ep. We'll start again at nightfall and cover
about fifty miles. Then we'll lie up in a quiet spot I know of, and the
following night we ought to get through to Kimberley."

"All right, Jack! you turn in, and I'll take the first watch," answered
Wilfred jovially. "I'll wake you in a couple of hours."

Accordingly Jack lay down, and, like a hardened campaigner, fell asleep
at once. Two hours afterwards Wilfred took his turn, and after a short
nap was awakened. Then, saddling their ponies, they turned out of the
eucalyptus-trees and started on their long ride.

Before dawn they were securely hidden in a donga, in the midst of a
group of small but steep boulder-strewn kopjes, and there, feeling
secure from observation, they lay down in their blankets beneath the
shade of a huge rock and fell asleep.

When darkness fell again they proceeded on their journey, and a few
hours later swam their ponies across the Modder River. It was risky
work, but to have attempted to cross by the railway-bridge or at the
drift (ford) would have led to certain discovery, for both places were
closely watched by the Boers. Instead of that, they had made a wide
detour, and crossed at a bend in the river where the stream ran very
slowly. Then they turned their faces towards Kimberley, and pressed
forward, hoping to reach the beleaguered town an hour or more before
daylight.

They were now in a country overrun by Boers, and they therefore rode in
silence, with their bayonets fixed and the magazines of their rifles
filled, but without a cartridge in the breech, for the accidental
pressure on a trigger might easily have betrayed them. Five miles
farther on, the flash of the search-light caught their eyes as it slowly
swept a broad beam across the veldt surrounding the town.

"Turn to the left--quick!" whispered Jack. "Now get in under this
boulder. It would never do to stand out in the open. That light would
show us up at once."

A minute or two later the electric beam had passed by, and they pushed
on once more.

"That is Frank Russel's farm over there," said Jack, a quarter of an
hour later, as a house loomed up on their left. "He is evidently
standing by his property, and trusting to the Boers to leave him alone,
for you can see the lights in his windows--Hold on a moment, Wilfred!
What was that? I thought I heard shouts."

"Sounds to me like a concert or something of the sort going on,"
answered Wilfred, pulling up alongsi