  I can see
+all round."
+
+"Yah!" roared the sergeant.  "Haul!"  For suddenly his arms received a
+heavy jerk which bent him nearly double, and the light which glowed down
+by the water disappeared; while, but for the rush made to get a grip at
+the rope by Roby and a couple more men, the sergeant would have gone
+down.
+
+As it was, the sudden snatch made dragged him back; and then, without
+further order, the men hauled quickly and excitedly at the rope till
+Dickenson's strangely distorted face appeared in the light.
+
+"Hold on!" shouted the sergeant, and stooping down, he got his hands
+well under his young officer's armpits, made a heave with all his
+strength, and jerked him out of the horrible pit on to the hard rock.
+
+Roby had helped by seizing the sergeant and dragging him back as soon as
+he had a good hold, and it was his captain's eyes that Dickenson's first
+met in a wild, despairing look, before, dripping with water from the
+chest downwards and the lights both extinguished, he sank upon his knees
+and dropped his face into his hands, no one stirring or speaking in the
+few brief moments which followed, but all noticing that the poor
+fellow's chest was heaving and that a spasmodic sob escaped his lips.
+
+The silence was broken by the sergeant, who stood rubbing his wet hands
+down the sides of his trousers.
+
+"Thought I was gone too," he said huskily.
+
+His words reached Dickenson's understanding, but not their full extent.
+His hands dropped to his lap, and he looked up, gazing round in a
+strangely bewildered way, his lower lip quivering, and his voice
+sounding pathetically apologetic.
+
+"Yes," he said feebly, "I thought I was gone.  The water seemed to rise
+up round me suddenly to snatch me down.  I did all I could--all I could,
+Roby, but it seemed to make me as weak as a child.  Look at that--look
+at that!" he groaned, holding out one arm, which shook as if with the
+palsy.  Then clasping his hands together he let them drop, and gazed
+away before him into the darkness through the arch, and said, as if to
+himself, "I did all I could, Drew, old lad--I did all I could."
+
+"Dickenson," whispered Roby, bending over him.  "Come, come, pull
+yourself together.  Be a man."
+
+The poor fellow turned his head sharply, and gazed wildly into the
+speaker's eyes.
+
+"Yes, yes," he said, and drawing a deep breath, he eagerly snatched at
+the hand held out to him and stood up.  "Bit of a shock to a fellow's
+nerves.  I never felt like that when we went at the Boers.  Thank you,
+sergeant.  Thank you, my lads.  I never felt like that."
+
+"No," said the captain quickly.  "It would have unmanned any one."
+
+"Did me, sir," said Sergeant James.  "And I never felt like that."
+
+"Ha!" sighed Dickenson, giving himself a shake, and beginning to
+unbuckle his belt to get rid of the dripping lanterns.  "I'm better now.
+Ought I to go down again, sir?"
+
+"Go down again, man?" cried Roby.  "Good heavens, no!  It would be
+madness to send any one into that horrible pit.--Here, I had forgotten
+Corporal May.  Where is he?"
+
+"We laid him down in yonder, sir," said one of the men, indicating the
+interior of the cavern with a nod.
+
+"Not dead?"
+
+"No, sir, I don't think so," was the reply as the captain passed through
+the archway, followed by the sergeant, who snatched up a lantern; while
+Dickenson turned to the great pit, steadied himself by the tree-trunk
+which led up, and gazed into the black place.
+
+"Poor old Drew!" he groaned softly.  "If it had only been together--in
+some advance!"
+
+And then, soldier-like, he drew himself up as if standing to attention,
+turned, and went to his duty again, walking pretty steadily after Roby
+to join them where the sergeant was down on one knee with his hand
+thrust inside the corporal's jacket.
+
+"Heart's beating off and on, sir," growled James.  "I don't think he's
+hurt.  Seems to me like what the doctor called shock."
+
+"Yes.  What did he say?"
+
+"I dunno, sir.  Sort of queer stuff: sounded like foolishness.  I'm
+afraid he's off his head.--Here, May--me, May, my lad.  Hold up.  You're
+all right now."
+
+The man opened his eyes, stared at him wildly, and his lips quivered.
+
+"What say?" he whispered.
+
+"I say, hold up now."
+
+"Hurts," moaned the poor fellow, beginning to rub his chest.  "Have I
+been asleep?"
+
+"I hope so, my lad," said Roby, "for you have been saved a good deal if
+you have."
+
+"Ugh!" groaned the man, with a shiver.  "Mind that light don't go out.
+Here," he cried fiercely, "what did you go and leave me for?"
+
+"Who went away and left you?"
+
+"I recklect now.  It was horrid.  I dursen't try and climb that tree
+again with the water all cissing up to get at me."
+
+"What!" cried Roby sharply.
+
+"It was when the orders were given to retire, sir.  I kept letting first
+one chap go and then another till I was last, and then I stood at the
+bottom trying to make up my mind to follow, till the lights up atop
+seemed to go out all at once.  Then I turned cold and sick and all
+faint-like, holding on by the tree, till there was a horrid rush and a
+splash as if something was coming up to get at me, and I couldn't help
+it--I turned and ran back through that archway place in the big hole,
+feeling sure that the water was coming to sweep me away.  'Fore I'd gone
+far in the black darkness I ketched my foot on a stone, pitched forward
+on to my head, and then I don't remember any more for ever so long.  It
+was just as if some one had hit me over the head with the butt of a
+rifle."
+
+"Where's the lump, then, or the cut?" said Sergeant James sourly.
+
+"Somewhere up atop there, sergeant.  I dunno.  Feel; I can't move my
+arms, they're so stiff."
+
+The sergeant raised his lantern and passed his hand over the man's head.
+
+"Lump as big as half an egg there, sir," he said in a whisper.
+
+"It's a bad cut, ain't it, sergeant?" said the corporal.
+
+"No; big lump--bruise."
+
+"Ah, I thought it was a cut; but I'd forgotten all about it when I come
+to again in the dark, and couldn't make it out.  My head was all of a
+swim like, and I couldn't recklect anything about what had happened, nor
+make out where I was, only that I was in the dark.  All I could
+understand was that my head was aching awful and swimming round and
+round, and I seemed to have been fast asleep for hours and hours, and
+that I had woke up.  That was all."
+
+"Well, go on," said the sergeant, in obedience to a hint from Roby.
+
+"Yes, direckly," said the man.  "I'm trying to think, but my head don't
+go right.  It's just as if some sand had got into the works.  Ah, it's
+coming now.  It was like waking up and finding myself in the dark, and
+not knowing how I got there."
+
+"Well, you said that before," said the sergeant gruffly.
+
+"Did I, sergeant?  Well, that's right; and I tried to get up, but I
+couldn't stand, my head swam so.  Then I got on my hands and knees, and
+began to crawl to the ladder; and I went on and kept stopping on account
+of my head, till I knocked against my helmet and put it on, and began
+crawling again, thinking I must be where I'd lain down and gone to
+sleep.  Then I went on again for ever so long till I could go no
+farther, for I was in a place where the rock came down over my head so
+that I could touch it; but it was all narrow-like, and I was so tired
+that I lay down, got out my pipe, lit up, and had a smoke."
+
+"What next?" said the sergeant, exchanging glances with Roby and
+Dickenson, who were listening.
+
+"That's all," said the man quietly.  "So I'll just have a nap to set my
+head right.  It's a touch of fever, I think."
+
+"Stop a moment, my lad," said Roby.  "Can't you recollect what came
+next?"
+
+"No, sir," said the man drowsily.  "Oh yes, I do.  I know I began
+crawling again without my helmet after I'd smoked a pipe of tobacco--for
+the hard rim hurt my head--and went on and on for hours, till I thought
+I could hear water running; and then in a minute I was sure, and I made
+for it, for at that time I was so thirsty I'd have given anything for a
+drink to cool my hot, dry throat.  Yes, it's all coming back now.  I
+crept on till all at once the water falling sounded loud, and the next
+moment I was sinking down sidewise into a deep place where I was hanging
+across a stone to get at the water in the dark, and couldn't.  It was
+just like a nightmare, sergeant, that it was, and I felt my head go down
+and my legs hanging till my back was ready to break, but I couldn't get
+away, and I lay and lay, till all at once I was snatched up, and that
+hurt me so that I yelled for help, and then the nightmare seemed to be
+gone and I was lying all asleep like till I saw you and the captain; and
+here I am, somewhere, and that's all."
+
+It was all, for the corporal swooned away, and had to be lifted and
+carried up.
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Captain Roby; "he'll be better when we get him out
+into the open air.  See to him, my lads.  If he cannot walk you must
+carry him."
+
+The men closed round the corporal, while the captain and Dickenson
+walked back to where a couple of the men, looking sallow and half-scared
+with their task, stood holding one of the lanterns at the month of the
+water-chasm.
+
+"Heard anything?" said the captain, in a low tone of voice which sounded
+as if he dreaded to hear his own words.
+
+"Nothing, sir," was the reply; "only the water rushing down."
+
+"It seems to me,"--began the other, and then he paused.
+
+"Yes: what?  How does it seem to you?" asked the captain.
+
+"Well, sir, as we stand listening here it sounds as if the hole down
+there gets choked every now and then with too much water, and then the
+place fills up more, and goes off again with a rush."
+
+The captain made no reply, but stood with Dickenson gazing down into the
+chasm till there was a difference in the sound of its running out, when
+the latter caught at his companion, gripping his arm excitedly.
+
+"Yes," he whispered hoarsely; "that's how it went while I was down
+there.  Oh Roby! can't we do anything more?"
+
+The captain was silent for some little time, and then he half-dragged
+his companion to the rough ladder.
+
+"Come up," he said; "you know we can do no more by stopping thinking
+till one is almost wild with horror.  Here, go up first."
+
+It was like a sharp order, but Dickenson felt that it came from his
+officer's heart, and, with a shiver as much of horror as of cold from
+his drenched and clinging garments, he climbed to the next level and
+stood feeling half-stunned, and waiting while the sergeant climbed up
+and joined them with some rings of the rope upon his arm.
+
+"May's going to try and climb up by himself, sir," said the sergeant in
+a low voice, "but I've made the rope fast round him to hold on by in
+case he slips.  We don't want another accident."
+
+The sight of the rope, and the sergeant's words, stirred Dickenson into
+speaking again.
+
+"James," he said huskily, "don't you think something more might be done
+by one of us going down to the water again?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the sergeant solemnly; "nothing, or I'd have been
+begging the captain to let me have another try long enough ago."
+
+"Yes, of course, of course," said Dickenson warmly.  "How are we to tell
+the colonel what has happened?"
+
+The young officer relapsed into a dull, heavy fit of thinking, in which
+he saw, as if he were in a dream, the corporal helped out of the pit by
+means of the rope, and then go feebly along the cavern, to break down
+about half-way, when four men in two pairs crossed their wrists and,
+keeping step, bore him, lying horizontally, to the next ladder, up which
+he was assisted, after which he was borne once again by four more of the
+men; and as Drew's comrade came last with the captain, the procession
+made him nearly break down with misery and despair.
+
+For, what with the slow, regular pacing, the lights carried in front,
+and the appearance of the man being carried, there was a horrible
+suggestion in it all of a military funeral, and for the time being it
+seemed to him that they had recovered his comrade and were carrying him
+out to his grave.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+NOT DEAD YET.
+
+The entrance at last, with the glorious light of the sun shining in, man
+after man drawing a heavy sighing breath of relief; and as they gathered
+outside on the shelf where the sentries were awaiting their coming, it
+seemed to every one there that for a few moments the world had never
+looked so bright and beautiful.  Then down came the mental cloud of
+thought upon all, and they formed up solemnly, ready to march down.
+
+"Well, Corporal May," said the captain, "do you think you can walk?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man.  "My head's thick and confused-like, but
+every mouthful of this air I swallow seems to be pulling me round.  I
+can walk, sir, but I may have to fall out and come slowly."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," said the captain, with whom the corporal had
+always been a petted favourite.  "Don't hurry, my lad.--Sergeant, you
+and another man fall out too, if it is more than he can manage."
+
+Then turning to the rest of the party, the captain glanced along the
+rank at the saddened faces which showed how great a favourite the young
+lieutenant had been, and something like a feeling of jealousy flashed
+through him as he began to think how it would have been if he had been
+the missing man.  But the ungenerous thought died out as quickly as it
+had arisen, and he marched on with the men slowly, so as to make it
+easier for the corporal, till half the slope of the kopje had been
+zigzagged down, when he called a halt.
+
+"Sit or lie about in the sunshine for ten minutes, my lads," he said,
+and the men gladly obeyed, dropping on the hot stones and tufts of
+brush, to begin talking together in a low voice, as they let their eyes
+wander over the prospect around, now looking, by contrast with the black
+horror through which they had passed, as if no more beautiful scene had
+ever met their eyes.
+
+"How are you, Dickenson?" said the captain after they had sat together
+for a few minutes, drinking in the sunlight and air.
+
+The young lieutenant started and looked at him strangely for a few
+moments before he spoke with a curious catch in his voice.
+
+"Is it all true?" he said.
+
+The captain's lips parted, but no words came; he only bowed his head
+slowly, and once more there was silence, till it was broken by
+Dickenson.
+
+"Poor old Drew!" he said softly.  "Well, I hope when my time comes I
+shall die in the same way."
+
+"What!" cried the captain, with a look of horror which brought a grim
+smile to the subaltern's quivering lip.
+
+"I did not mean that," he said sadly; "by a bullet, I hope, but doing
+what poor old Drew was doing--saving another man's life."
+
+He turned his head on one side, reached out his hand, and picked from
+the sun-dried growth close at hand a little dull-red, star-like flower
+whose petals were hard and horny, one of the so-called everlasting
+tribe, and taking off his helmet, carefully tucked it in the lining.
+
+"Off the kopje in which he died," said Dickenson, in reply to an
+inquiring look directed at him by the captain.  "For his people at home
+if I live to get back.  They'll like to have it."
+
+Captain Roby said nothing aloud, but he thought, and his thoughts were
+something to this effect: "Who'd ever have thought it of this
+light-hearted, chaffing, joking fellow?  Why, if they had been brothers
+he couldn't have taken it more to heart.  Ha!  I never liked the poor
+lad, and I don't think he liked me.  There were times when I believe I
+hated him for--for--for--Well, why did I dislike him?  Because other
+people liked him better than they did me, I suppose.  Ah, well! like or
+not like, it's all over now."
+
+He sat thinking for a few minutes longer, watching Dickenson furtively
+as he now kept turning himself a little this way and that way and
+changed his seat twice for a fresh piece of hot stone.  Suddenly at his
+last change he caught the captain's eye, and said quite cheerfully:
+
+"Getting a bit drier now."  Then, seeing a surprised look in his brother
+officer's countenance, he said quietly, "I'm a soldier, sir, and we've
+no time for thinking if there's another comrade gone out of our ranks."
+
+"No," said Roby laconically, and he hold out his hand, in which
+Dickenson slowly laid his own, looking rather wistfully as he felt it
+pressed warmly.  "I--I hope we shall be better friends in the future,
+Dickenson," said the captain rather awkwardly.
+
+"I hope so too, sir," replied Dickenson, but there was more sadness than
+warmth in his tones as his hand was released.
+
+"Yes; soldiers have no time for being otherwise.--There!"
+
+The captain sprang up, and Dickenson stiffly followed his example.
+
+"Fall in, my lads.--Well, corporal, how are you now?"
+
+"Head's horrid bad, sir; but this bit of a rest has pulled me together.
+I should like to fall out when we get near the way down to the spring."
+
+"Of course, my lad, of course.--Here, any one else like a drink?"
+
+"Yes, sir," came in chorus from the rank.
+
+"All of us, please, sir," added the sergeant.
+
+"Very well, then; we'll fall out again for a few minutes when get down.
+'Tention!  Right face--march!"
+
+The men went on, all the better for their rest, while the captain joined
+Dickenson in the rear, and marched step by step with him for some
+minutes in silence.
+
+"What confoundedly bad walking it is down here!" he said at last.
+"Shakes a man all to pieces."
+
+"I hadn't noticed it," said Dickenson, with something like a sigh.
+
+"I say!"
+
+Dickenson turned to look in the captain's face.
+
+"Come straight to the chief with me, Dickenson.  I don't like my job of
+telling him.  He'll say I oughtn't to have let the poor fellow go down."
+
+"I don't think he will," replied Dickenson, after a few moments'
+silence.  "The old man's as hard as stone over a bit of want of
+discipline; but he's always just."
+
+"Think so?" said the captain.
+
+"Yes.  Always just.  I'll come with you, though I feel as weak as water
+now.  But I shall be better still when we get down to the quarters; and
+it has got to be done."
+
+No more was said till the bottom of the kopje was nearly reached, and at
+a word from the sergeant the men went off left incline down and down and
+in and out among the loose blocks of weathered and lichen-covered stone
+which had fallen from the precipices above, while, as glimpses kept
+appearing of the flashing, dancing water, the men began to increase
+their pace, till the two foremost leaped down from rock to rock, and one
+who had outpaced his comrade bounded down out of sight into the deep
+gully along which the limpid water ran.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Dickenson, suddenly stopping short with his face
+distorted by a look of agony.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried the captain anxiously.  "Taken bad?"
+
+"No, no.  The men!" said the young officer huskily.  "The water--the men
+are going to drink.  That place in the cavern--it is, of course, where
+Groenfontein rises."
+
+"Yes, of course," replied the captain; "but it is too late now."
+
+He had hardly uttered the words before there was a yell of horror which
+made him stop short, for the foremost man came clambering back into
+sight, gesticulating, and they could see that he looked white and
+scared.
+
+"Oh!" cried the captain.  "It will be _sauve qui peut_!  The Boers have
+surprised us, and the lads have nothing but their side-arms.  Got your
+revolver?  I've mine.  Let's do the best we can.  Cover, my lads,
+cover."
+
+"No, no, no!" cried Dickenson in a choking voice.  "I can't help it,
+Roby.  I feel broken down.  He has found poor Drew below there, washed
+out by the stream!"
+
+"Come on," cried the captain, and in another few moments they were with
+the men, who were closing round their startled comrade.
+
+"Couldn't help it," the poor fellow panted as his officers came within
+hearing.  "I came upon him so sudden; I thought it was a ghost."
+
+"Hold your tongue, fool!" growled the sergeant.  "Fall in!  Show some
+respect for your poor dead officer.--Beg pardon, gentlemen.  They've
+found the lieutenant's body, and--thank Heaven we can--we
+can--_Ur-r-r_!" he ended, with a growl and a tug at the top button of
+his khaki jacket.
+
+The men shuffled into their places and stood fast, imitating the action
+of their officers, who gravely doffed their helmets and stepped down
+into the hollow, where, upon a patch of green growth a few feet above
+the rippling water foaming and swirling in miniature cascades among the
+rocks, poor Lennox lay stretched out upon his back in the full sunshine,
+which had dried up the blood from a long cut upon his forehead, where it
+had trickled down one side of his face.
+
+He looked pale and ghastly, and there was a discoloration about his
+mouth and on one cheek where he seemed to have been battered by striking
+against the stones amongst which he had been driven in his rush through
+the horrible subterranean channel of the stream; but otherwise he looked
+as peaceful as if he were asleep.
+
+The captain stopped short, gazing at him, while Dickenson dropped
+lightly down till he was beside his comrade, and sank gently upon one
+knee, to bend lower, take hold of the right hand that lay across his
+chest, and then--"like a girl!" as he afterwards said--he unconsciously
+let fall two great scalding tears upon his comrade's cheek.
+
+The effect was magical.  Lennox's eyes opened wildly, to stare blankly
+in the lieutenant's face, and the latter sprang to his feet, flinging
+his helmet high over his head as he turned to the line of waiting men
+above him and roared out hoarsely:
+
+"Hurrah!  Cheer, boys, cheer!"
+
+The shout that rang out was deafening for so small a detachment, and two
+more followed, louder still; while the next minute discipline was
+forgotten and the men came bounding down to group about the figure
+staring at them wildly as if not yet fully comprehending what it all
+meant, till the lookers-on began shaking hands with one another in their
+wild delight.
+
+Then Dickenson saw the light of recognition dawn in his comrade's face,
+a faint smile appear about his mouth and the corners of his eyes, which
+gradually closed again; but his lips parted, and as Dickenson bent lower
+he heard faintly:
+
+"Not dead yet, old man, but,"--His voice sounded very faint after he had
+paused a few moments, and then continued: "It was very near."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+ALL ABOUT IT.
+
+The men forgot their thirst in the excitement of the incident, and as
+soon as Lennox showed signs of recovering a little from the state of
+exhaustion in which he lay, every one volunteered to be his bearer.  But
+before he had been carried far he made signs for the men to stop, and
+upon being set down he took Dickenson's arm, and, leaning upon him
+heavily, marched slowly with the men for the rest of the way towards the
+colonel's quarters.
+
+They were met, though, before they were half-way, their slow approach
+being seen and taken for a sign that there was something wrong; and
+colonel, major, doctor, and the other officers hurried to meet them and
+hear briefly what had occurred.
+
+"Why, Lennox, my lad," cried the doctor after a short examination, "you
+ought to be dead.  You must be a tough one.  There, I'll see what I can
+do for you."
+
+He took the young officer in his charge from that moment, and his first
+order was that his patient was to be left entirely alone, and, after
+partaking of a little refreshment, he was to rest and sleep for as many
+hours as he could.
+
+"The poor fellow has had a terrible shock," he said to the colonel.
+
+"Of course; but one naturally would like to know how he managed to
+escape."
+
+"Very naturally, my dear sir; but his eyes tell me that if his brain is
+not allowed to recover its tone he'll have a bad attack of fever.  A man
+can't go through such an experience as that without being terribly
+weakened.  I want him to be led into thinking of everything else but his
+escape.  I dare say after a few hours he will be wanting to talk
+excitedly about all he felt; but he mustn't.  Not a question must be
+asked."
+
+As it happened, the patient did exactly what the doctor wished: he
+slept, or, rather, sank into a state of stupor which lasted for many
+hours, came to his senses again, partook of a little food, and then
+dropped asleep once more; and this was repeated for days before he
+thoroughly recovered, and then began of his own volition to speak of his
+experience.
+
+It was about a week after his mishap, in the evening, when Dickenson,
+just returned from a skirmish in which the Boers had been driven back,
+was seated beside his rough couch watching him intently.
+
+"Don't sit staring at me like that, old fellow," said Lennox suddenly.
+"You look as if you thought I was going to die."
+
+"Not you!  You look a lot better to-night."
+
+"I am, I know."
+
+"How?" asked Dickenson laconically.
+
+"Because I've begun to worry about not being on duty and helping."
+
+"Yes; that's a good sign," said Dickenson.  "Capital.  Feel stronger?"
+
+"Yes.  It's just as if my strength has begun to come back all at once.
+Did you drive off the enemy to-day?"
+
+"Famously.  Gave them a regular licking."
+
+"That's right.  But tell me about Corporal May."
+
+"Oh no, you're not to bother about that."
+
+"Tell me about Corporal May," persisted Lennox.
+
+"Doctor said you weren't to worry about such things."
+
+"It isn't a worry now.  I felt at first that if I thought much about
+that business in the cave I should go off my head; but I'm quite cool
+and comfortable now.  Tell me--is he quite well again?"
+
+"Not quite.  He has had a touch of fever and been a bit loose in the
+knob, just as if he had been frightened out of his wits."
+
+"Of course," said Lennox quietly.  "I was nearly the same.  I did not
+know at the time, but I do now.  He is getting better, though?"
+
+"Fast; only he's a bit of a humbug with it.  I thought so, and the
+doctor endorses my ideas.  He likes being ill and nursed and petted with
+the best food, so as to keep out of the hard work.  I don't like the
+fellow a bit.  There, you've talked enough now, so I'll be gone."
+
+"No; stop," said Lennox.  "Tell me about the stores of corn we found in
+that cave."
+
+"Hang the cave!  You're not to talk about it."
+
+"Tell me about the grain," persisted Lennox.
+
+"Oh, very well; we're going on eating it, for if it hadn't turned up as
+it did we should have been obliged to surrender or cut our way through."
+
+"But there's plenty yet?"
+
+"Oh yes, heaps; and we got about thirty sheep two days ago."
+
+"Capital," said Lennox, rubbing his hands softly.  "Now tell me--where
+is the grain stored?"
+
+"Where the niggers put it when they collected it there."
+
+"Not moved?"
+
+"No.  It couldn't be in a better place--a worse, I mean.  Bother the
+cave!  I wish you wouldn't keep on thinking about it."
+
+"Very well, I won't.  Tell me about the prisoners."
+
+"Ah, that's better.  The brutes!  But there's nothing to tell about
+them.  I wish they had got their deserts, but we none of us wanted to
+shoot them, though they did deserve it."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Lennox.  "They're a rough lot of countrymen,
+and they think that everything is fair in war, I suppose.  Where are
+they?"
+
+"Number 4 tin hut, and a fellow inside with them night and day.  Then
+there's the sentry outside.  Makes a lot of trouble for the men."
+
+Lennox was silent for a few minutes before speaking again.
+
+"I say, Bob."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Look at this cut on my forehead."
+
+"I'm looking.  Very pretty.  It's healing fast now."
+
+"Will it leave much of a scar?"
+
+"I dare say it will," said Dickenson mockingly.  "Add to your beauty.
+But you ought to have one on the other side to match it."
+
+"I wasn't thinking about my looks," said Lennox, smiling.
+
+"Gammon!  You were."
+
+"I suppose I must have been dashed against a block of stone."
+
+"Good job, too.  Doctor said it acted like a safety-valve, and its
+bleeding kept off fever."
+
+"I suppose so.  I must have been dashed against something with great
+force, though."
+
+"Oh, never mind that.  Will you leave off thinking about that cave?"
+
+"No, I won't," said Lennox coolly.  "I must think about it now; I can't
+help it."
+
+"Then I'm off."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because you were getting better, and now you are trying to make
+yourself worse."
+
+"Oh no, I'm not; and you are not going.  Talking to you about it acts
+like a safety-valve, too.  There, it's of no use for you to try and stop
+me, Bob, for if you go I shall think all the more.  I've been wanting to
+tell you all about it for days."
+
+"But the doctor said I was not to encourage you to talk about the
+horror."
+
+"Well, you are not encouraging me; you are flopping on me like a wet
+blanket.  I say, it was horrible, wasn't it?"
+
+"No," said Dickenson angrily; "but this is."
+
+Lennox was silent for a few minutes, and he lay so quiet that Dickenson
+leaned forward to gaze at him earnestly, "All right, Bob.  I'm here, and
+getting awfully strong compared with what I was a week ago.  I shall get
+up and come out to-morrow."
+
+"You won't.  You're too weak yet."
+
+"Oh no, I'm not.  I shall be on duty in two or three days, and as soon
+as I'm well enough I want you and the sergeant to come with me to have
+another exploration with lanterns and a rope."
+
+"There, I knew it.  You're going off your head again."
+
+"Not a bit of it."
+
+"Then why can't you leave the wretched cave alone?"
+
+"Because it interests me.  I mean to go down again at the end of the
+rope."
+
+"Bah!  You're mad as a hatter.  I knew you'd bring it on."
+
+"There, it's of no use.  I want to tell you all about it."
+
+"If you think I'm going to stop here and listen to a long rigmarole
+about that dreadful hole, you're mistaken; so hold your tongue."
+
+"There's no long rigmarole, Bob.  You know how the corporal yelled out
+and clutched at me."
+
+"No; I only guessed at something of the kind," replied Dickenson
+unwillingly.  "We could not see much."
+
+"Well, in his horror at finding himself lifted he completely upset me.
+It was all in a moment: I felt myself gliding over the slimy stone, and
+then I was plunged into deep water and drawn right down."
+
+"But you struck out and tried to rise?" said Dickenson, overcome now by
+his natural eagerness to know how his comrade escaped.
+
+"Struck out--tried to rise!" cried Lennox, with a bitter laugh.  "I have
+some recollection of struggling in black strangling darkness for what
+seemed an age, the water thundering the while in my ears, before all was
+blank."
+
+"But you were horror-stricken, and felt that you must go on fighting for
+your life?"
+
+"No," said Lennox quietly.  "I felt nothing till the darkness suddenly
+turned to bright sunshine, and I have some recollection of being driven
+against stones and tossed here and there, till I dragged myself out of a
+shallow place among the rocks and up amongst the green growth.  Then a
+curious drowsy feeling came over me, and all was blank again.  That's
+all."
+
+"But weren't you in agony--in horrible fear?"
+
+"Yes, when I felt myself falling and tried to save myself."
+
+"I mean afterwards, when you were being forced through, that horrible
+passage."
+
+"What horrible passage?" said Lennox, with a faint smile.
+
+"What horrible passage, man?  Why, the tunnel, or channel, or whatever
+it is--the subterranean way of the stream under the kopje, in the bowels
+of the earth."
+
+"I told you I was horrified for a moment, and then I was choking in the
+water, till all seemed blank, and then I appeared to wake in the hot
+sunshine, where I was knocked about till I crawled out on to the bank."
+
+"But didn't you suffer dreadfully?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Didn't you think about England and home, and all that?"
+
+"No," said Lennox quietly.
+
+"Weren't you in fearful agony as you fought for your life?"
+
+"Not the slightest; and I don't think I struggled much."
+
+"Well, upon my word!" cried Dickenson in a tone of disgust.  "I like
+this!"
+
+"Do you, Bob?  I didn't."
+
+"You didn't?  Look here, Drew, I'm disgusted with you."
+
+"Why?" said Lennox, opening his eyes wider.
+
+"Because you're a miserable impostor--a regular humbug."
+
+"What! don't you believe I went through all that?"
+
+"Oh yes, I believe you went through all the--all the--all the hole; but
+there don't seem to have been anything else."
+
+"Why, what else did you expect, old fellow?"
+
+"What I've been asking you--pains and agonies and frightful sufferings
+and despairs, and that sort of thing; and there you were, pop down into
+the darkness, pop under the kopje, pop out into the sunshine, and pop--
+no, I mean, all over."
+
+"Well, what would you have had me do?  Stop underneath for a month?"
+
+"No, of course not; but, hang it all! if it hadn't been that you got
+that cut on your forehead and a few scratches and chips, it was no worse
+than taking a dive."
+
+"Not much," said Lennox, looking amused.
+
+"Well, I really call it disgusting--a miserable imposition upon your
+friends."
+
+"Why, Bob, you are talking in riddles, old fellow, or else my head's so
+weak still that I can't quite follow you."
+
+"Then I'll try and make my meaning clear to your miserably weak
+comprehension, sir," cried Dickenson, with mock ferocity.  "Here were
+you just taking a bit of a dive, and there were we, your friends, from
+the captain down to the latest-joined private, suffering--oh!  I can't
+tell you what we suffered.  I don't mean to say that Roby was breaking
+his heart because he thought there was an end of you; but poor old
+Sergeant James nearly went mad with despair, and the whole party was
+ready to plunge in after you so as to get drowned too."
+
+"Did they take it like that, Bob?"
+
+"Take it like that?  Why, of course they did."
+
+Lennox was silent for a few moments before he said softly, "And did poor
+old Bob Dickenson feel something like that?"
+
+"Why, of course he did.  Broke down and made a regular fool of himself,
+just like a great silly-looking girl--that is," he added hastily, "I
+mean, nearly--almost, you know."
+
+"I'm very sorry, Bob," said Lennox gently, and his eyes looked large as
+he laid his hand upon his comrade's sleeve.
+
+"Then you don't look it, sir.  I say, don't you go and pitch such a lame
+tale as this into anybody else's ears.  Here were we making a dead hero
+of you, and all the time--There, I've seen one of those little black and
+white Welsh birds--dippers, don't they call 'em?--do what you did,
+scores of times."
+
+"In the dark, Bob?"
+
+"Well--er--no--not in the dark, or of course I couldn't have seen it.
+There, that'll do.  Talk about a set of fellows being sold by a lot of
+sentiment: we were that lot."
+
+"The way of the world, Bob," said Lennox rather bitterly; "a fellow must
+die for people to find out that he's a bit of a hero.  But please to
+recollect I did nothing; it was all accident."
+
+"And an awfully bad accident too, old chap; only I don't see why the
+doctor need have prohibited your talking about the affair.  We've all
+been thinking you went through untold horrors, when it was just
+nothing."
+
+"Just nothing, Bob," said Lennox, looking at him with a wistful smile on
+his lip.
+
+"Well, no; I won't say that, because of course it was as near as a
+toucher.  For instance, the hole might have been too tight to let you
+through, and then--Ugh!  Drew, old chap, don't let us talk about it any
+more.  It's a hot day, and my face is wet with perspiration, but my
+spine feels as if it had turned to ice.  Yes, it was as near as a
+toucher.  I would rather drop into an ambush of the Boers a dozen times
+over than go through such a half-hour as that again."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+PREPARATIONS.
+
+There was a splendid supply of corn in the great woven Kaffir baskets,
+and that and the captured flock of sheep did wonders; but there were
+many hungry mouths to feed, and the lookout was growing worse than ever.
+The Boers were fighting furiously all over the two states and keeping
+our men at bay, or else were flitting from place to place to be hunted
+down again, and keeping the British generals so busily at work that,
+though they tried hard, it was impossible to send help to the little
+detachment at Groenfontein, from which place they had received no news,
+neither were they able to get through a single despatch.
+
+Many a long discussion took place amongst the soldiers about the state
+of affairs, in which Corporal May declared that it was a burning shame--
+that the generals only thought of saving their own skins, and didn't
+care a fig for the poor fellows on duty fighting for their lives.
+
+Sergeant James was present, and he flushed up into a rage and bullied
+the corporal in the way that a sergeant can bully when he is put out.
+He told the corporal that he was a disgrace to the army; and he told the
+men that as long as a British officer could move to the help of his men
+who were in peril, he didn't care a snap of the fingers for his own
+life, but he moved.
+
+Then it was the men's turn, and they spoke all together and as loudly as
+they could; but they only said one word, and that one word was "Hooray!"
+repeated a great many times over, with the result that Corporal May was
+fully of opinion that the men put more faith in the sergeant than they
+did in him, and, to use one of the men's expressions, "he sneaked off
+like a wet terrier with his tail between his legs."
+
+Discussions took place also among the officers again and again after
+their miserable starvation mess, which was once more, in spite of all
+efforts to supplement it, reduced to a very low ebb.  For the brave
+colonel was Spartan-like in his ways.
+
+"I can't sit down to a better dinner than my brave lads are eating,
+gentlemen," he would say.  "It's share and share alike with the Boers'
+hard knocks, so it's only fair that it should be the same with the good
+things of life."
+
+"Yes, that's all very well, colonel," grumbled the major; "but where are
+those good things?"
+
+"Ah, where are they?" said the colonel.  "Never mind; we shall win yet.
+The Boers have done their worst to crack this hard nut, and we've kept
+them at bay, which is almost as good as a victory."
+
+"But surely, sir," said Captain Roby impatiently, "help might have been
+sent to us before now.  Has the general forgotten us?"
+
+"No," said the colonel decisively.  "I'm afraid that he has several
+detachments in the same condition as we are.  That's why we do not get
+any help."
+
+"Perhaps so, sir," said the captain bitterly; "but I'm getting very
+tired of this inaction."
+
+"That sounds like a reproach to me, Roby," said the colonel gravely.
+
+"Oh no, sir; I didn't mean that," said the captain.
+
+"Your words expressed it sir.  Come now, speak out.  What would you do
+if you were in my place, with three strong commandos of the Boers
+forming a triangle with a kopje at each apex which they hold with guns?"
+
+"I don't want to give an opinion, sir."
+
+"But every one wishes that you should.--Eh, gentlemen?"
+
+"Certainly," came in eager chorus.
+
+"Well, if I must speak, I must, sir," said the captain, flushing.
+
+"Yes, speak without fear or favour."
+
+"Well, sir, all military history teaches us that generals with small
+armies, when surrounded by a greater force, have gained victories by
+attacking the enemy in detail."
+
+"Yes, I see what you mean," said the colonel quietly.  "You would have
+me attack and take first one kopje, then the second, and then the
+third?"
+
+"Exactly, sir."
+
+"Capital strategy, Mr Roby, if it could be done; but I cannot recall
+any case in which a general was situated as we are, with three very
+strong natural forts close at hand."
+
+There was a murmur of assent, and Dickenson exchanged glances with
+Lennox, who was, with the exception of the scar on his forehead, none
+the worse for his terrible experience in the kopje cavern.
