will mount and wait a minute or two, and then if we do not come, you
will ride off with our horses as well as your own. We shall try and make
our way to the edge of the hill, and ought to be able to slip away in
the darkness if we can get there before we are shot down or overtaken.
However, I don't think there is much chance of our being recognized.
Indeed, I expect most of them will be lying down for a sleep before the
time comes for action. If there is one thing a Boer hates it is being
kept awake at night. I will take one of the Kaffir boys with us. They
can see in the dark a great deal better than we can; and as the Boers
are sure to have some natives with them, he is quite as likely to pick
up news as we are--more so, perhaps, for the natives will sit and talk
all night while their masters are snoring. I think the one we call Jack
is the sharpest."

Jack was called up, and on being told what was required, at once agreed
to accompany them.

No time was lost. Chris and his three companions mounted, and with the
Kaffir running alongside they set off at a trot. Keeping to the north of
east, they rode on for some two miles, Jack leading the way with as much
ease as if it had been daylight. When they had, as they calculated, come
upon the ground the Boers must have passed over, they turned south, and
kept on until they saw the dark mass of Talana on their right, and made
towards it. On this side the hill sloped gradually, while on that facing
Dundee it was extremely steep and strewn with boulders. They were now
going at a walk, and they soon came upon an immense gathering of
waggons, carts, oxen and ponies, crowded without any order, just as they
had arrived two hours before. "There is no fear of our being detected,"
Chris said in a whisper, "and we can't do better than stop here. There
is no getting the horses through this crowd, and if we did manage to do