few hours
would blow them sky high with Winfield's blasting powder_.

Hastily, returning to the rock he awoke Leigh and Winfield, and
explained matters, calling forth ejaculations of dismay from both men.

"In four or at most five hours," said Grenville, "they will be under
this spot, and unless we are clear away, Heaven help us; but on the
other hand you may be certain that the forest is full of these outlying
devils ready to cut off our escape."

After a short but excited argument it was determined to try and
_counter-mine the foe_, and starting to their feet the little party set
to work to dig through their own floor with the home-made picks and
shovels which they had used when seeking for gold.

All worked like blacks, and soon sank a hole forty feet deep in the soft
yet firm clayey sand, and then commenced tunnelling, still, however,
tending downwards. The labour was enormous and the heat stifling; still
the stake, beyond all price, was the life and liberty of the whole
party; and when the tunnel had been unceasingly bored for three hours
Grenville pronounced it long enough, and ordered his party to strike
work. He then carried down the keg of powder taken at the central
bridge, which proved to contain about thirty pounds, and the contents of
which were found to be in capital condition.

Then sending all back into the cave with instructions to awake the
girls, pack the gold on the quagga, and prepare for a running fight to
Amaxosa's Cave, in the not improbable event of the rock being
demolished, he returned to his burrow, bored the keg and laid a thick
train of powder for thirty feet along the tunnel.

Then came a long anxious wait; but when our hero had been alone for
nearly forty minutes, he at last heard the sound of a pick.

Gliding back to his friends, he found them ready for a start, and after
seeing all outside in a safe place well on the leeside of the rock, he
again crept into the tunnel. Here he waited for some little time in a
fever of anxiety. He could distinctly hear the Mormons now, almost
above him, and was in deadly fear lest the floor between their tunnel
and his, should give way, when all would be lost. This, however, did
not happen, for their enemies, overlooking the fact that the ground
outside sank gradually towards the rock, and boring their shaft on the
level, had approached dangerously near the upper crust of the earth.

At last the time came, and hearing the foe well above his