attack; but Roby stood aloof.

"And a good job too," said Dickenson after the last occasion. "I don't
want to be malicious, though it seems so, about a man who has just got
over a bad hurt; but I do hope the Boers will come, and that he will be
wounded again--"

"Shame!" said Lennox angrily.

"Perhaps so; but you might have let me finish--wounded again; not a
bullet wound, but a good cut that will bleed well and take the bad blood
out of him. We should hear no more of his fancies."

"Drop that," said Lennox sternly; and then, to change the conversation,
"Surely it must be getting near daybreak."

"Oh no; not yet. Let's have another walk round, and a word with the
men."

This, one of many, was carried out, the young officers finding that
there were no sleepers, the men not on the watch having, from the
expectation that if there were an attack it would be about daybreak,
instinctively roused up, every one being fully on the alert.

Lennox winced more than ever now as he stood in the trench they expected
to be the likeliest, from its position, for the attack, for its capture
would give the enemy a good point for further advances; and Captain
Edwards had pointed it out to the major as being likely to be rushed,
with the consequence that this part was the most strongly held, and the
supporting party placed near.

And now, as Dickenson began whispering to his men, Lennox felt more
bitterly than ever how thoroughly Roby's charge had gone home. For
whenever he spoke to one of the watch the answer was abrupt and cold,
while with his companion the men were eager and ready to be questioned.

Everything possible had been done to guard against surprise, and the
communication with the chain of outposts was constant; but the surprise
came from where it was least expected, and just when the friends were
standing together in the redoubt, with Dickenson grudgingly owning that
the stars were perhaps not so bright.

"The night has passed more quickly than I expected it would," whispered
Lennox. "Can't you feel what a chill there is in the air?"

"Ugh--yes!" said Dickenson, with a shiver. "It's quite frosty out
here."

"And a hot cup of coffee would be a blessing," said Captain Edwards,
who, with Roby, had returned again.

"Yes," said Dickenson; "a good fire would warm us up."

"There it is, then," said Captain Edwards excitedly, for without a
warning from the outposts, between which the Boers had crawled in the
dar