+
+"You see, gentlemen," continued the colonel, who did not display the
+slightest resentment at Roby's remarks, "if the Boers were soldiers--men
+who could manoeuvre, attack, and carry entrenchments--they are so much
+stronger that they could have carried this place with ease.  It would
+have meant severe loss, but in the end, if they had pushed matters to
+extremity, they must have won.  As it is, they fight from cover--very
+easy work, when they have so many natural strongholds.  I could take any
+of these; but while I was engaged with my men against one party, the
+other two would advance and take this place, with such stores as we
+have.  Where should we be then?"
+
+"Oh, but I'd leave half the men to defend the place, sir.  Why, with a
+couple of companies, and a good time chosen for a surprise, I could take
+any of the enemy's laagers."
+
+The colonel raised his eyebrows, and looked at the speaker curiously.
+
+"You see, sir," continued Roby, speaking in a peculiarly excited way,
+"the men, as an Irishman would say, are spoiling for a fight, and we are
+getting weaker and weaker.  In another fortnight we shall be quite
+helpless."
+
+"I hope not, Mr Roby," said the colonel dryly.  "Perhaps you would like
+to try some such experiment with a couple of companies?"
+
+"I should, sir," cried the captain eagerly; and the other officers
+looked from one to the other wonderingly, and more wonderingly still
+when the colonel said calmly:
+
+"Very well, Mr Roby.  I will make my plans and observations as to which
+of the three laagers it would be more prudent to attack.  If you do not
+succeed, you ought at least to be able to bring in some of the enemy's
+cattle."
+
+That evening the colonel had a quiet council with the major, the latter
+being strongly opposed to the plan; but the colonel was firm.
+
+"I do not expect much," he said, "but it will be reading the Boers a
+lesson, even if he fails, and do our men good, for all this inaction is
+telling upon them, as I have been noticing, to my sorrow, during the
+past three or four days.  To be frank with you, Robson, I have been
+maturing something of the kind."
+
+"But you will not give the command to Roby?" cried the major.
+
+"Certainly not," said the colonel emphatically.  "You will take the
+lead."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated the major.
+
+"With Roby as second in command.  I will talk with you after I have done
+a little scouting on my own account."
+
+Two days elapsed, and Captain Roby had been talking a good deal in a
+rather injudicious way about its being just what he expected.  The
+colonel had been out both nights with as many men as he could mount--
+just a small scouting party--seen all that he could as soon as it was
+daylight, and returned soon after sunrise each time after a brush with
+the enemy, who had discovered the approach to their lines and followed
+the retiring party up till they came within reach of the gun, when a few
+shells sent them scampering back.
+
+It was on the third night that Captain Roby sat talking to his greatest
+intimates, and he repeated his injudicious remarks so bitterly that
+Captain Edwards said severely, "I can't sit here and listen to this,
+Roby.  You must be off your head a little, and if you don't mind you'll
+be getting into serious trouble."
+
+"Trouble?  What do you mean, sir?" cried Roby.  "I feel it is my duty to
+speak."
+
+"And I feel it is not; and if I were Colonel Lindley I would not stand
+it."
+
+He had hardly spoken when there was the crack of a rifle, followed by
+another and another.  The men turned out ready for anything, fully
+expecting that the Boers were making an attack; but Dickenson came
+hurrying to the colonel with the report of what had happened.
+
+The two prisoners had been waiting their opportunity, and rising against
+the sentry who shared their corrugated iron prison, had snatched his
+bayonet from his side and struck him down, with just enough life left in
+him afterwards to relate what had happened.  Then slipping out, they had
+tried to assassinate the sentry on duty, but failed, for he was too much
+on the alert.  He had fired at them, but they had both escaped into the
+darkness, under cover of which, and with their thorough knowledge of the
+country, they managed to get right away.
+
+"Just like Lindley," said Roby contemptuous as soon as the alarm was
+over and the men had settled down again.  "Any one but he would have
+made short work of those two fellows."
+
+He had hardly spoken when an orderly came to the door of the hut where
+he, Captain Edwards, and two more were talking, and announced that the
+colonel desired to speak with Captain Roby directly.  The latter sprang
+up and darted a fierce look at Captain Edwards.
+
+"You have lost no time in telling tales," he said insolently.
+
+"You are on the wrong track," said the gentleman addressed, angrily.  "I
+have not seen the colonel to speak to since, and I have sent no
+message."
+
+Roby turned on his heel wrathfully and went straight to the colonel's
+quarters, to face him and the major, who was with him.
+
+To his intense astonishment and delight, the colonel made the
+announcement that the south-west laager was to be attempted by surprise
+that night by a hundred and fifty men with the bayonet alone, the major
+in command, Captain Roby second, and Captain Edwards and the two
+subalterns of Roby's company to complete the little force.
+
+"When do we start, sir?" said Roby, with his heart beating fast.
+
+"An hour before midnight," said the colonel; and the major added:
+
+"Without any sound of preparation.  The men will assemble, and every
+precaution must be taken that not one of the blacks gets wind of the
+attempt so as to warn the enemy of our approach."
+
+"I have no more to add, Robson," said the colonel.  "You know where to
+make your advance.  Take the place if you can without firing a shot, but
+of course, if fire should be necessary, use your own discretion."
+
+The whole business was done with the greatest absence of excitement.
+The three officers were warned at once; Captain Edwards looked
+delighted, but Dickenson began to demur.
+
+"You are not fit to go, Drew," he said.
+
+"I never felt more fit," was the reply, "and if you make any opposition
+you are no friend of mine."
+
+"Very well," said Dickenson quietly; "but I feel that we're going to
+have a sharp bit of business, and I can't think that you are strong
+enough."
+
+"I've told you that I am," said Lennox firmly.  "The orders are that I
+go with the company, and the colonel would not send me if he did not
+know from his own opinion and the doctor's report that I am fit to be
+with the ranks."
+
+There was a little whisper or two between Dickenson and Sergeant James.
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir," said the latter; "he has pulled round
+wonderfully during the last fortnight, and it isn't as if we were going
+on a long exhausting march.  Just about six or seven miles through level
+veldt, sir, and in the cool of the night."
+
+"Well, there is that," said Dickenson thoughtfully.
+
+"And a good rest afterwards, sir, so as to make the advance, so I hear,
+just at the Boers' sleepiest time.  Bah!  It'll be a mere nothing if we
+can only get through their lines quietly.  They'll never stand the
+bayonet; and I wouldn't wish for a smarter officer to follow than Mr
+Lennox."
+
+"Nor a braver, James," said Dickenson quietly.
+
+"Nor a braver, sir."
+
+"If he is up to the mark for strength."
+
+"Let him alone for that, sir," said the sergeant, with a chuckle.  "I
+don't say Mr Lennox will be first, but I do say he won't be last; and
+the men'll follow him anywhere, as you know, sir, well."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson, drawing a deep breath; "and it's what we shall
+want to-night--a regular rush, and the bayonet home."
+
+"That's it, sir; but I must go.  The lads are half-mad with joy, and if
+I'm not handy we shall have them setting up a shout."
+
+But of course there was no shout, the men who, to their great disgust,
+were to stay and hold the camp bidding good-luck to their more fortunate
+comrades without a sound; while more than once, with the remembrance of
+the dastardly murder that had just taken place, men whispered to their
+comrades something about not to forget what the cowardly Boers had done.
+
+Exact to the time, just an hour before midnight, and in profound
+darkness--for the moon had set but a short time before--the men, with
+shouldered rifles, set off with springy step, Dickenson and Lennox, to
+whom the country was well known from shooting and fishing excursions
+they had made, leading the party, not a word being uttered in the ranks,
+and the tramp, tramp of feet sounding light and elastic as the lads
+followed through the open, undulating plain, well clear of the bush,
+there being hardly a stone to pass till they were within a mile of the
+little kopje where the Boers' laager lay.
+
+There the broken country would begin, the land rising and being much
+encumbered with stones.  But the place had been well surveyed by the
+major through his field-glass at daybreak two days before, and he had
+compared notes with Lennox, telling him what he had seen, and the young
+officer had drawn his attention to the presence of a patch of woodland
+that might be useful for a rallying-point should there be need.  Captain
+Roby, too, had been well posted up; and after all that was necessary had
+been said, Lennox had joined his friend.
+
+"Oh, we shall do it, Bob," he said.  "What I wonder is, that it was not
+tried long enough ago."
+
+"So do I," was the reply.  "But, I say, speak out frankly: do you feel
+up to the work?"
+
+"I feel as light and active as if I were going to a football match," was
+the reply.
+
+"That's right," said Dickenson, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"And you?"
+
+"Just as if I were going to give the Boers a lesson and show them what a
+couple of light companies can do in a storming rush.  There, save your
+breath for the use of your legs.  Two hours' march, two hours' lie down,
+and then--"
+
+"Yes, Bob;" said Lennox, drawing a deep breath, and feeling for the
+first time that they were going on a very serious mission; "and then?"
+
+And then there was nothing heard but the light tramp--tramp--tramp--
+tramp of a hundred and fifty men and their leaders, not one of whom felt
+the slightest doubt as to his returning safe.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+FOR A NIGHT ATTACK.
+
+It was a weird march in the silence and darkness, but the men were as
+elastic of spirits as if they had been on their way to some festivity.
+There may have been some exceptions, but extremely few; and Dickenson
+was not above suggesting one, not ill-naturedly, but in his anxiety for
+the success of the expedition, as he explained to Lennox in a whisper
+when they were talking over the merits of the different non-commissioned
+officers.
+
+"I don't believe I shall ever make a good soldier, Drew," he said.
+
+"What!" was the reply; and then, "Why?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose I've got my whack of what some people call brute courage,
+for as soon as I get excited or hurt I never think of being afraid, but
+go it half-mad-like, wanting to do all the mischief I can to whoever it
+is that has hurt me; but what I shall always want will be the cool, calm
+chess-player's head that helps a man to take advantage of every move the
+enemy makes, and check him.  I shall always be the fellow who shoves out
+his queen and castle and goes slashing into the adversary till he
+smashes him or gets too far to retreat, and is then smashed up himself."
+
+"Well, be content with what you can do," said Lennox, "and trust to the
+cool-headed man as your leader.  You'll be right enough in your way."
+
+"Thankye.  I say, how a trip like this makes you think of your men and
+what they can do!"
+
+"Naturally," said Lennox.
+
+"One of the things I've learnt is," continued Dickenson, "how much a
+regiment like ours depends on its non-commissioned officers."
+
+"Of course," replied Lennox.  "They're all long-experienced,
+highly-trained, picked men.  See how they step into the breach sometimes
+when the leaders are down."
+
+"By George, yes!" whispered Dickenson enthusiastically.--"Oh, bother
+that stone!  Hff!--And I hope we sha'n't have them stepping into any
+breaches to-night."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Why!  Because we don't want the leaders to go down."
+
+"No, of course not," said Lennox, laughing softly.  "But, talking about
+non-commissioned officers, we're strong enough.  Look at James."
+
+"Oh yes; he's as good as a colonel in his way."
+
+"And the other sergeants too."
+
+"Capital, well-tried men," said Dickenson; "but I was thinking of the
+corporals."
+
+"Well, there's hardly a man among them who mightn't be made a sergeant
+to-morrow."
+
+"Hum!" said Dickenson.
+
+"What do you mean?" cried Lennox shortly.
+
+"What I say.  Hum!  Would you make that chap Corporal May a sergeant?"
+
+"Well, no: I don't think I would."
+
+"Don't think?  Why, the fellow's as great a coward as he is a sneak."
+
+"Don't make worse of the man than he is."
+
+"I won't," said Dickenson.  "I'll amend my charge.  He's as great a
+sneak as he is a coward."
+
+"Poor fellow! he mustn't come to you for his character."
+
+"Poor fellow!  Yes, that's what he is--an awfully poor fellow.  Corporal
+May?  Corporal _Mayn't_, it ought to be.  No, he needn't come to me for
+his character.  He'll have to go to Roby, who is trying his best to get
+him promoted.  Asked me the other day whether I didn't think he was the
+next man for sergeant."
+
+"What did you say?"
+
+"Told Roby that he ought to be the very last."
+
+"You did?"
+
+"Of course: right out."
+
+"What did Roby say?"
+
+"Told me I was a fool--he didn't use that word, but he meant it--and
+then said downright that fortunately my opinion as to the men's
+qualities wasn't worth much."
+
+"What did you say to that?"
+
+"`Thankye;' that's all.  Bah!  It set me thinking about what a moll the
+fellow was in that cave business.  It was sheer cowardice, old man.  He
+confessed it, and through that your accident happened.  I don't like
+Corporal May, and I wish to goodness he wasn't with us to-night.  I'm
+hopeful, though."
+
+"Hopeful?  Of course.  I dare say he'll behave very well."
+
+"I daren't, old man; but I'm hopeful that he'll fall out with a sore
+foot or a sprained ankle through stumbling over a stone or bush.  That's
+the sort of fellow who does--"
+
+"Pst!  We're talking too much," whispered Lennox, to turn the
+conversation, which troubled him, for inwardly he felt ready to endorse
+every word his comrade had uttered.
+
+"Oh, I'm talking in a fly's whisper.  What a fellow you are!  Always
+ready to defend anybody."
+
+"Pst!"
+
+"There you go again with your _Pst_!  Just like a sick locomotive."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"I didn't hear anything.  Oh yes, I do.  That howl.  There it goes
+again.  One of those beautiful hyenas.  I say, Drew."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"My old people at home live in one of those aesthetic Surrey villages
+full of old maids and cranks who keep all kinds of useless dogs and
+cats.  The old folks are awfully annoyed by them of a night.  When I've
+been down there staying for a visit I've felt ready to jump out of bed
+and shell the neighbourhood with jugs, basins, and water-bottles.  But
+_lex talionis_, as the lawyers call it--pay 'em back in their own coin.
+What a game it would be to take the old people home a nice pet hyena or
+a young jackal to serenade the village of a night!"
+
+"There is an old proverb about cutting your nose off to be revenged upon
+your face.  There, be quiet; I want to think of the work in hand."
+
+"I don't," replied Dickenson; "not till we're going to begin, and then
+I'm on."
+
+The night grew darker as they drew nearer to their goal, for a thin veil
+of cloud shut out the stars; but it was agreed that it was all the
+better for the advance.  In fact, everything was favourable; for the
+British force had week by week grown less demonstrative, contenting
+itself with acting on the defensive, and the reconnoitring that had gone
+on during the past few days had been thoroughly masked by the attempts
+successfully made to carry off a few sheep, this being taken by the
+enemy as the real object of the excursions.  For the Boers, after their
+long investment of Groenfontein and the way in which they had cut off
+all communications, were perfectly convinced that the garrison was
+rapidly growing weaker, and that as soon as ever their ammunition died
+out the prize would fall into their hands like so much ripe fruit.
+
+They were thus lulled as it were into a state of security, which enabled
+the little surprise force to reach the place made for without
+encountering a single scout.  Then, with the men still fresh, a halt was
+made where the character of the ground suddenly changed from open,
+rolling, bush-sprinkled veldt to a slight ascent dotted with rugged
+stones, which afforded excellent cover for a series of rushes if their
+approach were discovered before they were close up.
+
+This was about a mile from the little low kopje where the Boers were
+laagered; and as soon as the word to halt had been whispered along the
+line the men lay down to rest for the two hours settled in the plans
+before making their final advance, while the first alarm of the sentries
+on guard was to be the signal for the bayonet-charge.
+
+"I don't think we need say any more to the lads," whispered the major as
+the officers crept together for a few final words.  "They all know that
+the striking of a match for a furtive pipe would be fatal to the
+expedition."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Roby, "and to a good many of us.  But the lads may
+be trusted."
+
+"Yes, I believe so," said the major.
+
+"There's one thing I should like to say, though," said Roby.  "I've been
+thinking about it all the time we've been on the march."
+
+"What is it, Roby?" said the major.--"Can you hear, Edwards--all of
+you?"
+
+"Yes--yes," was murmured, for the officers' heads were pretty close
+together.
+
+"I've been thinking," said Captain Roby, "that if we divided our force
+and attacked on two sides at once, the Boers would believe that we were
+in far greater force, and the panic would be the greater."
+
+"Excellent advice," said the major, "if our numbers were double; but it
+would weaken our attack by half--oh, by far more than half.  No, Roby, I
+shall keep to the original plan.  We don't know enough of the kopje, and
+in the darkness we could not ensure making the attack at the same
+moment, nor yet in the weakest places.  We must keep as we are.  Get as
+close as we can without being discovered, and then the bugles must
+sound, and with a good British cheer we must be into them."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," was murmured, and Captain Roby was silent for a brief
+space.
+
+"Very well, sir," he said coldly.  "You know best."
+
+"I don't know that, Roby," replied the major; "but I think that is the
+better plan--a sudden, sharply delivered surprise with the bayonet.  The
+enemy will have no chance to fire much, and we shall be at such close
+quarters that they will be at a terrible disadvantage."
+
+"Yes," said Captain Edwards as the major ceased speaking; "let them have
+their rear open to run, and let our task be to get them on the run.  I
+agree with the major: no alterations now."
+
+"No," said Dickenson in a low growl; "no swapping horses when you're
+crossing a stream."
+
+"I have done," said Roby, and all settled down into silence, the
+officers resting like the men, but rising to creep along the line from
+time to time to whisper a word or two with the non-commissioned
+officers, whom they found thoroughly on the alert, ready to rouse up a
+man here and there who was coolly enough extended upon his back
+sleeping, to pass the time to the best advantage before it was time to
+fight.
+
+Every now and then there came a doleful, despairing yelp from some
+hungry animal prowling about in search of prey, and mostly from the
+direction of the Boer laager, where food could be scented.  Twice, too,
+from far off to their left, where the wide veldt extended, there came
+the distant, awe-inspiring, thunderous roar of a lion; but for the most
+part of the time the stillness around was most impressive, with sound
+travelling so easily in the clear air that the neighing of horses was
+plainly heard again and again, evidently coming from the Boer laager,
+unless, as Lennox suggested, a patrol might be scouting round.  But as
+each time it came apparently from precisely the same place, the first
+idea was adopted, especially as it was exactly where the enemy's camp
+was marked down.
+
+The two hours seemed very long to Lennox, who lay thinking of home, and
+of how little those he loved could realise the risky position he
+occupied that night.  Dickenson was flat upon his back with his hands
+under his head, going over again the scene in the cavern when he was
+looking down the chasm and watching the movement of the light his friend
+had attached to his belt.
+
+"Not a pleasant thing to think about," he said to himself, "but it makes
+me feel savage against that corporal, and it's getting my monkey up, for
+we've got to fight to-night as we never fought before.  We've got to
+whip, as the Yankees say--`whip till we make the beggars run.'  What a
+piece of impudence it does seem!" he said to himself a little later on.
+"Here we are, about a hundred and fifty hungry men, and I'll be bound to
+say there's about fifteen hundred of the enemy.  But then they don't
+grasp it.  They're beggars to sleep, and if we're lucky we shall be on
+to them before they know where they are.  Oh, we shall do it;" and he
+lay thinking again of Corporal May, feeling like a boy once more; and he
+was just at the pitch when he muttered to himself, "What a pity it is
+that an officer must not strike one of his men!--for I should dearly
+like to punch that fellow's head.--Ha! here's the major.  Never mind,
+there'll be other heads waiting over yonder, and I dare say I shall get
+all I want."
+
+He turned over quickly, not to speak, but to grip his comrade's hand,
+for the word was being passed to fall in, and as he and Lennox gripped
+each other's hands hard and in silence, a soft, rustling movement was
+heard.  For the men were springing to their feet and arranging their
+pouches and belts, before giving their rifles a thorough rub to get rid
+of the clinging clew.
+
+"Fall in" was whispered, and the men took their places with hardly a
+sound.
+
+"Fix bayonets!" was the next order, and a faint--very faint--metallic
+clicking ran along the lines, followed by a silence so deep that the
+breathing of the men could be heard.
+
+"Forward!"
+
+There was no need for more, and the officers led off, with the one idea
+of getting as close to the Boers as possible before they were
+discovered, and then charging home, keeping their men as much together
+as they could, and knowing full well that much must be left to chance.
+
+The next minute the men were advancing softly in double line, opening
+out and closing up, as obstacles in the shape of stone and bush began to
+be frequent.  But there was no hurry, no excitement.  They had ample
+time, and when one portion of the force was a little entangled by a
+patch of bush thicker than usual, those on either side halted so as to
+keep touch, and in this way the first half-mile was passed, the only
+sound they heard being the neighing of a horse somewhere in front.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+THE ADVANCE.
+
+The horse's neigh was hailed with satisfaction by the officers, for it
+proved that they were going right; and soon after, this idea was
+endorsed and there was no more doubt as to their being aiming exactly,
+for right in front the darkness seemed to be intensified, and the
+advancing party could dimly see the rugged outline of the kopje marked
+against the sky.
+
+Lennox drew a deep breath full of relief, for from what he could see
+there would be no terrible blundering and fighting their way up
+precipitous tracks, as the Boers' stronghold was nothing more than a
+vast mound, easy of ascent; though he did not doubt for a moment but
+that wherever the ground was fairly level the lower part would be
+strengthened by breastworks and row after row of wagons, from behind
+which the Boers would fire.
+
+The advancing force tramped on as silently as ever, in spite of the
+impediments in their way; but there was no alarm, no scout sitting
+statue-like upon his active, wiry Basuto pony, and farther on no
+bandolier-belted sentry, rifle in hand, shouted the alarm.  They might
+have been approaching a deserted camp for all the hindrance they met
+with.
+
+It seemed to Lennox, just as others expressed it later on, that it was
+too good to be true, and the young officer's heart beat fast as,
+revolver in one hand, sword in the other, he stepped lightly on,
+prepared for a furious volley from the Boer rifles, being quite certain
+in his own mind that they must be going right into an ambush.
+
+But no--all was safe: and they were so near that at any moment the
+bugles might sound, to be followed by the rousing cheer of the men in
+their dashing charge.
+
+Suddenly there was a pause, and a thrill ran along the line, for there
+was something in the way not five yards from Lennox's position in the
+line.
+
+"A sentry!" was whispered, and the line advanced again, for a burgher
+was lying across the way, fast asleep, and giving warning thereof
+through the nose--sleeping so hard that the men stepped right over him,
+he as unconscious as they were that other sentries were failing as much
+in their wearisome duty and being passed.
+
+"It must be now," thought Lennox, as he could dimly make out, spreading
+to right and left, a line of wagons, but not closed up, for there were
+wide intervals between; and now a low, dull, crunching sound and the
+odour of bovine animals plainly announced that there were spans of oxen
+lying close by the wagons as if ready for some movement in the early
+morning for which their drivers had made preparations overnight.
+
+As it happened, the interval between two of the wagons was fairly wide
+just opposite the spot where Lennox was in line with his men.  Dickenson
+was off to his left, and Roby was leading.
+
+In a whisper the major indicated that the men should close up and pass
+through this opening, but in the excitement of the moment he spoke too
+loudly, and from somewhere close, the guard having been passed in the
+darkness, a man started up and shouted:
+
+"Who comes there?"
+
+His answer was given by the loud call of a bugle, and as he fired his
+warning shot the major's voice was heard shouting, "Forward--bayonets!"
+and with a ringing cheer the men dashed on as best they could, making
+for the centre of the Boers' position, shouting, cheering again and
+again, and driving the yelling crowd of excited Boers who were springing
+up in all directions before them like a flock of sheep.
+
+The confusion was awful: rifles were being fired here and there at
+random, and more often at the expense of friend than of foe; while
+wherever a knot of the enemy clustered together it was as often to come
+into contact with their own people as with the major's excited line,
+which dashed at them as soon as an opening could be found, with such
+effect that the Boers, thoroughly surprised, gave way in every
+direction, fleeing from bristling bayonets and overturning one another
+in their alarm.
+
+It was terrible work, for the attacking line was so often arrested by
+impediments whose nature they could not stop to grasp, that it was soon
+broken up into little groups led by officers commissioned and
+non-commissioned.  But still, after a fashion, they preserved the
+formation of an advancing wave sweeping over the kopje, and their
+discipline acted magnetically with its cohesion, drawing them together,
+while their enemies scattered more and more to avoid the bayonet as much
+as to find some shelter from which such of them as had their rifles
+could fire.
+
+It was panic _in excelsis_, and though many fought bravely, using their
+pieces as clubs where they could not fire, the one line they followed
+was that of flight for the enclosure behind, where their horses were
+tethered; and in less than ten minutes the major's force had swept right
+through the Boer laager on to open ground, where, in response to bugle,
+whistle, and cry, they rallied, ready for rushing the enemy wherever
+they could see a knot gathering together to resist, or from which firing
+had begun.
+
+Another five minutes, during which there was desperate work going on
+near what had been the centre of the attacking line, and the beating of
+horses' hoofs and trampling feet told that the Boers were in full flight
+in the direction of the next kopje, where their friends were in all
+probability sleeping in as much security as had been the case where the
+attack was made.  And now, as soon as the major could get his men in
+hand, they dropped on one knee to empty the magazines of their rifles
+into the dimly seen cloud of flying men running and hiding for their
+lives, the volleys completely dissipating all thoughts of rallying to
+meet the attacking force; in fact, not a Boer stopped till the next
+kopje was reached and the news announced of their utter defeat.
+
+It was quick but terrible work, for the men's bayonets had been busy.
+Their blood was up, and they felt that they were avenging weeks of cruel
+suffering, loss, and injury.  But now that the wild excitement of the
+encounter was at an end, and they were firing with high trajectory at
+their panic-stricken foes, the bugle rang out "Cease firing!" and they
+gathered together, flinging up their helmets and catching them on their
+bayonets, and cheering themselves hoarse.
+
+The next minute they were eagerly obeying orders, with the faint light
+of day beginning to appear in the east, and working with all their might
+to collect and give first aid to the wounded, whether he was comrade or
+enemy: no distinction was made; everything possible was done.
+
+But before this Major Robson had selected the best runner of his men
+volunteering for the duty, and sent him off to Groenfontein bearing a
+hastily pencilled message written upon the leaf of his pocketbook:
+
+"Boers utterly routed--kopje and laager taken.  Many wounded; send
+help."
+
+For the attacking force had not escaped unhurt, several having received
+bullet-wounds, as where the Boers could get a chance they fired well;
+but as far as could be made out in the first hurried examination not a
+man was dangerously injured, and in most of the cases their hurts were
+cuts and bruises given by the butts of rifles.  As to the Boers, the
+majority of their hurts were bayonet-thrusts, in some cases the last
+injuries they would receive; but quite a score were suffering from the
+small bullet-holes made by the Mauser rifles fired by their friends in
+their random expenditure of ammunition, such of them as had been shot by
+our men lying far out on the veldt, having received their wounds during
+their hurried flight and not yet been brought in.
+
+Many of the wounded Boers--there was not a single prisoner, orders
+having been given not to arrest their flight--looked on in wonder to see
+the easy-going, friendly way in which our soldiers gave them help.  For
+it was a cheery "Hold up, old chap!" or "Oh, this is not bad; you'll
+soon be all right again."
+
+"Here, Tommy, bring this Dutchman a drink of water."
+
+For the fierce warrior was latent once again, and now it was the simple
+Briton, ready and eager to help his injured brother in the good old
+Samaritan mode.
+
+There was other work in hand to do as soon as it was light enough--the
+roll to call--and there were missing men to be accounted for; while, as
+the officers responded to their names, there was no answer to that of
+Captain Roby.
+
+"He was fighting away like a hero, sir, last time I saw him," said
+Sergeant James, whose frank, manly face was disfigured by a tremendous
+blow on the cheek.
+
+"Search for him, my lads; he can't have been taken prisoner," said the
+major.  "It's getting lighter now."
+
+"Poor fellow!  I hope he hasn't got it," said Dickenson to himself as he
+nursed a numbed arm nearly broken by a drive made with a rifle-butt.
+
+Lennox was called, and Dickenson's eyes dilated and then seemed to
+contract, for there was no reply.
+
+"Mr Lennox.--Who saw Mr Lennox last?"
+
+There was no answer for some seconds, and then from where the wounded
+lay a feeble voice said, "I saw him running round one of the wagons,
+sir, just in the thick of the fight."
+
+"He must be down," said the major sadly.  "Look for him, my lads; he is
+somewhere on the ground we came along, lying perhaps amongst the Boers."
+
+Dickenson groaned--perhaps it was from pain, for his injury throbbed,
+pangs running right up into the shoulder-joint, and then up the left
+side of his neck.
+
+"Oh! don't say poor old Drew's down," he said to himself.  "Just, too,
+when I was growling at him for not coming to look me up when I was
+hurt."
+
+No one did say he was down but the young lieutenant's imagination, and
+he sat down on a rock and began watching the men coming and going after
+bringing in wounded men.
+
+"Who said he saw Mr Lennox last?" cried Captain Edwards.
+
+"I did," said the wounded man in a feeble, whining voice.
+
+"Who's that?" said the major, stepping towards the man, who lay with his
+face disfigured by a smear of blood.
+
+"I did, sir.  Dodging round one of the wagons somewhere.  It was where
+the Boers stood a bit, and I got hurt."
+
+"Could you point out the place?"
+
+"No, sir; it was all dark, and I'm hurt," said the man faintly.
+
+"Give him some water," said the captain.  "Your hurts shall be seen to
+soon, my lad.  Cheer up, all of you; the major has sent for the
+ambulance-wagons, so you'll ride home."
+
+"Hooray, and thanks, sir!" said the worst wounded man, and then he
+fainted.
+
+Just then, as the first orange-tipped clouds were appearing far on high,
+four men were seen approaching, carrying a wounded man slung in Sergeant
+James's sash; and as soon as he caught sight of the injured man's face
+Major Robson hurried to meet the party.
+
+"Roby!  Tut, tut, tut!" he cried.  "This is bad work.  Not dead,
+sergeant?"
+
+"No, sir; but he has it badly.  Bullet at the top of his forehead; hit
+him full, and ploughed up through scalp; but as far as I can make out
+the bone's not broken."
+
+"Lay him down, sergeant.  How long will it be," he muttered, "before we
+get the doctor here?  Where did you find him?"
+
+"Lying out yonder all alone, beyond those rocks, sir," replied the
+sergeant.
+
+"Water--bandage," said the major, and both were brought, and the best
+that could be done under the circumstances was effected by the major and
+Sergeant James, while the sufferer resisted strongly, every now and then
+muttering impatiently.  Then irritably telling those who tended him to
+let him go to sleep, he closed his eyes, but only to open them again and
+stare vacantly, just as Dickenson, who had been away for another look
+round on his own account, came up and bent over him.
+
+"Poor fellow!" muttered Dickenson sadly, and he laid his hand
+sympathetically upon that of the wounded captain.
+
+"I don't think it's very serious," said the major.  "Look here,
+Dickenson; we have no time to spare.  Take enough men, and set half to
+round up all the bullocks and sheep you can see, while the others load
+up three or four wagons with what provisions you can find.  Send off
+each wagon directly straight for camp, and the cattle too, while we
+gather and blow up all the ammunition and fire the wagons left.  It will
+not be very long before the enemy will be coming back.  Hurry."
+
+Dickenson was turning to go when the major arrested him.
+
+"Any news of Lennox?" he said.
+
+"None, sir," said the lieutenant sadly.
+
+But his words were nearly drowned by an angry cry from Roby: "The
+coward!  The cur!  He shall be cashiered for this."
+
+"Go on, Dickenson," said the major; "the poor fellow's off his head.  He
+doesn't mean you."
+
+The lieutenant hurried away, and for the next half-hour the men worked
+like slaves, laying the wounded Boers well away from the laager, and
+their own injured men out on the side nearest Groenfontein; while
+Dickenson, in the most business-like manner, helped by Sergeant James,
+sent off a large drove of oxen, the big, heavy, lumbering animals
+herding together and trudging steadily away after a wagon with its
+regular span laden heavily with mealies, straight for Groenfontein.  For
+a few Kaffirs turned up after the firing was over, evidently with ideas
+of loot, and ready to be impressed for foreloper, driver, or herdsmen to
+the big drove of beasts.
+
+A few horses were rounded up as well, and followed the oxen; while, as
+fast as they could be got ready, three more provision-wagons were
+despatched, the whole making a long broken convoy on its way to the
+British camp.
+
+By this time the men, working under the orders of Captain Edwards and
+the major, had got the Boers' ammunition-wagons together in one place
+behind a mass of rocks, on the farther side of the kopje, away from the
+wounded.  Then the weapons that could be found were piled amongst the
+wagons in another place; and the troops were still working hard when the
+major bade them cease.
+
+"We can do no more," he said; "we have no time.  But oughtn't the
+ambulance-wagons to be here by now?  The enemy can't be long; they're
+bound to attack.  Ah, Dickenson, have you got all off?"
+
+"All I could, sir, in the time."
+
+"That's right.  I want your men here.  You'll be ready to help to get
+off the wounded as soon as the wagons come?"
+
+Dickenson nodded, with his head averted from the speaker and his eyes
+wandering over the injured men.
+
+"No news of Lennox?" he asked.
+
+"None.  I can't understand where the poor fellow is, unless he was
+carried off in the rush of the Boers' retreat.  A thorough search has
+been made.  Here, get up on the highest part of the kopje with your
+glass, and see if you can make out anything of the enemy."
+
+The lieutenant was in the act of opening the case of his field-glass,
+when from where the wounded lay came another angry burst of exclamations
+from Roby, incoherent for the most part, but Dickenson heard plainly,
+"Coward--cowardly hound!  To leave a man like that."
+
+Dickenson turned a quick, inquiring look at the major.
+
+"Delirium," said the latter sharply.  "I don't know what the poor fellow
+has on his brain.  Oh, if the ambulance fellows would only come!  There,
+my dear boy, off with you and use that glass."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+THE SERGEANT IN HIS ELEMENT.
+
+Dickenson dashed off and climbed the low kopje, zigzagging among rough
+stone walls, rifle-pits, and other shelter, and noting that, if the
+Boers came upon them before they could retreat, there was a strong
+position for the men from which they could keep the enemy at bay; and,
+soldier-like, he began calculating as to whether it would not have been
+wiser to decide on holding the place instead of hurrying back to
+Groenfontein, with the certainty of having to defend themselves and
+fight desperately on the way, small body as they were, to escape being
+surrounded and cut off.
+
+To his great satisfaction, though, upon reaching the highest part of the
+mound and using his glass, there were only a few straggling parties of
+men dotting the open veldt, where everything stood out bright and clear
+in the light of the early morning.  Some were mounted, others walking,
+and in two places there was a drove of horses, and all going in the
+direction of the next laager held by the Boers.
+
+He stood with his glass steadied against a big stone and looked long,
+searching the veldt to right and left and looking vainly for the main
+body of the enemy retreating; but they were out of reach of his vision,
+or hidden amongst the bushes farther on.  But even if the foremost had
+readied their friends, these latter were not riding out as yet to make
+reprisals, and, as far as he could judge, there was no risk of an attack
+for some time to come.
+
+For a moment a feeling of satisfaction pervaded him, but the next his
+heart sank; and he lowered his glass to begin looking round the kopje
+where here and there lay the men who had fallen during the surprise.
+
+"Where can poor old Drew be?" he almost groaned.
+
+At that instant his eyes lit upon the figure of the major, waving his
+hand to him angrily as if to draw his attention; and raising his own to
+his lips, he shouted as loudly as he could, "Nothing in sight."
+
+The major's voice came to him clearly enough, in company with another
+wave of the hand in the other direction: "Ambulance?"
+
+Dickenson swung round his glass to direct it towards Groenfontein, and
+his spirits rose again, for right away beyond the long string of oxen
+and wagons, as if coming to meet them, he could make out three light
+wagons drawn by horses, and a knot of about twenty mounted men coming at
+a canter and fast leaving the wagons behind.
+
+"Ha!" sighed Dickenson; "that's good.  The colonel must have started
+them to meet us the moment the firing was heard."
+
+He turned directly to shout his news to the watching major, who signed
+to him to come down; and he descended, meeting two men coming up, one of
+them carrying a field-glass.
+
+"To watch for the enemy, sir," said the latter as they met.  "Which is
+the best place?"
+
+"Up yonder by that stone, my lad," replied Dickenson, pointing.  "Any
+news of Mr Lennox?"
