"Yes, I know, Chris; and he told me to hand you over another hundred
when I went to the bank, which I shall do this afternoon."




CHAPTER III

AT THE FRONT


At five o'clock the lads from Johannesburg again met and reported the
result of the afternoon's work. The nine Mauser rifles had been bought,
and six thousand rounds of ammunition had been purchased. This appeared
an excessive amount, but as there might be a difficulty in obtaining
this ammunition, they bought up all that could be found in the town.
Peters and his party had chosen the horses for the troop. The farmer was
a well-known breeder of good stock, and was glad to dispose of some of
them at a fair price in order to lessen their number. He had already had
several enquiries from corps that were being raised, but the prices were
higher than could be paid for ordinary troopers, though several had been
bought by officers. The lot the lads had picked out had been put aside,
and they had given the farmer fifty pounds earnest-money, to hold them
till the next morning.

"They are as good a looking lot of horses as I ever saw," Peters said,
"in fact, by a long way the best. I always heard that he was one of the
largest breeders of good horses in South Africa. He had eight or ten
extraordinarily good ones, but, of course, he wanted extra prices for
these; but from the rest--and he has some three hundred of them--he let