Knowing this, they tore on till the rifle-pit was only a hundred yards
away. The foremost Boers spread out like a fan not fifty yards distant,
and came on at full gallop, with the result appearing certain that
before the fugitives had torn on despairingly another score of yards
their enemies would be upon them.

"My despatch!" groaned West to himself, and then aloud: "Halt! Fire!"

True to his comrade in those despairing moments, Ingleborough obeyed the
order, stopped short, swung round, and following West's example, he was
in the act of raising his rifle to his shoulder with his quivering
hands, when--

_Crack, cracky crack, crack, crack, crack_, half-a-dozen flashes and
puffs of smoke came from over the ridge of the low earthwork in front,
emptying four saddles, while one horse went down headlong, pierced from
chest to haunch by a bullet, and the fleeing pair saw the rest of their
pursuers open out right and left, to swing round and gallop away back,
pursued by a crackling fire which brought down six more before they were
out of range.

Meanwhile twice over the big gun from its earthwork far away sent a
couple of shells right over the fugitives' heads on their way to the
beleaguered town, and a few seconds later a cheery English voice had
shouted: "Cease firing!" Then a dozen men came hurrying out of the
rifle-pit where they had lain low, to surround the exhausted pair.

"Hands up!" shouted their leader loudly. "Who are you--deserters?"

"Deserters!" cried West hoarsely, as he pressed his left hand upon his
breast and let his rifle fall to the ground. "Despatch--Kimberley--
Water--for Heaven's sake--help!"

He sank upon his knees, for everything seemed to be swimming round him
before he became quite blind.

But he could hear still as he swooned away, and what he heard was a
hearty British cheer.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

AT THE GOAL.

"It has more than paid for it all!" said West that night, when they lay
down to rest after a wildly-exciting day.

"Yes," replied Ingleborough, laughing. "I felt quite jealous!"

"I don't believe you!" said West sharply. "You couldn't; they all made
as much fuss over you as they did over me, from the chief downward!"

"Well, I suppose they did; but I began to have the horrors once!"

"Horrors?"

"Yes; knowing as I did that they must be short of food, I began to think
that they were welcoming us so warmly because we were something good to
eat, and all the feastin