+
+"No, sir; I can't understand it.  I think I saw him running down the
+side of the kopje just as we were getting on, but it was so dark then I
+couldn't be sure."
+
+"I can't understand his not being found," said Dickenson to himself, as
+he hurried down to where the major was posting the men in the best
+positions for resisting an attack, if one were made before the party
+could get away.
+
+Dickenson's attention was soon too much taken up with work waiting, for
+the wounded had to be seen to.  Rightly considering that before long the
+enemy would advance to try and retake their old position, the major gave
+orders that the Boer wounded be rearranged so that they were in shelter
+and safety; and then, as there was still no sign of danger, the few
+injured of the attacking force were borne to the nearest spot where the
+ambulance party could meet them.  Then the final work of destruction
+began.
+
+"Seems a thousand pities," said Captain Edwards, "badly as we want
+everything nearly here."
+
+"Yes," said the major; "but we can take no more, and we can't leave the
+stores for the enemy.--Here, Dickenson, take Sergeant James and play
+engineer.  I have had the trains laid and fuses placed ready.  You two
+must fire them as soon as we are a few hundred yards away."
+
+Dickenson shrugged his shoulders and said nothing.
+
+"Take care, and make sure the fuses are burning; then hurry away.  Don't
+run any risks, and don't let Sergeant James be foolhardy."
+
+"I'll mind, sir," said Dickenson shortly.
+
+"The wagons will be fired before we start, so that the wind will keep
+them going."
+
+"What about the powder?" said Dickenson gruffly.  "That is all together.
+There are three wagons wheeled down into the shelter of the rock, so
+that the blast will not reach the fire."
+
+"It'll blow it right up," growled Dickenson.
+
+"No," said the major; "the rocks will deflect it upwards.  I've seen to
+that."
+
+"Couldn't we make the mules carry off the wagons?  All three ambulances
+will not be wanted."
+
+"My dear boy, you mean well," said the major impatiently; "but pray be
+content with taking your orders.  Edwards and I have thought all that
+out.  The fire will not go near the wounded Boers, and the explosion
+will not touch the fire.  As to carrying off these wagon-loads of
+cartridges that will not fit our rifles or guns, what is the use?  Now,
+are you satisfied?"
+
+"Quite, sir," said Dickenson.  "I was only thinking that--"
+
+"Don't think _that_, man; obey orders."
+
+"Right, sir," said Dickenson stiffly, and he went off to look up
+Sergeant James.  "Hang him!" growled the young officer.  "It doesn't
+seem to be my work.  Making a confounded powder-monkey of a fellow!"
+
+He glanced up, and saw that the men were busy on high with the
+field-glass, but making no sign.  Then he noted that the ambulance, with
+its escort, was coming on fast; and soon, after a little inquiry, he
+came upon the sergeant, busy with the men, every one with his rifle
+slung, linking wagons together with tent-cloth poles and wood boxes and
+barrels so that the conflagration might be sure to spread when once it
+was started, to which end the men worked with a will; but they did not
+hesitate to cram their wallets and pockets with eatables in any form
+they came across.
+
+"Make a pretty good bonfire when it's started, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"Humph!  Yes," said Dickenson.  "But what are those two barrels?"
+
+"Paraffin, sir, for the beggars' lamps."
+
+"Well," said Dickenson grimly, "wouldn't it help the fire if you opened
+them, knocked in their heads, and bucketed out the spirit to fling it
+over the wagon-tilts?"
+
+The men who heard his words gave a cheer, and without orders seized the
+casks, rolled them right to the end where the fire was to be started,
+drove in the heads with an axe, and for the next quarter of an hour two
+of the corporals were busy ladling out the spirit and flinging it all
+over three of the wagons and everything else inflammable that was near.
+
+"Now pack the paraffin-casks full of that dry grass and hay," cried
+Dickenson, who had been superintending.  "It will soak up the rest, and
+you can start the fire with them."
+
+The men cheered again, and in a very short time the two barrels stood
+under the tail-boards of two wagons, only awaiting the flashing-off of a
+box of matches to start a fire that no efforts could check.
+
+"Here is the ambulance party," cried Dickenson.  "Come with me now,
+sergeant.  Let your corporals finish what there is to do."
+
+"I don't see that there's any more to do, sir," said the sergeant,
+wiping his wet face.  "Want me, sir?"
+
+"Yes; I've something to say.  You will go down and see the wounded off.
+Oh dear! oh dear!  I've been thinking of what we were doing, and not of
+poor Mr Lennox.  You've heard nothing, I suppose?"
+
+"Neither heard nor seen, sir," replied the sergeant.  "Seems to me that,
+in his plucky way, he must have dashed at the enemy, got mixed, and they
+somehow swept him off."
+
+"If they did," said Dickenson, "he'll be too sharp for them, and get
+away."
+
+"That he will, sir."
+
+"I was afraid the poor fellow was killed."
+
+"Not he, sir," cried the sergeant.  "He'd take a deal of killing.
+Besides, we should have found him and brought him in.  He'll turn up
+somewhere."
+
+"Ha!  You make me feel better, James," said Dickenson.  "It took all the
+spirit out of me.  Now then, I've some bad news for you."
+
+"Let's have it, sir.  I've had so much that it runs away now like water
+off a duck's back."
+
+"It has nothing to do with water, sergeant, but with fire."
+
+"That all, sir?  I see; I'm to stop till the detachment's well out of
+the way, and then fire the laager?"
+
+"No," said Dickenson; "that will be done before the men have marched.
+You are to stop with me and light the fuses."
+
+"To blow up the ammunition, sir?  Well, I was wondering who was to do
+that."
+
+"It's a risky job, sergeant."
+
+"Pooh, sir!  Nothing like advancing against a lot of hiding Boers
+waiting to pot you with their Mausers.  Beg pardon, sir; who was
+Mauser?"
+
+"I don't know, sergeant.  I suppose he was the man who invented the Boer
+rifles."
+
+"And a nice thing to be proud of, sir!  I'm not a vicious sort of
+fellow, but I do feel sometimes as if I should like to see him set up as
+a mark, and a couple of score o' Boers busy trying how his invention
+worked."
+
+"Come along," said the lieutenant.--"Then you don't mind the job?"
+
+"Not I, sir.  I always loved powder from a boy.  Used to make little
+cannons out of big keys, filing the bottoms to make a touch-hole.  I was
+a don at squibs and crackers; and the games we used to have laying
+trains and making blue devils!  Ha!  It was nice to be a boy!"
+
+"Yes, sergeant; and now we've got something big to do.  But there,
+you're used to it.  Remember getting away the powder-bags with Mr
+Lennox?"
+
+"Remember it, sir?  Ha!  But I was in a fright then."
+
+"Of being blown up?"
+
+"Well, sir, if you'll believe me, I never thought of myself at all.  I
+was all in a stew for fear the powder should catch from the lantern and
+make an end of Mr Lennox."
+
+"I believe you," said Dickenson; and they stopped at the spot where the
+ambulance-wagons had trotted up, and the leader of the mounted escort
+had dropped from his panting horse to speak to the major.
+
+"Then you've done it, sir?"
+
+"Yes, as you see.  What message from the colonel?"
+
+"Covering party advancing, sir, to help you in.  You are to get all the
+provisions and cattle you can, and retire.  But that I see you have
+done.  Enemy near, sir?"
+
+The major glanced at the top of the kopje before replying, and then said
+briefly, "Not yet."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+ANOTHER EXPLOSION.
+
+The wounded men--a couple of dozen all told, many of the injuries being
+only slight--were rapidly lifted into the light wagons while the horses
+and mules were given water, and all went well, the more slightly hurt
+cheering and joking their bearers, and making light of their injuries in
+the excitement of the triumph.
+
+"Mind my head, boys," said one; "it's been knocked crooked."
+
+"And my leg's loose, you clumsy beggar; it's there somewhere.  Don't
+leave it behind."
+
+"I say, Joey, I've got a hole right through me; ain't it a lark!"
+
+"Here, you, sir!  Take care; that's my best 'elmet.  I want it for a
+piller."  And so on, and so on.
+
+Only one man groaned dismally, and that was Corporal May.
+
+"I say, mate; got it as bad as that?" said one of the bearers.
+
+"Oh! worse--worse than that," moaned the corporal.  "I'm a dead man."
+
+"Are you, now?" said one of his fellows in the company.  "I say, speak
+the truth, old chap; speak the truth."
+
+"Oh!" groaned the corporal.  "Why am I here--why am I here?"
+
+"I dunno," said the bearer he looked at with piteous eyes.  "I never was
+good at riddles, mate.  Can't guess.  Ask me another.--There you are,
+lifted as gently as a babby.  You're only a slightly; I do know that."
+
+The corporal was borne away, still groaning, and the man who had spoken
+last handed him some water.
+
+"Cheer up, corporal," he said; "you'll be back in the ranks in a week."
+
+Meanwhile the bearers were busy in the shelter where Captain Roby lay,
+flushed, fevered, and evidently in great pain, while his brother
+officers stood round him, eager to do anything to assuage his pangs and
+see him carefully borne to the wagon in which he was to travel.
+
+"How are you, Roby?" said Dickenson, softly laying a powder-blackened
+hand upon the injured man's arm, while the bearers stood waiting to
+raise him.
+
+The question and the touch acted electrically, Roby started; his eyes
+opened to their full extent, showing a ring of white all round the iris;
+and he made an effort to rise, but sank back.
+
+"You coward--you miserable cad!" he cried.  "You saw me shot down--I
+implored you to help me to the rear--and you chose that time to show
+your cowardly hate--you, an officer.--Coward!  You ran--you turned and
+ran to save your beggarly life--coward!--coward!  Oh, if I had
+strength!--I'll denounce you to the colonel.  Cur!--coward!--cur!--I'll
+publish it for all the world to know."
+
+Dickenson started at first, and then listened to the end.
+
+"All right," he said coolly.  "Don't forget when you write your book."
+
+"Lift him, my lads, gently; we have no time to spare," said the major
+sternly; and as Roby was borne away, shouting hoarsely, "Coward!--cur!"
+Captain Edwards said sharply in a whisper, so that the men should not
+hear:
+
+"Dickenson!  Is this true?"
+
+"Oh!  I don't know," was the reply.  "I recollect the bugle sounding,
+and then I was too busy to know what I did till it sounded `Cease
+firing!'  I know I was out of breath."
+
+"Take no notice," said the major quickly.  "The poor fellow's raving.
+Coward!  Tchah!  Be ready, Dickenson.  You've found the sergeant?"
+
+"All ready, sir."
+
+In a very few minutes the ambulance-wagons were off again, with their
+attendants ordered to go at a steady walk, and, if an attack was made,
+to keep the red-cross flag well shown, and avoid the line of fire if
+possible.
+
+And still there was no alarm given from the top of the kopje of the
+Boers' approach.
+
+A short time was allowed for the ambulance to get ahead, during which
+the officers had another look at the Boer wounded, the major ordering
+water to be given to the men.  Next a few sheaves of abandoned rifles
+were cast into the wagons to be burned, and a final look was given to
+the preparations already made for the destruction of the camp.
+
+At last, while the long line of captured stores was crawling over the
+veldt, and a great number of the other oxen which had wandered off to
+graze were, according to their instinct, beginning to follow their
+companions as if to make for Groenfontein, the order was given for the
+men to fall in ready for the march back.
+
+All was soon in order, and the major turned to Dickenson, who stood
+aside with Sergeant James, waiting to perform their dangerous task.
+
+"I was going to appoint four more men to fire the wagons," said the
+major, "but with the preparations you have made the flames will spread
+rapidly, and you two can very well do it; and as soon as the fire has
+taken hold you can light the fuses yonder."
+
+"Men signalling from the top of the kopje," said Captain Edwards.
+
+"That means the enemy in sight," said the major coolly.  "Signal to them
+to come down."
+
+As the captain turned away to attend to his orders the major held out
+his hand to Dickenson.
+
+"Do your work thoroughly," he said gravely, "and then follow as fast as
+you can.  I will leave pickets behind to cover you."
+
+Dickenson nodded, but said nothing, only stood fingering a box of
+matches in his pocket and watching the major hurrying down the
+encumbered slope of the kopje to join the men awaiting the order to
+march.
+
+"Sentries on the top coming down, sir," growled the sergeant; and
+Dickenson nodded again, turning to watch the two men running actively
+along and leaping from stone to stone, till they were pretty close to
+the drawn-up force, when the bugle rang out, the voices of the officers
+were heard, and the retiring party went off at a good swinging march.
+
+Dickenson watched them for a few minutes without a word, while the
+sergeant stood with his rifle grounded and his hands resting upon the
+muzzle, perfectly calm and soldierly, patiently waiting for his orders,
+just as if he and the sergeant were to follow as a sort of rear-guard
+instead of to fulfil about as dangerous a task as could fall to the lot
+of a man, knowing too, as he did, that the enemy had been signalled as
+advancing--a body of men armed with the most deadly and far-reaching
+rifles of modern times.
+
+"About time now, sergeant," said Dickenson coolly.
+
+"Yes, sir; 'bout right now, I should think."
+
+"I want them to have a fair start first," continued Dickenson; "and I
+can't help feeling a little uneasy about the enemy's wounded, for there
+will be an awful explosion."
+
+"Oh, they'll be all right, sir.  Make 'em jump, perhaps, and think
+they're going to be swept away."
+
+"I wish they were farther off," said Dickenson; and then he uttered an
+ejaculation as he started aside, an example followed by the sergeant,
+who chuckled a little as he exclaimed:
+
+"Wish 'em farther off, sir?  So do I."
+
+For, following directly one after the other, two shots were fired from
+the shelter where the wounded Boers had been carefully laid in safety, a
+couple of them having evidently retained their rifles, laying them under
+cover till they could find an opportunity to use them.
+
+"That's nice and friendly, James," said Dickenson coolly.  "Forward!--
+under cover."
+
+"I feel ashamed to run, sir," said the sergeant fiercely.
+
+"Look sharp!" cried Dickenson, for two more bullets whistled by them.
+"I don't like bolting, but it seems too bad to be shot down by the men
+we have been getting into safety."
+
+"And fidgeted about, sir," said the sergeant grimly.  "I wish you'd give
+me orders to chance it and go back and give those blackguards one apiece
+with their own rifles.  It must have been them the captain meant when he
+was letting go about cowards and curs."
+
+"Very likely, poor fellow!" said Dickenson, marching coolly on till they
+were covered from the Boers' fire.  "There, they may fire away now to
+their hearts' content," he continued, as he halted at the end of the
+prepared wagons.  "Wind's just right--eh?"
+
+"Beautiful, sir; and as soon as the blaze begins to make it hot you'll
+find the breeze'll grow stiffer.  It's a great pity, though."
+
+"Yes; I wish we had all this at Groenfontein."
+
+"So do I, sir; but wishing's no good.  I meant, though, it's a pity it
+isn't dark.  We should have a splendid blaze."
+
+"We shall have a splendid cloud of black smoke, sergeant," said
+Dickenson, taking out his box of matches.  "Ready?"
+
+"Ready, sir," replied the sergeant, and each held his match-box as low
+down in the paraffin-barrel as the saturated hay would permit, struck a
+match, and had to drop it at once and start back, for there was a flash
+of the evaporating gas, followed by a puff of brownish-black,
+evil-odoured smoke, which floated upward directly.
+
+"Bah!  Horrible!" cried Dickenson, coughing.  "My word, sergeant!
+there's not much doubt about the Boers' camp blazing."
+
+"Serve 'em right, sir, for using such nasty, common, dangerous paraffin.
+Here comes the wind, sir: what did I say?"
+
+For the soft breeze came with a heavier puff, which made the forked
+tongues of flame plunging up amongst the thick smoke begin to roar, and
+in a very few seconds the fire was rushing through one of the tilted
+wagons as if it were a huge horizontal chimney.
+
+"Did you get singed, sergeant?"
+
+"No, sir.  It just felt a bit hot.  Hullo! what's that?"
+
+For a horrible shrieking and yelling arose from the direction of the
+wounded Boers.
+
+"The crippled men," said Dickenson.  "They're afraid they are going to
+be burned to death.  We ought to go and shout to them that there's
+nothing to fear."
+
+"Yes, sir, it would be nice and kind," cried the sergeant sarcastically;
+"only if we tried they wouldn't let us--they'd shoot us down before we
+were half-way there."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Dickenson, who stared almost in wonder at the
+terrific rate at which the fire was roaring up and sweeping along,
+threatening, as wagon after wagon caught, to cover the kopje with flame.
+
+"Perhaps, sir," said the sergeant, with a grim smile, "it would be a
+comfort to the poor fellows' nerves if we sent up the ammunition-wagons
+now."
+
+"Whether it would or not, sergeant, we must be sharp and do it, or with
+these flakes of fire floating about we shall not dare to go near our
+fuse."
+
+"That's what I'm thinking, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"Forward, then;" and the pair went on at the double to the spot where
+the train was laid, the fuses being some distance from the
+ammunition-wagons, and on lower ground sheltered by great stones.
+
+The next minute the pair were down on one knee sheltering their
+match-boxes from the wind behind a big rock, with the train well in
+view, for those who laid it had not scrupled to use an abundance of
+powder.
+
+"I did not reckon about this wind," said Dickenson.  "As fast as one of
+us strikes a light it will be blown out."
+
+"That's right, sir."
+
+"And we shall never get the fuse started."
+
+"We must try, sir."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson.  "Here, it must be one man's job to fire the
+train; the explosion will send off the next wagon."
+
+"And no mistake, sir.  We ought to have had a lantern to light the fuse
+at.  But you get lower down, sir, and I'll set off the whole box of
+matches I've got here, chuck it into the train, and drop behind this big
+stone."
+
+"That seems to be the only way to get it done," replied Dickenson.
+
+"Yes, I'm sure of it, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"All right, then; run down and get behind that piece of rock.  I'll do
+it directly."
+
+"No, no, sir; let me do it," pleaded the sergeant.
+
+"'Tention!" roared Dickenson.  "Quick!  No time to lose.  Off at once."
+
+The sergeant's lips parted as if he were about to say something, but
+Dickenson gave him a stern look and pointed downward towards the stone,
+when discipline ruled, and the man doubled away to it, grumbling and
+growling till he was lying down panting as if he were out of breath.
+
+"I could have done it better myself," he said hoarsely; and then, "Oh,
+poor lad, poor lad!  If--if--"
+
+There was a sharp crack, followed by a pause filled up by the shrieking
+and yelling of the wounded Boers.  Then the sergeant felt that he must
+raise his head and see how matters were going on; but he refrained, for
+there was a peculiar hissing noise.  Dickenson had taken about twenty
+matches out of the box he carried, held them ready, and ignoring the
+fuse, he struck the bundle vigorously, stretched out his hand, which was
+almost licked by the flash of flame, and applied it to the thickly-laid
+train.
+
+For a few moments there was no result, the wind nearly blowing out the
+blazing splints; but just as the young man was hesitating about getting
+out more matches--_phitt_!  There was a flash as the powder caught and
+the flame began to run in its zigzag course right along the ground
+towards the nearest ammunition-wagon.
+
+Turning sharply, Dickenson laid his hands upon a block of loose stone,
+vaulted over it, and dropped flat upon his face, conscious the while of
+the piteous cries of the wounded men.
+
+The next instant there was a tremendous concussion, the stone giving him
+a violent blow, and as the sky above seemed to blaze there was a roar
+like thunder, then a perceptible pause, another roar, again a pause, and
+another roar.
+
+Then for a few moments the young officer lay deafened and feeling
+stunned, till beneath the pall of smoke which hung over him he opened
+his eyes and saw the sergeant kneeling by his side with his lips moving.
+
+Dickenson stared at him wonderingly, while he saw the horrified look in
+the man's face and its workings as he kept on moving his lips, and
+finally half-raised his young officer and laid him down again.
+
+"What's the matter?" said Dickenson--at least he thought he did--he felt
+as if he had said so; but somehow he could not hear himself speak for
+the crashing sound of many bells ringing all together.
+
+He did not for the moment realise what had happened, but like a flash
+the power of thinking came back, and drawing a deep breath, he tried to
+get up, but could hardly stir.  Something seemed to hold him down.
+
+"Give me your hand, sergeant," he said, but still no words seemed to
+come, and he repeated what he wished to speak; but before he had
+completed his sentence, he grasped the fact that the sergeant's manner
+had changed, for he rose up, felt behind him, looked at him again, and
+seemed to speak, for his lips moved.
+
+"Are you hurt?"  Dickenson said, in the same way.
+
+The sergeant's lips moved and he shook his head, looking the while as if
+he were not hurt in the least.
+
+"Then why don't you speak?" said Dickenson.
+
+The man smiled and pointed to his ears.
+
+"The explosion has deafened you?" said Dickenson dumbly, for still he
+could not hear a word.  "What do you mean?  Oh, I see."
+
+For the sergeant clapped him on the chest, and then placing his shoulder
+against the stone, he seemed to be exerting all his strength to force it
+uphill a little, succeeding so well that the next moment Dickenson felt
+himself slip, glided clear of the sergeant's legs, and rose to his own,
+while the man leaped aside and the great block slipped two or three
+yards before it stopped.
+
+"Then I was caught by the stone?" said Dickenson wonderingly.  "I felt
+it move."
+
+He felt sure now that he had said those words; but in his confused
+state, suffering as he was from the shock, he could only wonder why the
+sergeant should begin feeling him over, and, apparently satisfied that
+nothing was broken, begin hurrying him along in the direction taken by
+the retreating force, which, now that the dense cloud of smoke was
+lifting, he could see steadily marching away in the distance, but with a
+group of about a dozen lingering behind.
+
+Just then the sergeant stopped, unslung his rifle, placed his helmet on
+the top, and held it up as high as he could, till Dickenson saw a
+similar signal made by the party away ahead.
+
+"They know we're all right," said Dickenson, still, as it seemed,
+dumbly: and the sergeant nodded and smiled.
+
+"It was an awful crash.  I mean they were terrible crashes, sergeant."
+
+There was another nod, and after a glance back the sergeant hurried him
+along a little faster.
+
+"Can you--no, of course you can't--hear whether the Boers are calling
+out now?"
+
+The sergeant shook his head.
+
+"Poor wretches!" said Dickenson.  "But they were too far off to be
+hurt."
+
+The sergeant nodded.
+
+"Here, I can't understand this," said Dickenson.
+
+"You pointed to your ears and signified to me that the explosions had
+made you as deaf as a post."
+
+The sergeant turned to him, looking as if he were trying to check a
+broad grin, as he pointed to his officer's ears.  That made all clear.
+
+"Why, it is I who am deaf," cried Dickenson excitedly; and almost at the
+same moment something seemed to go _crack, crack_ in his head, and his
+hearing had come back, with everything that followed sounding painfully
+loud.
+
+"And no wonder, sir," said the sergeant.  "It was pretty sharp.  My ears
+are singing now.  Does it hurt you where you were nipped by the stone?"
+
+"Feels a bit pinched, that's all."
+
+"And you're all right beside, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I think so, sergeant."
+
+"That's good.  Well, sir, you did it."
+
+"What! blew up the wagons?  Yes, sergeant, I suppose we've done our work
+satisfactorily.  But do you think the Boers would be hurt?"
+
+"If they were, sir, it was not bad enough to make them stop singing out
+for help.  I heard them quite plainly after the explosions.  Can you
+walk a little faster, sir?"
+
+"Oh yes, I think so.  I'm quite right, all but this singing noise in my
+ears.  I say, though, what about the enemy?"
+
+"I don't know anything about them, sir; the kopje hides them for the
+present, but once they make out how few we are, I expect they'll come on
+with a rush; and the worst of it is, they're mounted.  But it'll be all
+right, sir.  The colonel said he was sending out a covering party to
+help us in, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dickenson.
+
+"Oh, we shall keep them off.  They'll begin sniping as soon as they get
+a chance, but they'll never make a big attack in the open field like
+we're going over now."
+
+A very little while after they overtook the party hanging back till they
+came up, Captain Edwards being with the men, ready to congratulate them
+on the admirable way in which their task had been carried out.
+
+The brisk walking over the veldt in the clear, bright air rapidly
+dissipated Dickenson's unpleasant sensations, and when the main body was
+overtaken the young officer would have felt quite himself again if it
+had not been for the dull, heavy sense of misery which asserted itself:
+for constantly now came the ever-increasing belief that he must accept
+the worst about his comrade, something in his depressed state seeming to
+repeat to him the terrible truth--that poor Drew Lennox must be dead.
+
+He found himself at last side by side with the major, who as they went
+on began to question him about his friend's disappearance, and he
+frowned when Dickenson gravely told him his fears.
+
+"No, no," said the major; "we must hope for better things than that.
+He'll turn up again, Dickenson.  We must not have our successful raid
+discounted by such a misfortune.--Eh, what's that?"
+
+"Boers in sight, sir," said Sergeant James.  "Mounted men coming on
+fast."
+
+"Humph!  Too soon," said the major, and he proceeded to make the best of
+matters.  The ambulance party was signalled to hurry forward, and a
+message sent to the little rear-guard with the store wagons and cattle
+to press forward with their convoy to the fullest extent.  Then, as the
+mounted Boers came galloping on and divided in two parties, right and
+left, to head off the convoy, the eager men were halted, faced outward,
+and, waiting their time till the galloping enemy were nearly level at
+about three hundred yards' distance, so accurate a fire was brought to
+bear that saddles were emptied and horses went down rapidly.  Five
+minutes of this was sufficient for the enemy, the men swerving off in a
+course right away from the firing lines, and, when out of reach of the
+bullets, beginning to retreat.
+
+"Has that settled them?" said Captain Edwards.
+
+"No," said the major; "only made them savage.  They'll begin to try the
+range of their rifles upon us now.  Open out and hurry your men on, for
+the scoundrels are terribly good shots."
+
+The speaker was quite right, for before long bullets began to sing in
+the air, strike up the dust, and ricochet over the heads of the men, to
+find a billet more than once in the trembling body of some unfortunate
+ox.  But fighting in an open plain was not one of the Boers' strong
+points; the cover was scarce, they had their horses with them, and the
+little British party was always on the move and getting nearer home.
+Several bold attempts were made to head them off, but they were thwarted
+again and again; but in spite of his success, the major began to grow
+frantic.
+
+"Look at those blundering oxen, Dickenson," he cried.  "It's a regular
+funeral pace over what will be our funerals--the brutes!  We shall have
+to get on and leave them to their fate.  I'll try a little longer,
+though.  I say, we must be half-way now."
+
+"Yes; but unfortunately there's a fresh body of the enemy coming up at a
+gallop," said Dickenson, who had paused to sweep the veldt with his
+field-glass.  "Yes, twice as many as are out here."
+
+"What!" cried the major.  "Well, there's no help for it; we shall have
+to leave the cattle behind.  Send a man forward to tell the convoy guard
+to halt till we come up, and let the cattle take their chance."
+
+"The men with the wagons too, sir?"
+
+"No," cried the major; "not till we're at the last pinch.  We must try
+and save them."
+
+The messenger was sent off at the double; and as the retreating party
+marched on, the major continued to use his glass, shaking his head in
+his annoyance from time to time as he saw the Boer reinforcements
+closing up.
+
+"Oh!" he groaned, "if we only had a lancer regiment somewhere on our
+flank, just to manoeuvre and keep out of sight till their chance came
+for a charge.  Make them run--eh, Edwards?"
+
+"Yes," said the captain dryly; "but unfortunately we have no lancer
+regiment on our flank."
+
+"No," replied the major; "and we must make the best of it."
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," said Sergeant James to Dickenson; "but don't it seem
+a pity?"
+
+"What?  To have got so far and not be able to get back unhurt?"
+
+"I was thinking of the cattle, sir," replied the sergeant gloomily.
+"Hungry and low as the poor lads are with the want of meat, it seems a
+sin to forsake all that raw roast-beef.  It's enough to make the men
+mutiny."
+
+"Not quite, sergeant," replied his officer as he tramped steadily on.
+"But look forward; it doesn't seem to make any difference.  The
+baggage-guard has halted, but the oxen are marching on, following the
+wagons steadily enough."
+
+"Yes, sir; as the old lines used to say that I learnt at school, `It is
+their nature too.'"
+
+"I suppose the enemy will divide, take a long reach round, and get ahead
+of the convoy."
+
+"Yes, sir, that'll be their game.  They'll make for that patch of
+wood and rocks in front, occupy it, and force us to make a
+what-you-may-call-it."
+
+"Detour?" said Dickenson.
+
+"That's it, sir."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson thoughtfully; "they'll be able--mounted--to make
+it before we can."
+
+But the major seemed to think differently, for he sent fresh men on to
+hurry the convoy, his intention being to occupy the rough patch of a few
+acres in extent, hoping to keep the enemy at bay from there till the
+promised help came from Groenfontein.
+
+"Yes, I know," he said impatiently when Dickenson joined him for a few
+minutes to receive fresh orders.  "It's distant, and we shall be without
+water; but it must be done.  They must not even stampede the cattle."
+
+"The major says the cattle must be saved, sergeant," said Dickenson as
+he doubled and rejoined his little company.
+
+"Does he, sir?" said the sergeant cheerfully.  "Very well, sir, then we
+must do it.  Beg pardon, sir; might be as well for you to go on and say
+a few words to the lads to cheer them up."
+
+"They're doing wonderfully well, sergeant."
+
+"That's true, sir; but we want 'em to do better.  They don't see the
+worst of it.  It's all very well to appeal to a soldier's heart and his
+honour, and that sort of thing; but this is a special time."
+
+"What do you mean?  This is no time for making speeches to the brave
+fellows."
+
+"Of course not, sir.  But just you say in your merry, laughing way
+something about the beggars wanting to get our beef, and you'll see what
+the lads can do.  Taking a bone from a hungry dog'll be nothing to it.
+The lads'll shoot as they never shot before, for there isn't one of them
+that isn't thinking of roast and boiled."
+
+Dickenson laughed, and went on at once along the little column, saying
+his few words somewhat on the plan the sergeant had suggested, and it
+sent a thrill through the little force.  They had just come up with the
+convoy guard, who heard what he said, and somehow or other--how, it is
+as well not to inquire--several of the great lumbering beasts began to
+bellow angrily and broke into a trot, which probably being comprehended
+by the drove in front, they too broke into a trot, which in turn was
+taken up by the spans in the wagons, and the whole line was in motion.
+
+The drivers and forelopers who led the way made for the cover, and at
+the word of order that passed along the line the men doubled, cheering
+loudly the while, and sending the bullocks blundering along in a cloud
+of dust.
+
+"Steady, there!  Steady!" shouted the major.  "Never mind the cattle.
+The lads will be winded, and unable to shoot."
+
+"Yes," panted Captain Edwards; for while this had been going on, the
+enemy, now tripled in number, were repeating their former evolution, and
+two clouds of them taking a wide sweep round were nearly abreast of the
+little force, evidently on their way to seize the patch of bush as a
+shelter for their horses while they dismounted, occupied the cover, and
+dealt destruction to those who came on.
+
+The major saw the uselessness of his manoeuvre now, and was almost ready
+to give it up; but still he had hopes.
+
+"The cattle will screen our advance," he said, "and the enemy are bound
+to ride right round on account of cover for their horses.  I believe
+even now that we can get to this side as soon as the Boers get to the
+other, and we must clear the bush at the point of the bayonet."
+
+The men soon knew what was required of them, and they kept on steadily
+at the double.  But minute by minute it grew more evident that the fast,
+strong ponies of the enemy, long as the sweep being taken on either side
+proved to be, must get to the cover first; and, to the despair of the
+officers, while they were still far distant in the deceiving, clear air,
+they saw the two big clouds of the enemy, as if moved by one order like
+a well-trained brigade of cavalry, swing round right and left and dash
+for the thick patch of dwarf trees dotted with rocks.
+
+"We're done, sergeant," said Dickenson breathlessly.
+
+"Yes, sir," said the man coolly; "they've six legs to our two.  I'm
+sorry about that beef, for I'd set my mind on a good meal at last."
+
+At that moment the bugle rang out, for it was madness to press on, and
+the men, disappointed of their bayonet-charge to clear the little open
+wood, began to draw breath ready for their next order to turn off right
+or left and continue the retreat out of rifle-fire as soon as they
+could.
+
+"Oh, it's maddening!" cried Dickenson passionately as he unfastened the
+cover of his revolver holster.
+
+"Oh no, sir," said Sergeant James.  "Case for a cool head.  You'll see
+now how neatly the major will get us out of fire and take us round.  I
+wish, though, that our covering party had been within reach."
+
+An order rang out directly for the party to advance left incline, which
+meant the giving up of their loot, and the men went on with set teeth as
+they saw the two great clouds of Boers growing darker as they pressed in
+for the patch of trees; and then there was a cheer bursting from every
+throat--a cheer that was more like a hoarse yell, for from both ends of
+the little wood, still some five hundred yards away, there was a puff of
+smoke, followed by the rattle of a Maxim-gun on the right, a small
+field-piece, shrapnel charged, on the left, and directly after a couple
+of volleys given by well-concealed men.
+
+The effect was instantaneous: riders and fallen horses and men were
+struggling in wild confusion, falling and being trampled down, and those
+unhurt yelling in wild panic to get clear.  And all the while, as fast
+as they could fire, the hidden covering party in the wood were
+supplementing the Maxim and gun fire by emptying their magazines into
+the two horror-stricken mobs.  For they were nothing better, as in a
+selfish kind of madness to escape they dragged their horses' heads round
+and lashed and beat at them with the butts of their rifles, to begin
+frantically galloping back by the way they came.
+
+But the worst of their misfortune had not come.  Each wing had to gallop
+for some distance within shot of the major's little force, which poured
+in volley after volley before "Cease firing!" was sounded, the Boers
+having continued their flight right away, evidently making for their
+ruined laager, leaving horse and man dotting the veldt.
+
+The men were too busy congratulating each other upon their victory, and
+helping to round up the cattle scared by the firing, to pay much heed at
+first to the wounded enemy; but as soon as a dozen of the best riders
+were mounted on some of the Bechuana ponies which, minus their riders,
+had begun to contentedly browse on such green herbage as could be found,
+the major set a party to work bringing the wounded Boers into the shade.
+
+"Their own people will see to them as soon as we are gone," said the
+major.  "What do you make out, Edwards?" he continued to that officer,
+who was scanning the retreating enemy through his glass.
+
+"They seem to me to be gathering together for another advance," said
+Captain Edwards.
+
+"No," said the major, "they will not do that.  This has been too severe
+a lesson for them.  They'll wait till we are gone, and then come to see
+to their killed and wounded.  That was a sudden turn in the state of
+affairs."
+
+"Ha!" replied Captain Edwards.  "I was beginning to wonder how many of
+us would get back to Groenfontein."
+
+"Yes," said the major; "so was I."
+
+In a very short time the ambulance party and the convoy, with its great
+train of cattle, were once more on their way to the camp, well-guarded
+by half the party Colonel Lindley had so opportunely sent to the help of
+the expedition, the rest, with the major's little force, following more
+deliberately, keeping on the alert for another attack from the Boers,
+who waited till their foes were quitting the field before coming slowly
+on.  But not for a new encounter; their aim now was only to carry off
+their wounded comrades and bury their dead.
+
+"Yes," said the major, "they have had one of the sharpest lessons we
+have given them during the war.  We suffered enough in carrying the
+kopje by surprise; this time we have not lost a man."
+
+These last words haunted Dickenson all the way back to the camp, which
+was reached in safety, the men being tremendously cheered by the
+comrades they had left behind.  But in spite of his elation with the
+grand addition to their supplies and the two great triumphs achieved by
+his men, the colonel looked terribly down-hearted at the long array of
+wounded men; while with regard to Lennox he shook his head.
+
+"A sad loss," he said.  "I looked upon Drew Lennox as one of the
+smartest young fellows in the corps.  It's very hard that misfortune
+should have befallen him now."
+
+"But you think he'll get back to us, sir?" said Dickenson excitedly.
+
+The colonel gave him a quick look.
+
+"I hope so, Mr Dickenson; I hope so," he said.  "There, cheer up," he
+added.  "We shall soon see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+"A COWARD!--A CUR!"
+
+It was about an hour later, when the wounded had been seen to by the
+surgeon--who reported very favourably on the men, whose injuries were
+for the most part the result of blows from rifle-butts received in the
+struggle on the kopje--that two of the scouts who had been left to watch
+the Boers came in with a sufferer dangerously injured by a rifle-bullet.
