re
quite a mile from us, and their mounts will be pumped out if they push
forward like that. Easy, easy! Let the ponies go their own pace!"

Settling down into a canter, the fugitives now began to look away to
their left, where they had seen the other parties closing them in from
their flank and rear.

"Hallo! Where's the rest of the enemy?" cried West.

"Yonder, out of sight! The ground lies lower there; but I say, these
fellows are coming on at a tremendous rate! Gallop or they'll cut you
off."

"Then we'll gallop!" cried West. "We, old fellow! Just as if I were
going to leave you behind!"

"Very nice of you," said Ingleborough merrily; "but you're not fit for a
despatch-rider. You're about the worst I ever knew of!"

"Because I won't forsake a friend?"

"Friend be hanged! There's no friendship in wartime. Ah, here come
some of the flankers."

"Yes, I see them," said West; "but what does this mean?"

For all at once the galloping party on their right--that which had come
straight from the centre of the Boer line--began to pull up until all
were halted in the middle of the plain.

"They see their companions coming," said Ingleborough, "and that we are
safely cut off. Well, it is giving us a better chance!"

"But they're turning and folding back," cried West excitedly. "Here
come the others, full gallop! Look, look, how they're opening out!
Gallop full speed now! No, no. Look, look! Why, Ingle, those are not
rifles they're carrying--they're lances."

"You're dreaming!" growled Ingleborough. "Never mind what they're
carrying; they're going to cut us off, and we've got to save that
despatch!"

"And we shall save it too!" cried West, his voice sounding full of
exultation. "Those are our Lancers--a regiment of them!"

"You're right!" cried Ingleborough excitedly now, and he began to draw
rein. "Look at the Boer line. There's proof! They're turning back
from the front and hurrying up their rear so as to form laager round
their big guns. Hurrah!" he yelled, rising in his stirrups to wave his
hat.

"And hurrah a hundred times more!" yelled West, following his
companion's example, as he saw now in no less than four directions
little clouds of horsemen moving over the widely-spreading plain.

The next minute they had their glasses out and were watching the Boers--
a line no longer, but broken up into what at first seemed to be wild
confusion, out of which order began to form, for whoeve