n line--for they had taken in the lesson and avoided
massing--these spread out, so as to surround the house. But Dick Selmes
had reloaded in a second, and now, quick to take in a favourable moment,
he raked the line at such a point that three or four dropped beneath the
deadly buckshot. And now the night air rang with demoniacal yells. The
vengeful savages, drunk with fury, sprang round to the front of the
house and swarmed up the steps of the stoep.

"Go ye round to the front," said Elsie. "All keep 'em out of here."

She had swung up her axe again. Dick, in a second, had gained the
front. The house, situated on a slope, was considerably higher than the
level of the ground on this side, and there were no end windows. There
were, however, two commanding the stoep, one on either side of the front
door. It took hardly a moment to throw open one of these, and not
another to rake the mass of Kafirs pouring up the steps, with a charge
of the deadly buckshot. Yelling, struggling, such as could move, that
is, they would have fallen back, but those behind prevented this. Again
the other barrel spoke, this time with the same effect. Thoroughly
demoralised now, those who could do so glided away, and sought the
nearest cover. And then upon Dick's ears came a loud cry of alarm, and
it came from Hazel's room.

This was at the end of the house, projecting beyond the stoep, the
window looking out in front. With a bound he had gained the door, and
burst it open.

Hazel was standing back in a corner of the room, transfixed with terror.
As a matter of fact, she had summoned up rare courage in deciding to
remain quietly where she was instead of rushing out, and so, seriously
to hamper and embarrass the defenders, as her natural impulse would have
been. What Dick now saw was a big Kafir worming himself through the
window, half in, half out. But, quick as thought, somebody pushed past
him, and in the now flooding moonlight he saw the lift of the
Scotswoman's brawny arms, and, with a crunching thud, down came the
axe-head on the skull of the venturesome savage, with the same result as
before.

"You've left your side, Elsie," he said.

"Go ye back to it," was the answer. "A'm staying here."

There was a crisp, uncompromising decisiveness about this statement that
Dick well knew there would be no disputing. So he obeyed. Now, through
the upper half of the door, the quince hedge was visible in the
moonlight, and so, ap