+
+Dickenson's heart gave a throb as he saw the men, and being off duty, he
+hurried to meet them, in the hope and belief that they had found Lennox.
+But it was one of their companions.
+
+The men's report was that the Boers had come steadily on as the British
+force retreated, and had then been busily engaged collecting their dead
+and wounded, paying no heed to the little outpost watching them till
+their task was done, when, as the last of their wagons moved off, they
+began firing again, till one of the outposts fell, and the others
+remained too well covered, staying till the firing had ceased, and then
+hurrying back.
+
+"Poor old Lennox!" said Dickenson to himself.  Then, seeing that
+Sergeant James was watching him, he shook his head.
+
+"I was hoping that they were bringing in Mr Lennox, sir," said the
+sergeant gloomily.  "Of course, seeing the temper the enemy is in after
+their defeat, it would be like getting some of our fellows murdered if
+the colonel gave me leave to go out with a white flag."
+
+"I'm afraid so too," said Dickenson.
+
+"But what about as soon as it's dark, sir?  Think the colonel would let
+us go to make a better search?  He must be near the Boers' laager where
+we missed him."
+
+"I was thinking something of the sort," said Dickenson.  "Will you go
+with me, James?"
+
+"Will I go with you, sir?" cried the sergeant.  "Wouldn't I go through
+anything to try and get him back?  You'll ask the colonel to name me,
+sir?"
+
+"If he gives consent," said Dickenson warmly.  "He'll tell me to take
+two or three men, and of course I shall pick you for one."
+
+"Thankye, sir; and don't you be down-hearted.  You're fagged now, sir,
+with all we've done since we started, and that explosion gave you a
+horrid shaking up.  You go to your quarters, sir, as soon as the colonel
+has given leave, and lie down--flat on your back, sir--and sleep till
+it's time for starting.  I'll have the others ready, and I'll rouse you
+up, sir."
+
+"Very well, sergeant," said the young officer.  "I must own to being a
+bit down."
+
+As soon as the sergeant had left him, the young officer went to the
+colonel's quarters and asked to see him.
+
+"Come in, Dickenson," said the chief, and he held out his hand.  "Thank
+you, my lad," he said.  "I've heard all about what you've done.  Very
+good indeed.  I sha'n't forget it in my despatch, but when it will get
+to headquarters is more than I can tell.  I'm glad you have come.  What
+can I do for you?"
+
+Dickenson stated his wishes, and the colonel looked grave.
+
+"I don't know what to say, Dickenson," he replied.  "It would be a very
+risky task.  I have scouts out, but I doubt whether they'll be able to
+tell whether the enemy is still holding the kopje.  If he is, you will
+run a terrible risk.  I've just lost one of my most promising young
+officers; I can't spare another."
+
+"I was afraid you would say so, sir.  But Drew Lennox and I have always
+been regular chums together, and it seems horrible to settle down
+quietly here in safety and do nothing to try and find him."
+
+"It does, my dear sir; but we soldiers have to make sacrifices in the
+cause of duty."
+
+"Yes, sir; but we've had a splendid bit of luck since last night.  Can't
+you strain a point?"
+
+The colonel smiled.
+
+"Well, it's hardly fair to call it luck, Dickenson," he said.  "I think
+some of it's due to good management.  Eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir; you are quite right."
+
+"Well there, then, if you'll promise me to run no risks with the lads,
+and return if you find the enemy still at the kopje, I'll give you leave
+to take a sergeant and a couple of men and go."
+
+Dickenson looked pleased and yet disappointed.
+
+"We might find him somewhere near, sir, even if the Boers are there," he
+said.
+
+"In the darkness of a moonless night, with men on the _qui vive_ ready
+to fire at the slightest sound?"
+
+"We got well into the laager last night, sir, with a hundred and fifty
+men," said Dickenson in tones of protest.
+
+"But you wouldn't get in to-night with one, and such an enterprise
+against either of the other laagers would now be impossible.  There, I
+can make no further concessions, for all your sakes, so be content."
+
+"You are right, sir, and I am wrong," replied Dickenson quietly.
+
+"You will retire, then, directly you find the place occupied?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Go, then, as soon as it is dark.  You can pick two men who can ride,
+take three of the captured Bechuana ponies, and one can hold them while
+the others search."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"But I have no hope of your finding him, Dickenson.  This is solely from
+a desire that we may feel we have done all we can do in such a case.
+Now I am busy.  You have been up all night, and nearly been killed.  Go
+and lie down for a few hours' sleep."
+
+The young officer left the colonel's presence, and had no trouble in
+finding the sergeant, for he was watching for his return, and heard with
+eagerness the result.
+
+"Ride?  Capital, sir; make us fresher for our work.  We shall find him.
+I don't believe he's dead.  Now you'll take a rest, sir.  I'll have the
+ponies ready, and the men."
+
+Dickenson gave him the names of the two men he would like to take, but
+had to give up one.
+
+"Can't sit a horse, sir; hangs on its back like a stuffed image.  Now
+Jeffson, sir, was a gentleman's groom.  Ride anything.  I wonder he
+isn't in the cavalry."
+
+"Very well, then; warn Jeffson.  There, I am done up, sergeant.  I trust
+you to rouse me as soon as it's dark."
+
+"Right, sir.  But one word, sir."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Captain Roby, sir.  Keeps off his head, sir.  Going on awfully.  Doctor
+Emden says it's due to the bullet striking his skull."
+
+"Dangerous?" said Dickenson anxiously.
+
+"Oh no, sir; but he keeps on saying things that it's bad for the men to
+hear; and that Corporal May, he's nearly as bad.  He thinks he's worse.
+He's within hearing, and every time the captain says anything, Master
+Corporal May begins wagging his head and crying, and tells the chaps
+about him that it's all right."
+
+"Poor fellow!  There, I'll go and see them before I lie down."
+
+"No, sir; please, don't," said the sergeant earnestly.  "You've done
+quite enough for one day."
+
+"Confound it, man! don't dictate to me," cried Dickenson testily.
+
+"Certainly not, sir.  Beg your pardon, sir; but we've got a heavy job on
+to-night, and it's my duty to warn you as an old soldier."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, sir, that I've had twenty years' experience, and you've had
+two, sir.  A man can only do so much; when he has done that and tries to
+do more, he shuts up all at once.  I don't want you to shut up, sir,
+to-night.  I want you to lead us to where we can find Mr Lennox."
+
+"Of course, sergeant.  I know you always mean well.  Don't take any
+notice of my snappish way."
+
+"Not a bit, sir," said the man, smiling.  "It's only a sign that, though
+you don't know it, you're just ready to shut up."
+
+"But, hang it all, man!" said the young officer, with a return of his
+irritable manner, "I only want to just see my brother officer for a few
+minutes."
+
+"Yes, sir, I know," said the sergeant stubbornly; "but you're better
+away.  He's right off his head, and abusing everybody.  If you go he'll
+say things to you that will upset you more than three hours' sleep will
+wipe out."
+
+"Oh, I know what you mean now--what he said before--about my being a
+coward and leaving him in the lurch."
+
+"Something of that sort, sir," replied the sergeant.
+
+"Poor fellow!  Well, perhaps it would be as well, for very little seems
+to put me out.  It was the shock of the explosion, I expect.  There,
+sergeant, I'll go and lie down."
+
+"I'll bring you a bit of something to eat, sir, when I come.  There's
+plenty now."
+
+"Ah, to be sure; do," said the young man.  "But I could touch nothing
+yet.  Remember: as soon as it is quite dark."
+
+"Yes, sir; as soon as it is quite dark."
+
+Dickenson strode away, and the sergeant uttered a grunt of satisfaction.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he muttered.  "It would have made him turn upon the
+captain.  Nobody likes to be called a coward even by a crank.  It would
+have regularly upset him for the work.  Now then, I'll just give those
+two fellows the word, and then pick out the ponies.  Next I'll lie down
+till the roast's ready.  We'll all three have a good square meal, and
+sleep again till it's time to call Mr Dickenson and give him his corn.
+After that, good-luck to us!  We must bring that poor young fellow in,
+alive or dead, and I'm afraid it's that last."
+
+Meanwhile Dickenson had sought his quarters, slipped off his
+accoutrements and blackened tunic, and thrown himself upon his rough
+bed.  It was early in the afternoon, with the sun pouring down its
+burning rays on the iron roofing of his hut, and the flies swarming
+about the place.
+
+As a matter of course over-tired, his nerves overwrought with the
+excitement of what he had gone through, and his head throbbing
+painfully, he could not go to sleep.  Every time he closed his eyes his
+ears began to sing after the same fashion as they did directly following
+the explosion, and after tossing wearily from side to side for quite an
+hour, he sat up, feeling feverish and miserable.
+
+"I'm making myself worse," he thought.  "I know: I'll go down to the
+side of the stream, bathe my burning head and face, and try and find a
+shady place amongst the rocks."
+
+He proceeded to put his plan into execution, resuming his blackened
+khaki jacket and belts, and started off, to find a pleasant breeze
+blowing, and, in spite of the afternoon sunshine, the heat much more
+bearable than inside his hut.  His way led him in the direction of the
+rough hospital, and as he drew near, to his surprise he heard Captain
+Roby's voice speaking angrily, and Dickenson checked himself and bore
+off to his right so as to go close by the open door.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he said.  "I must see how he is."
+
+He went into the large open hut in which the captain had been placed by
+the doctor's orders, because it was one in which the sides had been
+taken off so as to ensure a good current of air.  As the young officer
+entered he caught sight of two others of the injured lying at one end,
+and noted that the wounded corporal was one.
+
+Both men were lying on their backs, perfectly calm and quiet; but Roby
+was tossing his hands about impatiently and turning his head from side
+to side, his eyes wide open, and he fixed them fiercely upon his brother
+officer as he entered.
+
+"How does he seem, my lad?" said Dickenson to the attendant, who was
+moistening the captain's bandages from time to time.
+
+"Badly, sir.  Quite off his head."
+
+"Ah!  Cur!--coward!" cried Roby, glaring at him.  "Coward, I say!  To
+leave me like that and run."
+
+"Nonsense, old fellow!" said Dickenson, affected just as the sergeant
+had said he would be; and his voice sounded irritable in the extreme as
+he continued, "Drop that.  You said so before."
+
+"Who's that?" cried Roby, with his eyes becoming fixed.
+
+"Me, old fellow--Dickenson.  Not a coward, though."
+
+"Who said you were?"
+
+"Why, you did, over and over again."
+
+"A lie!  No.  I said Lennox.  Ah!  To run for his miserable life--a
+coward--a cur!"
+
+"What!" cried Dickenson angrily; but Roby lay silent as if exhausted,
+and, to the young officer's horror and disgust, a womanly sob came from
+the corporal's rough pallet at the end of the hut, and in a whining
+voice he moaned:
+
+"Yes, sir; he don't mean you, but Mr Lennox, sir.  I saw him run, and
+it's all true."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+"THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE TRUTH."
+
+Bob Dickenson's jaw dropped as he stood staring for some moments at the
+corporal--as if he could not quite believe his ears.  It seemed to him
+that this had something to do with the explosion, and that his hearing
+apparatus was still wrong, twisting and distorting matters, or else that
+the excitement of the past night and his exertions had combined with the
+aforesaid explosion to make him stupid and confused.
+
+But all the same he felt that he could think and weigh and compare
+Roby's words with those of the corporal, and experienced the sensation
+of a tremendous effervescence of rage bubbling up within his breast and
+rising higher and higher to his lips till it burst forth in words hot
+with indignation.
+
+"Why," he roared, "you miserable, snivelling--lying--Oh, tut, tut, tut!
+what a fool I am, quarrelling with a man off his head!--Here, orderly,"
+he continued, turning to the hospital attendant, "this fellow May
+doesn't know what he's saying."
+
+"So I keep on telling him, sir," said the man sharply; "but he will keep
+at it.  Here's poor Captain Roby regularly off his chump, and bursting
+out every now and then calling everybody a coward, and, as if that ain't
+bad enough, Corporal May goes on encouraging him by saying _Amen_ every
+time."
+
+"I don't," cried the corporal, in a very vigorous tone for one so badly
+injured; "and look here, if you make false charges against me I'll
+report you to the doctor next time he comes round, and to the colonel
+too."
+
+"What!" cried the orderly fiercely.  "Yes, you'd better!  Recollect
+you're down now, and it's my turn.  I've had plenty of your nastiness,
+Mr Jack-in-office Corporal, for a year past, when I was in the ranks.
+You ain't a corporal now, but in hospital; and if you say much more and
+don't lie quiet I'll roll up a pad of lint and stuff that in your
+mouth."
+
+"You daren't," cried the corporal, speaking the simple truth defiantly,
+and without a trace of his previous whining tone.
+
+"Oh yes, I dare," said the attendant, with a grin.  "Doctor's orders
+were that, as you were put in here when you oughtn't to be, I was to be
+sure and keep you quiet so as you shouldn't disturb the captain, and I'm
+blessed if I don't keep you quiet; so there."
+
+"You daren't," cried the corporal tauntingly.
+
+"What!  Just you say that again and I will.  Look here, my fine fellow.
+In comes Dr Emden.  `What's this, orderly?' he says.  `How dare you gag
+this man?'
+
+"`Couldn't keep him quiet, sir,' I says.  `He's been raving awful, and
+lying, and egging the captain on to keep saying Mr Dickenson and Mr
+Lennox is cowards.'"
+
+"I wasn't lying," cried the corporal, with a return of his whimpering
+tone.  "What Captain Roby says is all true.  I saw Mr Lennox sneak off
+like a cur with his tail between his legs."
+
+"Cur yourself, you lying scoundrel!" cried Dickenson.--"Here, orderly,
+I'll hold him.  Where's that gag?"
+
+"Oh!  Ow!" wailed the corporal.  "Here, if you touch me I'll cry for
+help."
+
+"You won't be able to," said the orderly, making a pretended rush at the
+doctor's chest of hospital requirements.
+
+"Bah!  Quiet, orderly.  Let the scoundrel alone.  He's off his head and
+doesn't know what he's saying, poor wretch."
+
+"Begging your pardon, sir," said the attendant, "the captain don't; but
+this chap does.  I haven't seen what I have amongst the sick and wounded
+without picking up a little, and I say Master Corporal here's doing a
+bit o' sham Abram to keep himself safe."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," said Dickenson shortly.  "You're getting as bad as the
+poor fellow himself.  The doctor would have seen in a minute."
+
+"I don't know, sir," whispered the attendant, glancing at the corporal,
+who lay with his eyes half-closed and his ears twitching.  "He's pretty
+cunning.  Had a crack or two with a rifle-stock, I think, but only just
+so much as would make another man savage.  You'll see; he'll be sent
+back into the ranks in a couple of days or so."
+
+"No, no, orderly," said Dickenson.  "I prefer to believe he's a bit
+delirious."
+
+"Well, sir, I hope he is," said the man, "for everybody's sake,
+including his own.  I don't know, though," he continued, following the
+lieutenant outside after the latter had laid his hand upon Roby's
+burning forehead, and been called a coward and a cur for his pains;
+"I've got my knife into Master Corporal May for old grudges, and I
+should rather like Mr Lennox to hear him say what he does about him.
+Corporal May would get it rather hot."
+
+"That will do," said Dickenson; "the man's in such a state of mental
+excitement that his captain's ravings impress him and he thinks it is
+all true.  There, you, as a hospital attendant, must learn to be patient
+with the poor fellows under your charge."
+
+"I am, sir," said the man sturdily.  "Ask the doctor, sir.  I'm doing my
+best, for it's sore work sometimes with the poor chaps who are regularly
+bad and feel that they are going home--I mean the long home, sir.  I've
+got six or seven little things--bits of hair, and a silver ring, and a
+lucky shilling, and such-like, along with messages to take back with me
+for the poor fellows' mothers and sisters and gals; and please goodness
+I ever get back to the old country from this blessed bean-feast we're
+having, I'm going to take those messages and things to them they're for,
+even if I have to walk."
+
+"Ha!" said the young officer, laying his hand on the man's shoulder and
+gripping him firmly, for there was a huskiness in his words now, and he
+sniffed and passed his hand across his nose.
+
+"Can't help it, sir.  I'm hard enough over the jobs, but it touches a
+man when it comes to sewing 'em up in their blankets ready for you know
+what.  Makes you think of them at home."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson, in quite an altered tone.  "There, you know me.
+When we get back and you're going to deliver your messages, if you let
+me know, orderly, I'll see that you don't have to walk."  Dickenson
+turned sharply to walk away, but came back.  "Try and keep the captain
+from making those outrageous charges, my lad."
+
+"I do, sir; but he will keep on."
+
+"Well, go on cooling his bandages, and he'll go off to sleep."
+
+"I hope so, sir," replied the man.  "But what about Corporal May?"
+
+"Serve him the same, of course," said Dickenson, and he hurried away,
+with Roby's words ringing in his ears.
+
+"Chap wants to be a sort of angel for this work," said the orderly as he
+fumbled about his slight garments.  "Hankychy, hankychy, where are yer?
+Washed you out clean in the little river this morning and dried you on a
+hot stone."
+
+"What are you looking for, mate?" said the third patient in the hut
+feebly--a man who, with a shattered arm-bone, was lying very still.
+
+"Hankychy," said the orderly gruffly.  "Lost it."
+
+"Here it is.  You lent it to me to wipe my face and keep off the flies."
+
+"Did I?  So I did.  All right, mate; keep it.  Mind you don't hurt the
+flies.  Like a drink o' water?"
+
+"Ah-h!" sighed the injured man.  That was all, but it meant so much.
+
+There was a pleasant, trickling, tinkling sound in the heated hut as the
+orderly took a tin and dipped it in an iron bucket.  The next minute he
+was down on one knee with an arm under the sufferer's shoulders, raising
+him as gently as if the task was being done by a woman.  Then the tin
+was held to the poor fellow's lips, and the orderly smiled as he saw the
+avidity with which it was emptied.
+
+"Good as a drop of beer--eh?" he said.
+
+"Beer?" replied the patient, returning the smile.  "Ha!  Not bad in its
+way; but I never tasted a pint so good as that."
+
+"Oh!  Ah!" said the orderly grimly.  "Wait till you get all right again,
+and you'll alter your tune."
+
+"Get right again?" whispered the man, so that the corporal should not
+hear.  "Think I shall?"
+
+"What! with nothing else the matter but a broken bone?  Why, of course."
+
+"Ah!" sighed the poor fellow, with a look of relief.  "I'm a bit down,
+mate, with having so little to eat, and it makes me think.  Thankye;
+that's done me a lot o' good."
+
+He settled down upon the sack which formed his couch, and the orderly
+rose to take back the tin, not seeing that Corporal May's eyes were
+fixed upon the vessel, which he watched eagerly, as if expecting to see
+it refilled and brought to him.  But the orderly merely set it down, and
+made a vicious blow at a buzzing fly.
+
+"Well, what have I done?" whined the corporal.
+
+"Done?  Heverythink you shouldn't have done," said the orderly.  "Look
+here, corp'ral; next time the barber cuts your hair, you ask him to take
+a bit off the end of your tongue.  It's too long, mate."
+
+"Do you want me to report you to the doctor for refusing to bring me a
+drink?"
+
+"Not I," said the orderly coolly.  "The chief's got quite enough to do
+without listening to the men's complaints."
+
+"Then bring me a drink of water directly."
+
+"All right," said the man good-humouredly; "but you'd better not."
+
+"Better not?  Why?"
+
+"Because it only makes you cry.  Runs out of your eyes again in big
+drops, just as it does out of another fellow's skin in perspiration.
+Strikes me, corp'ral, that you were meant for a gal."
+
+"You won't be happy till you've been reported, my man," said the
+patient.
+
+"And I sha'n't be happy then, mate.  Want a drink o' water?"
+
+"Yes; but things are managed here so that the patients have to beg and
+pray for it."
+
+"And then they gets it," said the orderly good-humouredly as he dipped
+the tin again; "and that's more than you can say about what most chaps
+begs and prays for.  There you are."
+
+"Well, help me up," said the corporal.
+
+"Yah!  Sit up.  You can."
+
+"Oh!" groaned the man in a peculiar way which sounded as if he were not
+satisfied with its effectiveness, and so turned it into a whine.
+
+"Won't do with me, corp'ral," said the man.  "You gammoned the doctor,
+but you haven't took me in a bit."
+
+"Only wait!" said the patient in a miserable whining tone this time.
+"How cowardly!  What a shame for such as you to be put in charge of
+wounded men!"
+
+"Wounded!" said the orderly, laughing.  "Why, your skin is as whole as
+mine is.  You've frightened yourself into the belief that you're very
+bad."
+
+"Ah! you'll alter your tone when I've reported you."
+
+"Look here, corp'ral; it strikes me that, with the row that's coming on
+about you and the captain charging the officers with being cowards,
+there's going to be such a shine and court-martial that you'll have your
+work cut out to take care of yourself.  Here, put your arm over my
+shoulder, and up you come."
+
+"Eh?" said the corporal in a much more natural tone.
+
+"Eh--what?"
+
+"About the court-martial?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  I only said what I thought," said the orderly,
+winking to himself.  "Now then, up you come.  Mind the water."
+
+He supported the corporal gently enough, and helped him to raise the
+water to his lips, watching him as he drained it, and then lowered him
+gently down and knelt, still looking at him, till the corporal gazed
+back at him wonderingly.
+
+"What are you staring at?" he said sharply.
+
+"You, old man."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I was thinking.  Your knocks have made you quite off your head."
+
+"That they haven't.  I'm as clear over everything as you are."
+
+"Oh no," said the orderly.  "You're quite off your chump, and don't know
+what you're saying."
+
+"You're a fool," said the corporal angrily.
+
+"Tell me something I don't know, old chap.  Fool?  Why, of course I was,
+to 'list and come out for a holiday like this.  Oh yes, plenty of us
+feels what fools we've been; but we're making the best of it--like men.
+D'yer hear--like men?  I say, the captain's regularly raving, ain't he?"
+
+"Well, er--yes--no."
+
+"Oh, he is; and you'd better own up and be cracked too.  You don't know
+what you've been saying about Mr Lennox."
+
+The corporal hesitated, looking up in the orderly's eyes curiously, and
+seeming as if he was thinking deeply of the man's words and debating in
+himself about the position he was going to occupy if an inquiry did
+follow the captain's charges.  He was not long in deciding, but he
+forgot to whine as he said, "Off my head?  Delirious?  Not a bit.  I saw
+all the captain said, and I'm as clear as you are.  I shall stick to it.
+There's nothing like the truth."
+
+"Oh yes, there is," said the orderly, chuckling; "a thoroughly good
+thumping lie's wonderfully like it sometimes--so much like it that it
+puzzles people to tell t'other from which."
+
+"Look here, orderly; do you mean to tell me I'm a liar?" said the
+corporal angrily.
+
+"Not I.  'Tain't no business of mine; only it strikes me that there's
+going to be a regular row about this.  People as go righting don't like
+to be called cowards.  It hurts anybody, but when it comes to be said of
+a soldier it's like skinning him.  There, I must go and wet the
+captain's lint."
+
+Saying which, the orderly rose and went to captain Roby's side to
+moisten the hot bandages, so that their rapid evaporation might produce
+a feeling of coolness to his fevered head.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A FIND.
+
+Dickenson walked frowning away from the hospital hut, thinking of the
+manner in which Roby had shifted the charge of cowardice from his
+shoulders to Lennox's, and a sigh of misery escaped from his breast as
+he made for the side of the bubbling stream.
+
+"Poor fellow!" he said to himself.  "I'm afraid that he's where being
+called coward or brave man won't affect him."
+
+He reached the beautiful, clear stream, lay down and drank like some
+wild animal, and then began bathing his temples, the water setting him
+thinking of Lennox's adventures by its source, and clearing his head so
+much that when he rose at last and began to walk back to his quarters he
+felt wonderfully refreshed.
+
+This state of feeling increased to such a degree that when he once more
+lay down after taking off his hot jacket, the heat from the roof, the
+buzzing of the flies, and the noises out in the village square mingled
+together into a whole that seemed slumber-inviting, and in less than ten
+minutes he was plunged in a deep, heavy, restful sleep, which seemed to
+him to have lasted about a quarter of a hour, when he was touched upon
+the shoulder by a firm hand, and sprang up to gaze at the light of a
+lantern and at nothing else.
+
+"Close upon starting-time, sir," said the sergeant out of the darkness
+behind the lamp.
+
+For a few moments Dickenson was silent, and the sergeant spoke again.
+
+"Time to rouse up, sir."
+
+"Yes, of course," said the young officer, getting slowly upon his feet,
+and having hard work to suppress a groan.
+
+"Bit stiff, sir?"
+
+"Yes; arm and back.  I can hardly move.  But it will soon go off."
+
+"Oh yes, sir.  It was that big stone nipping you after the blow-up."
+
+"I expect so," said Dickenson, struggling into his jacket.  "Ha!  It's
+getting better already.  Where are the ponies?"
+
+"Round by the tethering-line, sir; but you've got to have a bit of
+supper first."
+
+"Oh, I want no supper.  I've no appetite now."
+
+"Armoured train won't work, sir, without filling up the furnace," said
+the sergeant sternly; "and the ponies are not quite ready."
+
+"You promised to have them ready, sergeant."
+
+"So I did, sir; but we want all we can out of them to-night.  We may
+have to ride for our lives; so I managed to beg a feed of mealies apiece
+for them.  There's a snack of hot meat ready in the mess hut, sir, and
+the colonel would like to see you before you start."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson, finishing buckling on his sword, and slipping the
+lanyard cord of his revolver about his neck.
+
+He hurried then to the mess-room, where a piece of well-broiled steak,
+freshly cut from one of the oxen, was brought by the cook, emitting an
+aroma agreeable enough; but it did not tempt the young officer, whose
+one idea was to mount and ride away for the kopje.  Certainly it was not
+only like fresh meat--very tough--but it possessed the toughness of
+years piled-up by an ox whose life had been passed helping to drag a
+tow-rope on trek.  So half of it was left, and the young man sought the
+colonel's quarters.
+
+"Ha!" he said.  "Ready to start, then?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Well, I must leave all to your discretion, Dickenson," he said.
+"Recollect you promised me that if there was any sign of the kopje being
+still occupied you would stop at once and return."
+
+"Yes; I have not forgotten, sir."
+
+"That's enough, then.  Keep your eyes well open for danger.  I'd give
+anything to recover Lennox, but I cannot afford to give the lives of
+more of my men."
+
+Dickenson frowned.
+
+"You mean, sir, that you do not believe he is still alive."
+
+"I don't know what to say, Dickenson," said the colonel, beginning to
+walk up and down the hut.  "You have heard this ugly report?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and I don't believe it."
+
+"I cannot believe it," said the colonel; "but Captain Roby keeps on
+repeating it to the doctor and the major; while that man who was
+wounded, too, endorses all his captain says.  It sounds monstrous."
+
+"Don't believe it, sir," cried Dickenson excitedly.
+
+"I have told you that I cannot believe it," said the colonel; "but Mr
+Lennox is missing, and it looks horribly corroborative of Roby's tale.
+There, go and find him--if you can.  We can't add that to our other
+misfortunes; it would be a disgrace to us all."
+
+"You mean, sir," said Dickenson coldly, "if Drew Lennox had--has--well,
+I suppose I must say it--run away?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Well, sir, I don't feel in the least afraid.  He is either a prisoner,
+lying badly wounded somewhere about the kopje, or--dead."
+
+He said the last word in a husky tone, and then started violently.
+
+"What is it, man?" cried the colonel excitedly, for the young officer
+seemed as if he were suffering from some violent spasm.  "Are you hurt?"
+
+"Something seemed to hurt me, sir," said the young man; "but it was only
+a thought."
+
+"A thought?"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply.  "I was wondering whether it was possible."
+
+"Whether what was possible?" said the colonel impatiently.  "Don't speak
+in riddles, man."
+
+"No, sir.  It came like a flash.  Suppose the poor fellow was somewhere
+near the spot where we exploded the ammunition?"
+
+"Fancy," said the colonel coldly.  "There must have been plenty of
+places round about the part you attacked without Lennox being there.
+There, lose no time; find him, and bring him back."
+
+"He half believes that wretched story put about by Roby," said Dickenson
+to himself as he walked stiffly away, depressed in mind as well as body,
+and anything but fit for his journey, as he began to feel more and more.
+But he made an effort, stepped out boldly in spite of a sharp, catching
+pain, and answered briskly to the sentries' challenges as he passed into
+the light shed by the lanterns here and there.
+
+"Ready, sir?" said a voice suddenly.
+
+"Yes; quite.  The sooner we're off the better."
+
+"The ponies are waiting, sir; and I've got the password, and know
+exactly where the outposts are if I can hit them off in the dark, for
+it's twice as black as it was last night."
+
+"Then it will be a bad time for our search."
+
+"Search, sir?" said the sergeant bluntly.  "We're going to do no
+searching to-night."
+
+"What!" cried Dickenson.
+
+"It's impossible, sir.  All we can do is to get as close as we can to
+the kopje and find out whether the enemy is still there.  Then we must
+wait for daylight.  If the place is clear, it will be all easy going; if
+the Boers are still there we must have a hasty ride round, if we can,
+before we are discovered."
+
+"Very well," said Dickenson slowly as they walked on to the lines where
+the ponies were tethered, mounted, and went off at a walk, the sergeant
+and Dickenson side by side and the two men close behind; while the
+slight, cob-like Bechuana ponies upon which they were mounted seemed to
+need no guiding, but kept to the track which brought them again upon
+outposts, where their riders were challenged, gave the word, and then
+went steadily on at a walk right away across the open veldt.
+
+"Ponies know their way, sir," said the sergeant after they had ridden
+about a mile.  "I'll be bound to say, if we let them, they'll take us
+right by that patch of scrub where the enemy had his surprise, and then
+go straight away for the kopje."
+
+"So much the better, sergeant," said Dickenson, who spoke unwillingly,
+his body full of pain as his mind was of thought.
+
+"Will you give the order for us to load?"
+
+"Load?" said Dickenson in a tone expressing his surprise.  "Oh! of
+course;" and he gave the necessary command, taking the rifle handed to
+him by one of the men as they rode on.  "I was thinking of our chances
+of finding the Boers out scouting.  I suppose it is quite possible that
+we may run against a patrol."
+
+"More than likely, sir.  They'll be eager enough to find out some way of
+paying back what we gave them to-day."
+
+"Of course, and--What does this mean?" whispered Dickenson, for his pony
+stopped short, as did the others, the sergeant's mount uttering a sharp,
+challenging neigh and beginning to fidget.
+
+"Means danger, sir," whispered the sergeant.  "We loaded none too soon."
+
+There was nothing for it but to sit fast, peering into the wall of
+darkness that surrounded them, trying vainly to make out the approaching
+danger, every man listening intently.  Fully ten minutes elapsed, and
+not a sound was heard.  The ponies, well-trained by the Boers to stand,
+remained for a time perfectly motionless, till all at once, just as
+Dickenson was about to whisper to the sergeant that their mounts had
+probably only been startled by some wild animal of the desert, one of
+them impatiently stretched out its neck (drawing the hand holding the
+reins forward), snuffed at the earth, and began to crop at the stunted
+brush through which they were passing.  The others immediately followed
+suit, and, letting them have their own way, the party sat once more
+listening in vain.
+
+Then came a surprise.  All at once, from what Dickenson judged to be
+some fifty feet away, there was the peculiar _ruff! ruff! ruff! ruff_!
+of some one walking slowly through the low scrub, which there was not
+unlike walking over a heather-covered track.
+
+"Stand," cried the lieutenant sharply, "or we fire."
+
+"No.  Hold hard," cried a familiar voice.  "Who goes there?  Dickenson,
+is that you?"
+
+"Lennox!  Thank Heaven!"
+
+The steps quickened till he who made them came staggering up to the
+lieutenant's pony, at which he caught, but reached short, stumbled, and
+fell.
+
+The sergeant was off his pony in a moment, handing the reins to a
+companion, and helping the lost man to rise.
+
+"Are you all right?" said Dickenson excitedly as he reached down, felt
+for, and firmly grasped his friend's wet, cold hand.
+
+"All right?" said Lennox bitterly.  "Well, as all right as a man can be
+who was about to lie down utterly exhausted, when he heard your pony."
+
+"But are you wounded?"
+
+"No; only been nearly strangled and torn to pieces.  But don't ask me
+questions.  Water!"  A water-bottle was handed to the poor fellow, and
+they heard him drink with avidity.  Then ceasing for a short space, he
+said, "I was just going to lie down and give it up, for I was completely
+lost."  He began drinking again, and then, with a deep breath of relief:
+"Whose is this?"
+
+"Mine, sir," said the sergeant, and he took the bottle from the
+trembling outstretched hand which offered it.
+
+"Thankye, sergeant," sighed the exhausted man.  "It does one good to
+hear your voice again.  Are we far from Groenfontein?"
+
+"About three miles," said Dickenson.
+
+"Ah!" said Lennox, with a groan.  "Then I can't do it."
+
+"Yes, you can," said Dickenson warmly.  "Here, hold on by the nag's mane
+while I dismount.  We'll get you into the saddle, and walk the pony
+home."
+
+"Excuse me, sir; I'm dismounted," said the sergeant, "and I'd rather
+walk, please."
+
+"Thank you, James," said Dickenson.  "I'll take your offer, for I'm
+nearly done up myself."
+
+"You keep still, then, sir.--Dismount, my lads, and help to get Mr
+Lennox into the saddle.--Rest on me, sir; I've got you.  Sure you're not
+wounded, sir?"
+
+There was no reply; but the sergeant, who had passed his arm round his
+young officer's waist, felt him subside, and if the hold had not been
+tightened he would have sunk to the ground.
+
+"Got him?" cried Dickenson.
+
+"Yes, sir; all right.  Fainted."
+
+"Fainted?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Regular exhaustion, I suppose.  We'll get him into the
+saddle, and I think the best way will be for me to got up behind and
+hold him on, for he's regularly given up now that he has fallen among
+friends."
+
+"But the pony: will it carry you both?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir--at a walk.  They're plucky little beasts, sir.  But we've
+got him, sir, and that's what I didn't expect.  I suppose we mustn't
+cheer?"
+
+"Cheer?  No," said Dickenson excitedly.  "Look here, sergeant; I'm a bit
+crippled, but I'll have him in front of me."
+
+"But he's on my pony now, sir, with the lads holding him.  Had we better
+drag him down again?  He's precious limp, sir; and I'm afraid he's hurt
+worse than he said."
+
+"Very well; keep as you are," said Dickenson hurriedly; and, almost
+unseen, the sergeant mounted behind his charge and began to feel about
+him for the best way of making the poor fellow as comfortable as
+possible.
+
+"He's got his sword all right, sir, but his revolver's gone.  Stop a
+moment," continued the sergeant, fumbling in the darkness; "there's the
+lanyard, but his hat's gone too.  There, I've got him nicely now.
+Mount, my lads."
+
+There was a rustling sound as the men sprang into their saddles again.
+
+"Ready?" said Dickenson.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Stop a moment.  How are we to find our way back?"
+
+"We shall have to trust to the ponies, sir," said the sergeant.  "Let's
+see; we have turned their heads round over this job.  We must leave it
+to them; they'll find their way back, thinking they're going to get some
+more mealies.  Trust them for that."
+
+"Forward at a walk!" said Dickenson.  "Tut, tut, sergeant!  It's as
+black as pitch.  If a breeze would only spring up."
+
+"Dessay it will, sir, before long."
+
+"How does Mr Lennox seem?"
+
+"Head's resting on my clasped hands, sir, and he's sleeping like a
+baby--regular fagged out."
+
+It was a slow and toilsome march; but the party were in the highest of
+spirits, and, in the hope of seeing the lights at Groenfontein at the
+end of an hour or so, they kept on, only pausing now and again to listen
+for danger and to rearrange Lennox, whose silence began to alarm his
+friend.  But the sergeant assured him that the poor fellow was sleeping
+heavily, and they went on again with a dark mental cloud coming over
+Dickenson's exhilaration as he thought of the unpleasant news that
+awaited his friend.
+
+"But a word from him will set that right," he said to himself.  "Poor
+fellow!  He must be done up to sleep like that.  Why, he never even
+asked how we got on after the fight."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+IN DIFFICULTIES.
