nothing, only obeyed, and the next minute West was
leading the ponies down to the shallow crossing, leaving his companion
with his rifle-barrel resting upon the big stone that formed a natural
breastwork.

Seeing that the pair had stopped, the Boers began to press forward, even
after Ingleborough had fired twice; but the next shot made them pull up
short, open out, and take up position, beginning to return the fire
then.

A few minutes later the horses had had a good drink, the bottles were
re-filled, and all was ready on the far side of the spruit for
continuing the flight.

West shouted to his companion, who placed a block of stone about the
size of his head upon the natural breastwork and fired twice, dropping
down directly after and wading to the side of the gully, where he threw
himself upon his breast, drank deeply, and then waded across to rejoin
his companion. Then they were off again at a canter, getting a good
quarter of a mile on their road before the Boers discovered by a careful
flanking approach that they had given up their defence of the spruit and
dashed on.

"They'll be after us now at full speed!" said West, as he stood up in
his stirrups gazing back.

"No," said Ingleborough; "they'll stop there, I daresay, for an hour to
give their horses water and rest, thinking that they can lull us into
the belief that they have given up the pursuit; and then they'll come on
again, following us steadily so as to trap us as soon as it is dusk."

"I don't think you are right," said West; "but it is of no use to argue
about it. We shall see!"

The day wore on and they saw nothing but the wide-spreading brown veldt,
with no sign of the great river, no mountain ridge or other object
familiar to Ingleborough during his travels through the country.

"No," he said, in reply to a question from West, "I can't make out
anything, only that we are going south-west. The country is so big, you
see. All I can say is that we must be going right. We're making for
the river, and we can't do better. It may be many, many miles away
still!"

"Well, let's keep on. There's one comfort: the enemy don't seem to be
after us."

"No," said Ingleborough, after a good look back, and speaking very
drily; "they don't seem to be, but I don't trust them. They mean to run
us down; but we'll give them their work first."

In this spirit the fugitives rode steadily on hour after hour till the
evening came, and then there was noth