ks. They had to
give 'em a few pills to scatter 'em. The savage little beasts have gone
off now."

"I thought we were going to be out of a fight," said Denham to me as we
quickly retraced our steps, to make our way to the Colonel, whom we
found at last in the court amongst the horses, talking anxiously to a
knot of officers.

"Oh, there you are, Mr Denham," said the Colonel as we went up. "I was
beginning to think you'd come to grief. I could have searched the place
half-a-dozen times over by now. You've come to say there's no water, of
course?"

"No, sir; I've found plenty."

"What!" cried the Colonel, whose whole manner changed in an instant.
"You've found plenty?"

"Yes, sir."

"Splendid news, my dear boy. There, I forgive you for being long," he
added good-humouredly. "The horses want a drink badly. Show the men
where to lead them at once."

"My news is not so good as that, sir. It's hard to get."

"What! At the bottom of a well?"

"Of a well-like place; and I think there's an ample supply."

"See to getting ropes, Sergeant," said the Colonel, "and--we have no
buckets with us?"

"No, sir; but there's a couple of those zinc-lined nose-bags in the
troop."

"Capital. They'll do. Take what men you want, and set to work drawing
water at once. You must try and clear out some hollow among the stones
near the mouth of the well, so that the horses can be led to drink as
fast as the men can haul the water up."

I was in the party told off to help; and the first thing to be done was
to find the nearest part of the court to the interior building where the
mine-shaft was. It proved to be an easier task than we anticipated.
What was better, we came upon a pile of stones in one corner, close up
to the wall, which looked as if they had been heaped up there by hand
for some reason or another; and they attracted me so that I drew
Denham's attention to them, and told him what I thought.

"You're right," he said. "Here, half-a-dozen of you, come and help."

He was about to set the men to work to drag the stones away; but I
proposed that the tethering raw-hide ropes of two of the horses should
be attached to their saddles and the ends made fast to the great rough
slabs of stone. This was done, and the horses set to draw, when one by
one a dozen massive pieces were drawn aside, leaving a little opening,
through which I dropped a stone, with the result that those who listened
heard a deep-sounding _plo