+
+On and on at the ponies' slow walk through the short scrub or over the
+bare plain, with the clever little animals seeming to instinctively
+avoid every stone that was invisible to the riders in the intense
+darkness.  Every now and then a halt was made, one of which their steeds
+immediately took advantage by beginning to browse on such tender shoots
+as took their fancy, and again and again the whispered questions were
+asked:
+
+"How does he seem, sergeant?"
+
+"Fast asleep, sir."
+
+"Hadn't you better let one of the men take your place?"
+
+"Oh no, sir; I'm all right, and so's he."
+
+"Can either of you hear anything?"
+
+"No, sir; only the ponies cropping the bush."  Then a faint, "We ought
+to be getting near home, sergeant."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Can we do anything more?"
+
+"No, sir; only wish for a row of gas-lamps along a straight road, and it
+ain't any good to wish for that."
+
+"I can see nothing, sergeant, and the sky seems blacker than the earth."
+
+"Both about the same, sir, I think."
+
+"It is so unfortunate, sergeant, just at a time like this."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir; one ought to make the best of things, and weigh
+one against another."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Well, sir, we're bothered a good deal with the darkness, and we're
+obliged to do what a human man don't like to do--trust to a dumb animal
+instead of himself.  Of course that's bad; but then, on the other side,
+we're not running up against any of the enemy, and instead of hunting
+for hours after a long ride and then not finding what we come for, here
+we are not having a long dangerous ride at all, and him we wanted to
+find tumbling right atop of us and in a way of speaking, saying,
+`Looking for me, my lads?  Here I am!'"
+
+"Yes, we have been very fortunate," said Dickenson.
+
+"Fortunate, sir?  I call it downright lucky."
+
+"Of course--it is.  But can we do no more?"
+
+"Not that I see, sir--feel, I mean.  We might camp down and let the
+horses feed till daylight."
+
+"Oh no; let us keep on."
+
+"Very well, sir; then there really is nothing we can do but trust to the
+ponies.  They somehow seem to see in the dark."
+
+"Forward, then!"
+
+At the end of another half-hour they drew rein again, and almost
+precisely the same conversation took place, with the exception that
+Dickenson declared at the end that they must have lost their way.
+
+"Well, sir," replied the sergeant dryly, "it's hardly fair to say that,
+sir."
+
+"What do you mean?" said Dickenson tartly.
+
+"Begging your pardon, sir, one can't lose what we've never had.  It's
+been a regular game of Blindman's buff to me, sir, ever since we left
+the last post."
+
+Dickenson was silent, for he felt that he had nothing to say but
+"Forward!" so he said that, and the ponies moved on again.
+
+"We must be going wrong, sergeant," said Dickenson at last.  "We have
+left Groenfontein to the right."
+
+"No, sir; I think not," replied the man.  "If we had, we should have
+broken our shins against the big kopje and been challenged by our men."
+
+"Then we've passed it to the left."
+
+"No, sir.  If we had we should have come upon the little river, and the
+ponies would have been kicking up the stones."
+
+"Then where are we?" said the lieutenant impatiently.
+
+"That's just what I'm trying to find out, sir.  I wouldn't care if I
+knew which was the north, because then one could say which was the
+south."
+
+"Psh!  It all comes of trusting to the ponies."
+
+"Yes, sir; but that's one comfort," said the sergeant.  "We know they're
+honest and would not lead us wrong.  Poor brutes! they're doing their
+best."
+
+"I'm beginning to feel hopelessly lost, sergeant.  I believe we keep
+going on and on in a circle."
+
+"Well, sir, we might be doing worse, because it must be daylight
+by-and-by."
+
+"Not for hours," said Dickenson impatiently.  "We are, as I said,
+hopelessly lost."
+
+"Hardly," said the sergeant to himself, "for here we are."  Then aloud
+he once more proposed that they should bivouac till daybreak.
+
+"No," said the leader decisively.  "We'll keep on.  We must have been
+coming in the right direction, and, after all, I dare say Groenfontein
+is close at hand."
+
+He was just about to give the order to march again when the long,
+snappish, disappointed howl of a jackal was heard, and the ponies ceased
+grazing and threw up their muzzles; while as Dickenson leaned forward to
+give his mount an encouraging pat he could feel that the timid
+creature's ears were thrust right forward.
+
+"Always seems to me, sir," said the sergeant gently, "that the wild
+things out in these plains never get enough to eat.  Hark at that
+brute."
+
+He had hardly spoken when from out in the same direction as the jackal's
+cry, but much farther away, came the tremendous barking roar of a lion,
+making the ponies draw a deep breath and shiver.
+
+"Well," said Dickenson, "that can't be our way.  It must be open country
+yonder.  It's all chance now, but we needn't run into danger and scare
+our mounts.  We'll face right round and go as far as we can judge in the
+opposite direction to where that cry came from."
+
+"Yes, sir; and it will make the ponies step out."
+
+The sergeant was quite right, for the timid animals responded to the
+touch of the rein, immediately stepped out at the word "Forward!" and
+then broke into a trot, which had to be checked.
+
+The roar was not heard again, but the yelps of the jackals were; and the
+party went on and on till suddenly the cautious little beasts began to
+swerve here and there, picking their way amongst stones which lay pretty
+thickly.
+
+"This is quite fresh, sergeant," said Dickenson.
+
+"Yes, sir.  I was wondering whether we had hit upon the river-bank."
+
+"Ah!" cried Dickenson eagerly, just as his pony stopped short, sighed,
+and began to browse without reaching down, the others seeming to do the
+same.
+
+"But there's no river here, sir," continued the sergeant.
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Ponies say so, sir.  If there'd been a river running by here, they'd be
+making for it to get a drink."
+
+"Yes, of course.  Here, sergeant, I can touch high boughs."
+
+"Same here, sir."
+
+"But there's no wood in our way."
+
+"What about the patch where our men surprised the Boers yesterday, sir?"
+
+"To be sure.  Why, sergeant, we must have wandered there."
+
+"That's it, sir, for all I'm worth."
+
+"Ha!" said Dickenson, with a sigh of relief.  "Then now we have
+something tangible, and can easily lay our course for Groenfontein."
+The sergeant coughed a little, short, sharp, dry cough, and said
+nothing.  "Well, don't you think so?"
+
+"Can't say I do, sir.  I wish I did."
+
+"Why, hang it, man! it's simple enough.  Here's the coppice, and
+Groenfontein must lie--"
+
+Dickenson stopped short and gave his ear a rub, full of vexation.
+
+"Yes, sir, that's it," said the sergeant dryly; "this is the patch of
+wood, but which side of it we're looking at, or trying to look at, I
+don't know for the life of me.  It seems to me that we're just as likely
+to strike off straight for the Boers' laager as for home.  I don't know
+how you see it, sir."
+
+"See, man!" cried Dickenson angrily.  "It's of no use; I only wish I
+could see.  We can do nothing.  I was thinking that we had only to skirt
+round this place, and then face to our left and go straight on, and we
+should soon reach home."
+
+"Yes, sir; I thought something of that sort at first, but I don't now.
+May I say a word, sir?"
+
+"Yes; go on.  I should be glad if you would."
+
+"Well, sir, it's like this; whenever one's in the dark one's pretty well
+sure to go wrong, for there's only one right way to about fifty that are
+not."
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Then won't it be best to wait till the day begins to show in the east,
+and rest and graze the ponies for a bit?  Better for Mr Lennox too."
+
+"You're right, sergeant; and it would have been better if I had given
+the order to do so at first.--Here, dismount, my lads, and hobble your
+cobs.--Here, I'll help you to get Mr Lennox down, sergeant.  Stop a
+moment; let's try and find a patch of heath or grass or something
+first.--Hullo! what's here?" he cried a minute later, after dismounting
+and feeling about.
+
+"What have you found, sir?"
+
+"Ruts--wheel-marks made, of course, by our guns or their limbers.  Can't
+we tell our way by those?"
+
+"No, sir.  It makes things a bit simpler; but we had a gun and wagon at
+each end, and we can't tell in the dark which end this is.  If we start
+again by this we're just as likely to make straight off for the Boer
+camp as for ours."
+
+"Yes; we'll wait for daylight, sergeant," said Dickenson.  "We're all
+tired out, so let's have two or three hours' rest."
+
+A few minutes later Lennox, still plunged in a stupor-like sleep, was
+lifted from the sergeant's pony, and at once subsided into the bed of
+short scrub found for him; the ponies, well hobbled, were cropping the
+tender parts of the bushes; and the weary party were sitting down.
+
+There was silence for a few minutes, and then the sergeant spoke in a
+whisper.
+
+"Think it would be safe for the men to light a pipe, sir?"
+
+"Hum!  Yes," said Dickenson, "if they light the match to start their
+pipes under a held-out jacket and in the shelter of one of the big
+stones."
+
+He repented directly he had given the consent, on account of the risk.
+
+"But, poor follows!" he said, "this will be the second night they have
+been out on the veldt, and it will help to keep them awake."
+
+Lennox was at the end of a couple of hours sleeping as heavily as ever.
+Dickenson had seated himself close by him so that he could lay a hand
+upon his forehead from time to time; and he judged that the poor fellow
+must be in pain, for each time there was a sharp wincing, accompanied by
+a deep sigh, which resulted in the touch being laid on more lightly.  It
+was only to satisfy himself in the darkness that his comrade was
+sleeping and not sinking into some horrible state of lethargy; and
+finding at last that there was no apparent need for his anxiety, the
+watcher directed his attention to listening for sounds out upon the
+veldt, and divided the time by making surmises as to the experiences
+through which Lennox must have passed.
+
+Captured and escaped!  That was the conclusion to which he always came,
+and he wished that Lennox would wake up and enliven the tedium of the
+dark watch by relating all that he had gone through.
+
+The lion made itself heard again and again, but at greater distances;
+and the prowling jackals and hyenas seemed to follow, for their cries
+grew fainter and fainter and then died out into the solemn silence of
+the veldt, which somehow appeared to the listener as if it were
+connected with an intense feeling of cold.
+
+Then all at once, as Dickenson turned himself wearily and in pain from
+the crushing he had received when the stone slipped, he became conscious
+of something dark close by, and his hand went involuntarily to his
+revolver.
+
+The next minute he realised that what he saw was not darker, but the sky
+behind it lighter, and he sprang to his feet.
+
+"You, sergeant?" he said.
+
+"Yes, sir," was whispered back.  "Be careful; one never knows who may be
+near.  The light's coming fast."
+
+Coming so fast that at the end of a quarter of an hour Dickenson could
+dimly make out the steep kopje by Groenfontein away to his left, and the
+low, hill-like laager that they had destroyed twenty-four hours before
+low down on the opposite horizon.
+
+"Why, sergeant," he whispered eagerly, "if we had started again in the
+dark we should have gone right off to where the Boers might have been."
+
+"Yes, sir, and away from home.  That's the worst of being in the dark."
+
+"As soon as it's a little lighter," whispered Dickenson, "we had better
+carefully examine this place.  It is quite possible that there may be a
+patrol of the enemy occupying it, as we have done."
+
+"Yes, sir, likely as not, for--"
+
+The sergeant clapped his hand over his lips and dropped down upon his
+knees, snatching at his officer's jacket to make him follow his example.
+
+There was need enough, for all at once there was something loudly
+uttered in Dutch, replied to by another speaker, the voices coming from
+the other side of the woodland patch.
+
+In another minute there was quite a burst of talking, and, making signs
+to his two companions, the sergeant stepped softly to where the ponies
+were browsing and led them in amongst the trees, which stood up densely,
+until they were well hidden.
+
+The next idea was to lift Lennox well under cover; but he was not
+touched, for he was still sleeping, and already so well hidden that it
+would not have been possible for any one to see him if passing round
+outside the trees and the thin belt of scrub.
+
+"Get well down there, my lads," said Dickenson then.  "We'll try and
+hold this little clump of stones if they do find us.  If they do, we
+must give them a wild shout and a volley.  They need not know how few we
+are."
+
+The men crouched down among the stones while the pale grey dawn was
+broadening, and waited in the full expectation of being discovered; for
+though a mounted patrol might in passing fail to see the men, the
+chances were that it would be impossible to go by without catching sight
+of the ponies.
+
+It was evident enough to the listeners that the Boer party had passed
+the night in this shelter, and that they must have been sleeping without
+a watch being kept; otherwise, in spite of the quiet movements of
+Dickenson and his men, their arrival must have been heard; and now, as
+they crouched there, rifle in hand, all waited in the hope that the
+party would ride off at once in the direction of the ruined laager.
+
+But Dickenson waited in vain, for the crackling of burning sticks told
+that the enemy did not intend to start till they had made their
+breakfast, and the young officer's brain was busily employed debating as
+to whether it would not be better to try and drive them off with a
+surprise volley, putting them to flight in a panic.  Under the
+circumstances he took the non-commissioned officer into consultation.
+
+"If you think it's best, sir," said the sergeant, "do it; but you can't
+get much of a volley out of four rifles, and if you follow it up by
+emptying your magazines there'll be no panic, for they'll know what that
+means."
+
+"What do you advise, then?"
+
+"Waiting, sir.  We're only four.  There's Mr Lennox, but that seems
+like bringing us down to two instead of making us five.  As we are we're
+in a strong position, and they may ride right away without seeing us;
+and that's what we want, I take it, for we don't want to fight--we want
+to get Mr Lennox safely back.  If they don't ride straight off, and are
+coming round here and see us, we can try the panic plan while they're
+mounted.  They're pretty well sure to scatter then.  If we fire now
+they're not mounted, they'll take to cover, and that'll be bad, sir."
+
+"Yes.  It means a long, dull time," replied Dickenson.  "We'll wait,
+sergeant; but how long it will be before they know we're here I'm sure I
+don't know.  I've been expecting to hear one of the ponies neigh every
+moment, and that will be fatal."
+
+"Oh, I don't know, sir.  You never can tell.  They may take fright even
+then after the startlings we've given them.  They're brave enough chaps
+so long as they're fighting from behind stones, or in ambush, or when
+they think they've got the whip-hand of us; but a surprise, or the
+thought that we're getting round their flank and into their rear, is
+more than they can stand."
+
+"Silence!" whispered Dickenson.  "I think they're on the move."
+
+But they were not, and the sun was well up before sundry sounds pointed
+to the fact that the enemy were preparing to start.
+
+For sundry familiar cries were heard, such as a man would address to a
+fidgety horse which declined to have its saddle-girth tightened.  The
+men were laughing and chatting, too, until a stern order rang out, one
+which was followed by the trampling of horses--so many that the sergeant
+turned and gave a significant glance at Dickenson.
+
+"Now then, which way?" thought the latter.  "If they come round this
+side they must see us, and they are bound to, for here lies their
+laager."
+
+He was right, for the trampling came nearer, and it was quite evident
+that the little party were riding round in shelter of the patch of wood,
+so as to get it between them and the English camp before striking
+straight away.
+
+They were only about a dozen yards distant, dimly seen through the
+intervening trees, and Dickenson was in the act of glancing right and
+left at his men when a chill ran through him.  For Lennox, who had lain
+perfectly still in the shadow beneath the bush where he had been laid,
+suddenly began to mutter in a low, excited tone, indicating that he was
+just about waking up.  It was impossible to warn him, even if he had
+been in a condition to be warned; and to attempt to stir so as to clap a
+hand over his lips must have resulted in being seen.
+
+There was nothing for it but to crouch there in silence with hearts
+beating, and a general feeling that in another few seconds the order
+must come to fire.
+
+The moments seemed to be drawn out to minutes as the Boers rode on,
+lessening their distance and talking loudly in a sort of formation two
+or three abreast, till the front pair were level, when one of them
+raised his hand to shade his eyes, and drew his comrade's attention to
+something in the distance.
+
+"It's a party of the rooineks," he said in his Dutch patois; "or some of
+our horses left from that wretched surprise yesterday."
+
+"I shall never do it in the dark," said Lennox half-aloud, and
+Dickenson's heart seemed to cease beating.
+
+"What do you say, behind there?" cried the first speaker sharply, but
+without turning his head.
+
+"I say they're rooineks," said one of the three who came next.
+
+"Yes, they're rooineks, sure enough," said the first Boer; "but that's
+not what you said just now."
+
+"Yes, I did," was the surly answer; "but every one here's talking at
+once."
+
+"Yes," growled the first speaker.  "Silence, there!  Halt!"
+
+The men reined up in a group, while the first man, who seemed to be in
+command, dragged out a much-battered field-glass, focussed it, and tried
+to fix the distant objects.  But his horse was fresh and fidgety,
+waiting to be off.
+
+"Stand still!" cried the Boer savagely, and he caught up the reins he
+had dropped on the neck of his mount and gave them a savage jerk which
+made the unfortunate animal plunge, sending the rest into disorder, so
+that it was another minute before steadiness was restored.--"Mind what
+you're about, there," cried the leader.  "Keep close to the bushes.  Do
+you want to be seen?"
+
+He raised his glasses to his eyes again for a few seconds, closed them,
+and thrust them back into their case.
+
+"There's too much haze there," he said.  "Can't see, but I feel sure
+they're some of our ponies grazing."
+
+"Going to round them up and take them back with us?"
+
+"I would if I was sure," was the reply, "but after yesterday's work we
+can't afford to run risks.  Curse them!  They've got enough of our
+stores to keep them alive for another month."
+
+Every man was gazing away into the distance, little suspecting that only
+a few yards away four magazine-rifles were covering them, and that at a
+word they would begin to void their charges, with the result that at
+least half-a-dozen of them, perhaps more, would drop from their saddles,
+possibly never to rise again.  And all this while the little British
+party crouched there with, to use the untrue familiar expression, their
+hearts in their mouths, watching their enemies, but stealing a glance
+from time to time at the shadowy spot beneath the thick bush, wondering
+one and all what the young lieutenant would say next.
+
+"He must give the order to fire," said the sergeant to himself as he
+covered the leader.  "We shall have Mr Lennox speaking out louder
+directly and asking where he is."
+
+The sergeant was quite right, for all of a sudden Lennox exclaimed:
+
+"Why, it's light!  Here, where am I?"
+
+But it was directly after the Boer leader had shouted the order to
+advance, and the little body of active Bechuana ponies sprang forward,
+eager to begin cantering over the plain, not a man the worse for his
+narrow escape, as they burst out chatting together, Lennox's exclamation
+passing quite unnoticed, even if heard.
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Dickenson, exhaling his long-pent-up breath.  "I doubt
+if any of them will be nearer their end again during the war."
+
+And then, after making sure that the Boer party were going off at a
+sharp canter, and that the risk of speaking or being seen was at an end,
+he crawled quickly to where Lennox lay upon his back, his eyes once more
+closed, and sleeping as soundly as if he had never roused up into
+consciousness since early in the night.
+
+"Lennox--Drew," whispered Dickenson, catching him by the arm, but only
+eliciting a low, incoherent muttering.  "Well, you can sleep!"
+
+"It's not quite natural, sir," said the sergeant.  "He must have been
+hurt somewhere, and the sooner the doctor has a look at him the better."
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson thoughtfully.--"That was a close shave, sergeant."
+
+"Yes, sir--for the enemy.  If we had fired they'd have gone off like
+frightened sheep, I feel sure now."
+
+"Yes, I think so too.  But we must not stir yet."
+
+"No, sir; I'd give those fellows time to get out of sight.  We don't
+want them to see us.  If they did, they'd come swooping down to try and
+cut us off.  What do you say to trying if we can make out what's wrong
+with Mr Lennox?  I think he must have been hit in the head."
+
+"Yes; let's look," said Dickenson: and after planting a sentry to keep a
+sharp lookout from a sheltered spot on each side of the little woodland
+patch, he set to work, with the sergeant's help, to carefully examine
+his rescued comrade, but without the slightest result, save finding that
+his head was a good deal swollen in one part, and, lower down, his left
+shoulder was puffed up, and apparently excessively tender from either a
+blow or wrench.
+
+"It's beyond us," said Dickenson, with a sigh.  "We'll make a start now,
+and get him into the doctor's hands."
+
+"Yes, sir; we might make a start now," said the sergeant.  "Wait a few
+minutes, sir, while I saddle up the ponies.  I'll be quite ready before
+you call the sentries, sir."
+
+"I'll try and wake Mr Lennox, then," said Dickenson, "and we'll get him
+on to the pony first."
+
+"I wouldn't, sir, if you'll excuse me," said the sergeant.  "If he's
+half-insensible like that from a hurt to his head, it'll be best to let
+him wake up of himself."
+
+"Perhaps so," said the young officer; "but I don't like his being so
+stupefied as this."
+
+The preparations were soon made, and the sergeant led the horses
+together, just as Dickenson rose from Lennox's side, took out his glass,
+and joined the sentry on their side.
+
+"Can you make out anything?" he said.
+
+"Only the same little cluster as the Boers did, sir.  I think it's
+ponies grazing."
+
+He had hardly spoken before there was a hail from the other side of the
+little wood.
+
+"What is it?" shouted the sergeant.
+
+"Boers coming along fast.  I think it's the same lot coming back.  Yes,
+it must be," cried the sentry.  "I've just come across their pot and
+kettle and things.  This must be their camp."
+
+"Over here," shouted Dickenson.  "Now, sergeant, we must mount and be
+off, for we shall not have such luck again."
+
+"No, sir," said the sergeant gruffly.  "Will you help, sir?"
+
+Dickenson's answer was to hurry to his friend's side, and in a very
+short time he was once more on a pony, with the sergeant keeping him in
+his place; while the others sprang into their saddles and rode off,
+manoeuvring so as to keep the enemy well on the other side of the
+woodland clump, and managing so well that they did not even see them for
+a time, the Boers riding back toward their old bivouac; and for a while
+there seemed to be no danger.
+
+But it was terribly slow work keeping to a walk.  Twice over the pony on
+which Lennox was mounted was pressed into an amble, but the shaking
+seemed to distress the injured man, and the walking pace was resumed,
+till all at once there was ample evidence that they had been seen, a
+distant crack and puff of smoke following a whistling sound overhead,
+and directly after the dust was struck up pretty close to one of the
+ponies' hoofs.
+
+"The game has begun, sergeant," said Dickenson calmly.
+
+"Yes, sir.  Shall we dismount and give them a taste back?"
+
+"We out here on the open veldt, and they under cover quite out of sight?
+No; press on as fast as we can, straight for Groenfontein.  They must
+have it all their own way now."
+
+"Hadn't we better try a canter again, sir?"
+
+"Yes, sergeant, if we are to save his life.  Forward!"
+
+They were nearly half a mile on their way, and slowly increasing the
+distance; but it was quite time to take energetic action, for, to
+Dickenson's dismay, the Boers were not going to content themselves with
+long shots, and all at once ten or a dozen appeared round one end of the
+little wood, spreading out as they galloped, and coming straight for
+them in an open line.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+HIS DUES.
+
+Burdened as the little party was with an insensible man, escape by
+trusting to the speed of their active little mounts was quite out of the
+question; and, young officer though he was, Dickenson was old enough in
+experience to know what to do.
+
+About a couple of hundred yards ahead was a scattered patch of the
+pleasant form of South African growth known locally, from its catching
+qualities, as the Wait-a-bit-thorn, and as rapidly as they could go
+Dickenson led his men to that, finding, as he expected, just enough
+cover in the midst of a perfectly bare plain, if not to shelter
+lying-down men, at least to blur and confuse the enemy's marksmen.  Here
+he gave the order, "Dismount!"  Lennox was laid flat upon his back, to
+lie without motion, and each man took the best shelter he could; while
+the ponies, not being trained like the modern trooper to lie down, were
+left to graze and take care of themselves.
+
+The Boers came galloping on, to find, on a small scale, how much
+difference there was between attacking in the open and defending a
+well-sheltered position.  But they had it yet to learn; and, evidently
+anticipating an easy victory, they galloped forward bravely enough,
+fully intending to hold the party up and expecting surrender at once.
+
+Dickenson waited till they were well within range before giving the
+order to fire, adding sternly the instruction that not a single
+cartridge was to be wasted, no shot being fired till the holder of the
+rifle felt sure.
+
+The order was succeeded by utter silence, broken only by the thudding of
+hoofs, and then _crack_! from the sergeant's piece, a puff of
+greyish-white smoke, and one of the enemy's ponies went down upon its
+knees, pitching the rider over its head, and rolled over upon one side,
+kicking wildly, and trying twice before it was able to rise to its feet,
+when it stood, poor beast! with hanging head; while its rider was seen
+crawling away, to stop at last and begin firing.
+
+_Crack_! again, and one of the Boers fell forward on the neck of his
+mount and dropped his rifle, while his frightened pony galloped on,
+swerving off to the right.
+
+_Crack! crack_! two more shots were fired without apparent effect, and
+then two more at intervals, each with good, or bad, effect.  In one case
+the rider threw up his arms and, as his pony tore on, fell over
+sidewise, to drop with his foot tight in the stirrup, and was dragged
+about a hundred yards before he was freed and his mount galloped away.
+
+The other shot took effect upon a pony, which stopped dead, to stand
+shivering, in spite of the way in which the Boer belaboured it with his
+rifle, seeming to pound at it with the butt to force it along.  But it
+was all in vain--the poor brute's war was over, and it slowly subsided,
+its rider springing off sidewise, to drop on one knee, as he tried to
+shelter himself behind the animal; but he was not quick enough, for
+Dickenson's rifle was resting upon a tuft of thorn, perfectly steady, as
+he covered his enemy.  _Crack_! and another tiny puff of smoke.  The
+noise and the greyish vapour were nothings out in that vast veldt, but
+they meant the exit of a man from the troublous scene.
+
+They meant more; for, as he saw the effect, the leader of the Boers
+shouted an order, and his men swerved off right and left, presenting
+their ponies' flanks to the British marksmen, who fired rapidly now, and
+with so good aim that two more ponies were badly hit, their riders
+leaping off to begin running after their comrades as hard as they could,
+while a third man fell over to one side, lay still for a few moments,
+and then struggled into a sitting position and held up his hands.
+
+"Don't fire at him!" cried Dickenson excitedly, and none too soon, for
+one of the men was taking aim.
+
+"Ha!" said the sergeant grimly as the Boers galloped back.  "That'll
+take some of the bounce out of the gentlemen.  One of them told us that
+our men didn't know how to shoot.  I dare say if we'd had their training
+we might be able to bring down springboks as well as they can."
+
+"Yes; capital, capital, my lads!--Well, sergeant, I think we may go on
+again."
+
+"No, sir, no!" cried the man excitedly.  "They don't know when they're
+beaten.  Look at that."
+
+For as he spoke the two little parties joined up again into one, sprang
+off their ponies, and imitated Dickenson's manoeuvre, lying down and
+beginning to shoot at long-range.
+
+"I don't think they'll hurt us at that distance, sergeant," said
+Dickenson.
+
+"They'll hurt us if they can hit us, sir," replied the man; "but it's a
+long way, and with their hands all of a shake from such a bit as they've
+just gone through."
+
+All the same, though, the bullets began to whistle overhead; then one
+struck the ground about ten yards in front of the sergeant and
+ricocheted, passing so near that the whiz was startling.
+
+"That was well meant," he said coolly; "but I don't believe the chap who
+sent it could do it again."
+
+"Look at that poor fellow," said Dickenson suddenly.
+
+"'Fraid of being hit by us or them, sir," replied the sergeant.  "Not a
+very pleasant place."
+
+For the Boer who had thrown up his hands in token of surrender had begun
+to crawl slowly and painfully to their right, evidently to get well out
+of the line of fire.  The man was evidently hit badly, for he kept on
+sinking down flat on his face, and four times over a curious sensation
+of regret came over Dickenson, mingled with a desire to go to his help
+with such surgical aid as he could supply.  But each time, just as he
+was going to suggest it to the sergeant, the man rose on all fours again
+and crawled farther away.
+
+"I don't think he's much hurt, sir.  Going pretty strong now."
+
+The sergeant had hardly spoken before Dickenson uttered an ejaculation,
+for the wounded man suddenly dropped down flat again and rolled over,
+showing as one hand came into sight that he still grasped his rifle; and
+then he was completely hidden, as if he had sunk into some slight
+depression.
+
+"Dead!" sighed Dickenson solemnly.
+
+"Looks like it, sir," said the sergeant quietly.
+
+"Or exhausted by his efforts," said Dickenson.  "Look here, sergeant, a
+man's a man."
+
+"`For a' that, and a' that,' as the song says," muttered the sergeant to
+himself.
+
+"Whether he's one of our men or an enemy.  I can't lie here, able to
+help, without going to his help."
+
+"No, no, sir; you mustn't stir," cried the sergeant excitedly.  "If you
+begin to move there'll be a shower of bullets cutting up the ground
+about you.  It's a good hundred and fifty yards to crawl."
+
+"I can't help that," said Dickenson quietly.  "I must do it."
+
+"But think of yourself, sir," said the sergeant.
+
+"A man in my position can't think of himself, sergeant."
+
+"Well, think of us, sir."
+
+"I shall, sergeant."
+
+"Ha!" cried the sergeant, in a tone full of exultation.  "And think of
+your friend, sir.  He wants help as bad as that chap, and you ought to
+think of him first."
+
+For just then they heard Lennox talking hurriedly, and on Dickenson
+looking back over his shoulder he could see his comrade's hands moving
+in the air, as if he were preparing to struggle up.
+
+Dickenson began to turn hurriedly to creep back to where Lennox lay,
+with one of the ponies grazing calmly enough close by, when the hands
+fell again, and the young officer lay perfectly still.
+
+"He has dropped to sleep again, and may be quiet for an hour.  Sergeant,
+I'm going to crawl out to that wounded Boer."
+
+"Very well, sir; you're my officer, and my duty is to obey.  I'm very
+sorry, Mr Dickenson.  It's a good two hundred yards, sir, and I believe
+it's a bit of slimmery.  He crawled there to be out of shot."
+
+_Whiz-z-z! crack_!  A puff of smoke and then a rush of hoofs, for the
+pony which had been grazing so calmly close by where Lennox lay went
+tearing over the veldt for about fifty yards, when, with two of its
+companions trotting after it as if to see what was the matter, it
+pitched suddenly upon its head, rolled over with its legs kicking as if
+it were galloping in the air, and then they fell and all was over, the
+two others turning and trotting back, to begin grazing once again.
+
+"That's bad," said Dickenson sadly.  "We couldn't spare that pony.  Why,
+sergeant, they can shoot!  I didn't think they could have done it at
+this range."
+
+"What! not at two hundred yards, sir?"
+
+"Two hundred, man?  It's a thousand."
+
+"Why, you don't see it, sir," cried the sergeant excitedly.  "It wasn't
+the enemy out yonder sent that bullet home."
+
+"Not the enemy out there?" cried Dickenson.
+
+"No, sir.  It was your dead man who fired that shot."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Don't feel so sorry for him, sir, do you, now?"
+
+As the sergeant was asking this question, the soldier who lay off to
+their left, and who had not discharged his piece for some time, fired
+simultaneously with a shot which came from the direction where the
+wounded Boer lay.
+
+"Ah!" cried the sergeant excitedly.  "Can you see him from there?"
+
+"No," growled the man; "but I saw something move, and let go on the
+chance of hitting him, but only cut up the sand."
+
+"Don't take your eye from the spot, my lad," cried Dickenson sharply.
+"Never mind a fresh cartridge.  Trust to your magazine."
+
+"Yes, sir; that's what I'm doing," was the reply.
+
+"Hadn't we all better do the same, sir?" asked the sergeant.
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson angrily.
+
+"I doubt whether we can keep his fire down, though, sir.  He's got us
+now."
+
+"Not yet--the brute!" cried Dickenson through his teeth.
+
+"He'll have the other two safe, sir."
+
+"Other two?" cried Dickenson wonderingly.
+
+"What! don't you see, sir?  There's another of the ponies hit."
+
+"Good gracious!" cried Dickenson, in such a homely, grandmotherly style
+that, in spite of their perilous position, the sergeant could not help
+smiling.
+
+But his face was as hard as an iron mask directly, as he saw the look of
+anguish in his young officer's face, Dickenson having just seen the
+second pony standing with drooping head and all four legs widely
+separated, rocking to and fro for a few moments, before dropping
+heavily, perfectly dead.
+
+_Crack_! came again from the same place, and another of the grazing
+ponies flung up its head, neighing shrilly, before springing forward to
+gallop for a couple of hundred yards and then fall.
+
+And _crack_! again, and its following puff of smoke, making the fourth
+pony start and begin to limp for a few yards with its off foreleg
+broken; and _crack_! once more, and the sound of a sharp rap caused by
+another bullet striking the suffering beast right in the middle of the
+shoulder-blade, when it dropped dead instantly, pierced through the
+heart.
+
+"Best shot yet, sir," said the sergeant grimly; "put the poor beast out
+of its misery.  Now," he muttered to himself, "we know what we've got to
+expect if we don't stop his little game."
+
+"Every man watch below where the smoke rose," said Dickenson slowly and
+sternly.  "That man can't see without exposing himself in some way.
+Yes; be on the alert.  Look! he's pressing the sand away to right and
+left with the barrel of his rifle.  Mind, don't fire till you've got a
+thoroughly good chance."
+
+No one spoke, but all lay flat upon their chests, watching the moving
+right and left of a gun-barrel which was directed towards them, but
+pointing so that if fired a bullet would have gone over their heads.  It
+was hard to see; but the sun glinted from its polished surface from time
+to time, and moment by moment they noted that it was becoming more
+horizontal.
+
+Every man's sight was strained to the utmost; every nerve was on the
+quiver; so that not one of the four felt that he could trust himself to
+shoot when the crucial moment came.
+
+It came more quickly than they expected; for, after a few moments of
+intense strain, the barrel was suddenly depressed, till through the
+clear air the watchers distinctly saw a tiny hole and nothing more.
+Then all at once the sun glinted from something else--a something that
+flashed brightly for one instant, and was then obscured by smoke--the
+smoke that darted from the little, just perceptible orifice of the
+small-bore Mauser and that which shot out from four British rifles, to
+combine into one slowly rising cloud; while as the commingled reports of
+five rifles, friendly and inimical, died away, to the surprise of
+Dickenson and his men they saw the figure of a big swarthy Boer
+staggering towards them with both hands pressed to his face.  The next
+moment he was lying just in front of his hiding-place, stretched out--
+dead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+SAFE AT LAST.
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Dickenson, with a sigh of relief, and he turned away to
+creep to where Lennox lay, finding him still plunged in the same state
+of stupor.
+
+"One ought to lay him in the shade," he thought; but there was very
+little that he could do beyond drawing a few pieces of the thorn bush
+together to hang over his face.  He then took out his handkerchief to
+lay over the bush, but hastily snatched it away again.  "Bah!" he
+muttered.  "It's like making a white bull's-eye for them to fire at."
+
+Then he crept back to his position, with the bullets still whizzing
+overhead or striking up the dust, and he almost wondered that no one had
+been hit.
+
+"I hope Mr Lennox is better, sir," said the sergeant respectfully.
+
+"I see no difference, sergeant.  But what does that mean?"
+
+"What we used to call `stalking horse,' sir, down in the Essex marshes.
+Creeping up under the shelter of their mounts."
+
+"Then they are getting nearer?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Don't you think we might begin to pay them back?  We could
+hit their ponies if we couldn't hit them."
+
+"Yes, sergeant, soon," replied the young officer, carefully scanning the
+enemy's approach; "but I think I'd let them get a hundred yards, or even
+two, nearer before we begin.  The business is simplified."
+
+"Is it, sir?"
+
+"I mean, there's no question of retreating now that the ponies are gone.
+It's either fight to the last, or surrender."
+
+"You mean, sir, that there were three things to do?"
+
+"Yes; and now it's one of two."
+
+"Isn't it only one, sir?  I think the lads feel as I do, right-down
+savage, and ready to fight to the last."
+
+"Very well," said Dickenson; "then we'll fight to the last."
+
+The sergeant smiled, and then for a time all lay perfectly still, fully
+expecting that one or other of the many bullets which came whizzing by
+would find its billet; but though there were several very narrow
+escapes, no one was hit, and though the enemy in front had greatly
+lessened the distance, their bullets struck no nearer.  But the men grew
+very impatient under the terrible strain, and all three kept on turning
+their heads to watch their officer, who lay frowning, his rifle in front
+and his chin supported by his folded arms.
+
+"Ah!" came at last, in an involuntary sigh of relief from all three, as
+they saw Dickenson alter his position after the enemy had made a fresh
+and perceptible decrease in the distance between them by urging their
+ponies forward, the men's legs being strongly marked, giving the ponies
+the appearance of being furnished with another pair, as their riders
+stood taking aim and resting their rifles across the saddles.
