the Boers, you shall
have some music. What shall it be?"

"Let us have `God Save the Queen!' Miss Russel," Wilfred cried. "It
will make us feel all the better."

Accordingly the brave girl stood up at one end of the cellar, and in
that curious place, and with shell and bullets plunging through the
walls of the house above, and occasionally exploding with a deafening
noise which drowned the music for the moment, made the air throb with
those strains which no Englishman worthy of the proud name can listen to
unmoved. It was indeed a strange proceeding, and to the Boer horseman
who galloped up just then, during a lull in the firing, and approached
the farmhouse within fifty yards, it was totally inexplicable. Here
were a few mad Englishmen listening to the strains of their national
anthem with bullets flying all about them. "Surely they are a strange
people!" he thought. And plucky too, for that violin he heard was
played by a young girl's hands.

Eileen played right through the anthem, and was heartily applauded by
the men, who sat round her, rifle in hand, their faces dimly lit by the
rays from the oil-lamp which had been placed upon the floor.

By this time the farmhouse had been drilled through and through with
shell, most of which, however, had passed out without exploding. A few
had struck directly upon the stone slabs above the cellar, but all save
one had merely fizzled angrily and poured out a quantity of smoke. But
one burst, and blew part of the roof of the house away, also shattering
two of the stone slabs.

"Volunteers to replace the damaged stone roof!" sang out Jack, pushing
his head up through the trap and inspecting the havoc. "Two of the
slabs above us have been blown to pieces and must be replaced at once,
or else an unlucky shell will pitch through the boards and come in here
on top of us."

Wilfred at once rose to his feet, and the two darted up the ladder and
into the kitchen. Here they found that a brick wall, built to carry the
cooking range, stood between the Boer fire and the ponies, so that the
hail of Mauser bullets had for the most part failed to reach them. But
one had entered through the wall at the back and had killed a pony,
while a shell burst through the thin layer of brick just as Jack and
Wilfred entered, and, throwing a shower of dust and debris in all
directions, inflicted a fearful wound upon another of the captured
ponies and flew out through the other wall.

"P