ntre of them, and on lowering himself
into it and feeling about with his hands, discovered no fewer than three
Maxim guns jammed close together, whilst beneath them, packed loosely in
straw, were piles on piles of rifles, undoubtedly of the Mauser pattern,
as he could tell to a certainty by the shape of the breech-lock. Here
was a position for a young lad to find himself in! By the merest
accident he had managed to get into an extremely dangerous situation,
and common sense advised him to quit it at once.

Stealthily climbing out of the hiding-place again, he waited till a
sudden roar, as the train ran over a small culvert, gave him an
opportunity to open the door and slip out of the van.

Clinging to the rail, he made his way along the footboard, stretched
across to the truck in front, and soon had the satisfaction of finding
himself sitting on top of a truck-load of fine coal.

But Jack's surprises were not ended by any means, for as he went on
all-fours to creep into a safer position, there was a sudden tearing
sound, and one leg went deep down through the coal, to be followed
instantly by the other. Next moment he was standing on the wooden
flooring of the truck, with a layer of coal round his middle, while,
strangely enough, his legs were quite free to move about.

Jack was as sharp as most lads of his age, and though he could not
exactly see through a brick wall, he could certainly, now that suspicion
had sharpened his wits, get to the bottom of this new discovery.

With the greatest care he swept the coal aside till he came to a
tarpaulin some five inches beneath it, which was evidently stretched
across the truck. Through this he had already forced a hole, and he had
soon completely disappeared beneath it, and, nothing daunted by the
novelty or danger of the situation, had begun to grope about in the
dark. From end to end of the truck he crawled, going over every inch of
the space, and when his inspection was finished he had counted two more
big guns of some description, besides a vast number of Mauser rifles.

"Ah, this is really serious!" he muttered gravely to himself. "A
van-load of grapes, which are really cartridges, for President Kruger,
and a truck-load of coal, hiding no end of guns, not to mention those
hidden by the cases of grapes. And I suppose the other trucks in front
are just the same. I wonder now where they are going to! I'd very much
like to find out; but just now, if I want to se