+
+But no order to fire came from Dickenson, who still remained quiet.
+Then all at once:
+
+"Sergeant," he said, "I've practised a great deal with the sporting
+rifle, but done very little of this sort of thing myself.  I'm going to
+try now if I can't stop this miserable sneaking approach of the enemy."
+
+The men gave a hearty cheer.
+
+"I'm sorry for the poor ponies," he said, "for I think this range will
+be well within the power of the service arm."
+
+"Yes, sir, quite," said the sergeant promptly.
+
+Dickenson was silent once again, and they saw him taking a long, careful
+aim at the nearest Boer.  The effect of his shot was that the pony he
+had aimed at sprang forward, leaving a Boer visible, facing them in
+astonishment before he turned to run.
+
+"Fire!" said Dickenson, and three shots followed almost instantaneously,
+while the running Boer was seen lying upon the earth.
+
+"Be ready!" said Dickenson, aiming now at another of the ponies, and
+paying no heed to six or seven replies from the exasperated Boers.
+
+The pony now fired at reared up, and in the clear sunshine the man who
+was aiming across it was seen to be crushed down by the poor animal's
+fall, and he did not rise again.
+
+Once more Dickenson's rifle rang out, and he shifted it back now to his
+right, to fire his fourth shot almost without aiming.  As the smoke
+cleared away by the time the young officer had replaced the exploded
+cartridges, one pony could be seen struggling on the ground, another was
+galloping away, while two men were crawling backward on hands and knees.
+
+"It seems like butchery, sergeant," said Dickenson, taking another long
+aim before firing again.  "Missed!"
+
+"No, sir: I saw the pony start," said the sergeant eagerly.  "There,
+look at him!"
+
+For the two men cheered on seeing the pony limp for a few yards and then
+fall, just beyond where his master was lying stretched out on his face.
+
+"Poor brute!" said Dickenson in a low voice.
+
+"He didn't say it was butchery when that chap was knocking down our
+mounts at quarter this distance," said the sergeant to himself.  "But,
+my word, he can shoot!  I shouldn't like to change places with the Boers
+when he's behind a rifle."
+
+Just then the men cheered, for three more of the enemy who had been
+stalking them were seen to spring into the saddle, lie flat down over
+their willing mounts, and gallop away as hard as they could to join
+their comrades.
+
+"Well, we've stopped that game for the present, sergeant," said
+Dickenson.  "Perhaps we may be able to keep them off till night.--But
+that's a long way off," he said to himself, "and we've to fight against
+this scorching heat and the hunger and thirst."
+
+"Hope so, sir," said the sergeant, in response to what he had heard;
+"but--"
+
+He ceased speaking, and pointed in the direction of the patch of scrub
+forest where they had passed the night.
+
+Dickenson shaded his eyes and uttered an ejaculation.  Then after
+another long glance: "Ten--twenty--thirty," he said, as he watched two
+lines of mounted men cantering out from behind the patch right and left.
+"Why, there must be quite thirty more."
+
+"I should say forty of 'em, sir."
+
+"Why, sergeant, they're moving out to surround us."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the sergeant coolly; "but you won't surrender?"
+
+"Not while the cartridges last."
+
+"Well, there's enough to account for the lot, sir, if we hand in ours
+and you do the firing."
+
+The young officer burst into a forced laugh.
+
+"Why, sergeant," he cried, "what do you take me for?"
+
+"Soldier of the Queen, sir, ready to show the enemy that our march at
+the Jubilee wasn't all meant for show."
+
+Dickenson was silent for a time.
+
+"Ha!" he said at last, with a sigh.  "I want to prove that; but there
+are times when holding out ceases to be justifiable--fighting becomes
+mere butchery."
+
+"Yes, sir, when forty or fifty men surround four and a wounded one,
+shoot down their mounts so as they can't retreat, and then try and
+butcher them.  It's all on their side, sir, not ours; and the men think
+as I do."
+
+Dickenson was silent again, lying there with his teeth set and a
+peculiar hard look in his eyes, such as a man in the flower of his youth
+and strength might show when he knows the time is fast approaching for
+everything to end.  Meanwhile the two fresh parties that had come on the
+scene were galloping hard to join the enclosing wings of the first
+comers, who stood fast, fully grasping what was to follow, and keeping
+the attention of their prey by firing a shot now and then, not one of
+which had the slightest effect.
+
+"Oh for some water!" groaned Dickenson at last.  "Poor Mr Lennox!  How
+he must suffer!"
+
+"Not he, sir.  He's in that state that when he wakes up he'll know
+nothing about what has taken place.  It's you that ought to have the
+drink, to steady your hand for what is to come."
+
+Dickenson made no reply aloud, but he thought bitterly, "When he wakes
+up--when he wakes up!  Where will it be: the Boer prison camp, or in the
+other world?"
+
+The sergeant and the men now relapsed into a moody silence, as they lay,
+rifle in hand, with the sun beating down in increasing force, and a
+terrible thirst assailing them.  Dickenson looked at their scowling
+faces, and a sudden impression attacked him that a feeling of resentment
+had arisen against him for not surrendering now that they were in such a
+hopeless condition.  This increased till he could bear it no longer, and
+edging himself closer to the sergeant, he spoke to him upon the subject,
+with the result that the man broke into a harsh laugh.
+
+"Don't you go thinking anything of that sort, sir, because you're wrong.
+Oh yes, they look savage enough, but it's only because they feel ugly.
+We're all three what you may call dangerous, sir.  The lads want to get
+at the enemy to make them pay for what we're suffering.  Here, you ask
+them yourself what they think about surrendering."
+
+Dickenson did not hesitate, but left the sergeant, to crawl to the man
+beyond him, when just as he was close up a well-directed bullet struck
+up the sand and stones within a few inches of the man's face,
+half-blinding him for a time and making him forget discipline and the
+proximity of his officer, as he raged out a torrent of expletives
+against the Boer who had fired that shot.
+
+"Let me look at your face, my lad," said Dickenson.  "Are you much
+hurt?"
+
+"Hurt, sir?  No!  It's only just as if some one had chucked a handful of
+dust into my eyes."
+
+"Let me see."
+
+A few deft applications of a finger removed the trouble from the man's
+eyes, and he smiled again, and then listened attentively to his
+officer's questions.
+
+"Oh, it's as you think best, sir," he said at last; "but I wouldn't give
+up.  We don't want to.  All we're thinking about is giving the enemy
+another sickening for what they've done."
+
+Dickenson crawled away to the other man--away to his right--to find him
+literally glowering when spoken to.
+
+"What do the others say, sir--the sergeant and my comrade?"
+
+"Never mind them," replied Dickenson.  "I want to know how you feel."
+
+"Well, sir," was the reply, "about an hour ago I felt regular sick of
+it, and that it would be about like throwing our lives away to hold
+out."
+
+"That it would be better to surrender and chance our fate in a Boer
+prison?"
+
+"Something of that sort, sir."
+
+"And how do you feel now?"
+
+"Just as if they've regularly got my dander up, sir.  I only want to
+shoot as long as we've got a cartridge left.  I'd give up then, for
+they'd never wait for us to get at them with the bayonet."
+
+Dickenson said no more, but returned to his old place, watching the
+galloping Boers, who had now gone far enough to carry out their plans,
+and were stopping by twos to dismount and wait, this being continued
+till the little English party formed the centre of a very wide circle.
+Then a signal was made from the starting-point, and firing commenced.
+
+Fortunately for the party it was at a tremendously long-range, for,
+after the way in which the enemy had suffered in regard to their ponies,
+they elected to keep what they considered to be outside the reach of the
+British rifles; and no reply was made, Dickenson declining to try and
+hit the poor beasts which formed the Boer shelter in a way which would
+only inflict a painful wound without disabling them from their masters'
+service.
+
+"It would be waste of our cartridges, sergeant," he said.
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply; "perhaps it's best to wait.  They'll be
+tempted into getting closer after a bit.  Getting tired of it if they
+don't hit us, and make us put up a white flag for the doctor.  Look at
+them.  Oh, it's nonsense firing at such a distance.  Their rifles carry
+right enough, but it's all guesswork; they can't take an aim."
+
+The sergeant was right enough; but the bullets were dangerous, and they
+came now pretty rapidly from all round, striking with a vicious _phit_!
+which was terribly straining to the nerves.  And all the time the heat
+of the sun grew more painful.  There was not a breath of air; and the
+pull's of smoke when the enemy fired looked dim and distant, as if seen
+through a haze.
+
+The sergeant made some allusion to the fact.
+
+"Looks as if there was a change coming.  There, sir, you can hardly see
+that man and horse."
+
+"No," said Dickenson sadly, "but I think it's from the state of our
+eyes.  I feel giddy, and mine are quite dim."
+
+"Perhaps it is that, sir," said the sergeant.  "Things look quite
+muddled up to me.  Now turn a little and look yonder, out Groenfontein
+way."
+
+Dickenson turned wearily, and winced, for three bullets came almost
+simultaneously, two with their vicious _whiz-z_! the other to cut up the
+ground and ricochet.
+
+"Not hit, sir?" said the sergeant anxiously.
+
+"No; but one shot was very near.  Yes, I see what you mean: the Boers
+are mounting out in that direction.  They're coming closer.  We shall
+perhaps have a chance now," he cried, with more animation.
+
+It seemed, though, that they were going to retire as they came, the
+circle being opened on the Groenfontein side and the men retiring in
+twos, to go on increasing in two groups, firing rapidly the while; but,
+to the surprise of the beleaguered party, the bullets ceased to whiz in
+their direction.
+
+A dead silence fell upon the group, no one daring to speak the hope that
+was in him for fear of exciting his companions by an idea that might
+after all prove only to be imagination.  Then all spoke together, and
+there was an excited cheer.
+
+"Yes," cried Dickenson; "there's help coming.  The Boers are retiring
+fast."
+
+"Why, of course, sir," said the sergeant confidently.  "The colonel
+would be sure to send out to see why we didn't come back.  There's a lot
+of our fellows out yonder that the enemy is firing at, and we can't see
+them for the haze.  It is haze, and not giddiness and our eyes."
+
+"No, sergeant; we can see clearly enough.  I can make out the advance of
+the relief party.  Wait five minutes, and I'll see what a few
+signal-shots will do."
+
+But before the time mentioned the Boers could be seen steadily
+retreating, and the puffs of smoke from the firing of an advancing party
+could be made out.  Signals followed, and but a short time elapsed
+before the Boers were driven off and the rescued party were reviving
+under the influence of the water proffered from the relief party's
+bottles.
+
+The return to Groenfontein commenced at once, with Lennox carried by
+four men by means of scarfs; but he was not the only man who needed this
+aid, four more being hit during the return, the driven-off Boers hanging
+at a safe distance on flank and rear, sniping at every chance with the
+longest of shots, till the outposts were reached, and a cheer welcomed
+the rescued men as they marched in.
+
+The motion through the air had gradually revived Lennox, so much so that
+when the party was met by the colonel and officers the young lieutenant
+was able to reply to a question or two before the doctor intervened.
+
+"Leave him to me for a bit," he said, and had Lennox borne toward the
+hut where Roby and the corporal were lying, Dickenson following close
+behind.
+
+"The colonel did not shake hands with him," said the young officer to
+himself, "and the major never spoke.  Surely they don't think--"
+
+He got no farther, for they had reached the hut, when, to the surprise
+of all, Roby wrenched himself round to glare at Lennox being carried in,
+and then in a harsh, excited voice he cried:
+
+"Lennox here?  Coward!  Cur!--coward!  How dare you show your face
+again?"
+
+And at these words Corporal May wagged his head slowly from side to side
+and uttered a weary groan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+AN UNPLEASANT BUSINESS.
+
+"Why, Roby!" cried Lennox, after standing for some moments gazing wildly
+at his brother officer, and then going close up to his rough
+resting-place.  "For goodness' sake, don't talk in that way!"
+
+"Coward!  Cur!  To run away and leave me like that!" cried Roby.
+
+Lennox stared at him with his eyes dilating, and then he turned sharply
+and looked from Dickenson to the doctor and back again, ending by
+clapping his hands to his forehead and holding his breath before gazing
+wildly at Roby once more as if doubting that the torrent of reproaches
+he listened to were real.
+
+"Am I off my head a little, doctor?--the sun, and that dreadful thirst.
+Am I mad?"
+
+"Mad?  No, my lad; but you're in a parlous state.--Here, orderly, I must
+have Mr Lennox in the next hut.  He is exciting Captain Roby horribly."
+
+"Yes; horribly," said Lennox.  "Poor fellow!  Is he so bad as that?"
+
+"Oh yes, he's bad enough," said the doctor gruffly.
+
+"Corporal May, too," said Lennox, with a troubled look at the other
+patients occupying the hut.  "Are you much hurt, May?"
+
+For answer the man glared at him and turned his face away, making Lennox
+wince again and look at the other patient.  But he was lying fast
+asleep.
+
+"Rather a queer welcome," said the young officer, turning now to
+Dickenson, and once more his eyes dilated with a wondering look.  "Why,
+Bob, you're not going to call me a coward too?"
+
+"Likely!" said the young man gruffly.
+
+"Don't stand talking to him, Mr Dickenson," said the doctor
+sharply.--"Here, lean on the orderly, sir; he'll help you into the next
+hut.  I want to try and diagnose your case."
+
+"Yes--please if it's necessary," said Lennox, catching at the orderly as
+if attacked by vertigo.--"Thank you, old fellow," he whispered huskily
+as Dickenson started forward and caught him by the other arm.  "Not much
+the matter.  Gone through a good deal.  Faint.  The sun.  Touch of
+stroke, I think."
+
+He hung heavily upon the pair, who assisted him out into the next hut,
+while Roby's accusation was reiterated, the words ringing in his ears:
+"Coward!--cur!--runaway!" till he was out of sight, when Roby sank back
+exhausted.
+
+"Don't question him, and don't let him talk about what he has gone
+through," said the doctor a short time later, when he had made his fresh
+patient as comfortable as circumstances would allow, and he was growing
+drowsy from the sedative administered.  "It's not sunstroke, but a
+mingling of the results of exposure and overdoing it altogether.  I
+don't quite understand it yet, and I want to get at the truth without
+asking him."
+
+"Oh doctor! don't you join in thinking the poor fellow has been behaving
+in a cowardly way."
+
+"Tchah!  Rubbish!  What is it to me, sir, how the man has been behaving?
+He's all wrong, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes; terribly."
+
+"Very well, then, I've got to put him all right.  If he has committed
+any breach of discipline you can court-martial him when I've done."
+
+"But, hang it all, doctor!" cried Dickenson fiercely, "you don't believe
+he's a coward?"
+
+"Humph!  Very evident you don't, my lad," said the doctor grimly.
+
+"Of course not."
+
+"That's right; then stick to it.  I like to see a man back up his
+friend."
+
+"Who wouldn't back him up?" cried Dickenson.
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  It's very evident that Roby won't."
+
+"Roby's as mad as a March hare," cried Dickenson.
+
+"Well, not quite; but he's a bit queer in his head, and I'm afraid I
+shall have to perform rather a crucial operation upon him.  I don't want
+to if I can help it, out here.  It requires skilled help, and I should
+like some one to share the responsibility."
+
+"Internally injured?" asked Dickenson.
+
+"Oh no.  The bullet that ploughed up his forehead is pressing a piece of
+bone down slightly on the brain."
+
+"Slightly!" said Dickenson, with a laugh.  "Turned it right over, I
+think."
+
+"Yes, you fellows who know nothing about your construction do get a good
+many absurd ideas in your head.  Here, talk softly; I want to get at the
+cause of his trouble.  He's not wounded."
+
+"Why, his skull's ploughed up, and the bone pressing on his brain."
+
+"Do you mean that for a joke--a bit of chaff, Mr Dickenson?" said the
+doctor stiffly.
+
+"A joke, sir?  Is this a subject to joke about?" replied Dickenson.
+
+"Certainly not, sir; but you thoughtless young fellows are ready to
+laugh at anything."
+
+"Well, sir, you're wrong.  Roby and I were never very great friends, but
+I'm not such a brute as to laugh and sneer when the poor fellow's down."
+
+"Who was talking about Captain Roby?"
+
+"You were, sir.  You told me that his brain was suffering from pressure,
+and then you went on to say that you wanted to get at the cause of his
+hurt."
+
+"Bah!  Tchah!  Nonsense, man!  I was talking then about Lennox."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir."
+
+"Oh, all right, my lad.  Now then; I'm talking about Lennox now.  I say
+I want to get at the cause of his trouble without questioning him and
+setting his poor feverish brain working.  Tell me how you found him."
+
+Dickenson briefly explained.
+
+"Humph!  Utterly exhausted; been suffering from the sun, thirst, and
+evidently after exerting himself tremendously.  Been in a complete
+stupor more than sleep, you say?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, it's very strange," said the doctor thoughtfully.  "He was in the
+assault, wasn't he?"
+
+"Oh yes, of course."
+
+"Well, human nature's a queer thing, Dickenson, my lad."
+
+"Yes, sir; very," said the young man gruffly, "or Roby wouldn't behave
+like this and set that sneak May off on the same track."
+
+"And," continued the doctor testily, as if he did not like being
+interrupted, "the more I examine into man's nature the more curious and
+contradictory I find it--I mean, in the mental faculties."
+
+"I suppose so, sir.--What's he aiming at?" added the young officer to
+himself.
+
+"Now, look here, Dickenson, my lad; between ourselves, that was rather a
+horrible bit of business, eh?--that attack in the half-darkness."
+
+"Well, sir, it wasn't quite like an _al fresco_ ball," said Dickenson
+gruffly.
+
+"Of course not.  Bayoneting and bludgeoning with rifle-butts?"
+
+Dickenson nodded.
+
+"And all on the top of the excitement of the march and the long waiting
+to begin?"
+
+"Just so, sir," said Dickenson.
+
+"Enough to over-excite a young fellow's brain?"
+
+"Well--yes, sir; it's not at all cheerful work.  But, really, I don't
+see what you mean."
+
+"Just this, my dear boy, and, as I said, between ourselves.  You don't
+think, do you, that just in the midst of the fight poor Lennox was
+seized with what you vulgar young fellows call a fit of blue funk, do
+you?"
+
+"No, sir, I do not," said Dickenson stiffly.  "Certainly not."
+
+"Lost his nerve?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"I've lost mine before now, my lad, over a very serious operation--when
+I was young, you know."
+
+"May be, sir; but Drew Lennox is not the sort of fellow for that."
+
+"As a rule, say."
+
+"Yes, as a rule, sir, without a single exception."
+
+"And took fright and ran?"
+
+"Rubbish, sir!  He couldn't."
+
+"Just as Roby says?"
+
+"Roby's mad."
+
+"And as Corporal May holds to in corroboration?"
+
+"No, sir, no; and I should like to see Corporal May flogged."
+
+"Rather an unpleasant sight, my lad," said the doctor quietly, "even
+when a culprit richly deserves it.  But about Lennox.  He might, though
+as a rule brave as a lion, have had a seizure like that."
+
+"No, he mightn't sir," said Dickenson stoutly.
+
+"You don't know, my lad."
+
+"Oh yes, I do, sir.  I know Drew Lennox by heart."
+
+"But there is such a thing as panic, my lad."
+
+"Not with him, sir."
+
+"I say yes, my lad.  Recollect that he had a terrible shock a little
+while ago."  Dickenson's lips parted.  "He was plunged into that awful
+hole in the dark, and whirled through some underground tunnel.  Why,
+sir, I went and looked at the place myself with Sergeant James, and he
+let down a lantern for me to see.  I tell you what it is; I'm as hard as
+most men, through going about amongst horrors, but that black pit made
+me feel wet inside my hands.  I wonder the poor fellow retained his
+reason."
+
+"But he got the better of that, sir," said Dickenson hoarsely.
+
+"How do you know, sir?  He seemed better; but a man can't go through
+such things as that without their leaving some weakening of the mental
+force."
+
+"Doctor, don't talk like that, for goodness' sake!"
+
+"I must, my lad, because I think--mind you, I say I think--"
+
+"Doctor, if you begin to think Drew Lennox is a coward I'll never
+respect you again," cried Dickenson angrily.
+
+"I don't think he's a coward, my dear boy," said the doctor, laying his
+hand upon the young officer's arm.  "I think he's as brave a lad as ever
+stepped, and I like him; but no man is perfect, and the result of that
+horrible plunge into the bowels of the earth shook him so that in that
+fierce fight he grew for a bit very weak indeed."
+
+"Impossible, doctor!" cried the young man fiercely.
+
+"Quite possible," said the doctor, pressing his companion's arm; "and
+now let me finish.  I tell you, I like Drew Lennox, and if I am right I
+shall think none the less of him."
+
+"_Ur-r-r-r_!" growled Dickenson.
+
+"It is between ourselves, mind, and it is only my theory.  He lost his
+nerve in the middle of that fight--had a fit of panic, and, as Roby and
+the corporal say (very cruelly and bitterly), ran for his life--bolted."
+
+"I'll never believe it, sir."
+
+"Well, remain a heretic if you like; but that's my theory."
+
+"I tell you, sir--"
+
+"Wait a minute, my lad; I haven't done.  I suggest that he had this
+seizure--"
+
+"And I swear he had not!"
+
+"Wait till I've finished, boy," said the doctor sternly.
+
+Dickenson stood with his brow knit and his fists clenched, almost
+writhing in his anger; and the doctor went on:
+
+"I suggest, my dear boy, that he had this fit of panic and was aware
+that it must be known, when, after running right away--"
+
+"Yes, sir; go on," said Dickenson savagely--"after running away--"
+
+"He came quite to himself, felt that he would be branded as a coward by
+all who knew him, and then, in a mad fit of despair--"
+
+"Yes, sir--and then?"
+
+"You told me that he came back without his revolver."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dickenson mockingly--"and then he didn't blow his
+brains out."
+
+"No," said the doctor quietly, "for he had lost his pistol, perhaps in
+the fight; but it seems to me, Dickenson, that in his agony of shame,
+despair, and madness, he tried to hang himself."
+
+"Tried to do what?" roared Dickenson.
+
+"What I say, my dear boy," said the doctor gravely.
+
+"I say, doctor, have you been too much in the sun?" said Dickenson, with
+a forced laugh, one which sounded painful in the extreme.
+
+"No, my dear fellow; I am perfectly calm, and everything points to the
+fact--his state when you found him, sorrowful, repentant, and utterly
+exhausted by his sufferings in his struggles to get back to face it out
+like a man."
+
+"Doctor, you are raving.  His appearance was all compatible with a
+struggle, fighting with the Boers--a prisoner bravely fighting for his
+escape.  Everything points to your fact?  Nonsense, sir--absurd!"
+
+"You're a brave, true-hearted fellow, Dickenson, my lad, and I like you
+none the less for being so rude to me in your defence of your poor
+friend.  He must be sleeping now after the dose I gave him.  Come with
+me, and I'll give you a surprise."
+
+"Not such a one as you have already given me, doctor," said the young
+man bitterly.
+
+"We shall see," said the doctor quietly; and the next minute he was
+standing by Lennox's side, carefully lifting a moistened bandage laid
+close to his neck.
+
+Dickenson uttered a faint cry of horror.  For deeply marked in his
+friend's terribly swollen neck there was a deep blue mark such as would
+have been caused by a tightened cord, and in places the skin was torn
+away, leaving visible the eroded flesh.
+
+"Oh doctor!" groaned Dickenson, trembling violently.
+
+"Hold up, my dear boy," whispered his companion.  "No one knows of it
+but my orderly, you, and myself.  It will soon heal up, and I shall not
+feel it my duty to mention it to a soul."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+THE TALE HE TOLD.
+
+"Look here, Roby," said Dickenson, three or four days later, when,
+having a little time on his hands--the Boers, consequent upon their late
+defeat, having been very quiet--he went in to sit with the captain of
+his company, finding him calm and composed, and ready to talk about the
+injury to his head, which seemed to be healing fast.
+
+"Precious lucky for me, Dickenson," he said; "an inch lower and there
+would have been promotion for somebody.  Narrow escape, wasn't it?"
+
+"Awfully."
+
+"Such a nuisance, too, lying up in this oven.  I tell Emden that I
+should get better much faster if he'd let me get up and go about; but he
+will not listen."
+
+"Of course not; you're best where you are.  You couldn't wear your
+helmet."
+
+"My word, no!  Head's awfully tender.  It makes me frightfully wild
+sometimes when I think of the cowardly way in which that cur Lennox--"
+
+"Hold hard!" cried Dickenson, frowning.  "Look here, Roby; you got that
+crotchet into your head in the delirium that followed your wound.
+You're getting better now and talk like a sane man, so just drop that
+nonsense."
+
+"Nonsense?"
+
+"Yes; horrible nonsense.  Have you thought of the mischief you are doing
+by making such a charge?"
+
+"Thought till my head has seemed on fire.  He'll have to leave the
+regiment, and a good job too."
+
+"Of course, over a craze."
+
+"Craze, sir?  It's a simple fact--the honest truth.  Ask Corporal May
+there.--It's true, isn't it, May?"
+
+"Oh yes, sir; it's true enough," said the corporal, "though I'm sorry
+enough to have to say it of my officer."
+
+"It doesn't seem like it, sir," said Dickenson in a voice full of
+exasperation.
+
+"No, sir; you think so because you always were Mr Lennox's friend.  But
+it ain't my business, and I don't want to speak about it.  I never do
+unless I'm obliged."
+
+"You--you worm!" cried Dickenson, for he could think of nothing better
+to say.  "Have you ever thought it would have been much better, after
+your bit of fright in the cavern, if Mr Lennox had left you to take
+your chance, instead of risking his life to save yours?"
+
+"No, sir; I ain't never thought that," whined the man; "but I was very
+grateful to him for what he did, and that's what keeps me back and makes
+me feel so ill speaking about him.  I wouldn't say a word, sir, but you
+see I must speak the truth."
+
+"Speak the truth!" growled Dickenson as he turned angrily away.  "Look
+here, Roby, if I stop here much longer I shall get myself into trouble
+for kicking a patient.  Now, once more, look here.  You've done an awful
+lot of mischief by what you said when your fit of delirium was on you,
+and you're in such a weak state now that as soon as you begin thinking
+about Lennox you make yourself worse by bringing the crazy feeling back
+again."
+
+"Crazy feeling?  Bah!  I know what I'm saying.  A coward!  I wish the
+old days were back.  I'd call him out and shoot him."
+
+"No, you wouldn't, for you'd have to wait till the doctor took you off
+his list, and by that time you'd be quite back in your right senses."
+
+"Robert Dickenson!" cried Roby, flushing scarlet, and his features
+growing convulsed.
+
+"Yes, that's my name; but I'm not going to submit to a bullying from the
+doctor for exciting his patient.  Good-bye.  Make haste and get well.  I
+can't stop here."
+
+"Stay where you are," shouted Roby furiously.  "Drew Lennox is--"
+
+"My friend," muttered Dickenson, rushing out.  "Poor fellow!  I suppose
+he believes it; but he doesn't know how bad he is.  It's queer.  That
+idea regularly maddens him.  Hullo! here's the boss."
+
+"Ah, Dickenson, my lad!  Been to cheer up Roby?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I've been to cheer him up a bit," said Dickenson.
+
+"That's right.  Getting on nicely, isn't he?"
+
+"Ye-es."
+
+"What do you mean with your spun-out `yes'?"
+
+"I thought he seemed a little queer in the head yet."
+
+"Oh yes, and that will last for a while, no doubt.  But he's mending
+wonderfully, and I'm beginning to hope that there will be no need for
+the operation: nature is doing the work herself."
+
+"That's right, sir," said Dickenson dryly.  "I'd encourage her to go
+on."
+
+The doctor smiled.
+
+"Going to see Lennox?"
+
+"If I may."
+
+"Oh yes, you may go now.  He's getting on too: picking up strength.
+Don't let him talk too much, and don't mention a word about that report
+of Roby's."
+
+"Certainly not," said Dickenson; and the doctor passing on, the young
+officer entered the next hut, to find his friend looking hollow-eyed and
+pulled down, the nerves at the corners of his eyes twitching as he
+slept.
+
+Dickenson sat down upon a box watching him, and it was as if his
+presence there acted upon the patient, who, at the end of a few minutes,
+opened his eyes and smiled.
+
+"How strange!" he said, holding out his hand.
+
+"What's strange?"
+
+"I was dreaming about you.  How long have you been there?"
+
+"Five or ten minutes."
+
+"How are things going on?"
+
+"Pretty quiet."
+
+"No news of relief?"
+
+"Not the slightest.  We seem to be quite forgotten out here in this
+corner."
+
+"Oh--no," said Lennox; "we're not forgotten.  The country is so big, and
+our men are kept busy in other directions."
+
+He turned as he spoke to got into an easier position, and then winced,
+uttering an ejaculation indicating the pain he felt.
+
+"Why didn't you speak, and let me help you?" said Dickenson.
+
+"Because I want to be independent.  It was nothing.  Only my neck; it's
+awfully sore still."
+
+Dickenson winced now in turn.  A chill ran through him, and his forehead
+contracted with pain; but Lennox did not grasp the feeling of horror and
+misery which ran through his friend.
+
+"I shall be precious glad when it's better," continued Lennox.  "Did I
+tell you how it got in this state?"
+
+"No.  Don't talk about it," said Dickenson shortly.
+
+"Why not?  I'm all right now.  Have I been raving at all?"
+
+"Not that I have heard."
+
+"I wonder at it, for until this morning I've felt half my time as if I
+were in a nightmare."
+
+"Look here; the doctor said that you were to be kept perfectly quiet,
+and that I was not to encourage you to talk."
+
+"Good old man.  Well, I'm as quiet as a mouse, and you are not going to
+encourage me to talk.  I haven't felt inclined to, either, since I got
+back.  I don't suppose it has been so, but I've felt as if all the veins
+in my head were swollen up, and it has made me stupid and strange, and
+as if I couldn't say what I wanted, and I haven't tried to speak for
+fear I should wander away.  But I say, Bob, did I go in to see Roby
+lying wounded when I came back?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah, then that wasn't imagination.  It's like something seen through a
+mist.  It has all been like looking through glass cloudy and thick over
+since we rushed the Boers."
+
+"Look here," said Dickenson, rising; "I must go now."
+
+"Nonsense; you've only just come.  Sit down, man; you won't hurt me.  Do
+me good.--That's right.  I want to ask you something."
+
+"No, no; you'd better not talk."
+
+"What nonsense!  I'm beginning to suffer now from what fine people call
+_ennui_.  Not much in my way, old fellow.  You're doing me good.  I say,
+look here.  Something has been bothering me like in my dreams.  You say
+I did go in to see poor Roby?"
+
+"Yes; but look here, Drew, old man," cried Dickenson, "if you get on
+that topic I must go."
+
+"No, no; stay.  I want to separate the fancy from the real.  I've got an
+idea in my head that Roby turned upon me in a fit of raving, and called
+me a coward and a cur for running away and leaving him.  Did I dream
+that?"
+
+"No," said Dickenson huskily.  "He has been a good deal off his head.
+He did shout something of that sort at you."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said Lennox quietly.  "But how horrible!  Shot in the
+forehead, wasn't he?"
+
+"Bullet ploughed open the top of his head."
+
+"I didn't see what was wrong with him in the rush.  I can remember now,
+quite clearly, seeing him go down, with his face streaming with blood."
+
+"You recollect that?" said Dickenson excitedly, in spite of himself.
+
+"Oh yes.  The light was coming fast, and we were near where a lot of the
+Boers were making for their mounts to get them away.  One big fellow was
+leading his pony, and as poor Roby was straggling blindly about, this
+Boer ran at him, holding his rein in one hand, his rifle in the other,
+and I saw him shorten it with his right to turn it into a club to bring
+it down on Roby's head."
+
+"All!" cried Dickenson, with increasing excitement, and he waited by
+Lennox, who ceased speaking, and lay gazing calmly at the door.  Then
+all the doctor's warnings were forgotten, and the visitor said hoarsely,
+"Well, go on.  Why don't you speak?"
+
+"Oh, I don't want to begin blowing about what I did," said Lennox
+quietly.
+
+"But I want to hear," said Dickenson.  "Go on--the Boer raised his rifle
+to bash it down on Roby's head.  What then?"
+
+"Well, he didn't.  I was obliged to cut him down.  Then the pony jerked
+itself free and galloped off."
+
+"And you ran to catch it?" cried Dickenson excitedly.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Lennox, laughing.  "Why should I do that?  What did I
+want with the pony, unless it might have been to get poor Roby across
+its back?  But I never thought of it.  I only thought of getting him on
+mine."
+
+"And did you?" cried Dickenson.
+
+"Of course I did.  I wanted to carry him to the rear, poor fellow."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Dickenson.
+
+"Well, don't shout.  What an excitable beggar you are?"
+
+"Go on, then.  You keep giving it to me in little bits.  What then?"
+
+"Oh, I got him on my back, and it was horrible His wound bled so."
+
+"But you carried him?"
+
+"Yes, ever so far; till that happened."
+
+"Yes!  What?"
+
+Lennox touched his neck, and his hearer literally ground his teeth in
+rage.
+
+"Will--you--speak out?" he cried.
+
+"Will you take things a little more coolly?" said Lennox quietly.
+"Didn't Emden say I was to be kept quiet?"
+
+"Of course; of course," said Dickenson hurriedly.  "But you don't know,
+old chap, what I'm suffering.  I'm in a raging thirst for the truth--I
+want to take one big draught, and you keep on giving me tiny drops in a
+doll's teaspoon."
+
+"It's because I hate talking about it.  I don't want to brag about
+carrying a wounded man on my back with a pack of Boers on horseback
+chivvying me.  Besides, I'm a bit misty over what did happen.  An upset
+like that takes it out of a fellow.  Since I've been lying here this
+morning thinking it over the wonder to me is that I'm still alive."
+
+Dickenson pressed his teeth together, making a brave effort to keep back
+the words which strove to escape, and he was rewarded for his reticence
+by his comrade continuing quietly:
+
+"It all happened in a twinkling.  Roby was balanced on my back, and I
+was trying to get away from the retreating Boers, sword in one hand,
+revolver in the other; and I kept two off who passed me by pointing my
+pistol at them, when another came down with a rush, made a snatch at the
+lanyard, and, almost before I could realise what was happening, poor
+Roby was down and I was jerked off my feet and dragged along the rough
+ground, bumping, choking, and strangling.  For the brute had made a
+snatch at my revolver, caught the lanyard, and held on, with the
+slip-noose tight between the collar of my jacket and my chin, and his
+pony cantering hard.  I can just remember the idea flashing to my brain
+that this must be something like the lassoing of an animal by a cowboy
+or one of those South American half-breeds, and then I was seeing
+dazzling lights and clouds that seemed to be tinged with blood; and
+after that all was dark for I can't tell how long, before I began to
+come to, and found myself right away on the veldt, with the sun beating
+down upon my head, and a raging thirst nearly driving me mad.  I suppose
+I was mad, or nearly so," continued Lennox after a brief pause, "for my
+head was all in a whirl, and I kept on seeing Boers dragging me over the
+veldt by the neck, and hearing horses galloping round me, all of which
+was fancy, of course; for at times I was sensible, and knew that I was
+lying somewhere out in the great veldt where all was silent, the horses
+I heard being in my head.  Then I seemed to go to sleep and dream that I
+was being dragged by the neck again, on and on for ever."
+
+"Horrible," panted Dickenson.
+
+"Yes, old fellow, it was rather nasty; but I suppose a great part of it
+was fancy, and even now I can't get it into shape, for everything was so
+dull and dreamy and confused.  All I can tell you more is, that I woke
+up once, feeling a little more sensible, and began to feel about me.
+Then I knew that my sword was by my side and my hand numb and throbbing,
+for the sword-knot was tight about my wrist.  I managed to get that
+loosened, and after a good deal of difficulty sheathed my sword, after
+which I began to feel for my revolver, and got hold of the cord, which
+passed through my hand till I felt that it was broken--snapped off or
+cut.  That was all I could do then, and I suppose I fainted.  But I must
+have come to again and struggled up, moved by a blind sort of instinct
+to get back to Groenfontein.  I say I suppose that, for all the rest is
+a muddle of dreams and confusion.  The doctor says you and a party came
+and found me wandering about in the dark, and of course I must have been
+making some blind kind of effort to get back to camp.  I say, old
+fellow, I ought to have been dead, I suppose?"
