on duty, turned out to look at the four strangers
who had so gallantly kept the Boers at bay and taught them such a
lesson. When it was seen that one of them was only a girl, and that she
carried a rifle, hearty cheers burst forth, and the enemy outside, when
they heard them, ground their teeth and muttered things beneath their
breath. Nor were their tempers improved when, on the following day, a
bearer was sent out with a note describing exactly how many of the
English had been hidden in the cellar of the farmhouse.

The commanding officer, the world-famous Cecil Rhodes, who had so
pluckily stayed behind to take a part in the siege, and a score of
officers of the garrison, all stepped forward and shook them by the
hand. Tom Salter, too, was there, as well as Tim, and as soon as the
excitement had abated the former led them away to quarters which had
been allotted to them.

"Now, Jack," he said, sitting down on an empty case, "light up and give
me the yarn. Things here are very old and stale, and a little news is
always welcome. Pass along that bottle, Frank, and make yourselves
comfortable all of you."

When Jack had given him the incidents of the attack upon the house,
Tom's face was a study, and the absolute amazement and wonder depicted
upon it set the others in a roar.

"Well, I'm blowed!" he stuttered hoarsely. "Who'd have thought it! It
just makes a fellow proud to be an Englishman. Jack, I knew all along
that you were a plucky young beggar, but this beats all! Your friend,
too, has got some grit about him, and so has Frank; but the girl--well,
I never did hear of such downright bravery;" and Tom passed his fingers
through his hair and gulped down a pannikin of rum and water with a
distracted air which seemed to say that the news had been altogether too
much for him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

TRACKED BY THE ENEMY.

It was in the last few days of October, when the hot season and the
rains of South Africa were about to set in, that Jack Somerton and his
friends at length found safety in the beleaguered town of Kimberley,
after their stubborn and protracted fight in the farmhouse of the
Russels. By this time the war had been many days in progress, for
President Kruger's ultimatum was despatched on October 9th, and
hostilities had commenced on the afternoon of the 11th by an invasion of
British territory.

We have seen that to meet that invasion and to stem the flow of the
jubilant Boers there were