as I," returned Hans, "but we
must make allowance for your state of mind. And now, as we're nearing
the camp, what is it to be--silence?"

"Silence, of course," said Charlie. "There's no fear of Bowker reading
the advertisements through, he has far too much literary taste for that,
and even if he did, he's not likely to stumble on this one. So let's be
silent."

There was anything but silence in the camp, however, when the friends
reached it and reported their want of luck; for the warriors were then
in the first fervour of appealing their powerful appetites.

Next morning they started at sunrise.

Early in the day they came on the mangled remains of the emigrant
farmers before referred to. At first it was supposed this must be the
remnant of the band they were in search of, but a very brief examination
convinced them, experienced as they were in men and signs, that it was
another band. Soon after, they came in sight of the party for which
they were searching, just as the Kafirs were making a renewed attack.
Already a few volleys had been fired by the Dutchmen, the smoke of which
hung like a white shroud over the camp, and swarms of savages were
yelling round it.

"The cattle and flocks have been swept away," growled Frank Dobson.

"But the women and children must be safe as yet," said Considine, with a
sigh of relief.

"Now, boys," cried Hans, who had been elected captain, "we must act
together. When I give the word, halt and fire like one man, and then
charge where I lead you. Don't scatter. Don't give way to impetuous
feelings. Be under command, if you would save our friends."

He spoke with quick, abrupt vigour, and waited for no reply or remark,
but, putting himself where he fancied a leader should be, in front of
the centre of his little line, set off in the direction of the
emigrants' camp at a smart gallop. As the horsemen drew near they
increased their pace, and then a yell from the savages, and a cheer from
their friends, told that they had been observed by the combatants on
both sides. The Kafirs were seen running back to the ridge on the other
side of the camp, and assembling themselves hurriedly in a dense mass.

On swept the line of stalwart burghers, over the plain and down into the
hollow in dead silence. The force of their leader's character seemed to
have infused military discipline into them. Most of them kept boot to
boot like dragoons. Even Dally and Scholtz kept well in line