eye, and cool of brain, they were keenly
alive to every opportunity. Directly a Kafir showed his head he was
morally certain to receive a ball through it, or so uncomfortably close
as to make him feel as if he had escaped by a miracle, and think twice
about exposing himself a second time.

Meanwhile the cattle were being driven off by the enemy, and indeed
matters had become so serious as to render this a mere secondary
consideration. From the bush on three sides a continuous fire was kept
up, and had the Kafirs been even moderately decent shots not a man of
that patrol would have lived to tell the tale; but partly through fear
of exposing themselves, partly through fear of their own fire-arms, to
the use of which they were completely unaccustomed, the savages made
such wild shooting that their missiles flew high overhead. Now and
then, however, a shot would take effect. One man received a bullet in
the shoulder, another had his bridle hand shattered. Several of the
horses were badly wounded, but, as yet, there were no fatalities. The
enemy, confident in the strength of his overwhelming numbers, waxed
bolder--crowding in closer and closer. Every bush was alive with Kafir
warriors, who kept starting up when and where least expected in a manner
that would have been highly disconcerting to any but cool and determined
men.

But this is just what these were. All hope of saving the spoil had been
abandoned. The frontiersmen, dismounted now, were fighting the savages
in their own way, from bush to bush.

"This is getting rather too hot," muttered Shelton, with an ominous
shake of the head. "We shall be hemmed in directly. Our best chance
would be for someone to break through and ride to the camp for help."
Yet he hesitated to despatch anyone upon so dangerous a service.

Just then several assegais came whizzing in among them. Two horses were
transfixed, and Hoste received a slight wound in the leg.

"Damn!" he cried furiously, stamping with pain, while a roar of laughter
went up from his fellows, "Let me catch a squint at John Kafir's sooty
mug! Ah!"

His piece flew to his shoulder--then it cracked. He had just glimpsed a
woolly head, decked with a strip of jackal's skin, peering from behind a
bush not twenty yards away, and whose owner, doubtless, attracted by the
laughter of those devil-may-care whites, had put it forward to see what
the fun was about. A kicking, struggling sound, mingled with stifled