olonel. "You know where to
make your advance. Take the place if you can without firing a shot, but
of course, if fire should be necessary, use your own discretion."

The whole business was done with the greatest absence of excitement.
The three officers were warned at once; Captain Edwards looked
delighted, but Dickenson began to demur.

"You are not fit to go, Drew," he said.

"I never felt more fit," was the reply, "and if you make any opposition
you are no friend of mine."

"Very well," said Dickenson quietly; "but I feel that we're going to
have a sharp bit of business, and I can't think that you are strong
enough."

"I've told you that I am," said Lennox firmly. "The orders are that I
go with the company, and the colonel would not send me if he did not
know from his own opinion and the doctor's report that I am fit to be
with the ranks."

There was a little whisper or two between Dickenson and Sergeant James.

"Oh, I don't know, sir," said the latter; "he has pulled round
wonderfully during the last fortnight, and it isn't as if we were going
on a long exhausting march. Just about six or seven miles through level
veldt, sir, and in the cool of the night."

"Well, there is that," said Dickenson thoughtfully.

"And a good rest afterwards, sir, so as to make the advance, so I hear,
just at the Boers' sleepiest time. Bah! It'll be a mere nothing if we
can only get through their lines quietly. They'll never stand the
bayonet; and I wouldn't wish for a smarter officer to follow than Mr
Lennox."

"Nor a braver, James," said Dickenson quietly.

"Nor a braver, sir."

"If he is up to the mark for strength."

"Let him alone for that, sir," said the sergeant, with a chuckle. "I
don't say Mr Lennox will be first, but I do say he won't be last; and
the men'll follow him anywhere, as you know, sir, well."

"Yes," said Dickenson, drawing a deep breath; "and it's what we shall
want to-night--a regular rush, and the bayonet home."

"That's it, sir; but I must go. The lads are half-mad with joy, and if
I'm not handy we shall have them setting up a shout."

But of course there was no shout, the men who, to their great disgust,
were to stay and hold the camp bidding good-luck to their more fortunate
comrades without a sound; while more than once, with the remembrance of
the dastardly murder that had just taken place, men whispered to their
comrades something about not to forget what the cowardly Boers had d