get
time. Oh-h!"

A burning, blinding flash came before his eyes. Everything whirled
round him, and he sank to the earth. Elvesdon set his teeth, with
something like the snarl of a wild beast as his revolver bullet thudded
hard into the naked form of the savage who had just hurled the deadly
assegai, at the same time dropping another who was in the act of
following it up by a second cast. For the moment none seemed anxious to
take the risk of that quick, deadly aim.

Elvesdon glanced down at his unconscious friend, from whose head the
blood was pouring. The assegai had struck him on the temple, and the
blade, glancing along the skull had laid it bare in a frightful gash,
with the effect of momentary stunning. The position was a low bush, the
ground being open for more than a score of yards from it on the side of
the attack, but this none of the assailants seemed eager to take the
risk of crossing. He crouched down low so as to offer as small a mark
as possible, and cool with the deadly calmness of desperation watched
his chance.

It came. A movement among the bushes told that their enemies were
making a surrounding move. For less than a second one of them showed,
and again the pistol spoke, but whether with effect or not he was unable
to determine. And then, if there was room for any addition to the utter
despair which was upon him, Elvesdon's quick, searching glance became
alive to something else. On the roll of the slope, approaching from the
direction they had been taking, the bushes were agitating in the morning
stillness, and there was no breeze. His assailants were being
reinforced, and as though to prove that fact beyond a doubt, there was a
report of firearms, then another, and something hummed unpleasantly
near. They had got rifles then? Well they could not go on missing him
all day.

"Lie flat, Mister, and give us a chance of letting 'em have hell."

The loud, hearty English hail was as a voice from Heaven. With
characteristic promptitude Elvesdon obeyed, and then came a dropping
volley, as the rescuers advanced in a line through the bushes, getting
in their fire whenever an enemy showed himself. They were on foot,
having left their horses just beyond the rise, with the object of making
a silent advance and thus surprising the savages the more effectively.

The latter did not wait. They were in sufficient strength to tackle two
men, but not such an opponent as the relieving force, of w