rm and hide up in an outhouse. If he really is a spy he will
follow before long, and we will let him pass and slip off in the
opposite direction."

Accordingly they turned into the farm, and having entered a cattle kraal
which was close to the road, they glued their eyes to the chinks between
the boulders of the wall, and waited to see what would happen. Five
minutes later there was a sound of galloping hoofs, and to the intense
delight of Jack and Wilfred, their host of the previous evening
clattered past, with his gaze fixed on the two distant horsemen, who
were now almost out of sight.

A little later they emerged from the kraal, and, crossing the road,
cantered off across the veldt in the direction of Kimberley. For ten
miles they kept on without a halt. Then they drew aside from the road
to Hope Town, which they had lately followed, and bivouacked in a dense
copse of eucalyptus-trees.

"Now, Wilfred," said Jack, "out with that piece of beef we brought with
us. I'll get a fire alight, and we'll have a good meal. Probably it is
the last good one we shall be able to eat for some time, and cooking it
will help to pass the hours between this and nightfall. We'll push on
then, and we shall have to go carefully, for there are numbers of Boers
hereabouts."

Wilfred at once opened his haversack, while Jack gathered a few twigs
and lit a fire between some boulders. Slices of beef were cut, and
having been toasted in front of the blaze, were placed on pieces of
bread and eaten with great relish. Then they lit up their pipes and
smoked, one or other of them occasionally getting up to have a good look
round.

Late in the afternoon Jack sighted some horsemen, and as these might be
a party of the enemy, the fire was trampled out, and the two crawled to
the edge of the trees and looked out. The road ran within twenty feet
of them, and very soon ten men, who were undoubtedly Boers, passed by
them, laughing, and evidently quite unconscious of the presence of two
of the hated Rooineks. And in the centre of the group of horsemen was
the English colonist who had made himself so agreeable to them the night
before.

"Ah! there is no doubt about his being a scoundrel," whispered Jack.
"Well, we shall know what to do if we meet him in an English town after
this; and if I happen to ride this way with despatches I shall certainly
call at De Aar and warn them there. Now I think we may as well take it
in turns to have a sle