one.

Exact to the time, just an hour before midnight, and in profound
darkness--for the moon had set but a short time before--the men, with
shouldered rifles, set off with springy step, Dickenson and Lennox, to
whom the country was well known from shooting and fishing excursions
they had made, leading the party, not a word being uttered in the ranks,
and the tramp, tramp of feet sounding light and elastic as the lads
followed through the open, undulating plain, well clear of the bush,
there being hardly a stone to pass till they were within a mile of the
little kopje where the Boers' laager lay.

There the broken country would begin, the land rising and being much
encumbered with stones. But the place had been well surveyed by the
major through his field-glass at daybreak two days before, and he had
compared notes with Lennox, telling him what he had seen, and the young
officer had drawn his attention to the presence of a patch of woodland
that might be useful for a rallying-point should there be need. Captain
Roby, too, had been well posted up; and after all that was necessary had
been said, Lennox had joined his friend.

"Oh, we shall do it, Bob," he said. "What I wonder is, that it was not
tried long enough ago."

"So do I," was the reply. "But, I say, speak out frankly: do you feel
up to the work?"

"I feel as light and active as if I were going to a football match," was
the reply.

"That's right," said Dickenson, with a sigh of relief.

"And you?"

"Just as if I were going to give the Boers a lesson and show them what a
couple of light companies can do in a storming rush. There, save your
breath for the use of your legs. Two hours' march, two hours' lie down,
and then--"

"Yes, Bob;" said Lennox, drawing a deep breath, and feeling for the
first time that they were going on a very serious mission; "and then?"

And then there was nothing heard but the light tramp--tramp--tramp--
tramp of a hundred and fifty men and their leaders, not one of whom felt
the slightest doubt as to his returning safe.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

FOR A NIGHT ATTACK.

It was a weird march in the silence and darkness, but the men were as
elastic of spirits as if they had been on their way to some festivity.
There may have been some exceptions, but extremely few; and Dickenson
was not above suggesting one, not ill-naturedly, but in his anxiety for
the success of the expedition, as he explained to Lennox in a whisper
when