ld
them in check, was short of ammunition, why, the effect would be to let
loose tens of thousands of raging devils, not only upon that force
itself, but upon the whole more or less defenceless frontier. This was
in the minds of both, as quickly Sandgate's boot was cut from his foot,
while one fiend, who had plucked a red-hot blade from the fire, stood,
eagerly awaiting his orders.

"Now--will you read?"

"No!" shouted Sandgate, his eyes staring at his questioner in horror and
despair. Then followed a long and shuddering groan, and in it, and the
convulsive writhe of the victim, Dick Selmes seemed to share. His
comrade's agony was his own.

At a sign from the English-speaking Kafir the instrument of torment was
withdrawn.

"First taste," he said grimly. "This go on all day. How you like that?
Now--you read?"

"No!" thundered the victim.

Then something else thundered. Crack! Crack! The barbarian with the
hot iron pitched heavily forward, shot through the brain, while another
of those holding Sandgate shared the same fate. Crack! Crack! Not a
moment of interval--down went two more, and those immediately next to
the prisoners; then two more in the same way. Instinctively the others
sprang back, realising that this was the point of danger; but still that
unceasing fire went on pitilessly decimating them. Wildly they looked
at the point whence it came, but vainly, for the morning mist had so
thickened that they could but dimly see the outline of the rocks which
overhung the back of the hollow. A great and thunderous roar,
accompanying a hail of heavy slugs into the very thick of them,
completed their discomfiture. With a wholesome recollection of the
artillery practice some of them had witnessed on the banks of the Tsolo
River not long before, they cried that the _Amapolise_ were upon them,
and disappeared helter-skelter into the mist and the bush at the lower
side of the hollow.

Our two friends could hardly believe in their good fortune. Yet--no
escape was to be theirs. A man was beside them--a black man--and in his
hand a knife. They would be murdered, of course, in the hour of rescue.
But--he was cutting their bonds.

"Quick! Come with me," he said in English, at the same time collecting
the Police carbines and revolvers lying on the ground, which the
panic-stricken Kafirs had omitted to carry away. Him they followed--
Sandgate limping painfully--as he led the way to the rocks above, where