I was nearly the same. I did not
know at the time, but I do now. He is getting better, though?"

"Fast; only he's a bit of a humbug with it. I thought so, and the
doctor endorses my ideas. He likes being ill and nursed and petted with
the best food, so as to keep out of the hard work. I don't like the
fellow a bit. There, you've talked enough now, so I'll be gone."

"No; stop," said Lennox. "Tell me about the stores of corn we found in
that cave."

"Hang the cave! You're not to talk about it."

"Tell me about the grain," persisted Lennox.

"Oh, very well; we're going on eating it, for if it hadn't turned up as
it did we should have been obliged to surrender or cut our way through."

"But there's plenty yet?"

"Oh yes, heaps; and we got about thirty sheep two days ago."

"Capital," said Lennox, rubbing his hands softly. "Now tell me--where
is the grain stored?"

"Where the niggers put it when they collected it there."

"Not moved?"

"No. It couldn't be in a better place--a worse, I mean. Bother the
cave! I wish you wouldn't keep on thinking about it."

"Very well, I won't. Tell me about the prisoners."

"Ah, that's better. The brutes! But there's nothing to tell about
them. I wish they had got their deserts, but we none of us wanted to
shoot them, though they did deserve it."

"Oh, I don't know," said Lennox. "They're a rough lot of countrymen,
and they think that everything is fair in war, I suppose. Where are
they?"

"Number 4 tin hut, and a fellow inside with them night and day. Then
there's the sentry outside. Makes a lot of trouble for the men."

Lennox was silent for a few minutes before speaking again.

"I say, Bob."

"Yes?"

"Look at this cut on my forehead."

"I'm looking. Very pretty. It's healing fast now."

"Will it leave much of a scar?"

"I dare say it will," said Dickenson mockingly. "Add to your beauty.
But you ought to have one on the other side to match it."

"I wasn't thinking about my looks," said Lennox, smiling.

"Gammon! You were."

"I suppose I must have been dashed against a block of stone."

"Good job, too. Doctor said it acted like a safety-valve, and its
bleeding kept off fever."

"I suppose so. I must have been dashed against something with great
force, though."

"Oh, never mind that. Will you leave off thinking about that cave?"

"No, I won't," said Lennox coolly. "I must think about it now; I can't
help it."

"Then I'm off.