he
sunshine, while they found that there was a bit of shade behind a
turret-like projection standing out of the granite, looking as if it had
been built up by human hands.

There they sat and watched for hours, scanning the veldt, which
literally quivered in the heat; but they looked in vain for any movement
on the part of the enemy, who had been disturbed by the scouts, and at
last made up their minds to go down--truth to tell, moved by the same
reason, the pangs of hunger asserting themselves in a way almost too
painful to be borne.

"Let's go," said Dickenson; "they've got right away in safety. I
believe the Boers are all asleep this hot day, and in the right of it:
plenty to eat and nothing to do."

"Yes, let's go. I'm longing for a long cool drink down below there.
Pst! What's that?"

"One of the fellows round there by the gun," said Dickenson.

"No," whispered Lennox decidedly; "it was close at hand. Did you hear
it?"

"Yes. Sounded like the rock splitting in this fiery sunshine."

"More like a piece falling somewhere inside--beneath our feet--and I
distinctly heard a soft, echoing rumble."

"Come along down, old man," said Dickenson. "It's too hot to be up
here, and if we stop any longer we shall have something worse than being
hungry--a bad touch of the sun. I feel quite ready to go off my head
and imagine all sorts of things. For instance, there's a swimming
before my eyes which makes me fancy I can see puffs of smoke rising out
yonder, and a singing and cracking in my ears like distant firing."

"Where?" cried Lennox excitedly. "Yes, of course. I can see the puffs
plainly, and hear the faint cracking of the fire. Bob, my lad, then
that sharp sound we heard must have been the reverberation of a gun."

"Oh dear!" groaned Dickenson. "Come along down, and let's get our heads
in the cool stream and drink like fishes."

"Don't be foolish! Get out your glass."

"To drink with?"

"No! Absurd! To watch the firing."

"There is no firing, man," cried Dickenson.

"There is, I tell you."

"Oh, he has got it too," groaned Dickenson. "Very well; all right--
there is fighting going on out there a couple of miles away, and I can
see the smoke and hear the cracking of the rifles. But come on down and
let's have a drink of water all the same; there's plenty of that."

"You're saying that to humour me," said Lennox, with his glass to his
eyes; "but I'm not half-delirious from sunstroke. Get