Ten minutes or so later the darkness began to fall, increasing so fast
that within half-an-hour the laager would have been quite black if it
had not been for a lantern inside a wagon here and there; but, in spite
of the darkness, the camp began to grow more animated, a buzz of
conversation seeming to rise from the wagons like the busy hum of the
insects outside.

All at once, as Ingleborough was going to draw his companion's attention
to this fact, he felt a hand steal along his arm to grip his hand. Then
it was withdrawn, a very faint rustling followed, and the listener felt
that he was alone.

"Good luck go with him!" he muttered. "I wonder whether he'll succeed?"

Leaning a little forward, he seemed to strain his ears to listen, though
he felt that this was absurd, till all at once it struck him that he
heard the soft sound of stealthy steps approaching from the other end of
the wagon, and, creeping towards the sounds, he felt more than heard two
men approaching, and as he got his head over the wagon-box he heard a
whisper.

"Anson and the sentry!" he said to himself. "The spy, come to find out
whether we're safe. Yes, that was Anson's whisper! Then we're done if
he brings a lantern and finds me alone."

He paused for a moment or two, asking himself what he should do; and
then the idea came.

Subsiding into a reclining position, he suddenly gave his thigh a sharp
slap and started as if the blow had roused him up.

"Don't go to sleep, stupid!" he said aloud. "One can't sleep all these
awful long nights! Oh dear me, this is precious dull work. I wish we
had a lantern and a box of dominoes! I wonder whether there is a box in
the laager?"

"Bother!" he said, in a low smothered tone, with his hands covering his
face. "I wish you wouldn't! I was dreaming about old Anson and that
he'd got ten thousand pounds' worth of diamonds in a bag aboard his
wagon."

"Like enough!" continued Ingleborough, in his natural voice. "Ha, ha,
ha!" he laughed. "I should like to serve the beggar out!"

"How?" he said, in the smothered sleepy voice.

"How? I'll tell you how it might be done if he had got them. Find out
where his wagon is in the laager, and then wait till the sentry's
asleep, and crawl out of this thing, and nobble the lot."

"Rubbish!"

"Not it! We could get them easily enough and bring them back here.
Nobody would suspect us! But there would be no getting them away! I
say, are you asleep aga