he modern substitute for the sword.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

VOLUNTEERS VOLUNTEER.

Rumours that proved to be false and rumours that proved to be true were
plentiful enough during the following fortnight; and in that time
Kimberley was transformed from a busy mining camp in which the black and
white inhabitants were constantly going and coming like ants in a hill
to a town whose siege was imminent, and whose people thought of nothing
but preparing for the enemy, and whose talk was of rifle, cartridge, and
trench.

But there was something done beside talk, the people loyally joining
with the small military garrison in preparing for the defence of the
place; and, while one portion worked to strengthen every spot that would
form a redoubt, the other strove as long as was possible to get in
stores to enable the defenders to hold out if they were besieged. For
the determination was strong to save the enormous wealth of the place
from the enemy whose borders were so short a distance from their lines.

Drilling and instruction in the use of arms were carried on almost night
and day, and in a very short time the military element seemed to have
pretty well swallowed up the civil, while each hour found the people
more ready to meet the first rush of the dogs of war.

It was a most unsuitable place for defence, being a mere mining camp
pitched in a wide bare plain, the only part suitable for turning into a
keep being the huge mound cast up by the excavations in the search for
diamonds; and this was fortified to the best of the defenders' ability
almost from the first. But the situation had its advantages as well as
failings, for the flat, open, desert-like land stretched right away on
all sides, giving an enemy no undue advantages in the shape of kopje or
ravine to turn into a natural fortress from which the town could be
attacked.

The place, then, was a fair example of weakness and strength, the
latter, however, daily growing, in the shape of a stern determination to
give the Boers a very warm reception when they did attack.

So the days glided rapidly by, with authentic news at first fairly
abundant, but invariably of a very serious nature, and whenever they
were off the new duties they had to fulfil, the said news was amply
discussed by the two young men, who from their prior preparation had
stood forward at once as prominent members of the semi-military force.

"Be patient," said Ingleborough laughingly, one evening;