+
+"Of course you ought, sir," said the doctor, stepping in to lay a hand
+upon the poor fellow's brow.  "Humph!  Not so feverish as you ought to
+be, chattering like that."
+
+"Then you've heard, doctor?" cried Dickenson excitedly.
+
+"I heard talking, sir, where there ought to be none," replied the doctor
+sharply.
+
+"But did you hear that your precious theory was all wrong?"
+
+"No, sir; I did not," said the doctor sharply.  "I based my theory upon
+what seemed to be facts, and facts they were.  I told you that my
+patient here was suffering from the tightening of a ligature about his
+neck."
+
+"And quite correct, too, doctor," said Lennox, holding out his hand.  "I
+suppose if that lanyard had not broken I shouldn't be alive here to talk
+about it."
+
+"Your theory, my dear boy, is as correct as mine," said the doctor,
+taking his patient's hand, but not to shake it, for he proceeded to feel
+Lennox's pulse in the most business-like manner, nodding his head with
+satisfaction.
+
+"Much better than I expected," he said.  "But you must be quiet now.  I
+was horrified when I came by and heard such a jabbering going on.  Let's
+see: where are your duds?"
+
+He went to the corner of the hut, where the orderly had placed the
+patient's uniform, everything as neatly folded as if it had been new
+instead of tattered and torn; while above, on a peg, hung belts, sword,
+pouches, and the strong cord-like lanyard stiffened and strained about
+the noose and slipping knots, while the other end was broken and frayed
+where the spring snap had been.
+
+"Humph!" said the doctor.  "I wonder this cord didn't snap at once with
+the drag made upon it.  All the same I don't suppose you were dragged
+very far."
+
+He looked at his patient inquiringly, but Lennox shook his head slowly.
+
+"It may have been for half-an-hour, doctor, or only for a minute.  I
+can't tell."
+
+"Probabilities are in favour of the minute, sir," said the doctor.
+"Well, it's a strange case.  I never had but one injury in my experience
+approaching it, and that was when an artillery driver was dragged over
+the plain by his horses.  A shell burst close to the team, and this man
+somehow got the reins twisted about his neck, and he was dragged for
+about a mile before he was released."
+
+"Much hurt?" said Dickenson.
+
+"Yes," said the doctor, with a short nod of the head.  "He was very much
+hurt indeed."
+
+"And I was not, doctor?" said Lennox, smiling.
+
+"Oh no, not in the least," said the doctor sarcastically.  "You only
+wanted your face washed and you'd have been all right in a few hours, no
+doubt.  I've done nothing for you.  The old story.  Why, let me tell
+you, sir, when you were brought in I began to wonder whether I was going
+to pull you round."
+
+"As you have, doctor, and I am most grateful."
+
+Lennox held out both hands as he spoke, his right being still swollen
+and painful; and this time the doctor took them non-professionally, to
+hold them for a few moments.
+
+"Of course you are, my dear boy, and I'm heartily glad to see you
+getting on so well; but, upon my word, I do sometimes feel ready to
+abuse some of our rough ones.  I save their lives, and they take it all
+as a matter of course--give one not the slightest credit.  But there,
+from sheer ignorance of course.  You're getting right fast, and I'll
+tell you why: it's because you're in a fine, vigorous state of health.
+You fellows have no chance of over-indulging yourselves in eating and
+drinking."
+
+"Not a bit, doctor," said Dickenson, making a wry face.
+
+"Oh yes, I know," said the doctor.  "You have to go through a good many
+privations, but you're none the worse.  Primeval man used to have hard
+work to live; civilised man is pampered and spoiled with luxuries."
+
+"Especially civilised man engaged in the South African campaign against
+the Boers," said Dickenson, while his comrade's eyes lit up with mirth.
+
+"Sneer away, my fine fellow; but though it's precious unpleasant,
+fasting does no man any harm.  Now, look here, sir; if we were in
+barracks at home you fellows would be indulging in mess dinners and
+wines and cigars, and sodas and brandies, and some of you in liqueurs,
+and you wouldn't be half so well, not in half such good training, as you
+are now."
+
+"The doctor hates a good cigar, Drew, and loathes wine," said Dickenson
+sarcastically.
+
+"No, he doesn't, boys; the doctor's as weak as most men are when they
+have plenty of good things before them.  But my theory's right.  Now,
+look at the men.  Poor fellows! they've had a hard time of it; but look
+at them when they are wounded.  I tell you, sir, that I open my eyes
+widely and stare at the cures I make of awful wounds.  I might think it
+was all due to my professional experience, but I'm not such an idiot.
+It's all due to the healthy state the men are in, and the glorious
+climate."
+
+"And what about the fever, doctor?" said Lennox.
+
+"Ah, that's another thing, my dear boy.  When the poor fellows are shut
+up in a horribly crowded, unhealthy camp, and are forced to drink water
+that is nothing less than poisonous, they go down fast.  So they would
+anywhere.  But see how we've got on here--the camp kept clean, and an
+abundant supply of delicious water bubbling out of that kopje.  Then--
+Bless my heart!  I forbade talking, and here I am giving you fellows a
+lecture on hygiene.--Come along with me, Dickenson.--You, Lennox, go to
+sleep if you can.  No more talking to-day."
+
+The doctor literally drove Dickenson before him, and hooked him by the
+arm as soon as they were outside.
+
+"I'm very glad we settled for that idea of mine to be private,
+Dickenson, my dear boy.  But it did look horribly like it."
+
+"Perhaps," said the young man.  "But you give it up now?"
+
+"Certainly," said the doctor.
+
+"And you give up the idea too about his running away?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then the sooner you give Roby something that will bring him to his
+senses the better."
+
+"I wish I could; but the poor fellow seems to have got it stamped into
+his brain."
+
+"Yes; and the worst of it is he doesn't talk like a man touched in the
+head."
+
+"No, he does not; though he is, without doubt."
+
+"Can't you talk quietly to the chief?  There's he and the major and
+Edwards take it all as a matter of course.  They don't give poor old
+Drew the credit for all that he has done since we were here, but believe
+all the evil.  It's abominable."
+
+"_Esprit de corps_, Dickenson, my lad."
+
+"Yes, that's all right enough; but they turn silent and cold as soon as
+the poor fellow's name is mentioned; while that isn't the worst of it."
+
+"What is, then?" said the doctor.
+
+"The men sing the tune their officers have pitched, and that miserable
+sneak, Corporal May, sings chorus.  Oh! it's bad, sir; bad.  Fancy:
+there was the poor fellow knocked over when trying to save his captain's
+life, and the man he helped to save turns upon him like this."
+
+"Yes, it is bad," said the doctor; "but, like many more bad things, it
+dies out."
+
+"What! the credit of being a coward, doctor?  No; it grows.  _Ur-r-r_!"
+growled the speaker.  "I should like to ram all that Corporal May has
+said down his throat.  He'd find it nastier physic than any you ever
+gave him, doctor.  I say, I'm not a vindictive fellow, but when I keep
+hearing these things about a man I like, it makes me boil.  Do you think
+there's any chance of the corporal getting worse?"
+
+"No," said the doctor sternly; "he hasn't much the matter with him, only
+a few bruises.  But if he did die it would be worse still for poor
+Lennox."
+
+"No!  How?"
+
+"Because he'd leave the poison behind him.  There, I'll do all I can
+with the colonel; but all the officers believe Roby, and that Lennox was
+seized with a fit of panic.  There's only one way for him to clear it
+away."
+
+"Exchange?  How can he?"
+
+"Exchange?  Nonsense!  Get strong, return to his company, and show every
+one that he is not the coward they think."
+
+"There's something in that, certainly," said Dickenson sadly; "but he'll
+want opportunities.  Suppose he had the chance to save the major's life;
+how do we know that he too wouldn't set it about that Lennox was more
+cowardly still?  Saving lives doesn't seem to pay."
+
+"Nonsense, my lad!  You're speaking bitterly now."
+
+"Enough to make me, sir.  It isn't only Roby; Lennox saved Corporal May
+as well."
+
+"Never mind that.  You tell Lennox to try again.  Third time, they say,
+never fails."
+
+"Humph!" said Dickenson.  "Well, we shall see."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "we shall see."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+THE MUD THAT STUCK.
+
+"It's a bad business, Mr Lennox," said the colonel sternly, some weeks
+later, when matters looked very dreary again in the camp, for the
+supplies of provisions had once more begun to grow very short, and the
+constant strain of petty attacks had affected officers and men to a
+degree that made them morose and bitter in the extreme.
+
+"But surely, sir, you don't believe this of me?" said Lennox, flushing.
+
+"As a man, no, Mr Lennox; but as your commanding officer I am placed in
+a very awkward position.  The captain of your company makes the most
+terrible charge against you that could be made against a young officer."
+
+"But under what circumstances?  He was suffering from a serious injury
+to the head; he was delirious at the time."
+
+"But he is not delirious now, Mr Lennox, and that which he accused you
+of in a state of wild frenzy he maintains, now that he is recovering
+fast, in cold blood."
+
+"Yes, sir; it seems cold-blooded enough after what I did for him."
+
+"Unfortunately he maintains that this is all an invention on your part."
+
+"And my being dragged away for some distance by one of the Boers, sir?"
+
+"Yes; he declares that he was not insensible for some time after his
+hurt, and that had what you say occurred he must have seen it."
+
+"Then it is his word against mine, sir?" said Lennox.
+
+"Unfortunately it is not, Lennox," said the colonel gravely.  "If it
+were only that I should feel very differently situated.  Your conduct
+during the war has been so gallant that, without the slightest
+hesitation, I should side with you and set down all that Captain Roby
+has said to a hallucination caused by the injury to his head.  But, you
+see, there is the testimony of Corporal May, who declares that he
+witnessed your conduct--conduct which I feel bound to say seems, when
+weighed by your previous actions, perfectly inexplicable."
+
+"Then I am to consider, sir, on the testimony of this man, that I am
+unworthy of holding a commission in Her Majesty's service?" said Lennox
+bitterly.
+
+"Stop," said the colonel.  "Don't be rash, and say things of which you
+may repent, Lennox."
+
+"An innocent man defending himself against such a charge, sir, cannot
+always weigh his words.  Look at my position, sir.  I am fit now to
+return to my duty, and I find a marked coldness on the part of my
+brother officers and a peculiarity in the looks of the men which shows
+me plainly enough that they believe it true."
+
+"I have noticed it myself," said the colonel, "save in two instances.
+Mr Dickenson is downright in his defence of you; and I freely tell you
+for your comfort that the bravest non-commissioned officer in the
+regiment, when I was speaking to him on the subject, laughed the charge
+to scorn, and--confound him!--he had the insolence to tell me he'd as
+soon believe that I would run away as believe it of you."
+
+"Ha!" ejaculated Lennox, with his eyes brightening.  "Sergeant James?"
+
+"Yes; Sergeant James.  A fine, staunch fellow, Lennox.  He'll have his
+commission by-and-by if I can help it on."
+
+"Well, sir," said Lennox slowly, "I suppose it is of no use to fight
+against fate.  Am I to consider myself under arrest?"
+
+"Certainly not," said the colonel firmly.  "This is no time for dealing
+with such a matter.  I have enough on my hands to keep the enemy at a
+distance, and I want every one's help.  But as soon as we are relieved--
+if we ever are--I am bound, unless Captain Roby and the corporal retract
+all they have said and attribute it to delirium--I am bound, I say, to
+call the attention of my superiors to the matter.  I shall do so
+unwillingly, but I must.  Out of respect to your brother officers, and
+for your sake as well, I cannot let this matter slide.  It would be
+blasting your career as a soldier--for you could not retain your
+commission in this regiment."
+
+"No, sir," said Lennox slowly, "nor exchange into another.  But it seems
+hard, sir."
+
+"Yes, Lennox, speaking to you not as your colonel but as a friend,
+terribly hard."
+
+"Then the sooner I am arrested and tried by court-martial, sir, the
+better.  I was ready to return to my duty, but to go on with every one
+in the regiment looking upon me as a coward is more than I could bear."
+The colonel was silent.  "Have I your leave, sir, to go back to my
+quarters?" said Lennox at last.
+
+"Not yet," said the colonel.  "Look here, Lennox; this wretched charge
+has been made, and I cannot tell my officers and men what they shall and
+what they shall not believe.  An inquiry must take place--by-and-by.
+Till it is held, the task rests with you to prove to your brother
+officers and the men that they have misjudged you."
+
+"And to you, sir," said Lennox coldly.
+
+"I do not judge you yet, Lennox," said the colonel gravely.  "I am
+waiting."
+
+"And how am I to prove, sir, that I am not what they think me?"
+
+The colonel shrugged his shoulders and smiled sadly.
+
+"You need not go and publish what I say, Lennox," he replied; "but I
+have very good reason to believe that the Boers are heartily sick of
+waiting for us to surrender, and that they have received orders to make
+an end of our resistance."
+
+"Indeed, sir?"
+
+"They have been receiving reinforcements, and the blacks bring word in
+that they have now two more guns.  There will be plenty of chances for
+you to show that you are no coward, and that before many hours are
+past."
+
+"Do you mean, sir, that I can take my place in the company?"
+
+"I do."
+
+"Thank you, sir.  Something within me seems to urge me to hold aloof,
+for the coldness I have experienced since the doctor said I was fit for
+service is unbearable."
+
+"Would not standing upon your dignity, Lennox, and letting your comrades
+face the enemy, look worse than manfully taking your place side by side
+with the men who are going forward to risk wounds or death?"
+
+"Yes, sir; much," said Lennox, flushing.  "I will live it down."
+
+"Shake hands, Lennox," said the colonel, holding out his own.  "Now I
+feel that you have been misjudged.  Those were the words of a brave man.
+Mind this: the matter must be properly heard by-and-by, but let it
+remain in abeyance.  Go and live it down."
+
+The young officer had something more to say, but the words would not
+come; and the colonel, after a glance at him, turned to a despatch he
+had been writing, and began to read it over as if in ignorance of his
+visitor's emotion.
+
+"Oh, by the way, Lennox, one word before you go.  About this man May.
+Have you ever given him any cause to dislike you?"
+
+"No, sir, I think not.  I must own to always having felt a dislike to
+him."
+
+"Indeed," said the colonel sharply.  "Why?"
+
+"I would rather you did not ask me, sir."
+
+"Speak out, man!" said the colonel sternly.
+
+"Well, sir, I have never liked him since he obtained his promotion."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I did not think he deserved it so well as some of the other men of his
+standing."
+
+"Humph!  Let me see; he was promoted on Captain Roby's recommendation."
+
+"Yes, sir; he was always a favourite with his captain."
+
+"Have you been a bit tyrannical--overbearing?"
+
+"I have only done my duty by him, sir.  Certainly I have been rather
+sharp with him when I have noticed a disposition on his part to hang
+back."
+
+"Perhaps he has never forgiven you for saving his life," said the
+colonel, smiling.
+
+"Oh, surely not, sir."
+
+"I don't know," said the colonel.  "But think a minute."
+
+"I was certainly very sharp with him that time when we explored the
+cavern, for that was one of the occasions when he hung back as if
+scared.  But no, no, sir; I will not suspect the man of accusing me as
+he has through spite.  He believes he saw me run, no doubt.  But I did
+not."
+
+"There, Lennox, you've had a long interview, and I have my despatch to
+write up.  I have plenty to worry my head without your miserable
+business.  Now, no rashness, mind; but I shall expect to hear of you
+leading your men in the very front."
+
+"If they will follow me, sir, I shall be there," said Lennox quietly.
+"If they will not, I shall go alone."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+COMPANY AT DINNER.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me you were going to have it out with the chief?"
+said Dickenson, encountering his comrade directly he had left the
+colonel's quarters.
+
+"Because you told me never to mention the wretched business again."
+
+"Did I?  Oh, that was when I was in a wax.  Well, what does the old man
+say?"
+
+"That I am to go on as if nothing had happened."
+
+"That's good.  Well, what else?"
+
+"Take my place in my company, and wait till we're relieved, and then be
+ready for a court-martial."
+
+"That's good too, for no one can prove you guilty.  What else?"
+
+"Keep well in the front, and get myself killed as soon as I can."
+
+"If he said that, he's a brute!" cried Dickenson.  "Gammon!  I don't
+believe the old man would say such a thing.  But look here, I'm precious
+glad.  This means you're going to live it down."
+
+Lennox nodded.  "Here," he said, "let's go into our hut."
+
+"No, not yet.  I want to walk up and down in the fresh air a bit."
+
+"But the sun is terribly hot."
+
+"Do you good," said Dickenson abruptly.  "Let's go right to the end and
+back three or four times."
+
+"Bah!" said Lennox.  "You want to do this so as to ostentatiously show
+that you mean to keep friends with me."
+
+"Suppose I do.  I've a right to, haven't I?"
+
+"Not to give me pain.  It does.  Help me to live it down quietly."
+
+"Very well; if you like it better.  But I say, you'll show up in the
+mess-room to-night?"
+
+"Why should I?"
+
+"Because the place is wretched and the fare's--beastly.  There, that
+doesn't sound nice, but I must say it."
+
+"I had rather stay away.  It would only provoke what I should feel
+cruelly, and I could not resent it."
+
+"No, but I could; and if any one insults you by sending you to Coventry,
+I'll provoke him.  I suppose I mustn't punch my superior officer's head,
+but off duty I can tell him what I think of him, and I'll let him have
+it hot and strong."
+
+"Then I shall stay away."
+
+"No, you sha'n't.  I will instead."
+
+"That would be worse, Bob.  Look here; I want you to help me to live
+this charge down, to treat it with quiet contempt.  If you make yourself
+so fierce a partisan you will keep the wound sore and prevent it from
+healing up."
+
+"Very well, then; I'll give it a good chance.  There, I promise you I
+won't show my temper a bit; only play fair."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"Don't turn upon me afterwards and call me a coward for not taking your
+part."
+
+"Never fear.  I don't want you to get into hot water for my sake."
+
+"My dear boy," said Dickenson, chuckling like a cuckoo in a coppice in
+early spring, "that's impossible."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I'm in hot water now with everybody, and have been ever since."
+
+"I am sorry."
+
+"And I am glad--jolly glad.  Oh, don't I wish there was duelling still!"
+
+"Haven't you killed enough men to satisfy you?" said Lennox sadly.
+
+"More than enough.  I don't want to kill brother officers, only to give
+them lessons in manly faith.  But bother that!  I say: you promise to
+come and take your place this evening?"
+
+"Yes; I promise," said Lennox quietly.
+
+"Then I'll tell you something.  Roby's coming too."
+
+"Roby!"
+
+"Yes; for the first time since he got his wound."
+
+Lennox was silent.
+
+"There, I'm not going to try and teach you, old fellow," continued
+Dickenson; "but if I were you I should ignore everything, unless the
+boys do as they should do--meet you like men."
+
+"Well," said Lennox, "we shall see."
+
+That dinner-time came all too soon for Lennox, who had sat in his shabby
+quarters thinking how wondrously quiet everything was, and whether after
+what the colonel had hinted it was the calm preceding the storm.
+
+"Come along," cried Dickenson, thrusting his head into the hut.
+
+Lennox felt his heart sink as he thought of the coming meeting, for this
+was the first time he had approached the mess-room since the night of
+the attack upon the kopje.  He winced, too, a little as he passed two
+sentries, who seemed, he thought, to look curiously at him.  But the
+next moment his companion's rather boisterous prattle fell upon deaf
+ears, for just in front, on their way to the mess-room, were Roby and
+the doctor walking arm in arm, and then they disappeared through the
+door.
+
+"Oh, won't I punish the provisions when the war is over!" said
+Dickenson.  _Sniff, sniff_!  "Ah!  I know you, my friend, in spite of
+the roasting.  I'd a deal rather be outside you than you inside me.  And
+yet it's all prejudice, Drew, old man, for the horse is the cleanest and
+most particular of vegetable-feeding beasts, and the pig is the
+nastiest--cannibalistic and vile."
+
+They passed through the door together, to find the colonel present, and
+the other officers about to take their places.  Roby had evidently not
+been prepared for this, and he looked half-stunned when the doctor
+turned from him, advanced to Lennox, and shook hands.
+
+"I wish we had a better dinner in honour of my two convalescents."
+
+"This is insufferable," said Roby in a voice choking with anger.
+
+"Let that wait, doctor," said the colonel.
+
+"Come along, Lennox," cried Dickenson, after darting a furious glance at
+Roby.  "Very, very glad to see you once more in your place."
+
+No one else spoke for a few moments, and the dinner was about to be
+commenced, when Roby suddenly rose to his feet.
+
+"Colonel Lindley," he said, in a husky voice full of rage, "are you
+aware who is present here this evening?"
+
+"Yes, Captain Roby," said the colonel sternly.  "I desired Mr Lennox,
+now that he is convalescent, to return to his usual place at the
+mess-table."
+
+Roby's jaw dropped, and he stared at the officers around as if silently
+asking them whether he heard aright.  But every man averted his eyes and
+assumed to be busy commencing the miserable meal.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Roby at last; and then in a tone which expressed his
+utter astonishment: "Well."
+
+"Sit down, Captain Roby," continued the colonel, raising his eyebrows as
+he saw that his subordinate was still standing.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said Roby stiffly, after looking round in vain
+for something in the way of moral support from his brother officers, who
+all sat frowning at their portions.
+
+"Yes?" said the colonel calmly.
+
+"I have no wish to be insubordinate, but, speaking on behalf of all
+present here, I desire to say that we feel it impossible to remain at
+the table in company with one who--"
+
+"That will do," said the colonel, fixing Dickenson with his eyes, for
+that individual had suddenly given vent to a sound that was neither
+sigh, grunt, ejaculation, nor snort, but something that might have been
+the result of all these combined.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir?" said Roby hotly.
+
+"I said that would do, Captain Roby," replied the colonel.  "I did not
+gather that you had been elected to speak for your brother officers upon
+a subject about which I consider myself to be the proper arbiter.
+Moreover, if any officer feels himself aggrieved respecting any one whom
+I elect to join us at the mess-table, I am always open to hear his
+complaint."
+
+"But really, sir," began Roby indignantly, "this is an assembly of
+honourable gentlemen."
+
+"With an exception," growled Dickenson.
+
+"Yes," cried Roby passionately, "with an exception--I may add, two
+exceptions."
+
+"Look here, Captain Roby," cried Dickenson, springing up, "do you mean
+this as an insult to me?"
+
+"Silence!" cried the colonel, rising in turn.  "Mr Dickenson, resume
+your seat."
+
+Dickenson dropped down so heavily that the empty cartridge-box that
+formed his seat cracked as if about to collapse.
+
+"Captain Roby," said the colonel, "I beg that you will say no more now
+upon this painful subject.  Resume your seat, sir."
+
+"Sir," said Roby, "I must ask your permission to leave the mess-table.
+Whatever my brother officers may choose to do, I absolutely refuse to
+sit at the same table with a--"
+
+"Stop!" roared Dickenson, springing up again in a furious passion.  "If
+you dare to call my friend Lennox a coward again, court-martial or no
+court-martial, I'll knock you down."
+
+Every man now sprang to his feet as if startled by the sudden verbal
+shell which had fallen amongst them.  Then there was a dead silence,
+till Lennox said huskily, "Will you give me your permission to return to
+my quarters, sir?"
+
+"No, Mr Lennox," said the colonel quietly.  "Take your places again,
+gentlemen.--Captain Roby--Mr Lennox--if we are alive and uninjured in
+the morning I will see you both at my quarters with respect to this
+painful business.  To-night we have other matters to arrange.  I have
+just received trustworthy information that another reinforcement has
+reached the enemy.  I have doubled the number of scouts sent out, and as
+soon as we have dined we have all our work to do in completing our
+arrangements to meet what the Boers intend for their final attack.
+Gentlemen, sit down.  Our duty to our country first; minor matters of
+discipline after."
+
+There was a low buzz of excitement as every man resumed his seat, Roby
+alone hesitating, but dropping sharply back into his place in unwilling
+obedience to a sharp tug given at his tunic by the officers on either
+side.
+
+"What about your promise?" said Lennox in a whisper to Dickenson.
+
+"Hang my promise!" growled his comrade.  "Do you take me for a stump?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+"WHAT A BRICK!"
+
+Every one burst into the hurried flow of conversation that now followed
+the colonel's announcement, the excitement growing at the thought of the
+dreary siege at last coming to an end, while, to judge from the remarks,
+the feeling at the table was one of relief at the prospect of at last
+trying final conclusions with the Boers.
+
+"Yes," said Captain Edwards to those near him, "I am heartily glad.  Let
+them come on and give us a chance of some real fighting.  All this
+miserable sniping and lurking behind stones has been barbarous.  People
+say that the Boers are patriotic and brave: let them act like soldiers
+and give us a chance."
+
+The conversation grew more and more exciting, till the meagre repast was
+at an end, when the colonel rose and walked round to the back of
+Dickenson's seat.
+
+"Come to my quarters," he said quietly, and he walked out, followed by
+the young subaltern.
+
+The stars were out, shining brightly, and all looked peaceful and grand
+as the colonel led on to his hut, with Dickenson stringing himself up
+for the encounter he was about to have with his chief, and growing more
+and more determined and stubborn as the moment approached.
+
+"I don't care," he said to himself.  "I'll tell him I'll challenge Roby,
+whether it's allowed or not;" and then he felt as if some one had thrown
+cold water in his face, for the colonel said quietly:
+
+"What a grand night, Dickenson!  I wonder what our friends are doing at
+home, and whether they are thinking about us."
+
+Dickenson stared at him, but it was too dark for him to distinguish the
+play of his officer's countenance.
+
+"No light," said the colonel as he turned into his quarters.  "Have you
+a match?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the young officer rather gruffly, and the little silver
+box he took from his pocket tinkled softly as he searched for a match
+and struck it, the flash showing the colonel turning up the lamp wick.
+
+"That's right," he said; "light it."
+
+A minute later the mean-looking hut, with its camp table, lamp, and
+stools, was lit up, and the colonel seated himself.
+
+"I've very few words to say, Dickenson," he said kindly, "but those are
+about your conduct to-night.  You are young, hot-headed, and unwise."
+
+"Can't help it, sir.  My nature," said the young man shortly.
+
+"I suppose so.  But of course you are aware that you have been guilty of
+a great breach of etiquette, and that your conduct cannot be passed over
+very lightly."
+
+"I suppose not, sir.  I'm ready to take my punishment."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel; and then, after a pause, "You seem to attach
+yourself more than ever to Mr Lennox since this affair."
+
+"Yes, sir; we are very old friends.  I should not be his friend if I did
+not stick to him now he is under a cloud."
+
+"Rather unwise, is it not?  You see, you cut yourself apart from your
+brother officers, who are bound to stand aloof till Mr Lennox has
+cleared himself."
+
+"I'm sorry not to be friendly with them, sir," said Dickenson sturdily;
+"and if there is any cutting apart, it is their doing, not mine.  I am
+ready to do my duty in every way, sir; but I must stand by my friend."
+
+"Then you have perfect faith in his innocence?"
+
+"Perfect, sir; and so would you have if you knew him as well as I do."
+
+"I do know him pretty well, Dickenson," said the colonel quietly.
+"Well, I suppose you know that I ought to be very severe with you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, of course."
+
+"And that I was bound to summon you to come to my quarters?"
+
+"Or put me under arrest, sir."
+
+"I cannot spare any of my officers to-night, Dickenson, so I suppose it
+must be deferred till after the attack."
+
+"Thank you, sir.  I don't want to be out of the fight."
+
+"I suppose not.  By the way, have you seen much of Roby since he has
+been about again?"
+
+"Oh yes; a great deal, sir, on purpose.  I've been trying to get him
+into a better frame of mind."
+
+"Well, I must say that you have not succeeded very well."
+
+"Horribly, sir.  I thought he'd think differently as his wound healed
+up; but he is worse than ever."
+
+"Now then," said the colonel, "tell me frankly what you think of Captain
+Roby's state."
+
+"I think he puzzles me, sir.  One hour I think he is as mad as a
+hatter--"
+
+"Say as mad."
+
+"Yes, sir; one hour he's as mad as mad, and the next he's perfectly
+sane."
+
+"Perfectly sane, I should say, Dickenson," said the colonel.
+
+"Yes, sir, in all things but one, and over that he's just like that
+fellow in the story."
+
+"What fellow in what story?" said the colonel coldly.
+
+"That Mr Dick, sir, who couldn't write anything without getting King
+Charles's head into it."
+
+"I see; and you think Captain Roby cannot help getting what he considers
+to be Lennox's cowardice into _his_ head?"
+
+"Exactly, sir."
+
+"Humph!  Well, there may be something in that.  There, I have no more to
+say to you now.  No rashness to-night, but do your best with your men.
+I'd rather hear that you saved one of our lads than killed half-a-dozen
+Boers."
+
+"I understand, sir."
+
+"Understand this too.  If you have any conversation with your brother
+officers, say I have had you here to give you a severe reproof for the
+present, and that probably something more will follow when we have
+crushed the Boers.  If they crush us you will get off.  That will do,
+Dickenson.  I expect our friends will visit us to-night, though more
+probably it will be just before daylight.  Ask the major to step here as
+you go.  By the way, you and Lennox were at school together?"
+
+"Yes, sir; and at Sandhurst too."
+
+"Well, I hope he has as good an opinion of you as you have of him.
+Good-night for the present."
+
+"Good-night, sir," said the young man as he went out into the starlight
+to deliver his message.--"Well, I hope we shall win to-night, for the
+chief's sake!  Hang it all," he muttered, "what a brick he is!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+TO CLEAR THE KOPJE.
+
+As a rule, the garrison at Groenfontein after the posting of the watch
+settled itself down for a quiet night's rest, for experience had taught
+that there was very little to fear in the shape of a night attack.  This
+was foreign at first to the Boers' idea of warfare.  They knew well
+enough that they were strongest in defence, and acted accordingly.
+Every place they held was turned into a hive of cells, in which they
+lurked, stings ready.  It was generally some kopje covered with loose
+stones, cracks, and crevices, while the open portions were soon made
+formidable with loopholed walls of loosely built-up stones.  If their
+resting-place was in the more open country, it was a laager whose walls
+were the wagons, banked up and strengthened with stakes, thorn bushes,
+and a terrible entanglement of barbed galvanised iron wire.
+
+Attacks had been made on the fortified village and the kopje at early
+morning, but never pushed home; and all through the occupation the
+tactics of the general in command had been the harassing of the British
+regiment with shell fire and clever marksmanship from cover, so constant
+and so dangerous that the wonder to the English officers was that the
+enemy had not long before fired their last cartridge away.
+
+But upon this particular night something more was fully expected.  The
+English scouting parties had brought in the information respecting the
+reinforcements to the Boer corps, so that when a Zulu, who had been a
+very faithful hanger-on to the British force, came in full of eagerness
+that afternoon to announce that the Boers meant to attack in force, the
+colonel, though always ready to doubt the information received and the
+possibility of the black spies' surmises being correct, felt that he was
+warranted in making every preparation; and this was set about in a calm,
+matter-of-fact way.
+
+Judging that the attack would be in the form of a surprise directed at
+the kopje, possession of which would render the village perfectly
+untenable, the two field-guns posted in the most commanding position in
+the village were hauled up to appointed places on the kopje to
+strengthen the big captured gun, and the major portion of the troops
+were marched up to the well-fortified lines there, the colonel intending
+to hold the rocky elevation himself, leaving the defence of the village
+to the major, who was to keep the enemy who attacked in play there as
+long as seemed necessary, and then retire along the well-fortified path
+which connected village and kopje, where the principal stand was to be
+made.
+
+The great natural advantages of the rocky mount had not been neglected.
+From the first the colonel had looked upon it as a little inland
+Gibraltar in which he could bid defiance to ten times the number of the
+enemy that had been attacking him, so long as food and ammunition
+lasted; and to this end he had, directly after the discovery of the
+entrance to the cavern, supplemented the stores found there by removing
+all they had from the village, and making additions from time to time
+whenever suitable captures were made; while, greatest prize of all,
+there was the inexhaustible supply of pure cold water, easily enough
+obtainable as soon as proper arrangements were made.
+
+Hence it was that the little English force was always ready, the plans
+for the defence arranged, and nothing remained to be done but for the
+various defenders to march quietly to their appointed places.
+
+Consequently, after the watch-setting, the orders were given, and party
+after party moved silently through the soft darkness, till by the
+brilliant starlight each battery was manned and the trenches which
+commanded the probable approaches to the kopje lined, while the same
+precautions were taken in the village, where wall and hut had been
+carefully loopholed; and then all was ready.  The men lay down in their
+greatcoats and blankets to snatch such sleep as they could get, as it
+was anticipated that several hours would probably elapse before the
+attack--if any--was made.
+
+"I was in hopes," said Dickenson when all was ready, "that we should be
+up yonder, ready to cover the gunners.  It would be a treat to play Boer
+and show them what firing from behind stones is like.  Something new for
+them."
+
+"But we shall not stay here very long if they do come," replied Lennox.
+
+"No; we understand all that.  Been drilled into us pretty well.  But it
+strikes me that, according to the good old fashion of nothing occurring
+so likely as the unexpected, if they do come it will not be to where we
+are waiting, but from somewhere else."
+
+"Where else can they come from?" said Lennox sharply.
+
+"Oh, don't ask me," said Dickenson, laughing.  "I'm not a Boer: how can
+I tell?  They'll have hatched out some dodge.  Got a balloon all the way
+from Komati Poort, perhaps, and about three o'clock they'll have it
+right over the top of the kopje, and if we had been up there I dare say
+we should have found them sliding down ropes like spiders."
+
+"Highly probable," said Lennox dryly.
+
+"Ah, you may jest; but you see if they don't come crawling right close
+up like so many slugs on a wet night.  The first thing we shall know
+will be that they are there."
+
+"Ah, now you are talking sense."
+
+"But I don't guarantee that it's going to be like that," said Dickenson
+quickly, "so don't be disappointed."
+
+"I shall not be.  I'm ready for anything."
+
+"Good, lad.  That's the way to deal with the Boers.  I've learnt that:
+for they certainly are the trickiest fellows going.  I say--"
+
+"Hadn't you better leave off talking now?"
+
+"Only whispering.  I was going to say that the major's here with us, and
+has put Edwards in command of both companies."
+
+"But Roby's with him?"
+
+"Yes; but Edwards is boss.  I shouldn't have felt comfortable with our
+convalescent at the head of affairs."
+
+"You need not have minded.  Roby's as brave as he is high."
+
+"May be; but he has that bee in his bonnet still.  I half believe that
+old Emden's wrong after all."
+
+"In what way?"
+
+"He said the bullet just ploughed through Roby's scalp and pressed down
+a bit of bone.  I believe he has the bullet in his head."
+
+"Absurd!" said Lennox.
+
+"Oh no.  Likely enough.  They came buzzing along, too, like swarming
+bees.  That would account for what he said about you."
+
+"Be quiet," said Lennox sharply.  "If the enemy comes to-night I want to
+fight, and not to think about that."
+
+"All right.  I hope they will come; it will be a waste of sleep if they
+don't.  Bah!" he added after a long-drawn yawn.  "They won't come--they
+know better.  These nigger spies see a few men on ponies, and away they
+run to say they've seen a big commando, and hold out their hands for the
+pay.  Take my word for it, there'll be no fighting to-night."
+
+It seemed as if Dickenson was right in his surmise, for the time glided
+on, with the stars rising to the zenith and beginning to decline.  The
+heavens had never seemed more beautiful, being one grand dome of
+sparkling incrustations.  The atmosphere was so clear that it seemed to
+those who lay back watching as if the dazzling points of light formed by
+the stars of the first magnitude stood out alone in the midst of the
+transparent darkness, while the shape of the kopje was plainly marked
+out against the vivid sky.
+
+"Too light for them," said Dickenson after a long pause.
+
+"They will not come till morning.--Who's this?"
+
+"Roby."
+
+He it was, the tall figure in a greatcoat coming close up to stop and
+speak to Sergeant James about being watchful, and then passing on
+without a word to his juniors.  Roby came in the same quiet, furtive
+manner three times over during the night, twice being in company with
+Captain Edwards, who stopped to have a few words with Lennox and
+Dickenson as to the probability of an attack; but Roby stood aloof.
