table-land and down to the house or dug-out which they had first found
when in search of a way out. They rested there, ate some luncheon, fed
their horses, and after an hour and a half started on.

They had brought with them their repeating rifles and revolvers. Before
getting into the wagon, Jordan had rolled up and fastened the curtains of
the wagon, examined closely the guns, and then gave a long, sweeping look
all around the horizon.

"What are you looking for, Jordan?" asked Sedgwick.

"Nuthin' much," he answered. "Only, Jim, have yer gun whar yo' can reach
it quick if wanted."

"Why?" asked Sedgwick.

"Nuthin," said Jordan. "Only I never seen this place afore thet thar war
not a dozen cut-throat-lookin' scoundrels 'round, and they mighter mean
mischief, knowin' as how we have ther treasure aboard."

They had driven on for perhaps a mile, when the road ran down close to
the stream. All at once half a dozen shots rang out of the willows, and
the Boer sprang from the wagon and ran for the bush.

Sedgwick was driving. Jordan in a second caught his gun, and springing
over the seat, said:

"Drive on quick, Jim, and in ther meantime I'll try ter entertain ther
varmints."

A Boer stepped out of the willows and raised his gun. He never fired it,
but threw up his hands and fell on his face. A shot from Jordan's gun had
changed his calculations.

Three or four more shots were fired from the bush, but they did no harm.

Sedgwick had urged the team into a run, and they had just begun to hope
the ambuscade had been passed, when three more Boers sprang out of the
willows nearly opposite them and fired.

Jordan killed two of them in a moment, but the third one fired again, and
the bullet struck Jordan's left arm, disabling it and making a bad wound.

"Can you drive, think?" asked Sedgwick.

Jordan thought he could, and took the reins; Sedgwick picked up his gun.

Three more Boers just then appeared by the willows opposite. Sedgwick
could shoot as rapidly and as accurately as Jordan, and he cleared the
field in a moment.

The road bent away from the stream soon after, back upon the table-land,
and they were safe. They stopped, and Sedgwick bound up Jordan's arm. The
bone was not broken, and no great blood-vessel was seriously injured, but
he had received a nasty flesh wound through the muscles of his fore-arm.

As they proceeded on their journey, Jordan said: "That black guard as I
first got a crack at hed be