"Then we had better plant ourselves among the rocks, and let the unarmed
men go on with the women and children, and take shelter a bit farther
on. I don't suppose they will venture to attack us when they find, to
their disgust, that we are armed with as good rifles as their own. They
have a great respect for their lives."

Accordingly the seven lads and the six men with rifles at once took up a
position among the rocks. The rest of the party went forward two hundred
yards and then took shelter also. The Boers, feeling certain that the
party was unarmed, did not trouble themselves to open fire at a
distance, but rode forward in a clump at full gallop.

"They are about a thousand yards away now," one of the men said. "We may
as well give them a volley."

The thirteen rifles flashed out almost simultaneously. There were, as
they had counted, sixteen Boers. Five horses fell, three others galloped
off riderless, and the party broke up and rode off at full speed in
various directions.

"I don't think we need trouble any more about them," said Sankey's
father, who, was one of the party, as he rose to his feet. "You may be
sure that several of those who got away carried bullets somewhere about
them."

As they turned to rejoin their friends there was a general exclamation
of satisfaction, for two large waggons were seen coming along the road.
In ten minutes the women and children, with all the older men, were
comfortably seated and on their way to Newcastle. Chris and his party
accompanied them on foot so as to form a rear-guard. "We have won our