e had just escaped was flung open with a bang, and
all the Boers rushed out pell-mell, leaving the German to his own
devices.

But the wheel-barrow was yet to be a lesson to them, to teach them that
even an English lad must be reckoned with at times. They were all men
who had been used to sneering at the "Rooineks" (English) from the time
when they were boys, when their fathers had detailed to them how some
thousands of Boers had lain in ambush behind the stones on Laing's Nek,
and had destroyed a handful of British soldiers exposed out in the open.
But here was a mere lad who had dared to spy upon their movements, and
who, after capture, had listened bravely and calmly to the speedy death
proposed for him. He had not even whined, or begged for mercy, but had
as good as defied them. And now, to add to it all, he had in some
manner, totally inexplicable to themselves, severed his bonds and
escaped from the vault, wounding one of their number in the process; and
had laid, as a kind of parting shot, a trap for them all, which brought
the five men suddenly and with a violent crash to the ground, sending
their rifles flying in all directions.

It was a bitter lesson, and goaded them to madness. With muttered
curses and fierce shouts of rage they leapt to their feet, and, without
pausing to think, rushed out into the open veldt, where the sharp
reports from their rifles showed that they were firing at imaginary
objects which they took to be the fugitive.

Had Jack wished it he could have planted more than one of the bullets
from his pistol in the bodies of the Boers as they lay on the ground in
the full glare of the lamps from the inside of the shed, but as yet he
was by no means proficient with his weapon, and besides, he had no wish
to take the life of any one of them, or to injure them in the slightest.
All he aimed at was to make good his escape, and no sooner were they
out of sight than he darted back towards the steep kopje in the side of
which the vault was evidently constructed, and climbed up it, taking
care to stoop low, and dodge from boulder to boulder. Soon he was at
the top, and here, sheltered behind a breastwork of rock, he stopped and
listened.

He could still hear shouting down on the veldt below, and an occasional
rifle shot, but these soon ceased, and about half an hour later the five
Boers returned and entered the shed, the light from the lamps throwing
their figures into strong relief.

"Ah, n