ga which ran from within our lines
towards those of the Boers. So some of us galloped them thither,
six-in-hand, amid the whine of shrapnel and the whistle of shot. I
remember the man next me being killed by a shell with all his team, and
the tangle of flying harness, torn horseflesh, and crimson khaki, that
we left behind us on the veldt; also that a small red flag,
ludicrously like those used to indicate a putting-green, marked the
single sloping entrance to the otherwise precipitous donga, which I for
one was duly thankful to reach alive.

The same evening Connal, with a few other light casualties to assist
him, took over the charge for which he had volunteered and for which he
was so admirably fitted by his knowledge of horses and his general
experience of the country; nevertheless, he managed to lose three or
four fine chargers in the course of the first night; and, early in the
second, Raffles shook me out of a heavy slumber in the trenches where
we had been firing all day.

"I have found the spot, Bunny," he whispered; "we ought to out him
before the night is over."

"Connal?"

Raffles nodded.

"You know what happened to some of his horses last night? Well, he let
them go himself."

"Never!"

"I'm as certain of it," said Raffles, "as though I'd seen him do it;
and if he does it again I shall see him. I can even tell you how it
happened. Connal insisted on having one end of the donga to himself,
and of course his end is the one nearest the Boers. Well, then, he
tells the other fellows to go to sleep at their end--I have it direct
from one of them--and you bet they don't need a second invitation. The
rest I hope to see to-night."

"It seems almost incredible," said I.

"Not more so than the Light Horseman's dodge of poisoning the troughs;
that happened at Ladysmith before Christmas; and two kind friends did
for that blackguard what you and I are going to do for this one, and a
firing-party did the rest. Brutes! A mounted man's worth a file on
foot in this country, and well they know it. But this beauty goes
one better than the poison; that was wilful waste; but I'll eat my
wideawake if our loss last night wasn't the enemy's double gain! What
we've got to do, Bunny, is to catch him in the act. It may mean
watching him all night, but was ever game so well worth the candle?"

One may say in passing that, at this particular point of contact, the
enemy were in superior force, and for once in