+
+"And a good job too," said Dickenson after the last occasion.  "I don't
+want to be malicious, though it seems so, about a man who has just got
+over a bad hurt; but I do hope the Boers will come, and that he will be
+wounded again--"
+
+"Shame!" said Lennox angrily.
+
+"Perhaps so; but you might have let me finish--wounded again; not a
+bullet wound, but a good cut that will bleed well and take the bad blood
+out of him.  We should hear no more of his fancies."
+
+"Drop that," said Lennox sternly; and then, to change the conversation,
+"Surely it must be getting near daybreak."
+
+"Oh no; not yet.  Let's have another walk round, and a word with the
+men."
+
+This, one of many, was carried out, the young officers finding that
+there were no sleepers, the men not on the watch having, from the
+expectation that if there were an attack it would be about daybreak,
+instinctively roused up, every one being fully on the alert.
+
+Lennox winced more than ever now as he stood in the trench they expected
+to be the likeliest, from its position, for the attack, for its capture
+would give the enemy a good point for further advances; and Captain
+Edwards had pointed it out to the major as being likely to be rushed,
+with the consequence that this part was the most strongly held, and the
+supporting party placed near.
+
+And now, as Dickenson began whispering to his men, Lennox felt more
+bitterly than ever how thoroughly Roby's charge had gone home.  For
+whenever he spoke to one of the watch the answer was abrupt and cold,
+while with his companion the men were eager and ready to be questioned.
+
+Everything possible had been done to guard against surprise, and the
+communication with the chain of outposts was constant; but the surprise
+came from where it was least expected, and just when the friends were
+standing together in the redoubt, with Dickenson grudgingly owning that
+the stars were perhaps not so bright.
+
+"The night has passed more quickly than I expected it would," whispered
+Lennox.  "Can't you feel what a chill there is in the air?"
+
+"Ugh--yes!" said Dickenson, with a shiver.  "It's quite frosty out
+here."
+
+"And a hot cup of coffee would be a blessing," said Captain Edwards,
+who, with Roby, had returned again.
+
+"Yes," said Dickenson; "a good fire would warm us up."
+
+"There it is, then," said Captain Edwards excitedly, for without a
+warning from the outposts, between which the Boers had crawled in the
+darkness unheard, a tremendous burst of firing was opened upon the
+kopje, the enemy having made their way up by inches till they were well
+within reach of the defending lines--so close, in fact, that for the
+time being the big guns were useless, their fire at such close quarters
+being as likely to injure friend as foe.
+
+"Stand fast, my lads!" cried Captain Edwards.  "We shall have them here
+directly.--Now, gentlemen, you know what to do.  Ah!  I thought so;" for
+a scattering fire was opened by the outposts, who, according to their
+instructions, began to fall back to take their places in the line ready
+to resist the attack upon the village.
+
+Lennox felt stunned by the suddenness of the attack, and ready to
+confess that their trained troops were in nowise equal to the enemy in
+the matter of cunning; for, as if by magic, the wild fire ran completely
+round the kopje, which, contrary to expectation, had become the main
+object of attack, and in a short time the flashing of the rifles and the
+continuous rattle told plainly enough that by their clever ruse the
+Boers had completely surrounded the kopje, cutting the British force in
+two.
+
+Certainly a portion of them had been led between two fires--between that
+of the village and that from the eminence; but the British fire was
+hindered by the danger of injuring their friends, and in a very short
+time the major grasped the fact that it was waste of energy to try and
+defend the village, which was only lightly attacked, and quite time for
+him to retire and lead his men to the support of the colonel.
+
+His orders had hardly been given to the various centres to fall back
+from the trenches and houses held, when the agreed-upon signal flew up
+from the top of the kopje in a long line of light, followed by the
+bursting of a rocket, whose stars lit up the cloud of smoke rising round
+the mount.
+
+Everything had been so well planned beforehand that there was not the
+slightest confusion: the men fell back steadily to the village square,
+leaving the Boers still firing out of the darkness into the defensive
+lines; and then, as steadily as if in a review, the advance was made to
+cut through the investing crowd, which, facing the other way, was
+keeping up a tremendous fire.
+
+The signal for the advance was given with another rocket fired from the
+square as a warning to the colonel to cease firing on their side; and
+then the men steadily commenced their arduous task, the leading company
+going on in rushes, seizing the shelters, pouring in volleys, and
+driving the Boers before them and to right and left, in spite of their
+determined resistance to hold that which they had surprised by rising,
+as it were, as Sergeant James afterwards said, right out of the earth.
+
+The holders of the village under the major numbered pretty well half of
+the total force remaining to the colonel, and, led by the major himself,
+two companies went at the strong force of the enemy drawn across their
+way, like a wedge, in spite of the concentrated fire delivered by the
+desperate men, who had to give way.  The second body was under Captain
+Edwards, and Roby and Lennox and Dickenson had the dangerous post of
+bringing on the single company that formed the rear-guard.
+
+The start was made without a man down.  Three or four had slight wounds,
+but in the rear-guard not a man had been hit, while for some distance
+after quitting the redoubt they were still exempt.  But the leading
+company was beginning to suffer badly: men kept on falling or staggering
+out to seek shelter in trench, rifle-pit, or behind boulder, and for a
+while the battle raged fiercely and but little progress was made, a
+crowd of the enemy pressing up from either side to take the places of
+those who fell or were beaten back, till the order was given in a lull
+to fix bayonets.
+
+Then for a few brief moments the firing near at hand almost ceased, so
+that the metallic rattle of the little daggers being affixed to the
+rifle muzzles was plainly heard, to be followed by a hearty British
+cheer given by every throat from van to rear, the men's voices sounding
+full of exultation as, with the bugle ringing out, they dashed forward.
+
+There was no working forward by inch or by foot now; the Boers gave way
+at once, and the broad column dashed on, dealing death and destruction
+to all who, in a half-hearted way, opposed their progress.  It was quick
+work, for there was less than a couple of hundred yards to cover to be
+through the Boer line and reach the shelter of the rough stone walls and
+huge boulders which formed on that side the first defences of the kopje.
+
+In the wild excitement of those minutes Lennox was conscious of cheering
+his men on, as with bayonets at the ready they dashed on toward the main
+body, driving back the Boers who were trying to close in again after
+being beaten back by the first rushes.  Men were trampled under foot in
+the half-darkness, friends and foes alike, for it was a horrible
+business; but the men, in their wild excitement, cheered and cheered
+again till they were brought up by the first rugged wall and received
+with another burst of cheers from the holders of the bristling line of
+rifles and bayonets who were lining it.
+
+"Through with you--over with you!" shouted the major.--"Here, help those
+poor fellows in.--Where's Captain Edwards?"
+
+"Here he is," panted Dickenson, as he half-carried, half-dragged his
+brother officer to an opening in the wall.
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!" ejaculated the major.  "Here, Captain Roby, take full
+lead there on the left.  Captain Roby!--Who has seen Captain Roby?"
+
+"I did," said Captain Edwards faintly.  "Shot down at the same time as I
+was."
+
+"Ah-h!" roared the major.  Then excitedly: "Where about?"
+
+"A hundred yards away, perhaps.  Shot down leading the left company in
+the charge.  I--I was trying to help him along when I went down too."
+
+"Killed?" said the major.
+
+"No; bullet through the thigh."
+
+"We must fetch him in.  Here; volunteers!"
+
+Lennox leaped on to the wall in the pale grey light of the fast-coming
+day, and as he stood there, stooping ready to leap down, fully a score
+of rifles sent forth their deadly pencil-like balls from where to right
+and left the Boers were crouching.
+
+Down he went, to pitch head first, and a sound like a fierce snarling
+ran along the sheltered side of the stone wall; but as the men saw him
+spring to his feet again and begin to run they were silent for a few
+moments, as if in doubt as to what their young lieutenant meant; for
+Dickenson sprang on to the wall, trying hard to balance himself on the
+loose top where bullets kept on spattering, as he roared out, with his
+voice plainly heard above the rattle of the Boers' rifles, "Look at the
+coward!  Running away again!  Volunteers, come on!"
+
+There was a curious hysterical ring in his loud laugh as, with the
+bullets whirring and whistling about him and a cross fire concentrated
+upon where he stood, he too leaped down, to begin running, while a
+burly-looking sergeant literally rolled over the wall, followed by two
+more men from the rear company, all plainly seen now dashing towards
+where Lennox was running here and there among the dead and wounded which
+dotted the sloping ground, before stopping suddenly to go down on one
+knee and begin lifting a wounded man upon his shoulder.
+
+"Well," cried the major, "he's the queerest coward I ever saw.  I wish
+the colonel was here."
+
+His words brought forth a tremendous cheer from all who heard them, but
+the major turned upon the men angrily.
+
+"Shoot, you rascals, shoot!" he cried; "right and left.  Keep down the
+savages' fire if you can."
+
+For, unmoved by the gallant actions going on in front, brave men setting
+death at defiance--as scores of others had done all through the war--in
+the noble endeavour to save a wounded man's life, dozens of the Boers
+began firing at the rescue party, heedless of the fact that their
+bullets crossed the narrow way traversed by the little force in their
+dash from the village to the kopje, and now horribly dotted by the
+wounded and dying of both sides who had fallen in the desperate
+encounter.
+
+Yells and shouts arose from both sides as the bullets took effect among
+friends; but in their mad hate against those whom they called the
+British rooineks, the Boers fired on.  Fortunately, for the most part
+the wielders of the Mauser were not calmly lying down behind stones,
+with rests for their rifles, but were crowded together, nervous,
+agitated, and breathless with running, so that their bullets were badly
+aimed during the first minute or two.  Directly after, they were
+startled by the hail poured upon them from the whole line of men behind
+the great wall--a hail of lead beneath which many fell never to rise
+again, while the greater part devoted themselves to seeking cover,
+crawling anywhere to get under the shelter of some stone.
+
+The roar, then, that greeted the little party struggling back was not
+from British throats but from British rifles, which for the time being
+thoroughly kept down the enemy's fire, till Lennox and Dickenson bore
+the insensible form of Roby right up to the wall, followed by Sergeant
+James and his two companions, each carrying a wounded comrade on his
+back.
+
+And now, without ceasing their firing, the line cheered till all were
+hoarse, while four men sprang over to Roby's help, the others being
+tumbled over, to be seized by willing hands.
+
+It was quite time, for both Lennox and Dickenson were spent--the former
+sinking upon his knees to hold on by one of the stones; Dickenson
+bending forward to try and wave one hand, but dropping suddenly across
+Roby's knees.
+
+"Wounded?" cried the major excitedly, as he bent over Lennox directly he
+was lifted in, the last of the four.
+
+Lennox opened his fast-closing eyes and stretched out his right hand to
+feel for Dickenson's, in vain.  Then, with a sigh, he looked up at the
+major and touched his left arm, his breast, and his neck.  "Yes," he
+said faintly, "the coward has it now."
+
+"Bearers here," cried the major, and he turned to direct his men, for he
+was needed.
+
+The Boers were coming on again in short rushes, regardless of the
+terrific fire poured upon them in the faint light of day, and a perfect
+hail of bullets was flying to and fro.  And not only facing the village,
+but all round the kopje, where the enemy had in several places secured a
+footing and were utilising the stone defences prepared by the colonel's
+men, but of course from the reverse side.  It had this good effect,
+though; it condensed the British force, giving them less ground to
+defend; and for the next two hours wherever a Boer dared to show enough
+of himself to form a spot at which to aim, a bullet came.
+
+The losses were terrible on both sides, for the attack was as brave as
+the defence; and even when the two small guns were brought into action,
+to send shells hurtling wherever the continually increasing enemy were
+seen to approach in clusters, the attack went on.
+
+"It's of no use, major," said the colonel at last, as they stood
+together; "they mean to have the place."
+
+"What!" said the latter officer fiercely.  "You don't mean surrender?"
+
+"My dear fellow, no: not while there's a cartridge left."
+
+"Ha!" sighed the major.  "You gave me quite a turn."
+
+"I meant, if this keeps on we shall lose as many men as if we brought it
+to a head.  Besides, they'll hold on to the parts they've got, and keep
+creeping nearer."
+
+"You mean the bayonet at once?"
+
+"Exactly," said the colonel.  "Off with you; take one side and I'll take
+the other.  We must clear the kopje before the heat comes on."
+
+"Yes," said the major, with a grim smile; "and the lads must want their
+breakfast now."
+
+The men in each trench rolled up their sleeves as they heard the order
+given to fix bayonets again, and, leaping over the defences, rushed
+forward, to be staggered a little by the enemy's fire; then, with a
+cheer, on they went, the sun glistening upon the line of pointed steel.
+
+It was more than the Boers could bear; defence after defence was
+vacated, and, soon after, the result of charge after charge was followed
+by a headlong flight which soon spread into a panic.  It was "_Sauve qui
+peut_," uttered in Boer Dutch; while the failure of the daring attack
+was completed fast by the emptying of the rifle magazines among flying
+men, and the shots from the three guns, which had their opportunity at
+last.
+
+A stand was made in the village, which was obstinately held for a time
+by two big commandos which had come upon the ground too late to be of
+much service; but in spite of a pom-pom, a Maxim, and a heavy howitzer,
+the big gun on the top of the kopje silenced their fire before sundown,
+by which time their heaviest piece was destroyed, the village burning,
+and the two commandos in full flight.
+
+Then came the flag of truce for permission to carry off the wounded and
+bury the many dead.
+
+It was about this time that Doctor Emden looked to the colonel and said:
+
+"Awful!  Poor fellows!  I don't know where to turn to first."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+THE DOCTOR'S DIPLOMACY.
+
+It was a couple of days later, when the kopje was dotted with the rough
+shelters that the uninjured men had worked hard to erect from the ruins
+of the village, the principal being for the benefit of the wounded.  The
+position was the same, or nearly the same, as it had been before.  The
+Boers had retreated to their laagers, which were more strongly held than
+ever, and the investment was kept up with more savage determination;
+while the defenders had only the kopje to hold now, the village being a
+desolation, and the colonel's forces sadly reduced.
+
+The doctor was in better spirits, and showed it, for he had managed to
+get something like order in his arrangements for his wounded men.  But
+the colonel and the major were in lower spirits, and did not show it,
+for matters looked very black indeed, relief seeming farther off than
+ever.
+
+"My last orders were to hold this place," said the colonel to the major,
+"and I'm going to hold it."
+
+"Of course!  Keep on.  Every day we shall be having another man or two
+back in the ranks.  Ah! here is Emden.--Well, how are the lads?"
+
+"Getting on splendidly.  My dear sirs, I have heard people abuse the
+Mauser as a diabolical weapon.  Nothing of the sort; it is one of the
+most humane.  The wounds are small, cleanly cut, and, so long as a bone
+is not touched, begin to heal with wonderful rapidity.  Come and have a
+look round."
+
+"Yes; we have come on purpose," said the colonel.  "By the way, though,
+before we go into the officers' shelter, I wish you had contrived
+differently about Roby and Lennox.  It seemed very short-sighted, after
+what has occurred, to place them next to one another."
+
+"My dear sir," cried the doctor, "I did all I could to try and save the
+poor fellows' lives as they were carried in to me, without thinking
+about their squabbles and quarrels and rank."
+
+"Yes, yes; of course, doctor.  I beg your pardon.  You have done
+wonders."
+
+"Thankye!  Done my best, of course.  But don't you worry about those
+two; they'll be all right.  Come and see."
+
+"But about the men?  Nothing more serious, I hope."
+
+"N-n-no.  Had to take that fellow's leg off to save his life."
+
+"What poor fellow?  Oh yes--Corporal May?"
+
+"Yes.  He objected strongly, but it had to be done.  He threatens to
+commence an action against me when he gets home--so I hear."
+
+They had been moving towards the shelter of corrugated iron beneath
+which the officers lay, each of whom greeted them with a smile.  They
+were all badly wounded, but looked restful and contented, as wounded men
+do who have achieved a victory.
+
+Roby seemed to be the most cheerful, and he beckoned to the colonel to
+come closer, while the doctor cocked his eye rather drolly and in a way
+that the chief did not understand.
+
+"Well, Roby," said the colonel, "you look better."
+
+"Well, for a man who has had the top of his head rasped by a bullet and
+got a hole right through his leg, I call myself a wonder."
+
+"Does your wound pain you much?"
+
+"Quite enough; but there, I don't mind.  We've whipped."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel, smiling; "we've whipped, thanks to every one's
+gallant behaviour.  You did splendidly, Roby."
+
+"Did my best, sir," said the captain quietly.  "But I'm not quite as I
+should like to be," he continued confidentially.  "Don't take any
+notice.  I can't quite understand about my hurt on the head."
+
+"Indeed?" said the colonel, frowning.
+
+"I recollect, of course, getting the stinging pain in my leg, and going
+down, and then it seemed to me that one of the Boers kicked me at the
+top of the forehead with his heavy boot, and I was trampled on.  After
+that I fainted, and didn't come to until the firing was going on and
+Lennox came running through it to pick me up.  Colonel, that's about the
+bravest thing that has been done since we've been here."
+
+"Quite," said the colonel, watching the speaker curiously.
+
+"I want you to promise me that you'll mention it well in your despatch
+about the taking of the laager."
+
+"If I ever get a despatch to headquarters it shall contain that, I
+promise you."
+
+"Thank you," said Roby warmly, and with the tears now in his eyes.  "I
+say, colonel, I'm sorry I went down; but the doctor says the lads got
+back after another skirmish, with plenty of cattle and stores."
+
+"Yes," said the colonel; "it was a splendid addition to our supplies
+and--"
+
+"Stop! stop! please, colonel," said the doctor.  "Roby's weak yet."
+
+"Oh no, doctor."
+
+"My dear fellow, I say yes; and I say," said the doctor, bending down to
+whisper to his patient, "Lennox and Dickenson are both very feeble.
+Think of them."
+
+Roby took the doctor's hand and pressed it, accompanying the pressure
+with a significant look.
+
+"Thank you for coming, colonel," he said, "and you too, major.  Emden's
+an awful tyrant when he gets us on our backs."
+
+"Right," said the doctor.  "Nero was nothing to me.--Now, gentlemen,
+just a word or two with the rest of my nursery folk, and then I must
+order you off."
+
+The colonel nodded, passed on to Captain Edwards, and said a word or
+two; the same followed at Dickenson's side, where the young officer,
+forgetful of his wounds, gave his chief a look full of exultation,
+receiving a good-humoured nod in return, and Dickenson turned his face
+sidewise with a sigh of content.
+
+"Wait a bit," he said to himself.  "I'll have it out with the old man as
+soon as I get better.  He's bound to ask poor old Drew's pardon.  But
+fancy Roby turning like this."
+
+Meanwhile the colonel had passed on to Lennox's side, to find him far
+the greatest sufferer of the party present, and unable to do more than
+smile his thanks and lie back, extremely weak, but with a look of calm
+restfulness in his eyes that told that there was nothing mental to
+trouble him and keep him back.
+
+"What do you think of them, colonel?" said the doctor as soon as they
+were outside.
+
+"All much better than I expected," said the colonel.
+
+"But what about Roby?  He is quite delirious from his wound, is he not?"
+
+"Perfectly calm, sir, with his _mens_ much more _Sana_ than his
+_corpus_.  I thought he was all wrong at first, but he's only weak--
+pulse regular, temperature as cool as a hot iron roof will let it be."
+[Note: _Mens sana in corpore sano_.]
+
+"But, hang it all, doctor! his head's all in a muddle about storming the
+little kopje and getting the cattle and stores away."
+
+"Yes; that's the comical part of it.  He's a bit mixed, and in his
+present state I let him think what he likes, so long as it is not likely
+to do him any harm."
+
+"But really, Doctor Emden, I fail to follow your reasoning," said the
+colonel rather stiffly.
+
+"Never mind, colonel; leave it.  I don't follow all your military
+manoeuvres, so I leave them to you.  Let the cobbler stick to his last.
+There, man, don't look mystified.  Let me explain.  Roby had bad
+concussion of the brain from that first shot.  There was no fracture,
+but the bone was, so to speak, a little dented down, and the consequence
+was that, though he rapidly recovered his health bodily, he did not get
+his mental balance quite right at the same time."
+
+"Then you think that charge of his against Lennox was a trifling
+aberration that's now over.  I hope you are right, doctor; but--"
+
+"But me no buts," said the doctor.  "I stake my reputation upon it.
+Surely, man, you can see the proof?  The poor fellow showed you that he
+has not the slightest recollection now of what has been going on since
+the expedition to the laager."
+
+"To be sure," said the major.  "I see now.  That explains it.  He talked
+as if he thought this was the result of being shot down there."
+
+"To be sure he does.  He thinks, too, that Edwards is wounded from a
+skirmish with the Boers during the retreat."
+
+"Then there was no nonsense, no unreality, in his display of interest in
+poor Lennox?"
+
+"Not a bit.  He's delighted with the poor fellow's gallantry, and talks
+to me about how much he owes him."
+
+"But his charge of cowardice?"
+
+"Wind, my dear sir; wind.  Let it blow away.  If any one were to tell
+him of it now he would stare with astonishment and ask you if you meant
+to insult him.  Take my word for it, the hallucination has completely
+passed away.  The fresh wound, with its loss by haemorrhage, and the
+reaction, has acted antagonistically to his mental trouble.  He has, so
+to speak, stepped mentally from the attack on the Boers to their attack
+on us, and as soon as he recovers his strength he'll be as good a man as
+ever."
+
+"But when we tell him about his charge?" said the colonel.
+
+"Why tell him, sir?  Let it rest.  If it ever comes out by accident,
+that's quite another thing.  The trouble has settled itself, as some
+troubles will."
+
+"I wish this one would," said the major, "for I'm getting very sick of
+being penned up here on very reduced rations.  Have they quite forgotten
+us at headquarters?"
+
+"No," said the colonel.  "Their hands are full.--Meanwhile, doctor, our
+ranks are very thin, so as fast as you can send the poor lads back to
+the ranks, let us have them again.  The Boers will not let us rest like
+this for long."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+AT LAST!
+
+But the Boers had received so severe a lesson that they did leave the
+garrison severely alone for nearly a month, save that there were often
+sharp encounters between patrols and the foraging parties which made a
+dash whenever there was a chance of capturing something for the military
+larder.
+
+It had come to the colonel holding a private council, at which the
+doctor was present to give his opinion how long it would be before the
+wounded men would be sufficiently strong to undertake a night march and
+then push on to try and join hands with the nearest post held by our
+forces.
+
+"If we could feed the lads as they ought to be fed, in about a month,"
+replied the doctor quietly.  "Going on as we are now--never."  The
+colonel started from his seat.  "Do you mean this, Emden?" he said
+excitedly.  "The men's appearance speaks for itself.  It is all the
+healthy can do to keep body and soul together; the wounded are at a
+standstill."
+
+"No, no," said the colonel warmly; "all of our officers, though
+certainly weak, have returned to their duty."
+
+"Yes," said the doctor; "but then they all partook more of a certain
+essence than the men do.  The poor fellows had done marvellously well,
+and the more educated, better-class fellows compare wonderfully well
+with those of a lower station; but there is that difference."
+
+"And pray what is the wonderful essence, doctor?" said Captain Edwards,
+smiling.
+
+"_Esprit de corps_, my dear sir," said the doctor.
+
+"Well," cried the colonel, "then you have settled it, doctor.  We are
+not going to surrender."
+
+"No!" came in chorus.
+
+"We can't go and leave our weak ones behind."
+
+"No!" came with double the force.
+
+"We are too much reduced in available men to run any risks."  There was
+no reply to this, and the colonel continued: "Then there is nothing else
+to be done, gentlemen, but take up another hole in our belts, keep on
+sending messages when we can get a Kaffir runner, and wait patiently for
+help."
+
+As the officers sauntered away from the rough hut which had been built
+in a niche for the colonel, Roby was limping along with the aid of a
+stick and Lennox's arm, while Dickenson was rolling up a cigarette
+composed of the very last dust of his tobacco, ready to hand it to the
+captain, who suffered a good deal still from the bullet wound, the
+missile having passed right through his thigh.  They had to pass two of
+their men, seated upon a rock in a shady corner, one of them being minus
+his right leg, which had been removed half-way between knee and hip; the
+other was recovering very slowly from a bullet wound in the face, an
+injury which had mended very slowly and kept him low-spirited, fretful,
+and ready to affect the companionship of one as fretful and as great a
+sufferer as himself.  The group of officers stopped to say a few kind
+words to the men, and then, having nothing hopeful to hold out for their
+comfort, passed on.
+
+"See that Captain Roby?" said the one-legged man.
+
+"Of course I do."
+
+"Well, I did have some hopes of him as being a man, but he isn't.  He's
+a sneak, that's what he is--a sneak."
+
+"Better not let him hear you say so," said the other.
+
+"Tell him if you like."
+
+"Tell him yourself."
+
+"You know how he let on about Mr Lennox running away in the fight?"
+
+"Oh yes, of course; but it was all a mistake.  He was off his head,
+Captain Roby was."
+
+"Tchah!  Not he.  It was all true, but the captain wouldn't hold to it.
+They hang together, these officers, and make things up, so that when
+their turn comes to be in trouble the others back them.  I was out here
+the other day, and old Roby came doing the civil and asking me how I
+was, so I rounded upon him about giving up saying Mr Lennox was a
+coward.  What do you think he says?"
+
+"Said you were cracked."
+
+"Yes; only he said mad.  What do you think of that?"
+
+"That he ought to have said you were a sneak and a cur," said the man,
+getting up and walking away, but only to stop and turn round.  "Look
+here, corporal," he said; "take a bit of advice.  Drop that altogether,
+or some day the chaps may turn upon you and forget that you're a
+crippled man, and give you what you don't like."
+
+"Why?" cried Corporal May wrathfully.
+
+"Because every one of us thinks Mr Lennox is about the pluckiest fellow
+in the regiment, and would follow him into the hottest fire the enemy
+could get up."
+
+Affairs, after gliding sluggishly along for months, began to move
+swiftly now.  Two weeks after there was an announcement that a Kaffir, a
+despatch-runner, had reached the kopje, and he was hurried before the
+officers, to prove to be the Zulu who had brought in the warning of the
+last attack.  He had fresh news now--that once more the Boers had been
+reinforced, and that they had received three heavy guns.  Preparations
+were again made for the reception of the enemy, but the men moved about
+looking grave and stern.  The old hopeful elasticity seemed gone.
+Dickenson noted this, and called Lennox's attention to it.
+
+"Yes," he said; "but the first shouts will rouse them, and they'll fight
+as well as ever."
+
+"Of course," said Dickenson.  "Still, one can't help feeling dull."
+
+There was no attack that night; but the scouts had reports to make of
+the advance of the enemy from all the laagers, and the next morning soon
+after sunrise half-a-dozen Boers rode up under the white flag--their
+leader being blindfolded and led into the colonel's presence, with the
+other officers gathered round.
+
+"I have come from our general with a message," said the Boer officer
+shortly.  "He knows that you are all nearly starved, and that the kopje
+is covered with sick and wounded.  He tells me to say he does not wish
+to attack and shoot you all down, though you deserve it.  He says he
+will be merciful, and gives you ten minutes to consider whether you will
+haul down and surrender.  What am I to tell him?"
+
+"Tell the officer who sent you that we do not want ten seconds to
+consider, and that we do not know how to haul down the British colours.
+Let him come here and drag them down himself."
+
+"What do you mean?" said the man roughly, and opening his eyes wider
+than was his wont in wonder.
+
+"War!" cried the colonel sternly, and he signalled to those who had
+brought the messenger to re-tie the bandage across his eyes and lead him
+back through the lines.
+
+Two hours later a heavy gun began the attack, one which was to be no
+night surprise entailing a heavy loss to the assailants, but a slow,
+deliberate shelling of the gallantly defended place to destruction;
+while now the difficulty was felt by the garrison for the first time of
+how to reply, for the new guns which had come upon the scene were served
+with smokeless powder, and the best glasses failed to show whence the
+bursting shells had come.
+
+The officers had nothing to do on the kopje but keep going about among
+their men in the trenches and behind the walls, to say a few encouraging
+words and insist upon them not exposing themselves, for it was waste of
+cartridges to use a rifle; while the firing from the big gun and its
+smaller brothers too was infrequent for the reasons above given.  Hence
+it fell about that more than once the officers paid what may be called
+visits from time to time, just to exchange a few words, and on one of
+these occasions Captain Roby, who walked fairly well with a stick,
+joined Lennox and Dickenson.
+
+"This is cheerful," he said.  "Did you over know anything more
+exasperating?"
+
+"Horrible!" said the two young men in a breath.  "What's the chief going
+to do?" added Dickenson.
+
+"I've just come from him," replied Roby.  "Nothing.  What can he do but
+hold the dogs of war in leash until the Boers think they have shelled us
+enough, and come on?"
+
+"Nothing, of course," said Dickenson, carrying on the captain's simile;
+"but the dogs are grinding their teeth, and when the enemy does come, by
+Jingo! he'll find them pretty sharp."
+
+Hour after hour the Boers kept on throwing heavy shells on to the kopje,
+while the shelter was so good that not a single life was lost; but the
+casualties from the shattering shells provided the doctor and his aids
+with quite sufficient work, and it was with a sigh of relief that he
+ceased attending to the last man brought in, for with darkness the
+firing ceased.
+
+Then came the night full of alarms with the terrible anxiety and
+expectation of the assault which did not come.  For, as it proved, the
+Boers had been furnished with too awful a lesson in the former attack to
+venture upon another surprise, with its many accidents and risks to
+themselves.  They preferred to wait for daylight, and with the first
+pale streaks of dawn the bombarding began once more, and went on briskly
+till an hour after sunrise, when the lookouts from the top of the kopje
+passed the words, "Here they come."
+
+Just about the same time the scouts came running in bearing the same
+warning, and now the kopje guns began to play their parts more
+effectively.
+
+For from three directions, covered by their own pieces, quite a cloud of
+the Boers could be seen approaching fast to get within rifle-range,
+dismount, and then begin a careful skirmishing advance, seizing every
+spot that afforded cover, completely surrounding the defenders, and
+searching the kopje from side to side with a terrific fire.
+
+This was vigorously replied to; but the advance was never for a moment
+checked, the manoeuvring of the enemy being excellent, and their skill
+in keeping hidden and crawling from place to place exasperating to the
+defenders, for in spite of careful aiming and deliberation the Boer
+losses were remarkably small.
+
+"They mean it this time, Bob," said Lennox sadly.
+
+"Yes, they mean it; and somehow I don't feel up to the work at all.  I
+didn't know I was so weak.  Feel your wounds much?"
+
+"Horribly.  I can only use my glass and watch the stubborn brutes coming
+on."
+
+"Same here.  I've had six shots at 'em, and then I handed the rifle back
+to the Tommy who lent it to me."
+
+"How many times did you hit?" asked Lennox.
+
+Dickenson looked round to see if either of the men could hear him, and
+then he whispered softly, "Not once."
+
+Lennox took no notice, for he was resting his field-glass upon the rough
+top of the stone wall, looking outward over the veldt.
+
+"Well, didn't you hear what I said?"
+
+"Yes.  Don't worry," replied Lennox shortly.  "Here, quick!" he cried
+excitedly.  "Take your glass and look straight away yonder to the left
+of the laager we took."
+
+"Eh?  Yes!  All right.  I see.  Here, send word to the chief.  They're
+coming on fast now; three clouds of them.  Reinforcements.  Why don't
+those fellows make the big gun begin to talk?"
+
+"Because they can see what I can, Bob," cried Lennox joyously.  "Look
+again.  Lance-tips glittering in the sun.  Our men.  Hurrah!  Strong
+bodies of cavalry.  Why, Bob, they'll catch the enemy in the open now.
+The siege is up.  Hush!  Don't shout."
+
+"Why, man?  It will encourage the lads."
+
+"And warn the enemy that help is coming.  Five minutes more ignorance
+will be worth anything to the relief force.  I'll go to the chief at
+once."
+
+There was no need.  Almost at that moment the colonel had caught sight
+of the lance-tips through his glass; but quite ten minutes more--minutes
+crowded with excitement--elapsed before the attacking party were aware
+of the danger in their rear, and then came the terrible reverse.  Boers
+began running back to where their ponies were being held out of
+rifle-shot, but running in vain, for the British cavalry were there
+first, spurring their steeds and stampeding the ponies, sending them in
+all directions prior to charging through and through the retreating
+parties, and keeping up the pursuit until recalled.
+
+Others of the relief force had meanwhile been aiming at the three
+laagers, into which the infantry dashed, the first warning of this
+received at the kopje being through the cessation of the shelling, for
+the guns were either silenced or put out of action, the whole of the
+Boer force literally melting away.
+
+It was one of the most brilliant episodes of the war; and that night,
+the supplies having come up, the relief party were hoarse with cheering
+the men whom they dubbed British heroes, and all was festivity and joy.
+
+No, not all; for during the long watches of that night, with the stars
+looking piercingly through the cold, clear air, parties were out,
+British and Boer, searching far and wide, and the ambulance-wagons
+creaked and rattled with their terrible loads, while Doctor Emden, the
+doctors of the relief expedition, and those working for the Boers were
+busy till morning.
+
+It was Lennox and his comrade who, being still only invalids, had the
+forethought to make their way at sunrise to where the doctor had been
+working all the night, and they found him lying utterly exhausted upon
+an old greatcoat, fast asleep.
+
+Lennox touched him gently, and he sprang up.
+
+"Yes, all right," he said; "I'll come.  How many this time?--Eh?  What!
+you, my dear boys?  Hurt?"
+
+"No, no, doctor; drink this," said Lennox gently, and he held out a
+steaming tin.
+
+"Coffee!  Eureka!" cried the doctor.  "My dear boy, I began to think I
+was never to taste the--ha, delicious!--infusion of the berry--again.
+Ha!  Another?  Yes, please.  No; wake up and give it to that poor fellow
+there.  He has been working with me all the night.--That's right," said
+the doctor, after seeing his wishes fulfilled.  "Ah, it's all very well
+for you, my fine fellows, who have the rush and dash and wild excitement
+of battle, but it's horrible for us who have all the cold-blooded
+horrors afterwards.  You have the show and credit too, and the rewards."
+
+"But we have the wounds too, doctor," said Lennox.
+
+"To be sure, my dear boy; to be sure.  Don't take any notice of what I
+say.  I'm worn out.  We get our rewards too, in the shape of the brave
+fellows' thanks.  But if those people at home who shout for war only
+knew what it means when the fight is over, they'd alter their tune.  But
+I say, this day's work ought to bring it to an end."
+
+It did, in the Groenfontein district; and for Colonel Lindley's
+battle-scarred, hunger-weakened veterans there came a time of rest and
+peace.
+
+By way of postscript to this narrative of South African adventure, here
+is the letter received from Mark Roby by Drew Lennox soon after the
+voyage home and the ovation which he and his comrades had received in
+their march through London streets:
+
+My Dear Lennox,--I have just seen the _Gazette_, and am of course
+delighted to find the word "Major" prefixed to my name.  I do not write
+out of vanity; it is from the sincere desire to be one of the first to
+congratulate my brave old companion in arms, Drew Lennox, V.C.  Bravo!
+You deserved it.  May I live to see you a general, with a lot more
+orders on your breast.  But there is something more I want to say.  I
+dined with Bob Dickenson and old Sawbones last evening, and in the chat
+after dinner over the promotions Dickenson told me about that episode
+which occurred after I was bowled over by that shot and you saved my
+life, according to your noble custom.  When Bob D. told me how I accused
+you of being a coward, I felt quite knocked over.  Of course it is as
+Emden says--I was, in a way, mad as half-a-dozen hatters, and enough to
+make me, with a part of my something or another--I forget what the
+doctor called it, but he meant brain-pan--bent in on my thinking
+apparatus.  You a coward!  Why, I confess now that a petty feeling of
+jealousy often worried me, through every one thinking so much of you and
+the way in which you always came up smiling after no end of brave
+doings.  A coward!  My word!  Why didn't you punch my head?  There, I
+don't say forgive me, because I know you do one who is proud to call you
+his best and bravest friend.  That last is what I told Bob Dickenson you
+were, and he looked quite proud.  You will be glad to hear that my wound
+is quite healed up; and as to the lump on my skull, the absolute truth,
+honesty, and sincerity of every word in this letter must show you that
+there is no trouble as to my knowing what I say.--Yours always, my dear
+Lennox, Mark Roby.  Captain Drew Lennox, V.C.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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