out us!"

Five minutes later Ingleborough, whose head troubled him more than he
owned to, was sleeping soundly, leaving West thinking deeply over the
prospects of a daring escape, and every now and then glancing out and
across the laager to make sure that the ponies had not been moved, as
well as to fix the position of every wagon well in his mind ready for
the time when his comrade and he would be stealing across in the dark,
and thinking at times that the Boers must be mad to leave their
prisoners' mounts tethered in sight of their temporary prison.

"But they're altogether mad!" he mused, "or they would never have dared
to defy the power of England in the way they have done!"

This thought had hardly passed through his mind when he saw a group of
the laager's occupants come by the prison wagon, each with a couple of
well-filled bandoliers crossbelt-fashion over his breast, and rifle
slung, making for the range forming one side of the laager. They broke
up into twos and threes, and as they approached they unslung their
weapons and took off their cartridge-belts to place them beneath the
wagon-tilts, while they settled down to prepare a meal before having a
rest.

"Just come off duty!" thought the prisoner, and, with his heart beating
fast, he sat watching two of the men and then gazing hard at the nearest
wagon, piercing in imagination the thick canvas covering spread over the
arching-in hoops, and seeing, as he believed, exactly where two Mauser
rifles and the Boers' bandoliers had been laid.

"Why, if it were dark," he thought, "I could creep out and secure those
two rifles as easily as possible--if they were not taken away!"

West's face turned scarlet, and it was not from the heat of the sun upon
the wagon-tilt, nor from the sultry air which passed in from one end and
out at the other.

He drew a deep breath and moved towards Ingleborough to tell him of the
burning thoughts within him; but his comrade was sleeping so peacefully
that he shrank from awakening him.

"He'll want all his strength!" thought West, and then he fell to
wondering whether or not they would succeed.

The plan was so wonderfully simple that it seemed very possible, but--

Yes, there were so many "buts" rising up in the way. The slightest
hitch would spoil all, and they would be detected and subjected to the
roughest of usage, even if they were not shot. But it was worth the
risk, and the thinker's heart began to beat faster, and