hin about six or
seven hundred yards began to draw rein.

Charlie Considine knew his rifle well; although not sighted for such a
range, it was capable of carrying the distance when sufficiently
elevated, and practice had accustomed him to long-range shots. He aimed
a little above the head of the foremost rider, fired, and killed his
horse. With the second barrel he wounded one of the Kafirs. At the
same moment he observed that his late home was wrapped in flames, and
that the cattle and sheep of Conrad Marais, which had been left in
charge of Hans, were being driven off by the savages towards the
mountains.

This was enough. Remounting, Charlie followed his friend, and was
rejoiced to find on looking back that the Kafirs had ceased their
pursuit.

"Strange," he said on overtaking Hans, "that they should have given in
so easily."

"It is not fear that influences them," returned his friend, with deeply
knitted brows; "the reptiles know there is a pass before us, and they
will surely try to cut us off. They know all the short cuts better than
I do. Push on!"

Urging their horses to their utmost speed, the fugitives soon approached
a more broken country, and skirted the mountain range, through which the
pass referred to by Hans led into level ground beyond. It was a narrow
track through jungle, which was dense in some places, open in others.
They were soon in it, riding furiously. At one of the open spaces they
caught a glimpse of a mounted Kafir making towards a part of the pass in
advance of them. Hans pulled up at once, and looked eagerly, anxiously
round, while he pressed the light form of Gertie tighter to his breast.

"We must fight here, Charlie," he said, as he made for a little mound
which was crowned with a few bushes. "If you and I were alone we might
risk forcing a passage, but--come; they observe our intention."

A few bounds placed them on the top of the mound, where they took
shelter among the bushes. These were scarcely thick enough to cover the
horses, but among them was found a hole or crevice into which Hans told
his wife to creep. She had barely found refuge in this place, when
several assagais whizzed over their heads. Sheltering themselves behind
stones, Hans and Considine looked eagerly in the direction whence the
assagais had been thrown, and the former observed the ears of a horse
just appearing over a bush. He fired at the spot where he conjectured
the rider must be, and a ye