oners had been surprised.

"How are you?" asked West, as soon as they were in motion.

"I feel as if I were somewhere else!" was the half-laughing, half-bitter
reply. "All use seems to have been completely knocked out of me, and
the hills and kopjes go sailing round and round."

"That will soon pass off," said West, and then after a short pause:
"Well, we're prisoners after all. It does seem hard now we have got so
far! I wonder where they'll send us?"

"It does not much matter!" said Ingleborough. "Anywhere will do, if I
can lie down and rest till this dreadful swimming and confusion passes
off. As soon as it does we'll escape--to eat the sandwiches," he added
meaningly.

"If we can," said West; "but don't talk about them again! Oh, Ingle, I
wish I had your sharp wits."

"Pooh! Where there's a will there's a way," said Ingleborough faintly.
"You might have escaped, but as you insisted upon being taken to share
my lot I was obliged to do something, and now I must do nothing but
think of how to get away."

The effort of talking was evidently too much for the poor fellow, and
West confined himself to keeping him upright in the saddle, from which
he would certainly have fallen but for his comrade's willing arm.

West was so fully occupied by his task, the two Boers offering not the
slightest aid, that he paid no heed to the fact that their captors led
them right round to the far side of the kopje, and then through a narrow
gap of the rocks into a natural amphitheatre, wherein there was ample
room for the formation of a great laager, the wagons being arranged in
an irregular ellipse, thoroughly hidden from the veldt outside, while
the rocks of the kopje roughly formed a rampart of vast strength, and
apparently quite impregnable.

West took in all he could as he and his companion in misfortune were led
through and within the barricade of wagons to where the horses and
cattle were securely tethered, while a burst of cheering saluted the
returning party as soon as it was seen that they had prisoners and a
couple of likely-looking mounts. It was a surprise, for no one
journeying across the veldt could for a moment have supposed that so
secure a natural stronghold existed behind the rocky barriers.

The next minute the prisoners saw their sturdy ponies tied up to the
tail of one of the great wagons, so near that West began to wonder
whether when darkness came it would be possible to creep to their side,
cut t